Chapter 1

Adaptation

Raito, what have you done?

The sun was beating down on the white figure, topped with a mop of black hair. His pale face was slick with sweat, and his feet were callused and felt as though they were on fire.

L brushed the long bangs out of his face for the seventh time, walking forward for any hope. Was this the after world? Was he in hell? It was described to be as hot as hell, but as he has been all over the world, it hadn't ever been this hot.

The enormous waves of sand dunes stretched before him, endlessly numerous. L was near fainting, but the distant building of civilization gave him hope. His heart felt like bursting and his throat was what he was walking upon- the desert.

His footsteps felt heavy as led. But what saved him was the fact he was atop the final sand dune. Jumping down, his back cracked multiple times from the strain. But the building. It was there, in front of him, standing tall and proud. With his vision so deteriorated, he had thought he was imagining, however, there it was, a giant staircase towards a fancy looking spiked building.

He sighed in relief as his foot touched the first step. After sinking in sand for so long, it was heaven to feel the concrete so solid beneath his feet. But the giant staircase stretched endlessly above.

Well the sand dunes had felt endless hadn't they? And here he was, on the stairway. The stairway to heaven. Taking a single stair at a time, his head was bent forward in the usual position of an arched back.

L continued up the stairs. It was his last hope. It was all the hope he ever had and ever could have.

Life after death.

That had been the most confusing thing of all. L arrived at the top of the stairs; and he collapsed onto the ground.

His first impression was white. The covers were pulled over him, white. With that simple thought, he concluded himself to be inside of a sort of hospital. The nurse walked up to him, her braid- braided around her neck and the golden bangs falling around her face.

She looked down upon him with brilliant green eyes, but they glared. Her smile told a different story.

"Hello, you're at DWMA, or Shibusen, do you remember the last thing you saw?"

L blinked his bagged eyes several times. Showing no expression he replied with the lie, "I cannot remember, however, I must thank you for rescuing me."

"It wasn't me, it was one of the students, Black Star," the woman put a comforting arm on his shoulder, "he brought you to me, and you were so underfed and thin, it's a wonder you survived. Are you feeling okay? What is your name, do you remember?"

"I am quite alright, simply thirsty," L paused for a moment, "my name is Rue Ryuuzaki."

"Ryuuzaki, you're safe with me now, I'm Medusa," she grasped his hand.

"Alright," he replied in a raspy voice- but it was involuntary that time. His insomniac eyes closed, but he continued listening to what was happening. Medusa stood up, and walked out, leaving a giant pitcher by his bed.

His throat was parched, as he drank the entire pitcher of water next to his bed. It wasn't settled very well as he ran over to the toilet to throw back up the gallon of water he had just chugged. It was, in fact, disgusting, but he managed. He drank slowly from the sink, letting the cool water run down his throat slowly. The second time settled smoothly.

L glanced up at the mirror, surprised at what he saw. His body was not as lean nor tall as it used to be. It couldn't be, could it?

"I'm ten again," L said in disbelief.

A minor set back. So L returned to the sleeping room.

Folded at the bottom of the bed were his old clothes, cleaned and dried. He did dislike the feeling of the hospital gown he was dressed in at the time. Switching back to the blue jeans and long sleeved shirt, he walked out the door.

"Oh," said a long, red haired man as he collided with L's thin- wiry body.

But what flew out of his hands was what was unexpected. Pumpkin shaped underwear hit his face in full force and landed on his feet. The two looked down at it. But instead of picking it back up, L put his foot on the underwear and said, "Pervert."

He walked on, the underwear flying backwards from the force. The man stared at the fallen underwear, and unexpectedly he fell to his knees. L turned around, observing his actions.

"O why dost the world be so cruel to I? I have not done anything against the world-" the man raised his hands with passion in his act, "Maka-chan's beautiful pumpkin underwear..."

He sobbed for a while, "Why won't Maka-chan talk to me? I blame this on her mother..." L stared, an old man was dating a teenager?

It wasn't his place to judge but he was almost completely sure that was socially unacceptably wrong. But regardless he continued to listen.

"When we divorced, everything changed-"

He wasn't dating the teenager, it was the mother he had once been wedded to. The teenager's underwear appeared to be the teenager's underwear at the age of five. The idea that it was a teenager was realized when said 'Maka' wouldn't speak to him. No five year old in their right mind would not not speak to a parent. However, at five years old, if this man was L's father, L would in fact, not at all look upon his form.

It was disgust rather than shame. A simple minded idiot. But the fact was, this could very well be his father, with the right age, the only problem was L did not take off from him at all. But the chances of finding his father in the next world would be astronomical.

The man picked up the underwear, crying Maka's name. L continued forward, deciding it wasn't worth his attention. He opened the first door, and found himself in a classroom full of students. He hadn't ever thought to ask what DWMA stood for, and cursed himself for idiocy.

However, curiously, he wondered if he was actually still alive. But it was impossible, the Death Note was final. Unless the Death Note wasn't what had killed him. Then how did he end up in the desert of nowhere?

So the only conclusion was the fact he was dead.

And the boy in front of the class full of ten year olds was turning into a weapon.

His arm slowly transformed into a weapon, a curved, red and black. His white hair turned black as a staff took shape, until finally, he was a scythe, and the weapon hit the ground with a clatter.

So, he was slowly going insane.

Without an explanation, the staff turned back into a boy, laying on the ground, in a "Draw me like one of your French girls" pose.

The class laughed, except for one girl who looked extraordinarily angry about it. So...-

"Do we have a new student?" the man asked coming over next to him, his eyes falling away from the class clown.

L stayed put, his big black eyes surveying the classroom, in stairs. But the man distracted him, pulling him over to the middle of the room. He appeared to be very dark in skin tone, and his hair was braided into cornrows.

"I'm your new teacher, Sid-"

L was tempted to call out and protest, but rather he found himself unable to speak.

"- I wasn't informed of a new student but I'm sure you'd be glad to enter through the test-"

There was a test?

"-it's fairly simple. Just go down the corridor up the stairs to the very top and you'll see a guy there, he'll explain everything," the man said airily.

L gladly walked out of the suffocating room- too many people. He arrived at the top of the stairs rather uneventfully, and walked in through the door.

What he arrived at was completely unexpected. A cloudy white space with tons of arches covered in blades was revealed before him. It felt as though he weren't standing on anything. The pinkish tinged room seemed to spin before him.

He followed through the red colored arches, the fear of the blades coming down quickly mastered, until he was inside some sort of a dome of the pinkish tinged clouds. A single platform stood in front, holding up a mirror.

Inside of the mirror, was a figure. How could a figure be inside a mirror, L did not know. He was cloaked in black, with a single silly looking mask over his face. He had square hands, apparently. Despite that, L still approached the platform.

"Hello," the figure came out of the mirror, confusing L more then he felt was necessary.

"Hello," replied L in a monotone voice, completely contrasting with the figure's playful voice.

"Who're you?" asked the figure.

"I am Rue Ryuuzaki," replied L.

"You're lying aren't you, are you going to tell me your real name?" asked the figure, his voice still playful.

He figured out, yet I did not even change in voice tone nor did my body language say otherwise.

"No," L replied.

"That's okay," the figure replied, seemingly completely fine.

"Would you like some tea?" the figure asked, indicating the table on a floating looking platform with two cups of tea.

"Yes, that would be nice, thank you." L replied, his voice slowly becoming quieter. The man underneath the mask was certainly confident, otherwise he would not invite a complete stranger for tea.

L sat down on the chair, trying a bit of the tea.

"Sorry, do you happen to have any sugar?" he asked, unused to the bitter taste.

The man laughed, waving his hand, and as if it had always been there, sugar appeared on the table.

"I haven't introduced myself, I'm Lord Death, nice to meet you," he held out his hand. L stared at it, unsure of how to respond.

"This is the part where you shake it," said the self proclaimed shinigami helpfully.

Slowly, L grasped the square gloved hand and shook it.

"Now, down to business, what are you doing here in this city?" asked Lord Death as L dumped half the bowl of sugar into his tea, stirring it with a spoon subconsciously. But he could have sworn the mask had an eyebrow raised.

But that's impossible.

Nothing is impossible. You just saw a boy turn into a weapon before your eyes.

"I do not know," replied L truthfully.

"Many people are drawn here because they are drawn to powerful souls. And I can see your soul as well,"

"Souls exist," L stated.

Souls exist, I cannot see why he would lie to me.

"Yes, yours is actually quite powerful, however you are lacking physical capabilities to become a meister, that can easily be changed. This conversation is really all to serious isn't it?" Lord Death asked as L downed the rest of his tea.

"That has nothing to do with what we were discussing about earlier," L replied.

"That was a joke," Lord Death said sarcastically.

"I do not joke," L stated.

"You must be a really boring person," Lord Death joked again.

"I like to think of myself as interesting," L replied, "however, it is only your opinion."

Lord Death seemed to stunned to respond, "ANYHOW!" he yelled finally, breaking the depressing mood again, "I've decided you're accepted."

"I thought there was a test?"

"Oh that's just me observing your soul, and it is quite large..." Lord Death spread his arms and waved them in a circular motion, "normally people start out this small, or most meisters at least."

He cupped a small shape, "but yours is like-" he made large circular motions again.

"Is this a good thing?"

"It depends on how you look at it, but it means you have a lot of potential, but you'll have to work harder to get there. Go back to Sid's room. Welcome to Demon Weapon Meister Academy, L. Lawliet."

L was already outside the door, and he realized he had met a being more powerful than anyone he had ever known.

Back into the classroom, he found himself face to face with the dark skinned teacher, Sid.

"So what's your name? Why don't you write it on the board for us?"

So L took the chalk handed to him, writing down in Japanese, 'Rue Ryuuzaki.'

"My name is Rue Ryuuzaki." he announced shortly. He would, in fact, like to keep the number at two- two people who knew his name. Lord Death and himself.

Everyone stared at the writing, and stared back at him.

"You can take a seat next to Maka over there," Sid said, indicating the girl with her blonde hair tied back. L remembered the familiar name, thinking of the low percentage it was he would actually end up meeting the girl.

Like a crow perched on the edge of the seat, he hopped up, and stared at the girl.

"Hi, I'm Maka," she smiled at him.

"I saw your father playing with your underwear in the hallway," L admitted shortly.

She closed her eyes, with a deeply annoyed sigh. It told L very obviously her relationship with her father. It was easy to see she wasn't very tolerant of his childish actions and always put him back into place.

"Just ignore him," she seemed also tempted to slap him, but L didn't exactly know why.

The kid that had done the pose in front of the class was dismissed, and sat next to Maka.

"Demon Weapons and Meisters have abnormally large souls, which allows them to be accepted to Shibusen. Now, not all of you know if you're a weapon or a meister, so, since you are all a batch of newbies, we don't know who'll be paired best with best, nor do any of the weapons know how to transform properly.

We have golden dust that'll allow you to transform instantly into a weapon if you are one, then after that we'll have special training for all the weapons. Finally, we'll pair you with a meister, and let you sort amongst yourselves. Some of you already know who you work best with, but most of you don't know. Now form a line, come on, even if you already know, it's always worth testing."

The white haired kid groaned, getting out of his seat, and lining up at the back.

Some people turned into weapons, while others had no effect. Multiple strange weapons such as gloves, guns, rods, scythes, swords, and what not took shape before his eyes. Finally, it was his turn. Just like everyone else, Sid threw the golden dust over his head.

He didn't expect it, but he clattered atop the pile of weapons that was slowly gathering.

"I'm a weapon," he said to himself, actually surprised. He had hoped to be a meister, considering it was the German word for master... and well, L simply liked the feeling of control.

Sid's words interrupted his thoughts, "Now, everyone, the weapons will only last for an hour, so try picking each one up, that will be your new partner."

He didn't mind much, but slowly, the weapons around him were disappearing, and he was the last one left.

"Rue, that is you, right?" Sid asked.

He spoke, but no words came out.

"Yes, that's him, Sid, none of us have him as a partner," someone replied. Everyone checked their weapons and agreed.

Sid picked the weapon L had turned into up, and set him down on his desk.

"So it seems we have a difficult soul to resonate with. I know one person that'd be able to resonate with you, but for now, you aren't anyone without a meister..." Sid spoke quietly to him, as everyone else was engaged in conversation, "you're even burning me, and I'm already rather laid back. I could turn you into a meister and pair you up with another demon weapon, but the potential could be lost. There's always the third option of becoming a self operating weapon, however, you must self teach, the most we can do is teach you to transform."

He sprinkled orange powder over L, and L reappeared rather suddenly, slightly confused at what had just happened.

"I can become a self operating weapon than," L said shortly.

"I think you'll find that a little bit difficult," Sid replied, "just join the weapons for class after school."

L was tempted not to join, as the whole thing was annoying and he had no idea what he was even there for, but the curiosity held him in place. Ironically, the sandy haired blonde, Maka, the only one whom had scoffed at the white haired kid, got paired up with him.

The white haired kid gave him a smirk, "What's up? I'm Soul Eater Evans,"

L sighed quietly, but responded, "Hello, you can call me Rue..."

Suddenly he remembered something terrifying, money, people, bills, jobs, what was he going to do?

As a ten year old, L could not make it far in the world without tripping.

"I recently arrived in this town, do you know any place to stay?"

The boy laughed, "oh no problem, we're all getting transferred to dorms with our meisters or weapons. Speaking of which, you don't have a meister do you?"

"No,"

"I think you'll just get paired with someone random," Soul replied. It was a strange name, Soul.

"Thank you," L replied, staring back at the chalk board where Rue Ryuuzaki was scribbled over it in Japanese.

Next to it in bigger, more obnoxious, handwriting, Black Star, with a star connecting the two words. Neat signature, however, there was absolutely no reason to put it there. He glanced at the blue haired boy laughing loudly next to the chalk board with a very timid looking girl standing next to him.

Black Star, the name of the boy who had rescued him. It was very obvious it was him, as he was not only the loudest, the most abnoxious, it matched his handwriting, and there was a star tattooed on his shoulder. Slowly, he made his way down there, and coughed.

"Yeah?" the boy turned around, and asked with a rude grimace on his face. His features were quite interesting, as not many had... natural blue hair. Considering his eyebrows were blue as well, it was a seventy eight percent chance he was a natural blue haired boy.

"I had collapsed on the stairs due to dehydration and hallucinations, and you were the one to take me back, thank you."

"Oh no problem, I don't understand that many big words but I know a thank you when I hear one!" Black Star replied.

"Class is dismissed today, you'll be receiving your dorm room numbers on the bulletin board outside the classroom. Also, after lunch, weapons have to come back for extra training. Good-bye!" Sid said cheerily, and the clamoring, talking students exited.

Sighing, L remembered the reason why he never went to school. Or a proper school at least.

Loud places made him anxious.

He stopped by the bulletin board where many were stopping, disliking the crowd rubbing against his skin. And there was his room number, three hundred twelve.

He continued on, ignoring the many people writing the numbers on their hand. It was curious how they knew instantaneously whom had paired up with whom, similar to the sugar which had appeared on the table. Craving cake, L headed towards the cafeteria.

Money was a problem.

Life would be easier if he got into the police force as a detective, but last time he had people backing him up. This time, all alone, he would have to speak. He searched his pockets for mony. Considering he never carried around money he was honestly surprised to find two thousand dollars stuffed up his pocket.

A note from Watari: As soon as you started going outside into the world, I've put money into your back pocket in case of anything. Good luck.

"I'm not a child," muttered L almost angrily as he stuffed the note back into his pocket. Several people had seen him take out the enormous amount of money, which wasn't good. He didn't really care, cake was all he needed.

Walking up to the counter, he found the food lacking in any deserts.

Fine than.

Fruit would have to do.

The Demon Weapon classes were for those whom hadn't ever transformed, so it wasn't many.

Sid went off naming people's weapons, and told them to practice it. That was all it was. When he hit Rue's name, he said, "Half scythe, otherwise known as sickle."

Like a farmer's tool.

Not to be disappointed, he could simply transform one arm like the Soul kid did.

But honestly he was disappointed.

Oh well.

He made his way out of the door, and towards the dorm rooms where he could learn more about the world.

Or sulk in silence. Well, shouldn't he be proud of the fact that his arm could turn into a wicked deadly looking scythe?

Yes. Yes he should be proud. But practice.

"Envision the weapon resting upon your soul-" the book in front of him said. It was the guide to becoming a meister.

So he closed his eyes, and imagined. Slowly, he felt the change take place, then all of a sudden, he was a weapon again. But the second time, he noticed, he could feel the way his weapon looked like. The handle wasn't long, but the sickle extended off of it like a scythe.

I am a kusarigama without a chain, he thought, however, his blade seemed longer, and the handle was wrapped in white bandages- his clothing.

How strange it was to think he was standing naked within the weapon, looking out at the ceiling of his dorm room.

Even stranger to think they didn't lock any of the dorm rooms.

But that didn't matter to him at the moment.

He was a weapon.

Now to transform back.

L closed his eyes within the weapon, and envisioned his own body. He would have to start looking in the mirror more, for he could barely remember what he looked like.

He was sitting on the couch once more, like a crow. And next to him, was his new roommate, Soul.

"Gyah!" Soul yelled, his mouth open, "I was wondering why there was a random sickle lying around and I thought Maka had left it there."

"Oh, we're room mates..." L said, almost disappointed. But it was okay.

"Yeah no kidding there, sorry you don't have a partner though, it can take a while,"

"I realize, for now, however, I will be an autonomous weapon,"

"That's great! But it's really hard to become one of those..."

"I'll manage," L replied stoically.

To become an autonomous weapon, (a weapon without a meister) one must train their body to be as strong as that of a meister.

However, autonomous weapons are uncommon, however, fairly powerful. The living legend, Justin Law, is an autonomous weapon who became a death scythe at the age of thirteen.

L wasn't used to fighting, as the last time he had taken Tae-kwon-do and earned his black belt, he was ten years old. Then he quit forever. Watari had forced it upon him, in case of anything. He realized his skills had certainly deteriorated when he fought against Raito. But he was ten again, the peak of his training. Would his body retain memories?

While he had been ten and understood techniques, he invented his own form because he didn't want to deal with hurting his back ever so often.

There L was, doing push ups, increasing the arm strength he had never had.

Soul was next to him, inspired to do the same thing L had been doing, training to be as good as an autonomous weapon.

He hadn't thought much about it, but the children were all mature for ten-year-olds.

It was more easy to speak with them than any other ten year old. Considering he had already been mature at ten years old, but nine years older than the rest of the children, was a strange thought.

L was glad he hadn't lost too much of what he learned at age ten, it was really quite lucky.

He had almost been regretful to join the school, but he read more about it, and realized he didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

Being a weapon was difficult to control, as he realized. At any time he could get angry and the weapon's deadliest part could accidentally hurt someone. Exactly what he didn't want to do. It could cause more problems than he needed.

Next, his sense of justice. The biggest criminals in the world were waiting to have their souls eaten. Through that, he could save many whilst gaining power for himself.

Finally, a lot of killings came from the biggest criminals. I don't get involved until there's at least ten deaths or a million dollars involved.

But now he finally realized there could very be a million deaths but only ten souls.

So he trained to be great.

Shibusen was actually, in fact, quite boring. Geographically, the world was the same. Math was required to be the same, that would be one thing that would have driven him insane, if it was not correct. History was very similar, however the few different things was more weapons and meisters learned. He noticed that meisters tended to outshine the weapons, which he also disliked, for without the weapon the meister was nothing. English he already mastered. Science was almost the same, except there were a few major differences, which made it the only class where he truly learned.

Science was also the study in souls, something he never knew about, and how things became the way they were. It was more interesting than any of the classes. Finally, training of physical combat and transformations. Soul resonance was also an available class, but as he didn't have a meister to resonate with, he stayed in the training room.

Some people mastered the resonance easily, however others had a more difficult time. So he was not ever alone in the training room.

L learned how to transform quickly, the full transformations and partial transformations. What he wanted to do, however, was to transform without replacing an arm or a leg with the blade or even handle. Transforming into the handle was the most pointless thing and slightly more difficult considering the handle is mostly the body. So everyday he continued transforming his left arm, but trying to envision the weapon as a second part of his body.

It was very difficult, and he still didn't have it down.

A week passed by, and L's back had already stopped cracking. His positions didn't change, but straightening up was still more natural than it had felt before. He still disliked walking normally, he disliked sitting normally. Everything people normally did made him feel extraordinarily uncomfortable.

He also noted he had to shower every single day, where as he hadn't ever done anything physically exhausting, he was now doing physically exhausting things every day. Thus sweat, thus showering. It felt gritty to not shower, which was a feeling he hadn't experienced much before. His hair continued to grow quickly without being cut, but his most evil roommate Maka was making him brush it.

L didn't speak much to either of his roommates, keeping in his own room most of the time, unless he was training with Soul, where little to no conversation was passed. Food was easily handled with his two thousand dollars, but quickly deteriorating, which worried him. Maka insisted upon buying normal foods, not only cakes. Soul didn't care about eating cake every day, in fact he seemed to promote it.

But Maka, insistent as ever, made him buy meat, vegetables, and carbohydrates while Soul and L feasted on the cake they baked together every other day.

Maka refused to eat the cake. Apparently she wanted to train muscle, and sweets weren't ideal for her at all.

She didn't even have a single bite.

L disliked the texture of normal food, it was never sweet enough, nor was it ever soft enough. The kitchen was filled with lolipops, candies, and chocolates. The freezer was filled with bought cakes, and the pantry was full of cake mixes.

Finally, a week later, Maka finally approached L on the subject.

"I'm going insane," Maka said calmly but coldly.

"Alright," L replied, sticking a lollipop in his mouth.

"No I'm serious, I can't see this many sweets every day. From now on, you're eating normal food, then you can have dessert."

"I do not care the taste of anything you purchase," L replied stoically.

"Honestly, how were you even raised?!" she asked.

"Eating sweets," L stuck another lolipop in his mouth.

She sighed, and let him go to his room, to where he read five books a day. Maka never believed his reading speed, and they went to the library almost every day to read more. At the rate he was going at, in a few months, he'd have finished reading all of it. As a person who valued intelligence, he could see how Maka admired his ability to retain the incredible amounts of information.

He didn't mind Maka, or Soul, for that matter, but didn't get along like they got along with each other. Considering they were opposites, it was easy to see why they got into so many fights, but how they were able to partner. He mostly kept to himself, but also found it very coincidental he was made a roommate of the two people whom he sat next to in class.

Another week passed by, and he ran into the nurse, Medusa. She recognized him instantly. But instead of getting angry, she only smiled and waved. He realized with many of the students' personality, he figured many of them probably ran away from her.

He didn't sympathize, as he often felt it difficult to.

Training passed again, without much of a catch, and he realized at points where he would normally be sweating, he was able to pass. His transformation was almost instantaneous, but he was still having a difficult time making the weapon grow out of his arm. But he managed the tip, which was an improvement.

Soul wasn't working on the same things he was, as he already had a meister. He just felt he didn't want to be helpless when his meister was in trouble.

The next day, in the middle of English, Sid was teaching. A voice called from the other side of the door. He didn't think much of it at first, but when the boy walked in, L instantly recognized him.

Yagami Raito stood at the doorway, looking just as confused as L had first been. But Raito was much shorter, his face was rounder, his eyes were bigger, his skin was darker. It however, was most definitely Raito.

L stared at him, with his round black eyes, unable to comprehend why it was happening. It had all been good, he was going to enjoy the world like he had the last. But no, Yagami Raito, probably with all of his memories, considering L still had all of his memories, was in the world with him.

Raito glanced about the classroom, but when his eyes fell on L, L was not nervous. He was excited.