'Earlier reports on the attack suggest it was a mugging. As to why the man fled suddenly has not been discerned. Around noon today local man Ely Thune committed suicide after having an argument with his wife. Thune was found by his wife when she came home from her mothers and found him on the floor. He had shot himself in the head with a revolver. This makes the third suicide this week. Now we go to weather. It's going to be more beautiful sunshine in Death City as the temperature will start to soar above 113 and remain heated until that low front arrives next Tuesday. This has been your local K.I.L.L. with all the news you need, join us…'
The radio shut off silently leaving the air still around the room, it seemed to weight heavy on everything, as if a cloud of fog had been trapped in the room. The only discernable movement was from a cigarette butt that was left burning in the ash tray; it sent up a thin trail of smoke that twirled slowly and quickly up ending in a poof at its highest point. The clock ticked and they looked over at it, neither wanted to say anything. More smoke rose up and the butt extinguished. Tock.
There was a knocking, somewhere down the hall and in the main room someone was knocking hoping to get in. They moved their eyes to the other and waited. A flower pinched between her fingers, a black-eyed Susan with three petals missing, began to wilt slightly more. They moved their eyes down as another petal fell. There was a forth.
The knocking stopped and the door opened with a loud echoing creaking noise. It was followed quickly by soft-soled shoes that kept getting louder and louder. Marie didn't want to hear it. She lowered her head and dropped the flower bringing her hands to support long beautiful head of hair. She looked at Stein nearly in tears. He leaned over and reached under the front of the table picking up the flower. He set it on the table as a wreaked death scythe walked in. Spirit looked at them with a blank face breathing heavily when they heard the screen door again. The stab of heels hit the floor slowly and stopped in the door. Marie walked over to her and watched as Azura slowly shook her head with a small line of tears falling out each of her eyes.
Marie fell into Azura and began bawling, he sobs breaking the silence apart. Stein leaned back and reached in his pocket for his packet of French-made cigarettes. He pulled out the white lighter and a his last one from the package. He set the empty box on the table and lit up watching his mentor's face. Spirit was starring back with the same eyes as Stein. Spirit looked at him saddened, "I feel… I feel like I failed."
His words were weak and one of the tears he had tried to hide escaped out his right eye. He quickly wiped it away with a bit of shame with the soft skin on the back of his hand. Stein took in a deep breath in of the nicotine-toxin mix and exhaled through a wavering sigh. "Even for us… a Death of a child is hard. It's worse knowing if you could have been there three seconds sooner…"
"The parent's are coming; they'll be here in the morning. Shinigami will be hosting them. He's planning on having a student funeral before releasing the body." Spirit's hand reached inside his jacket and pulled out a small flask. He uncorked it and took a swig from it. "What am I supposed to say to Maka…?"
"It doesn't matter, it'll feel like her world's been turned upside down no matter what." Azura said. She patted Marie on the head and stroked her golden locks trying to calm her down. "When I was eight, I had an older cousin named Hideiki, we all thought he was happy… It took my parents four days to tell me, I never forgave them for hiding it from me for so long. I never was able to mourn for him properly… Maka will find out whether you tell her or not, but you can control how she views it from the beginning. Just try not to make it looked like an act of shame like my parents did."
Spirit corked his flask slowly. He shoved it back into his jacket and adjusted it to look like he had just put it on. He began walking out and touched Marie on the head to get her attention. "I'll let Shinigami know you won't be in tomorrow. You should rest."
Marie nodded and put her head back against Azura's shoulder nuzzling up to her like a teddy bear. Spirit nodded a slow thank you at the gun and began to head towards Stein's front door. He looked out to see the muscular outline of Sid heading in. Spirit grabbed the door and opened it for him. They stared at each other for a minute, both face with the same expression of loss. "You told them?"
"In a manner of speaking, Azura coming in crying really says a lot." Spirit lowered his head and ran his fingers back through her red hair feeling the grease all the stress has added. "How's Nygus? I know they were really close."
"It's like she lost a sister… She won't speak to anyone. Shinigami's staying with her tonight." Sid cooed softly. He scratched his head. "They found a note on her, she blamed stress, said she couldn't handle it anymore."
"She was twelve…" Spirit said and began walking around him. "How bad is the stress on a twelve year old that she would do that to herself?"
Sid just shrugged. Spirit walked out of the house and down the sidewalk starring at the graveyard around him. The headstones, most turning grey with various mosses growing off them, did little to help his guilt. He stepped out onto the sidewalk and looked up as the street lamp in front of him blew its bulb. 'I know how you feel, tired.'
Spirit began walking, slowly, but determined. He grabbed his tie by the knot and began tugging it loose until the two ends fell apart landing on his chest. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked up at the street sign. He was still blocks and blocks away from his daughter.
"This really is stuck." Soul said as he tried to find one of the loops without a million hairs twisted around it. Soul decided that if he was going to free the band from Maka's hair he was going to have to do it carefully. He sat behind her, both in their clothes for bed, on the couch and carefully removed a single strand of hair at a time away from the band. "How did your hair get this bad."
"I'm not sure, but it might have been during that sandstorm today. It whipped my hair around pretty badly." She admitted and stared at the clock. It was slowly ticking to ten at night and her hair wasn't giving up that easily. "Thanks for helping."
"No problem, I know how much you like your hair and more or less don't want to rip it out." Soul smiled and pulled another hair out. He had cleared one loop of the band and carefully pulled the pigtail through. The rest of the band immediately loosed and Soul was able to pull it out without any hair coming with it. He dangled it in front of his partner's face. "Ta-da!"
"Thank you! You're the best!" She said turning around smiling. "Now if I could only get you to do your homework."
"I do my homework…" A series of knocks shut their conversation down. Soul hopped off the couch and opened the door looking up into the face of Spirit. "Death Scythe? Do you know what time?"
"It's important." He said solemnly. Soul looked down at the floor and opened the door. Maka stood up off the couch and turned to face her father as he walked in the room. Soul shut the door and Spirit looked at his daughter. "A girl in your class, Maggie Cadwell, committed suicide tonight. We chased her to the top balcony on Shibusen, and I tried to catch her."
Spirit gulped and looked over at Soul. Soul's face was blank as he turned away and walked over to the couch and sat down. He set his head in his hands and just breathed. "Damn." He looked up to see Maka drop on her knees and rest her head on the couch.
"Maka… I'm sorry, I know she was your friend." Spirit said and watched as his daughter stood up emotionless and walked dazed into her room. She shut the door and both of them heard her flop on her bed. "Maka and Maggie were best friends up until you came along, I guess growing apart doesn't help the pain any."
"If there is a student death we should have school off, especially since it happened there. Tell Shinigami to cancel it." Soul said quickly. "Maka wouldn't be going anyway."
"I'll be back tomorrow morning. Please help Maka through this…" Spirit said and began to walk out closing the door. It creaked loudly as he pulled it along behind him. He sighed heavily and turned back one last time. "If she needs me I'll be at Shibusen."