Beta credit goes to Heart of Perpetual Ice, who wrote a companion piece.
Lift Your Head Up High
By Ryo Hoshi
It had been...perfect.
Everything had gone at once, symmetrically, nicely and--in its unique, unexpected way--neatly.
Kid knew that he and his weapons weren't immune to the Kishin's wavelength, to the spreading insanity. Those with a bit of insanity already were most vunerable, the quickest to succumb.
His...compulsion to make the world nice and neat, ordered and symmetrical, was the seed of his own madness. More importantly, there were limits how much being a shinigami could counterbalance it, and he'd never been able to resist his own insanity.
It was inevitable that the limit of his resistance would be reached.
It was wonderful.
It was...terrible.
Kid lifted his head up, knowing what there was left for him to do, to complete the perfection, and ignored his weapons' protests as he lifted one to his head.
