It had been a year since Asura, the Kishin that had been trapped for over eight centuries underneath the DWMA, or Death Weapon Meister Academy, was released and subsequently destroyed by Maka Albarn, one of the greatest meisters at the DWMA.

Meisters are the only ones that can wield the weapons that allow them to hunt down Kishin eggs, souls that have been corrupted by murder and the consumption of human souls. After the destruction of the vessel, the weapon then reverts back to human form and devours the defiled soul. It is this act that makes the weapon stronger and the meister is responsible for helping the weapon achieve a goal of ninety-nine Kishin eggs and one witch soul. All this information ran through a certain young man's head as he wandered along the alleys and backstreets of a small town in Virginia. He clutched his arms as the skin split every two inches along them, crying out as each new split formed.

'I must apologize for the pain. The scars are the only way of keeping track,' a voice murmured in his head. 'I did warn you that if you said yes, the process would be painful.'

"Yeah, I know." The young man grunted as several more splits formed. "Why can't it be faster?"

'Because it would tear your muscles. I have no wish to cause you further harm.'

"Ugh...the way you speak is causing me harm!"

There was silence for a long time, during which the splits finally stopped forming. The boy sighed with relief, happy that the worst was over. 'I am afraid that thought is not accurate in the slightest. This next bit will be...well, you shall see.' And indeed the young man did see. For a time, anyway, before the pain made him black out and cease his screaming. Many hours passed when the young man's body woke again, though now it was stripped of nearly everything. He could not blame those that had done it, after all they been robbing a corpse. That was the part of the process he hated the most: in order for him to take over completely, the original body had to die.

"Great, I am cold. I will need to find a new set of clothes." The new owner of the young man's body stood, and immediately had to grab his underwear to keep it from falling. It would appear that he was doomed to be lean no matter what, given that the body had previously nothing but muscle, and lots of it.

'Sheesh, you're skinny.'

"Good to know you are still there." The younger boy had been worried that the other had not survived the transfer. "And I am not skinny. I could easily stop a car with these muscles. Possibly. Anyway, what is your name?"

'I'm Thomas, but shouldn't you know that? You've been in my head for years.'

"I do not pry into...you are correct, the way I speak is very irritating." He shrugged and began walking, still holding up his underwear. "Do you know of any clothing stores nearby? All I managed to get from you during the transfer was some nonsense about an academy."

'No, I don't. I'm not from around here.' The boy made an impatient sound in response to Thomas' answer and continued to walk.

"At least no one can see me, given that it is only a few hours until dawn." He sighed, turning a corner at the end of the alley and finding himself at the end of a shopping strip. His back to a large 'Come back soon' sign, the young man smiled. "Commercialism is certainly good for something, eh, Thomas?"

'Whatever you say, man.' Thomas replied boredly. He was too busy trying to dig through the boy's mind, but did not find much. All Thomas could really get were fleeting impressions at the forefront of their semi-shared mind. 'Dude, how do I read your mind?'

"That would be a very bad idea." The younger man pressed his ear against the glass of the first store he came to and frowned. "That is a lot of lace. Must be expensive." He moved from store to store, repeating the process of pressing his ear to the glass then moving on when it turned out to not have what he needed.

'You don't have any money, man.' Thomas remined the boy as he stopped in front of a young adults clothing store.

"Stop thinking of me as a boy. And I am very well aware of our financial situation." He may not have money, but he could easily pick the lock or climb in through the roof. Since he didn't have his lock picking kit, he would have to climb in through the roof, which was less likely to be wired to an alarm anyway.

'I can't believe I'm about to be an accomplice to a theft.'

"I would rather commit a theft than be arrested for public nudity. Now shut up." He sighed and carefully rolled his underwear so it wouldn't fall. "I better get someone smaller next time." He jumped up and grabbed the doorframe. "Now if I press from the door..." He pressed his feet against the door and shoved upward hard, using the momentum to grab the rooftop ledge and thanking whoever designed the building for making the door so close to the roof. He pulled himself up and over, swearing as he scraped his hands and legs on the way.

'Told me to shut up and look who's cussing up a dictionary.' The one in control paused and sighed.

"Shut up. If you make me laugh by saying anything else that ridiculous, we may be caught, should a police be patrolling nearby." He moved slowly across the roof until he found the outgoing ventilation. "Tight squeeze, but I can manage." And manage he did, wriggling and squirming through the ducts.

'Goodness, you're like a snake!'

"Not the first time I have been told this." The other replied, pushing open the grate in the store and dropping in. Browsing the jeans, he frowned as he realized that hardly anything there was his size, then he winced. "Damn. The facial scars are a little tender. And I can not find anything in my size. This is not off to a good start."

'Dude, just grab something! There are probably belts!' Thomas exclaimed.

"But I detest belts. They are very uncomfortable for me. As is this speech pattern." He snagged a pair of jeans that seemed like they would fit and moved on to the shirts. "What do you think of a button-up?"

'Seriously! Do we really have time for this?'

"There is always time for deciding between button-ups and more casual shirts."

'Just pick something already!' Thomas shouted, pacing inside their shared mind.

The man flinched and groaned, a headache starting up around his temples. "Right right. I need to be quick, efficient. In and out." He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again. The cool blue that used to fill the irises was gone, replaced by an emerald green that seemed to glow in the darkness of the store. He grabbed two button-ups then moved on to the shoe section. After finding a pair that he thought would fit, he grabbed a bag from the front and repeated the process until he'd filled it. On his way back to the open vent, he grabbed a leather jacket as well and slipped it on.

'Why the jacket? You don't need it.'

"I like jackets." He answered simply, slinging the bag into the vents and following after it using the clothing racks as a ladder. After fifteen minutes of wriggling, the bag in front of his face, and he was free of the confines of the vents. Next, he dropped the bag on to the street and followed it seconds later. "Now, food." He wandered the shopping strip for an hour before finally finding a place that sold food and clearing out what had been saved from the previous day.

On his way out, he passed an instrumental store and paused in front of it. 'Peering' inside, he suddenly broke the window and climbed in. 'Dude, what the hell!'

"Relax, the alarm system is a fake. And I want that violin." The instrument in question was residing in a display case by itself, not because it was special. In fact, the violin was perfectly ordinary and that it is why he wanted it. Pulling a tailor's pin from his button-up, he carefully picked the lock and grabbed the violin, along with the accompanying bow. "I have not held a violin in so very long. And it is so easy. Royalty were so much more fun."

'Royalty?'

"It was an interesting time in my life." He responded, climbing out through the window again and heading for the exit of the shopping center. "Thomas, since you do not know my name and I need one to go by at the moment, call me John. I will think of a last name at a later date."

'Why bother? You'll probably come up with some obviously fake name like Smith or Cooper.'

"My brother chose Cooper as his last." John said, somewhat indignantly.

'Oh. Awkward.' Thomas sighed, thinking that maybe it would be best to keep his opinion to himself for the time being.

"Not really. I told him the same thing you just told me." John carefully stuck the violin in his bag as he walked and grinned. "Could you give me directions to this DWMA you were thinking about?" Thomas replied in the affirmative and told John exactly how to get to Death City, Nevada. John left the town soon after. That morning, the owners of the clothing store, the food court, and the instrumental shop contacted the police with very similiar cases of robbery. The police department spent a grand total of three months on the case before declaring it cold and moving on. Meanwhile, John and Thomas had arrived at Death City, a place run by an impossible being and populated by improbable humans. John felt that he was going to fit right in.

Necro: Guess who's back! Back again!

MP: Slim Shady?

Necro: No, you dolt! Us! We're back!

MP: Ohhhh! Right! Anyway, we're very sorry for the sudden leave of absence.

Necro: Rather unforturnately, my computer crashed and I lost my document writer in the process. However, Windows 10 comes with WordPad! Now I can write once more! I will also be redoing my old stories, hopefully better, and will do my best to regularly update this story! Till next week!

John: Wait, I wanted to say something!