Chapter Two

"I Need You to Tell Us Everything"

Dr. Stein and Maka were standing beside one of the beds of the Shibusen dispensary as they talked with low voices. Soul stood by the window, farther from the two talking figures, staring into empty space, and lost in his own thoughts.

"So that's how we found her, or how she found us. Stein-hakase, is she gonna be okay?"

"She does have some serious injuries. I took care of the most of them but she's far from okay. She needs a lot of time to fully recover."

"But, what are you planning to do with her?"

"Well it can't be helped. Not having a single record about her, she has to stay here for the mean time until Shinigami-sama gives his orders."

"Maka, it's late. We should be getting home."

Soul made his way in front of the door and grabbed the knob, and paused. He didn't look back at her, not intending to wait for her reply or argue about the matter.

"He's right. You two should be going."

"Okay. Thanks for helping Stein-hakase."


"HELLO HELLO STEIN-KUN!" WASSUP WASSUP?

Shinigami exclaimed after clasping his huge white hands together and tilting his head to his side, just like what he usually does.

"How is the child? You have taken care of her injuries, have you not?"

"Yes. But it will take more time for her to recover, a week or so, for her to even walk alone."

"Stein-kun, something is coming. Something we've never encountered before."

Shinigami said in his serious voice and straight and upright posture. He being serious is not good news. Something definitely is going on.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. I sense the wavelength seeping through the air. And Marie also feels something odd."

"Please explain, Stein-kun"

~~~~~~ Stein's Flashback~~~~~~~

'Yes, dear sister. You are going according to plan. Very good. And soon, he will die'

'No! Never! He will not die, I'll protect him! I will always protect him'

'I'm afraid that won't do, for you are completely under my every command. Yes, you are to deliver his death and you shall suffer for all eternity!'

'No! Please no!'

"No, Soul! Run!"

The girl flung her eyes open. The torment that raged inside her head finally ended. Tears madly slipped from her tired and frightened eyes as she recalled the conversation in her dream. A few minutes of tiresome crying passed. She fell asleep again, leaving a worried Marie lightly stroking the top of her forehead and wiping a good amount of sweat off with a white cloth. The patient hadn't noticed this, or just didn't mind because of fatigue and poor condition. The room was a bit dark, only lit by two lamps. One is on the nurse's desk, and the other is on the small table beside the bed. The lamps made the room glow in yellow. The light is enough for them to see and attend to the patients during sleep time. And it usually relaxes and calms patients down during their sleep.

"Thanks for having to come here this late at night. What's the development?"

"Ah, Stein. It's okay. Its Shinigami-sama's orders after all. She had a nightmare again. It's really bothersome; she kept waking up, and then falls asleep again, only to have the same dream over and over. The one you just witnessed is the third time now since you left three hours ago."

"And you have observed?"

"It's really strange Stein. She starts crying and saying things while asleep; the cue that the nightmare is beginning. During her nightmare, I feel a presence. Its faint, but I can surely feel it. I feel madness, pain, and evil along with her cries and calls."

"A wavelength?"

"Likely. It's an evil presence Stein, madness and evil. It seems to be seeping-through from the nightmare, if that is even possible, because I can feel that it is coming from her. And when she wakes up from the dream, the presence disappears. Stein, I'm worried. I have a bad feeling about this. This girl..."

"What is she saying in her dreams?"

"She keeps crying 'stop', 'don't hurt him', 'don't kill him', and the like. But that's not all. She keeps calling Soul, like what you just witnessed. The poor thing, what could have happened to her? Seeing a helpless child like this breaks my heart."

~~~~~~end of flash back~~~~~~

"Please keep your eyes open, Stein-kun. I'm leaving all of this in your hands. Take command of every resource you can get. With only you, Maka, Kid and me bearing the ability of Soul Perception here at Shibusen, it is you that I'm counting on. This can be far too grave for the children to bear."

"Yes. What is to be done with the child?"

"She will stay here in Shibusen for further investigation. You and Marie will watch over her. Marie's soothing soul wavelength might help.

"It will be done."

"Oh, and please send Soul-kun to me. Only the four of us-including Soul himself and Marie-chan- will know about Soul being involved. No one else is yet to know. Not even Maka and Spirit-kun."


As they went inside the apartment, they separated paths and went into their own rooms to change into their pajamas. She came out and started to the kitchen to have a cup of water. The unused sauce pan lying on top of the stove quickly caught her attention.

"Crap. I totally forgot all about dinner." she mumbled to herself.

"Are you still hungry Soul? I'll just find something random in the fridge for you to eat if you like." She called to Soul who was slouching on the couch in the living room.

"No Maka, don't bother. I'm not hungry. Go get yourself something for dinner."

"I won't. I'm not that hungry any way."

She put the emptied cup down on the sink and started her way to the living room.

"Not that hungry? So you are hungry. Geez. Lazy woman. Fine, just sit down and wait. I'll get you something." He said frowning.

"No. It's okay. I'm fine."

She's now standing in front of couch looking down on him. He looked up at her with furrowed brows and was about to stand up, but she glared at him. It says 'Don't argue with me or I'll kill you'. And so he didn't dare inch a muscle and just let out a sigh. He looked away and brought his gaze onto the white-curtained window to the left.

She made herself comfortable on couch beside him. Soul sat lazily; his head laid on the back rest of the couch, arms limply laid on top of his lap, and eyes gazing at the grinning moon again. It's been going on for almost a week now. Lost in his thoughts or just plainly staring into empty space, she could not tell. When doing nothing, and sometimes when he should be actually doing something, she often sees him like this. She wondered about what he was thinking about, but just shrugs her curiosity away. He will tell her, and if not, she will discover it eventually. The softness of the couch under her back and the warmth coming from Soul's body felt so comfortable that it made her drowsy. And even when on the verge of sleeping herself off, her brain managed to remind her of what had happened to them on their way to the store. She pictured his sincere, breathtaking ruby-red eyes as they burned into hers. A smile made its way onto her sleepy face. She wants to think about it more and recall every detail of the previous moment with him, but sleep took over her. She finally dozed off. Her head accidentally fell onto Soul's shoulders.

The warmth from her body next to his is cradling him to sleep. Her hair smelled of the lavender shampoo she's been using. It felt good and made him smile. Not the sarcastic grin that he normally does. This time, it's just a simple smile, a smile due to peace of mind and contentment. He carefully stretched his left leg out; scooping up the black leather jacket he was wearing previously that lay on the coffee table in front of them with his foot. He brought his leg along with the jacket near enough to his left hand's reach. He can't move his torso; especially his right shoulder and right arm for it might wake up Sleeping Beauty that found a bed on his right shoulder, and had her arms wrapped around his. Using his long left arm, he carefully pulled the jacket over her to cover her thin body.

"Sweet dreams my love."

Now they're all set. After kissing the top of her head, he can now follow her to slumber land with his smile that never faltered.

'Guess I'll be sleeping without nightmares tonight. Just sweet dreams.'


Day 2

Maka was awoken by the warm and bright rays of the grinning sun. She loved early mornings that are warm and bright. It's one of her most favorite things in the world. Books of course, are her most favorite things in the world. Every morning, the first thing she'd do is go in front of her bed room window and let the cool wind blow the sleep away. And she'd stretch out her arms, and stay there for a while, letting the bright and warm sunshine make-up her day while her cool companion is still drooling on his pillow, totally blacked-out. Soul hated early mornings that are warm and bright. He definitely isn't a morning person, and on top of that, according to him, cool people don't get-up early, especially for school. Well, he still wakes up pretty early though, because who knows what Maka will do to him if they were late for class.

Her own biological clock never seized to fail her, thus making her conveniently right on time for everything every morning. This morning is one of those mornings. It's just the perfect time to get up have a shower before having breakfast, but today's morning isn't like any other mornings. Last night, she actually slept with Soul, and today, she wakes up still with Soul-on the couch that is. For the first time in her life, she doesn't care about school or being late and such, except when she is sick or badly injured. It's very out of character, but she couldn't care for anything less. Not with Soul's head lying just on top of her hers, not with Soul's arm tangled with hers while holding her hands, and not to mention the jacket that covered her body that had Soul's fragrant scent all over it. She shut all other thoughts out-except those about Soul- and closed her eyes again, trying to sleep again with him. She wanted to look upon his face to see that drool he always had every morning- she was bothered about it at first, but she started liking it and thought that it actually looked kinda cute and cool on him-but she couldn't because she will wake him up. It's way too early for school anyway. She doesn't want to get up early today because she knows that Soul doesn't want it either.

The warm and blinding light from the annoying grinning sun roared at him in the face. The clear glass window was just beside the couch that he was sitting on, thus making his face catch the sun's entire early morning wrath. He absent-mindedly lifted his arm in front of his face to cover his eyes from the brightness coming from outside the window, seeping through the white curtains. 'Wait. White curtains?' Then he soon came to realize that a sleeping Maka is resting her head on his shoulders, which became his pillow for the night. He remembered now, Maka dozed off on his shoulder last night, so he did the same. Soon his senses came all the way back from slumber land and he can now hear her sound breathing, he can now feel her arms tangled with his, and her fingers intertwined with his, her sandy-blonde hair hanging loosely on his shoulders, and he can now recognize the lavender scent of her hair. He thought that it's strange. 'Why isn't she awake? Is she sick or something?' She should be up in the shower or in the kitchen by now. Especially now that the sun's up and ready for a day of shining and howling. By sound of her breathing, she's perfectly fine, and perfectly sleeping, too. She's sleeping herself off. Well, that's a first. That's good, and he liked it. Wait. Of course it can't be good. Knowing lil' miss bookworm, she'll go on a rampage if they or she was to come to school late. It can't be helped, as much as he hates it, he needs to wake her up and go to school early. Definitely not cool. But if Maka doesn't want to be late, he doesn't like it either. He sighed in defeat.

"Morning Sleeping Tiny-tits."

"MAKA-CHOP! Good morning Soul!" The book on top of the side table beside the couch comes very handy.

"So much for a morning greeting, woman!"

"Shut-up. I'm gonna shower now okay. It's your turn to cook breakfast you know."

"Yeah whatever."

A sly smile crept up her face as she walked away from the living room. He pissed her off alright, but none the less, she was happy, leaving a bleeding Soul picking himself up from the couch. He's bleeding. But none the less, he's grinning.

"What a morning to start your day." He said to himself.

The bell rang furiously, signaling that the long day of school is over. Students crammed towards the door anxious to get out and do whatever. Black Star went standing on the teacher's desk yelling pathetically. No one paid attention to the blue idiot except for his loyal partner Tsubaki, who was desperately trying to pry him off of the table.

The gang was always the one to leave the room lastly. With Black Star giving his closing speech, Kid avoiding the rummaging crowd, ever so careful not to ruin the symmetry of his outfit, and with Soul and his lazy and nonchalant way of leaving the room. There's no particular reason for this, he just believes that it's not cool to be so excited and worked up for leaving a class room. And so their partners had no choice but wait for their daily getting-out-of-the-class-room rituals to end and be able to leave.

They finally made it out of the room and are now walking on the almost-empty hallways of Shibusen, aiming for the school's entrance-and exit. Soul who's usually the one being at the tail of group, felt a light tap on his shoulders. He and Maka-who's walking just beside him-looked up to the person behind.

"Maka, you go on ahead with the others."

"Uh, Okay Stein-hakase. Hey Soul, we'll go on ahead to Kid's and prepare. Don't forget to bring the records okay or the party will be gloomy."

Maka ran after the gang that nearly made it to the school's exit. Then they finally disappeared. Soul sighed with annoyance, he hoped to eat and drink with his friends soon to get it all over with and get a good sleep. But now he's plans will be delayed.

"Yeah? What do you want?"

"They'll have to party without you. Shinigami-sama wants to see you now. Come on."

"Hello Soul-kun! I think we're all ready so let's go" A woman appeared and joined them.

"Marie-sensei? What's this about?"

"We'll all know when we arrive at Shinigami-sama's room."

A few minutes of silent walking passed and they made it to Shinigami's.


The three of them are now facing Shinigami himself. Yes, he's not inside his mirror. A real figure stood in front of them. This is proof enough that some thing's up. It's not likely for Shinigami to be with them unless there's something important to be discussed or an important event at school. Plus, he prompted them to sit down on the cushioned floor along side of a shinigami-mask shaped tea table that stood just below their knees with 4 cups of tea on top.. The four of them sat quietly. Marie and Stein's gazes darted immediately to Soul as Shinigami spoke in his low and clear voice.

"Soul-kun, I need you to tell us everything."