"They did what?" Jackie asked in disbelief, as Kim groaned in frustration.

"Believe it," said Kid. "They went to fight the Kishins themselves."

"Well, I hope they understand how irresponsible they are," Marie said, in her best threatening voice. "Losing their ability now is a huge hindrance to our plans."

Kid had called a meeting the very next day after Soul and Maka's disturbing news. Unfortunately (or fortunately for Ox who was nursing a migraine), BlackStar had not bothered to show up. Tsubaki didn't know where he went either, turning up on time and expressing surprise at his absence. Frankly, it was too much work to try and find him, so they continued the meeting anyway.

"So we shouldn't fight the revived Kishins with our partners," Kilik summarized. "How do we fight them then?"

"Honestly, it's a no win situation," Spirit sighed. "You either don't land any blows at all and lose compatibility with your partner, have to fight with you bare hands, or use a weapon you can't handle."

"I guess we should all start training with each other," Tsubaki said. "If we want to be able to fight the revived, we should be good at it."

"On the contrary, Tsubaki," Kid said. "We shouldn't train at all."

"What's your logic for that?" asked Nygus-sensei.

"I've been switching up my weapons combination," Kid continued. "If you look at the log of resurrected Kishin fights, I've never used the same weapon twice in a row at all. If it were that easy, I'd have never used Soul, Spirit or even Marie, but I think that if you get used to the weapon too much, you lose compatibility with them too."

"Is that why you never had the one month training session with Soul?" asked Sid-sensei. He had found it odd a few months ago, but was now seeing why Kid did what he did.

"Yes," replied Kid. "But there are more problems. I can't keep doing this for much longer. I'm already losing compatibility with the weapons I normally use, and I don't know if it's irreversible. If more Kishins come back, you all will have to fight them."

"This situation is a disaster," Harvar said. "Kid, essentially, what you're asking us to do is to grope around in the dark. The meisters have to use weapons for the first time while trying to kill deadly Kishins?"

"That's not all," Kim added. "The DWMA has killed some really powerful enemies in the past, including witches. This is a total game of chance- who knows if we'll be fighting a low level Kishin or a powerful witch like Arachne?"

"And losing compatibility with death scythes?" Spirit groaned. "Kid, this is terrible. The only one left who we can get hold of is Azusa. And she's on a secret mission now!"

"Hold on," Marie said soothingly, waving her hands in a calming gesture. "Maybe our situation isn't so bad. Kid, do the Kishins have a decrease in ability after being revived?"

This time it was Liz who spoke up. "Not really," she glared at Kid as though that was somehow his fault. "Even though some people here refuse to say anything, it's pretty easy to tell that there is no difference."

Ignoring this jibe at him, Kid added on. "If it makes the situation any better, they can't seem to communicate with humans anymore."

"Helpful," Liz muttered and then continued to not look at Kid.

"Even still," Marie said a little more sharply this time, annoyed that her theory was false, "It's one Kishin a night at the most. If we switch it around enough, we can handle it until a permanent solution is formed."

"It's not just that, sensei," Jackie said. "If we add in the whole witch situation, our forces will be spread too thin. Besides, wasn't there a talk about getting Crona back from the moon?"

"Oh yeah, Crona," Kilik recounted their times with the ever-nervous black blood child. "We have to get him down soon."

"I don't want to say this," Kid said waveringly. "But we can't focus on Chrona right now."

"What? No!" Tsubaki said. Even Sid and Nygus looked appalled with the decision.

"Kid, are you serious?" asked Patty.

"I don't like it any more than you do," Kid argued. "But between the witches and the Kishins, we already have enough problems to deal with for now. As it is, we're short on forces."

"He has a point there," Ox spoke up. "After the Battle on the Moon, we lost a lot of soldiers and Granny," he said, cuing a small pang of silent sadness in remembrance of their strong, eccentric meister receptionist. "And we can't rely on Clay, Akane and Azusa. They and some others have their hands full."

"Wait, who're they with?" asked Kilik.

"I think those three girls from the NOT class who defeated Shaula Gorgon some years ago," Kim said. "Fun times; remember, Jakie?"

"Focus," Sid snapped.

"This is stupid," Liz said contemptuously. "Crona is stuck on the moon, drowning in his own blood and who even knows where Ragnarok is right now. And he's trapped freaking Asura, who may even be behind this mess in the first place. It's dumb, leaving him alone."

Kid looked uncertain, but Spirit spoke up.

"No one is looking for Crona. Not yet," he said. "Not even you, Kid."

Jackie frowned. "Are you even allowed to give him orders?"

"I can't," Spirit admitted. "But Kid, do you trust me enough to give me this leeway?"

Kid hesitated. When it came to relationship commitments, Sprit Albarn was the very definition of untrustworthy. But from what he observed over the years with the previous Shinigami and now himself, Spirit was unfailingly loyal, and always made himself useful, refusing to mess up his job there. So Kid decided to let Spirit take control for once. Dumb move? Maybe. But Kid had enough to do on his own.

"For now, yes," Kid said. "But if our situation gets much worse, I will be taking measures to investigate the moon."

"We have significantly more weapons than meisters," Nygus said. It was true; in their group, there were eight meisters and eleven weapons.

"Are we counting Liz and Patty as one weapon?" Harvar asked.

Liz gave him a withering look. "We are not," she said haughtily. "And we aren't counting Fire and Thunder as the same weapon either."

"Can we, though?" asked Kilik. "They get anxiety if separated." Kid nodded. After all, the weapons were still children. It was bad enough that they were caught up in this mess in the first place, so it would be a good move to make sure they were together.

"I don't know if I'll be able to be counted as an available weapon for much longer," Marie confessed regretfully. "Stein and I have agreed that I won't be fighting in any intensive battles after the seventh month."

"That's not a problem, Marie," Sid said soothingly, glaring around the room as if daring them to disagree. No one did. "Your baby should take priority."

"Can Soul and Maka even fight anymore?" asked Kim incredulously. "Clearly they can't with each other for a while, but can they use different meisters and weapons?"

"I think so," Kid thought. "I doubt that their situation is that bad."

"Where are they anyway?" wondered Ox. "You'd think Maka would be the most active member of discussion here."

"They're trying to fix things with Stein-sensei," Harvar said. "They're trying to get their soul compatibility back."

.

.

"You two have gotten yourselves into a real mess this time," Stein said disapprovingly, eyeing the sheepish duo.

"Can we try that weird therapy like last time, sensei?" asked Soul, cutting to the chase.

"It won't be as effective, as last time," Stein rubbed his chin. "In fact, I'm more certain that it wouldn't have any effect. Now that you both have gone through it before, you mill be immune to it now."

"Isn't it worth a shot?" asked Maka tentatively.

"I doubt it," Stein said. "Last time, you wanted to strengthen your compatibility. This time, you need to fix it; it's not the same scenario."

The two shuffled around guiltily, remembering their previous stupidity, or so Stein hoped. More likely or not, they were digging up painful memories and only partially resolved conflicts, which wouldn't benefit them at all. Stein decided to backtrack instead.

"Well, this is complete madness," he loved that word, "but I'll look over what I have. Maybe you'll both end up with screws in your head."

"I hope not," Soul muttered. He and Maka quietly exited the room as Stein got to work. Now this was an interesting case indeed…

.

.

"Where were you?" Tsubaki asked hollowly, as BlackStar slipped into his seat. It was the middle of Sid-sensei's lecture (said teacher was muttering something about a date, which Tsubaki really didn't want to know about), which made his appearance even more surprising, as the young 'assassin' rarely came to classes anymore. Angela wasn't with him, so that was an even bigger surprise. "What made you come to classes all of a sudden?"

"I dunno," he said. "Guess I just felt like it. Kim said she and Jackie would watch Angela for the day, so I didn't have anything better to do."

"How about training?"

"Didn't feel like it."

This was unlike him. Normally, when asked about training, BlackStar would begin a long (and loud) lecture about what he did, how long he did what he did and who was in the gym that day, thus losing around fifty percent of his audience. Later, his monologue would later stem to how many people he fought while training (usually it was poor Hero or some other lone meister); at least forty more percent would have given up by then. And finally, he'd talk about how strong he was and how much stronger he would be. Usually, only Tsubaki had the patience to stick around for that bit. And monologues aside, BlackStar never missed out on training.

"Well, you could have come to the meeting we had."

"Jackie filled me in," BlackStar said dismissively. "Apparently, Soul and Maka lost their soul compatibility."

"They did," Tsubaki clarified. Then, after the lack of BlackStar's reactions, she probed a little further. "Aren't you worried? They're our friends."

"They'll get over it," BlackStar said. "Maka's not that pathetic. Actually, don't tell her I said that. I'm MUCH stronger than her and you know it."

Tsubaki cracked a small smile. That was a little more like BlackStar, even though he probably shouldn't have been cracking jokes at Maka's expense. However, her feelings of hope dissipated, as she noticed a darker look in BlackStar's eyes after he mentioned the scythe master. That was… odd.

"Did you hear the bit about Crona?" she asked.

"I did," he said.

"And you're not worried about that?" she asked in disbelief. Despite Crona and BlackStar not being close (at all), he wasn't the type to be dismissive of his friend's well being. In fact, on the moon, BlackStar really hadn't wanted to leave Crona behind, partially because he wanted to fight Asura himself, but more so because he'd have to leave Crona alone and possibly in danger.

"Crona's still alive," BlackStar said. "And I know it. Besides, the whole bit about Asura messing with the moon is all bull anyway- I'm pretty sure than Crona is still going strong."

"Fine," Tsubaki left it. That was something they wouldn't agree on. She remembered feeling horrible after leaving Crona and Ragnarok drowning in their own blood, even though it was probably nothing on how Maka felt (she caught the meister crying behind a bush after Kid's 'coronation'). Nevertheless, she still felt bad about it and even had nightmares about them. When combined with Asura, Masamune and Mifune, they made for many sleepless nights.

"They counted you as an available meister, you know?" she said, finally looking at him. "Should I tell them you're busy? Since you're, you know, training?" she poured as much contempt as she could into that word.

BlackStar didn't catch it (as usual). His face lit up instead. "Are you kidding?" he ejaculated. "I'm always up for a fight! When do we start?"

"We," Tsubaki corrected, although slightly relieved that he didn't get her jibe, "will not be doing anything together. Apparently, compatible weapon-meister teams are in danger fighting alone. I think Soul and Maka proved that."

"Ugh," said BlackStar. "I'll have to use Harvar and Jackie? They're such straight-laces!" he shuddered. "This is gonna suck."

Oh it would. While Tsubaki normally would jump at every chance to protect the DWMA and Death City, she now felt that her safely blanket of a reliable team had been snatched from her and she was now left, hanging by a thin rope of survival over an abyss of doom. And what was worse, the abyss contained not only the unknown (which would be bad enough on its own), but also the demons of her past.

So Tsubaki began to worry. Again.

.

.

"We're starting to kill Kishins tonight," Kid said. "Ox, Jacqueline, are you sure you're up for this?"

"Positive," Ox said, though looking a bit ashen. "This is the best combination for us. Besides, Jaqueline here can fly away if necessary, and set the Kishin on fire."

"Let's hope it wont be necessary," Kid remarked. "However foolproof our backup methods are in this case, we can't rely on flying and setting things on fire for the other pairs. Let's hope that this goes well."

"It's a pity bringing backup is dangerous," Jackie remarked. "We really could use some right now." She shot Kid a look. She hadn't been happy after he told her that only weapons and meisters could fight the revived Kishins, and bringing lone soldiers was nothing more than a bloodbath. According to Kid, this had been found out after an unsuccessful attempt to defeat a Kishin, where no weapons were brought along. Originally, Kid thought he'd use his new Shinigami powers, but it didn't work. All the soldiers that were with him were wounded, or had to retreat until Kid found a random weapon and hastily killed the Kishin before it destroyed any more stalls in Vietnam.

"Yes, it is a pity," Kid returned the look as well. "Anyway, thankfully the area of concentration is somewhat near to Death City," he paused. "It's in Quebec."

The two groaned. It was no picnic, fighting in the cold, and while Jackie could warm up the place, it would simply use more of her energy. However, there was really nothing Kid could do, so he was lucky that he chose the two people in the Spartoi who were least likely to complain about this later. But this came to haunt him again, as Spirit and Marie constantly went on for two hours that day asking him why they couldn't just go with Sid instead at the beginning. Theoretically, it would have been a great idea, but years of training together had made all the teachers quite compatible with each other. Besides, if the mission did go south, Oz and Jackie could be counted on to scrupulously hide the details. But Kid had gotten so annoyed that after two hours, eight minutes and nine seconds of questioning, he declared that he was getting late for a date and ran out the room. Now, he was hiding from the faculty, and Patty, who somehow got to know about the 'news'.

"You're flight leaves in around two hours," he went on. "Is there anything you want to take?"

"We packed," Jacqueline said. "We actually got a couple more weapons, just in case something else happens. So far, we have a couple knives and weak grenades. Is there anything else we need?"

"I don't think so," Kid said. "But grenades? They are not going to be happy at the airport."

"We were hoping you would give us a permit," Ox said. "After all, we do need to have our own backup."

"I'll do it," Kid said, making a mental note to send the airport a letter about the situation. "Wait- Ox what are you holding?"

"Brass knuckles."

"Oh."

After a little more talk about accommodation and the return flight, if they had a need for that (they felt queasy thinking about the alternative), Harvar and Kim were allowed in to say their goodbyes and good-lucks.

"I really don't think this is safe," Kim said. "Are you sure I can't come with you?"

"It's risky," Harvar said. "You must have forgotten that you and Jacqueline here are partners." Ah. Harvar hadn't been exactly warm towards Kim and Jackie after the whole incident with the Morality Manipulative Machine in Arachnophobia.

"I'm a witch," Kim said, this time turning towards Kid. "Maybe this won't have an effect on my soul?"

Kid shook his head. "Jacqueline is a human, so she'll definitely be impacted. Besides, it's too risky. If anyone who's targeting witches is there, you'll be in danger."

Kim groaned. They had almost forgotten about that. Wow, she really hadn't been putting a lot of work into the case since Azusa took over. She wasn't sure if it bothered her or not. Now, all that was missing was a sappy declaration of love and goodbye that Ox was going to spring on her-

"Goodbye, Kim, Harvar, Kid," Ox said. "Come on, Jacqueline. We don't want to miss our flight."

And with a friendly wave, they were out the door. Kid, Kim and even Harvar stared. Kim was dumbfounded, but also relieved. Maybe he was actually over her.

.

.

The plane ride was awkward to say the least. While part of the same team, Ox and Jackie barely interacted individually, without Kilik being there to break the ice. They were both reserved people at heart, and didn't often make attempts to reach out of their comfort zone in terms of socializing. Not to mention that they had high levels of intellect as well, but other than that, Ox was horrified when he realized that the only other thing they had in common was… Kim.

Ox knew that Jacqueline liked Kim a couple of days after the battle on the moon, Clay and Akane had stuck around to support Kid (and keep watch for any witch who decided that they weren't going to support the alliance with the DWMA), so he had overheard them gossiping with Sid-sensei. He normally wouldn't have eavesdropped, but after hearing Kim's name being thrown around, he decided to listen. Apparently, Tsugumi Harudori, who Ox remembered giving some money to after Kim took hers, had let it slip to Akane that Jacqueline had a crush on Kim a couple of years ago. Apparently, the meister-weapon duo wanted to know if it was still true, to which Sid replied that he didn't know. Spirit had overheard them too, and after he joined in, the conversation turned rather unsavory, prompting Ox to get out of there as soon as possible.

After some recollecting of Jacqueline's behavior with Harvar's help- he took it upon himself to continuously analyze her behavior after the Arachnophobia incident- and meticulous analysis, he concluded that Jackie still liked Kim. And Ox was rarely wrong when it came to Kim, except for when he was for a brief period where he determinedly ignored Harvar and was convinced that she liked him back.

That was also why Ox decided that he would stop liking Kim six months ago. She and Jacqueline shared a closer bond, and he also did some rethinking about whether or not he loved her as much as he thought he did. He came to the conclusion that he didn't really anymore- like most of the other boys, when Kim first joined, he was blown away by her looks. However after she descended into her delinquent behavior, he may have actually had genuine feelings for her, but she clearly didn't feel the same way back. Instead, it was Jacqueline who lifted her out of her funk and was the first to know her secrets. Ox couldn't do that. True, he wasn't a weapon so he couldn't partner up with Kim, but he could have taken an effort to help her outright, instead of trying to cover up for her actions behind her back. Above all, they were childish. Ox wasn't naïve enough to believe he could understand love at his age. No, it was infatuation and camaraderie which had fooled him. At least he could look back on his actions and learn from them now. Yes, it would sting a bit, but he could deal with it.

Besides, it didn't matter what he felt now. He and Harvar were both fairly certain that Kim liked Jacqueline back (or at least liked girls). So what else could he do but support the relationship?

"Hey, Ox? The plane is landing. We have to leave the flight soon," she said, interrupting his thoughts. After looking outside the window, he realized that they had barely begun their descent, but the girl was already ready to sprint off the plane. "I thought you'd want to gel your 'pillars' or whatnot."

How could he forget? After running his hands near his ears, he was relieved to see that his pillars were still somewhat stiff, but did need some gelling to last the night. He rummaged through his bag, only to find that-

"No, no, no! I don't have the hair gel!"

"Crisis," Jacqueline quipped sarcastically. After seeing his distraught expression, she softened a little. "I'm sure your hair will last until after the battle," when that didn't work, she said, "Quebec will have places that sell hair gel!"

That got him out of his sadness. "We will have to wait until after the battle. Are you nervous?"

She looked a little surprised that he would ask that, but answered him. "Not at all. I do wish I could fight with Kim, but I'm glad that it's you under these circumstances."

Ox hadn't expected that. For a long time, he had been under the impression that Jacqueline hated him due to his constant shows of affection for her meister. "Why's that?"

"Kilik and BlackStar are too impulsive. They wouldn't follow any plan, and it would be difficult to fight with them, and I don't really know Stein-sensei and Sid-sensei out of class, so it would be odd to fight alongside them. Kid's a decent person, but I have a feeling that Liz isn't comfortable with him using other weapons, so I don't want to be caught in the middle."

"I guess she'd be insecure about it," Ox said doubtfully. From what he had known of her, Liz had a laid back attitude, so her behavior now was rather unnatural. Maybe seeing her meister not share much information with her bothered her. "What about Maka? She's down to earth."

Jacqueline frowned. "I don't know Maka too well," she said. "She's levelheaded, yes, but she also puts too much of herself into battle, if you know what I mean," he didn't understand, so she went on. "Maka refuses to understand the meaning of retreat- I don't even know how they got her to leave Crona on the moon. If she can't back down, it's dangerous for her to wield a weapon against an unknown enemy."

"Especially after the stunt she and Soul played," Ox shook his head. He thought they would be smarter than that. "But you do realize that you have to work with them sooner or later, right?"

"Don't remind me," she said, effectively ending the conversation as the plane landed. The next few hours was finding the site of moon concentration (thankfully it was in a secluded place so there was a lower chance of bystanders being in danger) and scoping out the area. The two didn't dare to do some last minute training or getting used to each other, as they didn't want to take their chances of losing any compatibility. Don't try to perform soul resonances, Kid had warned them. They didn't have to worry about that bit.

Before they knew it, the sun had fallen, and the black moon took its place. Like every other night, Ox tried to look for any sign of Crona, but didn't see anything. His Soul Perception skills weren't very fine-tuned, so he couldn't sense the meister's soul. The eye of the moon glowed, and a shimmery light shone on the damp snow, causing it to sparkle in a way that could be considered beautiful, if they didn't know that a Kishin would emerge from there.

Something was wrong. They waited for one hour. The ground showed no signs of breaking, and the moon continued to calmly shine on the snow.

"Maybe nothing's coming today?" Jacqueline said.

"Kid says that something happens every night," Ox said. "Maybe we have to-"

Something slammed into the back of his head, and he briefly saw a red flash before his face hit the snow. He instinctively kicked whatever was on top of him and tried to stand up, the snow and the throbbing pain in his head making it difficult to do so. The sound of crackling filled the air, so he knew that Jacqueline had unleashed her fire, and was trying to do some damage to the Kishin, who he didn't recognize.

She transformed into her weapon form, and he grabbed her and took a few steps back. The Kishin recoiled, but began to roll around the snow to soothe the burns.

"Well, that's the Kishin," she said crisply. "Ox, your head is bleeding."

So that's what was dripping down his neck. He shifted Jacqueline in his hands, trying to find a stance that made him comfortable. She was heavier than Harvar, and her metal felt unusual in his hands. Ox supposed that he was lucky that he was able to lift her at all.

"Let's kill him," he said, leaping forward and jabbing at the Kishin, like he did with Harvar in his spear form. His strokes were clumsy, but made contact. Jacqueline's fire had a good reach as well, so they did do some damage to it. Bit by bit, they weakened the Kishin.

Then the situation got worse. The Kishin, in a sudden burst of odd strength, smacked Jacqueline out of Ox's hands, sending her tumbling over the snow.

"Jacqueline!" he yelled, getting up and making his way to her, but stumbling in the soft and partly melted snow, head throbbing painfully. She didn't respond, but begin to brandish her flames in front of the Kishin, in hope to distract it as Ox figured out another solution. he grabbed a hunting knife from his pocket (that bore a striking resemblance to Nygus-sensei in weapon form) and drove it through the Kishin's chest, hoping that it would kill it. It didn't, but it distracted the thing enough for Jacqueline to transform, and him to drive the fire part of the weapon through the Kishin's head.

It disintegrated, not leaving a soul behind, which was apparently normal. For the next two hours, Jacqueline bandaged Ox's head, and they later found the hotel they were supposed to stay in. For their first time fighting a Kishin under those circumstances, thought Ox, they weren't too bad at all.

.

.

"Jackie and Ox just reported," Kilik said, running into the room. "They say that the mission went by without a hitch, although Ox got hit in the head or something."

"Is he alright?" asked Harvar immediately.

"He's fine," Kilik said. "Jackie patched him up."

"Thank goodness," Kim flopped back on the sofa, putting her feet up, much to Harvar's chagrin. "I was worried about them."

"They're Ox and Jackie, what's there to be worried about?" Kilik said dismissively. "Although…"

"What happened," Harvar deadpanned, assuming that Kilik did something stupid. Honestly, it wasn't off the mark. And when he teamed up with BlackStar and Patty Thompson to pull a prank, Harvar was fairly certain that everyone's IQ dropped by at least twenty points.

"I didn't do anything," Kilik looked insulted. "But you know how Kid, Maka and Soul kept saying that the Kishins emerge from the ground?"

"Yeah," Kim said, sitting up again and grabbing Fire and Thunder in her arms. "Did something else happen?"

"The Kishin ambushed them from behind," Kilik said. "That's how Ox hurt his head."

"That's… weird," Kim frowned. "Does Kid or Sid-sensei know yet?"

"Jackie is telling them as we speak," Kilik said. "She said something about wanting to get off the phone because I answered it and not one of you…"

"Yeah, she hates you," Kim said, as Harvar may or may not have choked back a laugh.

"Does not!" Kilik said. "I'll text her."

"Fine," Kim said. "Your funeral."

"Dear Jackie…" Kilik said as he texted the words. "Gotta be super polite. Do… you… hate me? Haha eat your words, Kim. She'll be telling me how much she worships me, her team leader and mentor- oh she texted back. Ahhh…" he put the phone down.

"Give me that," Harvar said, snatching the phone. "It's says: Kilik, are you alright? Yes, I do."

The group laughed for a few seconds, even Fire and Thunder who weren't exactly sure of what was going on.

"Real talk though," Kim said, after the laughter died down. "I think Ox and Jackie were really lucky."

"They were," Harvar clarified. "According to Kid, he sent the pair of them purposefully. They have similar personalities and stay levelheaded in battle."

"Right," Kilik said. "Ugh, think of all the weird partnerships we'll have to do. Imagine me wielding-"

"You're a utility meister; it won't be so bad for you," interjected Harvar. "After all, you were able to wield Liz and Patty, whose soul wavelengths often aren't compatible with many others.

"That's true," said Kim. "Ugh, all these partnerships are going to do my head in. Imagine me using Fire and Thunder."

Kilik grimaced. "For their sake, I hope not," he said, dodging Harvar's jacket, thrown by Kim. "It's the truth. They're still kids, and I don't really want them to experience soul incompatibility under these circumstances. It could be really harmful," Kim nodded in agreement. She had a soft spot for the twins, and didn't want them to be put in any danger. Hopefully Kid knew that too, and gave them some type of leniency.

"Kilik has quite the extensive vocabulary," Harvar said snarkily, dodging his own jacket, curtosy of Kilik. "Oh dear. Imagine me being wielded by BlackStar."

There was a collective groan at that. "I don't think Kid's going to do that anytime soon," Kim said.

"I'm worried about BlackStar, though," Kilik said, taking Fire from Kim. The room fell silent again. "Tsubaki tells me that he's been disappearing for hours lately."

"Tsubaki told you?" that was odd. They barely talked.

"She thought he'd be with me," Kilik said. "He wasn't. According to Soul, the whole Mifune and Angela thing messed him up pretty bad."

"Yeah Jackie told me that Soul and Tsubaki are having these arguments about what to do with him during the weapons only classes," Kim said. "I didn't think it was that bad."

"Hm," the team sat in silence for the next few hours, contemplating their future and waiting for their friends.

.

.

How'd you like it?

Sorry this chapter wasn't as 'angsty' as before. The next chapter will be full of it.

'Team Kilik' is underrated. Ox and Jackie's friendship is something I've wanted to see for a long time, and I hope I made it seem relatable and do it some justice. Also, we need more Kilik and Kim friendship. I have a feeling that he annoys her to no end, but they have a strong companionship.

Spirit has a solid reason to not get Crona down from the moon immediately. It will be revealed later.

To all of you who ship Ox and Kim, I'm sorry, but I don't really. While I do like both their characters, I don't really think that they'd last long in a relationship. I know that the whole Kim x Jackie romantic relationship was only explored in Soul Eater NOT, but I felt that they would have a better chance of being together that Ox and Kim, since it was Jackie who brought Kim out of her funk. Besides, I think seeing some LGBTQ+ characters in Soul Eater would be good.

Overall, the main point of the story isn't romance. It doesn't matter who gets together with whom; the overall plot line will still stay the same.

As always, thank you to those amazing people who reviewed, favorited and followed. It really means a lot to me.

-SpiderLover 3