"So, since when did you start wearing more red?"

"Um, pretty much since we left the school… Since when are you into being a mother?"

"That's a pretty funny story, actually… but tell me about what you've been up to, Dante!"

Dante and Marie were chatting happily in the teachers' room in Shibusen, the former having sent his weapons to explore the academy with Rebellion as their tour guide, and the latter having dismissed the class early due to the unexpected visit. So the white-haired man started telling his old classmate about some of his adventures after he left Shibusen, but nothing about his hunting business and the other times he'd defeated major demons. Marie was eyeing him for a little until she interrupted him.

"You know," she said, "I kinda like your hair better this way."

"Huh?" Dante shook off a few silver strands that were getting in his left eye. "Whaddaya mean?"

"Your hair looks better white," said the blonde while rubbing her belly. "Whoops! Someone's feeling anxious."

"I wonder why," said a monotone voice behind Dante, who immediately stood up in a defensive posture. Franken Stein, who stood a neck and head taller than Dante, smiled and shook his head slowly before saying, "Ah, Dante… It's been awhile…"

"What the hell happened to your head, Frankie?" asked Dante, who couldn't take his eyes off the giant bolt stuck in the scientist's skull. "Did your madness finally catch up to you?"

"What the hell happened to yours, Danny?" retorted Stein sourly while screwing the bolt with a sardonic expression. "Black emo-hawk not cool enough for you?"

"That was just a phase, smartass..." muttered the man while scratching the back of his head and sitting back in his chair. "By the way, what're YOU doing here?"

"I give class here," replied the grey-haired man while sitting next to Marie. "Plus I'm married now."

"Y-you—wait, what?!" Dante couldn't believe his eyes. The most unfeeling man on the face of the Earth being hitched and starting a family seemed to him like the kind of thing he could only find in a fan fiction, but there it was: as plain as day, Franken Stein had his hand around a blushing Marie Mjolnir's shoulders. He looked at the blonde and chuckled, "Well, that explains why you didn't wanna tell me who the father was…"

"Would you have believed either of us if we told you?" shrugged the pregnant woman.

"You? Nope," replied the white-haired man with a grin. He then looked at the grey-haired man with the stitches on his face and added, "But Frankie wouldn't ever joke about that…"

"Where's Rebellion? I want to see how he's evolved," commented Stein while he lit up a cigarette.

Marie looked angry at the scientist and slapped the cigarette off, saying, "Stein! You know you're not supposed to smoke anymore! It might affect the baby…"

"Gosh, I forgot," said Stein while rolling his eyes.

"Wow, you already work nicely as a couple…" commented Dante while looking away.

"So where's Rebellion, Dante?" asked Stein once again.

"Oh, he's giving the tour to my other weapons," answered the red-coated man. "Ebony and Ivory are with them as well."

"More weapons, hmm?" muttered Stein while looking at Dante.

"Yup, but it tends to get crowded at night…" commented the hunter with a naughty smirk. "Since I don't have enough money to buy a mansion, my apartment's filled with hammocks… and none of them are free for me…"

"So where do you sleep, Dante?" asked Marie, worried.

"Couch," replied both Stein and Dante at the same time. The hunter looked at the scientist and asked, "How do you know that?"

"I remembered that time you slept over my and Spirit's place back in high school," answered the glasses-wearer with a shrug. "I figured you'd get a habit out of it."

"Speaking of Spirit; how is he?" asked the hunter.

"Oh, he's acting director…" replied Marie, suddenly looking at the floor with sad eyes.

"Acting director? What about Lord Death?" asked Dante, who now seemed worried.

"He…" Marie's uncovered eye filled with tears.

"He passed away," answered Stein, who remained as unfeeling as ever.

"WHAT?!" Dante shouted.

"Hey, Maka, what are you—"

"Shh!"

Soul Eater rolled his eyes, offended by his meister, but he quieted down and sat next to her while she flipped pages in a frenzy to find something. After about five minutes of annoying silence for Soul, Maka finally shouted "Aha! Got it!"

"Got what?" asked the white-haired youngster.

"'Dante Sparda was one of Shibusen's History's top five meisters. He is tied with his twin brother Vergil for the second spot, while the first is taken by his classmate Franken Stein,'" read Maka out loud for her weapon partner. "I knew I'd heard that name from somewhere!"

"Whaddaya mean?" asked Soul, interested.

"Dante and his weapon partner Rebellion came to class today!" said the pigtailed girl excitedly. "This must be the guy Kid was talking about!"

"Whoa!" Soul looked excited as well. "His weapon came as well?"

"It says here that, when he left school, he had three weapon partners: Rebellion the Claymore, and Ebony and Ivory the guns!" replied the green-eyed girl, looking at the book again. "Guns? Like Liz and Patty?"

"Hopefully they're not as insane as those two," chuckled Soul while looking out the library's window. "Shall we go look for him, then?"

"And this is the library, everyone!" said a girl's voice behind the pair, making them turn around. A girl with dark skin but short, light-blond hair and a white letter E tattooed to her left arm was leading an enormous group of people into the room, and everyone's heads turned to see the crowd that was arriving. A pair of boys suddenly ran for the shelves, and the dark-skinned girl shouted, "Agni! Rudra! Get back here and don't touch anything! Especially you, Agni!"

A boy with red and orange dreadlocks returned a book with a disappointed expression. Maka looked back at the group and recognized Rebellion immediately; that well-built body with black hair tied into a ponytail and green eyes behind round glasses had been burnt into the sandy-haired girl's memory and made her drool unconsciously, which Soul noticed immediately.

"Really, Maka?" Soul said. "And you say I'm perverted…"

"Shaddup, Soul," snapped Maka. "I found Rebellion!" She then walked quickly towards the group, which she remembered had seen a few hours ago in Deathbuck's Café. She plucked up her courage to talk to the claymore when a man stepped in front of her, unintentionally blocking her. "Umm, excuse me, but I'd like to talk to Mr. Rebellion…"

"Revenant, what's this about?" said Rebellion, stepping forward towards Maka.

"This kid wants to talk to you," replied Revenant while scratching his head.

"So? You're not my bodyguard; she can talk to me directly," said the glasses-wearing man while approaching the sandy-haired girl. Maka wasn't exactly short, though 5'4" wasn't exactly the tallest thing around either, but Rebellion was six feet tall and towered over her, making her shy away a little. "Well? What did you wanna talk to me about?"

"Ummm… I…" Maka found herself stammering to the man, who kept looking at her with curiosity. She figured honesty and politeness might win him over. "I wanna t-try to use Soul P-Perception on you guys… i-if you don't mind…"

Suddenly, a bark came from beside Revenant, who was also listening to Maka, and the light blue dog she had seen jumped to her and pinned her down. Revenant and Rebellion immediately tried to move the dog away from Maka, but the dog's three heads simply wanted to catch her scent. Beowulf finally came to assist until the poor girl could finally stand—though she was covered in dog slobber. Revenant apologized for Cerberus' actions and told Maka to first pet it before approaching the rest of the group.

"So this dog has a protective nature…?" muttered Maka to herself while all three heads panted happily at her touch. She immediately activated her Soul Perception ability to look at the dog's soul, and she had a surprise. The dog's soul was that of a weapon! Almost unable to believe it, Maka also noticed the soul had an icy shade of blue, and three little heads came out from the center sphere, meaning that the three heads had a collective mind; she also noticed the usual protective spirit that dogs have, and a stronger sense of loyalty than that of a normal pet.

She then looked at Revenant's soul and saw its power was far above average for a weapon, almost on par with the Witch Eruka's soul in terms of power. Maka was surprised to see all the people in the group that accompanied Dante were weapons—and powerful ones, at that—once she saw all of their souls, and she wondered what kind of Meister could wield so many weapons at once. Soul came behind her and interrupted her examination.

"Are you done yet?" asked the white-haired boy.

"Huh? What?" said Maka, who was broken out of her concentration. "I'm sorry, Soul. Did you want something?"

"Rebellion!" called Marie's voice at the library's entrance. "Dante wants to see you in the Death Room!"

"Death Room?" asked Agni, who was reading a book over another student's shoulder. "You didn't tell us about that other room, Miss Ebby!"

"That's because I didn't expect for us to be called there," muttered Ebony while looking at her sister Ivory worried. "Say, Ivy… Do you think Lord Death will give us a speech for leaving the school before graduating?"

"A lotta people leave before graduating, Ebby," replied Ivory with a smile. "Besides, it's always fun to hear his goofy voice!"

Maka took advantage of the situation and looked at both sisters' souls. Ebony's soul was at the same power level, and thus, the same size as Ivory's, but it was much more outgoing. Ivory's, however, was empathetic but more reserved than her sister, though both were fun-loving and casual, and didn't seem to mind following their carnal desires. Soul took advantage of the situation and looked at both sisters' bodies. Ebony and Ivory were the same height, but Ebony had a smaller bust but wider hips and better-developed buttocks than her more buxom sister. Their taste in clothes was also different. Ebony wore a black, sleeveless denim jacket with a white tank underneath and blue shorts that barely covered her thighs; Ivory wore a white dress with a light-blue corset and a layered white skirt. Soul couldn't decide which of the girls he liked more, and his partner noticed and chopped him in the head.

"OW! What was that for?" said Soul while rubbing his head and watching the group leaving.

"Woman's intuition," replied the girl with a frown.

"That doesn't even make any sense…" muttered the white-haired boy while pouting.

"…you're the who-the-wha'?"

"I'm the new Shinigami," replied a young man with black hair with three lines that went around his head. "But my friends call me Death the Kid."

"Lord Death had fragmented again about sixteen years ago, quite a while after you left," continued a red-haired man with a dark suit. "By the way, did anyone tell you that you look better with long hair?"

"Yes, Spirit," replied Dante in a slow, somewhat menacing manner. "Can we just ignore the hair?"

"Then how about we talk about your coat?" muttered Kid audibly, and the Demon Hunter looked at him with a creepy stare.

"ARE YOU GONNA JOCK ON MY CAPE, KID?!" he asked with a snarl that intimidated Spirit.

"It's not symmetrical," replied the Shinigami with a snobbish face that deflated quickly when Dante's eyes flared up with anger. "I-I mean, y-you should get a new one… T-the ripped sleeve looks nice, b-but only if the other one is ripped too, or…"

"Hmm, I know," replied Dante, looking at his right sleeve, which was ripped off just below the elbow. It wasn't the only red coat he had, but it was by far the freshest, especially considering he wasn't wearing a shirt underneath due to the heat in Death City. "But it's from the last time I saw my brother since we left school, so it's got kind of a sentimental value…"

"So what brings you to Death City?" asked Soul while walking next to Revenant, who was smoking his cigar, toward the Death Room.

"We're short on money," replied the man indifferently, "as usual."

"Not to mention the shop got blown up again," added Ebony. "We need a place to stay, and Nevan had seen the old school brochure in Dante's room."

"It's not like I was looking for it, though," added the curvaceous redhead. "The boys were playing hide-and-seek with me, and I was 'It.'"

Meanwhile, Maka was being bombarded with questions from Agni and Rudra, all of which she was trying to answer without losing her patience, lest she caused a bad impression on Rebellion.

"Is there a uniform for the school?" asked Agni.

"Why doesn't everyone use it if there is?" added Rudra.

"There's a choice not to wear it if you don't want to," answered Maka while rolling her eyes backwards, trying to control her temper.

"So we can wear anything we want as our uniform?"

"Can we wear the same thing for the whole week if we wanna?"

"Yikes, Rudra, that's gross!"

"It's not if I wash the clothes that same night, Agni."

"But then your clothes will whiten out, don't you think?"

"Then I'll just fill my closet with the same stuff!"

"But won't that get boring? Just wear different stuff every day!"

"Geez, are they always like that…?" muttered Maka, frustrated.

"Even when they sleep they talk," answered Artemis, who was looking out the windows uninterested.

"How is it that you haven't gone insane?" asked the sandy-haired girl, curious but still annoyed.

"Dante knows how to put them in their place," replied the purple-haired woman. "If I ever saw a man that knows how to have fun but be so strict with those two, it's him." Cerberus barked happily, or at least one of its heads did; Artemis giggled and replied, "Indeed, it IS like he was their father…"

"Wait; you know what it says?" asked Maka while the group finally entered the Death Room.

"More or less," replied the glasses-wearing woman. "We got really used to him, since the pooch was with Dante before most of us—Jesus, Cujo, pipe down! Yes, I know your name is Cerberus!"

"Cujo?" Maka asked, noticing the reference. "As in, Stephen King's Cujo?"

"Oh, you've read Stephen King?" asked Artemis.

"He's my favorite horror author!" said Maka happily. "My favorite is The Shining!"

"Personally, I like Poe's works better," replied the purple-haired woman with a shrug. "Masque of the Red Death is one of his best, in my opinion."

Both girls kept talking about their horror writers until someone even more frightening came up.

"Is that what I think it is?" said Stein's voice as he flash-stepped in front of Cerberus, a creepy grin appearing on his face. "Such a fascinating specimen… Are all three heads conscious of each other, or do they all act as one being? Their soul has three heads as well… maybe I should check it out myself… I think I have—aha!" He pulled out a large scalpel and was slowly approaching the dog, which started barking in fear and was backing away from the madman.

Suddenly, three hands grabbed Stein's coat and pulled him away from the dog. Marie, Revenant, and Rebellion glared at the scientist disapprovingly, and the blonde said, "Seriously, Stein? They're our guests; you can't go around dissecting our guests!"

"You mean, like the rat that scared the hell out of you three nights ago?" asked Stein in his usual monotone.

"That's different, dummy," snapped Marie. "It was trying to steal from the fridge…"

"Glad to notice you haven't changed a bit, Frankie," commented Rebellion with a smirk. Stein shrugged at him.

Death the Kid was surprised at the quantity of different people that had entered the Death Room and was quite pleased that it was big enough to hold the crowd. Dante smiled at him and said, "In case you're wondering, they're all my weapons."

"All of them?" asked Kid, counting the people that were in the crowd besides Soul, Maka, Marie, and Stein. "How can you carry ten weapons on yourself?"

"That's what all these straps are for!" he said, pointing at the strap that went across his chest to his back and the holsters on his legs and back.

Black Star was on his way from Shibusen's gym outside the main campus to the Death Room with a disappointed expression, with Tsubaki walking right next to him.

"I'm sure it wasn't intentional," the busty black-haired girl was saying.

"The hell it wasn't! Who the hell forgets the bench-press machine in a gym?!" said the blue-haired boy with a snarl. "Friggin' Kid must've taken it home because its weights are symmetrical…"

"I don't see Kid as the lifting type, though…" muttered Tsubaki before adding, "Wait, wasn't Kid supposed to be attending that guest he was talking about?"

"He already attended me, sweetheart," chuckled Black Star with a flirty tone that made his weapon partner blush madly.

"S-stop it…" said the weapon while playing with her index fingers shyly. "Y-you know very well he wasn't talking about you…"

"I know, Tsubaki," said the Meister while starting to walk into the academy, "but I'm not the only one who uses the bench-press machine, so I should tell Kid anyways."

A pair of girls walked past the pair and giggled when they saw Black Star before continuing on their way, making him and Tsubaki wonder what they were talking about.

"Ah, must be 'cause they saw how cool I am," said the boy, continuing his way to the Death Room.

"That sounds more like something Soul would say," noted Tsubaki, though her partner didn't hear her.

They passed a classroom where two people that sounded like Ox Ford and his partner Har Vard were talking about someone named Dante, and Tsubaki commented on that to her Meister partner.

"Who d'you think this Dante guy is?" she asked.

"I dunno, but if he thinks he's better than me, he's gonna have it coming," replied the Meister while kicking open the door to the Death Room.

welp, that's it for today, folks~! it seems that Dante and Black Star are getting closer and closer to finally meeting! but don't worry; the story won't end when that happens! ;3

also, to reply to that guest that left a review commenting on how "cluttered" the story felt with all of Dante's weapons: that's the point! he's got so many weapons that even though he's a badass with all of them, he has a bit of a tendency to get overstuffed! hell, in MvC3 (and UMvC3) he had pretty much all of his weapons from DMC3 and he had the most moves out of any character which allowed him to pull some pretty stylish combos (though all of his moves were nerfed compared to the DMC games so he wouldn't be broken xD)~! (hope that cleared it up~)

also, we know Revenant is the name of the shotgun in DmC, but I like that name better than Coyote-A so :P

~Humbert

PS. to answer Nightshade umbra's request not to abandon the fic: don't worry, we won't-but college is a bitch so don't expect quick updates! and Klaus is a little busy with drawings even though he's supposed to be in charge of this one so :P

PPS. (more like trivia but w/e) though Agni and Rudra look like kids, they're actually pretty old (considering they were demons)! their human appearance was... um... well, that might be spoilers for another chapter so :3c