A note to people who haven't read Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro: Nijuku and Sanju are the Japanese words for "twenty-nine" and "thirty", respectively. They were raised in a laboratory, and have no social graces to speak of. In Shoulder-a-Coffin, they continually speak in broken phrases like "Look good" or "Want help me?" and stuff like that. I kept their use of Japanese in whenever I could.

Have fun! And no, I'm not apologizing.

Part Three

The Seer of Souls

The cloaked shadow walked off, leaving the girls with a new friend.

Soul called out, yelling "What are you doing?!" The traveler replied, "Riding a unicycle, can't you tell?"

Soul turned around, confused. He started to tell the girl what was going on, but caught her glance said silence, fool.

The girl crouched down slowly. She stretched her legs to the sides, bouncing gently, and made her way slowly back to a steady stand. A moment later, the girl leaped down the stairway, kicking off every few stairs, landing with a soft skik on her right palm. She held herself there for a moment. In a blurred motion, the girl twisted her body into a sitting position, resting on the concrete steps. She waited, pointedly ignoring the twins.

After a few moments, Nijuku walked over to her, followed soon after by Sanju. They waited a moment. Nijuku asked, "What's your name? I'm Nijuku."

Sanju piped in. "And I'm Sanju-chan! What's your name, Big-suit?"

The girl muttered to herself. "...twenty-nine...thirty? Interesting..." All of a sudden, she noticed the twins staring at her, still happily oblivious. She flashed them a dippy grin and told them "My name is Maka. That means 'deep red'. It's nice to meet you. I think you've met Soul already," she said, gesturing to the hapless young man. "He's my partner," she added.

The twins immediately began babbling at her and each other.

Nijuku: "White gloves like sharp man! Long coat looks heavy. Can I wear?"

Sanju: "Nijuku needs a nap! Kuro going somewhere. Wonder where?"

Nijuku: "Sharp man's partner?"

Sanju: "Sharp man's partner!

Nijuku and Sanju (imitating Soul): "Oh! Stuck-up, stubborn, pedantic, patronizing know-it-all who only lets me have fun when she's not there!" (laughter)

Maka (thoroughly confused at this point) tried to figure out the conversation between the two. There was something different about the last thing they said, though... Something clicked. "Soul!"

Soul ran.

After about a minute of relentlessly beating Soul, Maka climbed off of Soul's neck and turned her attention back to Nijuku and Sanju. "You said your names were Nijuku and Sanju, right?"

"No, my name's Nijuku!"

"And mine's Sanju!"

Maka smiled. "Can you do me a favor? Would you please stand right there for a while?"

The twins looked at each other for a moment. They babbled a bit more. "Stand? Stand?"

"Kuro left. What to do?"

"Maka is nice."

"Do it?"

"Yes."

The pair stood still in their tracks. "Go ahead!"

Maka sat down and closed her eyes. She focused on nothing, allowed her mind to wander. Her heart slowed, her breathing deepened and grew hot. She bowed her head. Suddenly, she snapped her head up. She opened her eyes, then opened her eyes again.

The souls of every living thing she could see faded into view. She looked to a tree in the distance. It looked green, weary in the heat. She looked at Soul's soul, taking in its customary striped red. He was woozy from the stomach punch, it seemed.

Prepared now, she looked at the twins. She wasn't prepared.

Sanju's soul pulsed a light pink heartbeat, sliced from time to time with rainbow flashes of emotion. A freakish haze hung around her right shoulder blade, a moss-green mist in the shape of a wing. Another haze trailed out the bottom of her skirt, hanging over... Maka blinked, closed her eyes twice. Maka thought she would've long ago stopped being surprised by strange stuff like this, but this was amazing. I'm imagining this. This is a dream. Now... WAKE UP!

Maka's eyes snapped open. There it was, winking her in the face with its furry, prehensile length. Not a dream.

Over Sanju's tail, there was another green mist. Strangely, the mist was in the shape of another, pointier tail.

Nijuku's soul blazed a steady, bluish off-white, marbled with matte black swirls like drops of ink in a glass of water. A red plume of smoke, like Sanju's, hung over her body. A white mist hung between the two, an illuminated chain encircling their ribs. The word inseparable popped into Maka's head.

Nijuku also had a tail. Why is that so impossible to accept? I've killed monsters more evil than them! What's so wrong about those two?!

The only thing that threw Maka was, they had no malice in them, no anger at all. They were so innocent it hurt.

Maka closed her eyes, then closed her eyes.

Soul finally got up. "Should we get the other one, Maka? He said he was looking for Death Scythe."

Maka turned to his voice, opened her eyes. "What?" she growled. "What does he want with my womanizing father? Did he tell you anything else?"

"No, I didn't," Kuro purred out of a nearby alley. The traveler paused as it stepped out of the shadows, stepping very deliberately on the lightest stones. "That was personal business, Soul. I thought you knew that. And no, I'm not going to kill the man." One last ray of sunlight burst across the traveler's face, giving Kuro a thoughtful look. "I... have something for Spirit Albarn, a message of sorts."

The sun finally sank below the horizon. Maka looked around, finally encased in darkness. She looked back to the traveler, saying, "Any message for that ladykiller can be given through me."

After all, I'm his daughter."