A/N: This chapter was kind of fun to write, but it was also the hardest so far (I've been having major writer's block). Well, all my chapters are hard to write and I enjoy writing all of them, but in this one you get a little detail about Crona's relationships with Eruka, Free, and some other people in her past.
Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater, if I did, Crona would be getting a lot more screen time.
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Chapter 3
A Violent Truce, Tears, and a Death Celebration?
Crona wiped away some of her tears by rubbing her cheek on the black fabric of her dress on her shoulder. She closed her eyes and started to whisper a small song she had heard so long ago, it had always calmed her when she sang it. It was in Latin, so she didn't really know the meaning to the words, but the rhythm was soothing. Medusa used to sing it softy to her as a child after she killed a chibi-chan. Since Crona was usually crying after she killed something her mother had told her to, Medusa rocked her while singing it, saying that it was good to kill things, take their souls, to gain power… Shuddering at the memory, Crona started to sing the song again.
"Os iusti
Meditabitir
Sapientium
Et lingua eius
Loquetur indicium
Beatus vir qui
Suffert tentationen-"
Suddenly there was a soft tap on the door, interrupting Crona's calming song. Crona sighed quietly, muttering to herself, how many times has someone knocked on her door in the past two days? Well, she couldn't just leave them standing in front of her door; she had to let them inside, not just left hanging out there. What if it was something important? No, probably not. Sighing again, Crona closed her eyes; after all of what happened that day and yesterday, she was exhausted.
"It's open, you can come in," she whispered quietly, but loud enough to be heard from outside the door.
Crona heard the click of the door opening and raised her head and eyes up slowly as it inched open. Crona expected to see Maka or Patty, maybe even Sid, but who it was shocked her.
She stared at the familiar and scary boy before her, with his black suit, with the three white stripes on the black background of his hair, and the staring yellow eyes. Her breathing and heart rate speed up, and her eyes widened with horror. Fearfully, her gaze went to his hands, the ones that had abused her so painfully. Crona was scared of what he was here for, was he here to hurt her again? This boy with the yellow eyes was glaring down at her with such intensity, that her instincts told her to be prepared to run. This boy scared her fiercely, he was almost as scary as Medusa. Crona saw that his hands clenched whenever he looked at her. The only reason Crona could think of for him doing this was that he most likely wanted to kill her, and he probably wanted to do it with his own bare hands.
Looking into the eyes filled with hatred again, Crona quickly stood up, pressing herself against the wall, locking her knees; she was readying to defend herself if necessary. Though, when he started to walk toward her, she began to tremble.
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Death the Kid let the door swing open slowly. As it led into the room, he almost expected it to reveal severed heads and limbs on the floor, but when the door opened fully, he saw that the stone room was plain and bare of anything like accessories and extra things. It wasn't furnished other than a bed, dresser, and a sink, though the sink wouldn't really count as furniture. He stepped into the stone room, thinking that the area looked more like a dungeon cell than a room. With thinking that, he thought the Demon Sword deserved such an uncomfortable space to live in.
Tearing away from his thoughts of hatred, he looked for the Demon Sword. At first he didn't see the Demon Sword, but after looking around the room, he saw it huddled into a ball in one of the corners. Kid watched the Demon Sword's eyes slowly rise up to his, apparently not expecting it to be him to be in its room, the Demon Sword quickly shot up from the ground pressing itself against the wall, eyes frightened, trying to hold a defensive position. Staring at the thing swelled up hatred into his heart, he realized that his hands were in tight fists, and tried to unclench them. Seeing that this may keep him from trying to kill the thing, he left his hands be.
Thinking to himself, Death the Kid told himself to keep calm, to try to not do anything he would regret. When Kid stared to head in the Demon Sword's direction, the thin Devil Sword user began to whimper. The way it trembled made Death the Kid think of a rabbit being cornered, scared and weak, about to be eaten by the strong and powerful wolf. He was still several meters away from the Demon Sword, when the evil little black thing named Ragnarok popped out of the its back.
"What do you want, bastard?" the small black creature asked.
"I came to apologize to you, Demon Sword, as well as to you Ragnarok." Kid grumbled reluctantly.
The Demon Sword's eyes looked at him with disbelief, "Y-you did?"
He gave a curt nod; Ragnarok narrowed his X pupil eyes skeptically, the small shinigami had a stern expression and there was a faint look of hatred behind his expression, but he seemed composed. Ragnarok didn't want this boy, Shinigami's son or not, to be near his master, not after the way he had treated Crona so harshly. But he knew that even if he opposed to the idea, either the shinigami or Crona would ignore his opinion. Suspicious and untrusting, Ragnarok went back inside his meister's back without holding out an argument, knowing it would do no good.
The Demon Sword lowered itself and sat back down on the stone floor, curling itself back into its ball. Its blue eyes glanced up from its knees up to Kid, waiting for him to say what he was going to say. The way Death the Kid glowered made the Demon Sword shrink back a bit. He wanted to look away from this evil creature, so he let his eyes look away, but he grudgingly stared back up at it once again. Kid set his mind, locked himself in his stiff position, and began to speak.
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Crona stared up at the shinigami who was glaring down at her with hatred. Being with him was like being with Medusa again; the same harsh treatments and cold, hard, yellow eyes. Crona felt a deep fear as she realized that the boy before her had the same eyes as her mother had, with the same colored irises and severity.
He stopped a few feet away; he looked to the floor, and unwillingly back into her eyes. His hands clenched and unclenched several times before he finally spoke.
The words rushed from his mouth, his eyes wandered from her again, relieving her from his harsh stare, "I apologize for hurting you before, Demon Sword. I realized that I should not have harmed you like that. Do you accept my apology?"
The shinigami named Death the Kid looked back down at her, waiting for her to respond. Crona bit the edge of her bottom lip, she squirmed, she was feeling very uncomfortable. A boy who would rather have her dead was apologizing to her for hating her when he had a good reason for doing so.
After a moment of silence, she saw that Death the Kid was getting a bit impatient. His hand started to twitch forward, as if wishing to strike at her, and he probably wanted to. Crona tried to calm herself by laying her head onto her knees, breathing in the soft scent of the fabric on her dress. The familiar aroma of cotton relaxed her slightly, enough to answer the small shinigami.
"I accept your apology…" Crona whispered softly not lifting her head up.
Death the Kid's lips turned down, "Now that I've got that over, I wish to discuss something over with you."
Crona raised her head looked up at him with confusion, what did he want to talk about?
Those yellow eyes were set into deep strictness, "Just because now we have a truce, it doesn't mean that I'm going to be your friend. I don't trust you, not in the slightest; I'm doing this for the rest of my friends, not you. I'm telling you this now because I don't want to give you the wrong impression that I'm going to be friends, talk, and laugh with you. I know that you're putting up this act for Medusa's last death wish."
Crona's eyes widened with shock, "What? No, that's not-"
"Don't try to tell me wrong," he told her sharply, "For now I'll let you go, let everyone have their good memories about you. I know that you don't care about any of them, only wanting to gain their trust so you can betray them, and I'll ignore that fact. But once I see you advance with your sinful and destructive plots, I will kill you."
Crona stopped mid-breath. No one would forget her past or let her herself forget it either, and the shinigami in front of her seemed like he would never forgive her. Everyone would hang on to those things forever, and Medusa's commands for her to kill the innocent would shackle her down for eternity.
When tears started to slide down her cheeks, the shinigami turned away from her. Trying to hold back her tears, she silently stood up. Death the Kid swiveled his head back to glare at her back at her, but she didn't falter. She hesitantly walked over to him; she wanted to explain everything, so that he wouldn't hate her; maybe he would just forgive her after she explained. She was hoping for the best, but her shoe caught one of the loose stones, making her fall into the shinigami's arms. They both froze for a moment, but Kid reacted quickly, shoving her and sending his right fist in her direction. The impact made her fall to the floor, landing hard on her back. Groaning, she sat up, supporting herself on her hands. The fist had caught her mouth and blood was dribbling down her lip. When her vision fell upon the boy above her, he looked away with an expression of revulsion and the knuckles on his fist had black blood smeared on them.
Kid was enraged that the thing had touched him to such an extreme extent, but providentially his reflexes sent his fist at the Demon Sword. It had fallen to the ground on its back, hitting the floor with a hard thump. When it sat up, thick black liquid that was running from its mouth. Death the Kid realized that it was blood; he had forgotten that the Demon Sword had black blood. Another feature that makes it a monster, an evil creature placed inside another; the Demon Sword was one of the most messed up things he had ever seen, even more than the pharaoh he had encountered at the Anubis. Not only asymmetrical, but just a monster itself. Its dirty blood was smeared across some of his knuckles, this disgusted him as well, it had soiled him and he had to sanitize himself. Giving it one last glare, he put his hands in his pockets, and he out the door, letting it close with a dense hollow thud.
Crona listened as Death the Kid's footsteps faded away, and choked sobs formed in inside of her throat. The boy was so violent with her; she only wanted to forget her past. Instead, this person was making her even more miserable than she wanted. Hiding her head in her arms, she began to cry. Crona's chest was heaving with her sobs, soaking her finally dry dress again with new tears. Her whole body was shivering, the room wasn't cold, but she felt like she was frozen on the inside. Even with Ragnarok boiling inside her veins with rage, she felt as if she was being iced over.
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Death the Kid gritted his teeth when he heard the hard sobs from behind the metal door. Kid felt that there were only two reasons for the Demon Sword to cry. One, it was putting on another one of its acts, or two, it was devastated that he figured out its plans. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and stared at them. They had now assaulted the Demon Sword twice, and he felt no guilt. He tried to wipe the blood off of him, but it would not disappear. He shoved his right hand back in his pocket and violent thoughts were going through his head as he walked farther away from the door. He was imagining so many ways to kill that beast, but he knew he could act upon none of them. It was foolish how his father had thought that thing should be in his school; it deserved to have been abandoned after its mother died.
'No, it would've just taken more souls,' Kid thought, 'It should have been killed.'
Kid walked silently down the halls, keeping his eyes low. He passed only a couple of faculty members on his way, respectfully saying hello to all of them. Kid was heading back to his house, and he dearly hoped that neither of the sisters were there, since they were both pissed at him.
Once Kid was out of Shibusen, he looked at the red sky. Now if the bitch Demon Sword and its mother didn't exist, the sky would still be light blue, the sun laughing. Tearing his eyes from above, he held his hand out face down in front of him; it was a while to his house, so he thought he should ride his skateboard.
"Beelzebub," he whispered.
His skateboard appeared in front of him and he stepped onto it, the skateboard flew smoothly through the air, having him soar high above the ground. He tried to sort out everything and clear his thoughts, but everything was too jumbled. He gave up trying to concentrate and think and just let the wind soothe him. When he arrived at the grand doors of his home, he wondered if he was going to have to be cautious. Both Liz and Patty most likely want to beat the crap out of him, and even more if Patty told Liz about him abusing the Demon Sword, which she probably is going to or already did. He cautiously opened the door and went in, stepping on the tile floor carefully to not make any loud noise.
The house was still quiet after listening silently, relieved that he was safe, Kid walked around the large house. Everything in the house was asymmetrical and messy; Patty and Liz were still waiting for the moment he would fix everything. Kid ignored it all; he shouldn't be worrying about things like that, not with the revival of the Kishin and the Demon Sword present.
Death the Kid walked the long halls, peering into each of the rooms, to see if Liz or Patty were possibly there. He knocked on their doors, making sure of their absence, when no sound was in reply he started to worry less. Though he was quite sure that no one but himself was in the mansion, he couldn't stop from being unsure. He only stopped searching for the twin pistols when he arrived to his room. He opened the door and walked onto the thick black carpet, he took off his shoes, setting them lightly near the door. Walking over quietly, he sat on the edge of his white-sheeted bed, the black comforter not there. Leaning his head back, he wondered if the Demon Sword would follow his orders of putting on the façade of being friends with him.
He glanced around his room, instead of seeing it in its usual neat, uncluttered, symmetrical-ness; it was asymmetrical, and messy with things thrown everywhere.
'So apparently Liz and Patty have gotten here as well.' Kid thought, 'They must have done it when I was waiting for them in the kitchen.'
Books were lying sloppily in the bookcase, his bed was wrinkled and the edges of the sheets were undone, the black comforter was on the lying haphazardly on the ground along with bits of trash. He sighed, shaking his head at the disarray, and started to pick things off the floor so he wouldn't trip over them later. Kid put all the papers that were scattered across the carpet on his desk.
'They sure did make sure to touch everything.' he thought.
Suddenly remembering something, Kid panicked and rushed to the bed. He quickly slid on his knees to the ground, the friction making him feel some stinging heat on his knees. He pulled up the black and white skirt of the bed and searched frantically. Hiding in the darkness, there was a black box to camouflage against the shadows. He quickly slid it out from under the bed and yanked off the lid. He sighed in relief when he saw his possession was still there, resting peacefully inside, and lifted the photo album from the box. Holding it carefully, Kid sat back down on his bed and opened the cover.
A young woman looked back at him, a warm smile on her face. Her mid-back length bleach hair was pulled back with a black ribbon, a few strands brushing her face, and her tanned skin tone brought out her soft gray eyes. She was wearing a knee length white dress that had a black belt wrapped around her waist. She had on black flats with small white flower designs on the sides. She was sitting on a bench sideways, her back leaning against one of the armrests, her legs brought up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them. Roses were overflowing the bench; some of their petals were on her body, some of them in her hair and on her dress.
It was the only picture in the entire album. Even though Kid knew he'd never put in another photo, he kept the picture in the album. Kid stroked the border frame of the picture, it was the only one he had of his mother. To be honest, it was the only picture there was of his mother. He'd never met her before; she died only a few days after his birth. Because she was only human and his father was a shinigami, it was only predictable that she would die with his child, even if she hadn't had a child, she would have died before his father.
Kid always looked at this picture when he was in a stressful situation. A lot of times when he asked his father he never got any solution, only a statement to avoid the question, but whenever he looked at this picture he seemed to get the answer he so dearly needed. Kid lowered himself down onto his back, looking up at the picture, the way the light hit the picture from above made the photo seem realistic.
When he looked up he noticed that the black blood still stained his knuckles. He glared at the blemish on his skin, but he averted his eyes from the Demon Sword's blood and set his attention back up to his mother. He would have to wash his hands very harshly to get the black liquid to vanish; he would do that later, in a few minutes. Now, staring into gray eyes of his mother's picture, he determined on asking his question. His eyes lowered shut, concentrating on the darkness. He ran the thought quickly through his thoughts and spoke aloud.
"Mother," he whispered, "What do I do about the Demon Sword?"
Death the Kid's eyes opened slowly to glance back up to his mother.
And for the first time, he found no answer.
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Crona was trying to figure out what she should do while her tears made small rivers on her cheeks. Her breathing slowed and she tried to calm down. Ragnarok had attempted at comfort again, but when he knew he was being no help, he just patted her head repeatedly, nice and soft. After a while of doing that he slipped back inside of her, and made her blood circulate rhythmically, calming her some. She was shifting through the thoughts in her head, trying to figure out what she should do that wouldn't make the small shinigami angry with her. Crona felt that it would be hard to please Death the Kid, especially since he hated her so much. After some thought she decided that she would do what Death the Kid would probably want both of them to do, put on a smile and pretend that one of them didn't want the other dead.
Ragnarok had commented that she shouldn't be crying right now, she should be angry, wanting to have revenge on the shinigami. Though, even as she though about Death the Kid's rash actions, she couldn't find any emotions of hate toward him. Somehow, when she thought of him, she got a painful feeling in her abdomen. No, not painful, it wasn't agonizing enough to be pain; it was an uncomfortable sensation that was in her stomach. It was the feeling of empty aching that was fluttering inside of her; maybe it was a sign from Ragnarok telling her to stop thinking about him.
Tears were still pouring down Crona's cheeks even though she had already calmed down. Crona bit down on her lip, she had to stop crying, it would get her nowhere, Medusa had always scolded her when she started to cry when she was smaller. There was another thing she had to stop doing, she had to stop comparing the present to the past, Medusa was dead. No more scoldings, no more punishments, no more experiments, no more orders, no more direct instructions of how to lead her life… Crona tried to push the memories of her life with her mother away, but she couldn't, how do you forget someone that had leaded you your entire life?
Suddenly, Crona thought she had heard something from outside, interrupting her thoughts. She tilted her head to the side and listened quietly, but she didn't hear it again, so she ignored it. Sighing, she laid her head against the hard wall and closed her eyes, resting.
"Geko."
Startled, Crona spun her head to the noise. Searching frantically to whomever it was that appeared in her room. Then she saw the familiar shape of a frog on her windowsill, recognizing whom it was slowed Crona's heart speed by a bit. It was obvious that it was Eruka, with the two dots on the edge of each side of her mouth. The frog seemed to be happy.
"Eruka?" Crona asked.
"Ah, Crona, you're awake!" she exclaimed, "I was hoping you were."
Crona pushed herself off the ground and stood up. Since she had been sitting for a while, she walked over to the bed wobbily. She stepped up onto the mattress and stood on it so she could talk to Eruka without straining her neck up, "Umm, why were you hoping I was awake?"
"Oh, since Medusa is dead, all of the witches wanted to throw a celebration party!" she whispered excitedly.
Crona raised her eyebrows, "I didn't realize that many people hated my mother to the point they would throw a celebration over her death."
Eruka rolled her eyes, "That's just because you blocked the outside world away from you and you never noticed."
Crona nodded, "I guess so.
Suddenly Crona realized something, and asked the frog a question, "Wait- how'd you know I live here?"
"Oh, since we both still have Medusa's snakes in our bodies, I can sense you. And I guess if you wanted to, you could sense me. I really don't know how the snakes are still alive, though." Eruka explained.
"That's kind of creepy," Crona stated.
"Well anyways, I wanted to invite you to the party! I know that out of everyone, you probably hated Medusa the most." Eruka chirped.
"Oh, but how would I get there? I can't leave the room, well I think I may be allowed, but I'm not willing to take that chance." Crona told her.
Eruka thought for a moment, "Well, you could jump out the window. Free is out there, and I'm sure he could estimate where you'd fall and catch you."
"And if he doesn't?" Crona questioned.
"You have black blood, you'd be fine!"
Crona weighed the chances of Ragnarok hardening her blood fast enough to be able to do that.
Ragnarok got snippy at that, 'Are you doubting me! I could harden the blood at the speed of light! Don't be stupid!'
"Oops, sorry, Ragnarok.' Crona apologized.
'Yeah, you'd better be.'
Eruka stood at the edge of the windowsill and encouraged for Crona to follow her, with a leap, Eruka disappeared from sight. Crona hesitated, but she hooked her hand around on of the two bars on her window and climbed a couple feet of wall onto the windowsill. Crona was glad that she was so thin, if she was a healthy weight, it would have been difficult for her to slide in between the bars of the window. Now sitting on the edge of the stones, Crona kept her grip on the rusted metal bar and looked down. Free's thick body was easy to spot and Eruka, now back in her regular form, was beside him, looking up at her expectantly. Eruka nudged Free, turning his attention to the thin body so high in the air. Free glanced up to Crona, seeing her doubt.
Crona closed her eyes tight and took a deep breath; reopening her eyes she pushed herself from the ledge. The rush of wind made her hair whip into her face, making it hard for her to see. She saw Free rush over to where he expected her to land, waiting to catch her. Surprisingly, it was a long fall, and while she was falling, Ragnarok made a comment through her thoughts.
'You're an idiot.'
Confused, she wondered what he was talking about, but then she felt the familiar sensation of a ripping in her spine. Two great black wings unfolded from her back, flapping as they spread in the night sky. Her wings cut through the air, landing her gracefully onto the Earth.
"Oh, yeah," she realized, "I can do that."
Eruka blinked, "I guess we all kind of forgot about that, huh?"
"No, duh." Free muttered in his gruff voice.
"Hey, look, you forgot too." Eruka sniffed.
Crona put her wings away while Eruka and Free argued, and smiled, 'Thanks, Ragnarok.'
Ragnarok didn't respond deciding to join the little group. Appearing on top of her head, he raised one small fist in the air, "Whoo, party!"
Eruka and Free froze, stopping their unimportant quarrel short, and looked up at the small blob atop the pink meister's head. Eruka froze and realized what it was.
"R-Ragnarok…?" she tested.
"Yeah, what?" the little thing answered.
A smile spread across Eruka's face and she started to giggle, "Awww!"
Free at first gave a chuckle, but then he let out a booming laugh, joining Eruka, "Wh-whoah! Dude, you got SMALL!"
Crona felt her lips turn up, though she knew that doing that would only get her in trouble. Ragnarok steamed on top of Crona's head, growling at all of them.
"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!" he exclaimed, "BLAME THAT DAMN STUPID MAKA ALBARN! SHE'S THE ONE WHO DID THIS!"
Free was clutching his side, and his laughter starting to subside, "Rag, it's okay. I knew that you got small because Eruka said she felt the change in Crona's anatomy, but… wow."
Crona looked over to Eruka, confused with Free's choice of words.
"He means that because of the snakes in our bodies, I felt the form of your body change." Eruka explained in a way of words Crona could easily understand.
'Wow, I never knew Medusa's snakes were that powerful, to be able to feel the change in one's body system.' Crona thought.
'Well, Medusa was one powerful bitch of a witch,' Ragnarok, who had slipped back inside of her due to embarrassment, responded.
'Yeah,'
Crona looked at Free and Eruka, who were snickering about Ragnarok, studying them. Neither of them changed much in the time Crona had last seen them. Eruka was wearing her wide dress, it was a bit stained by dust and the white circles on the black fabric were faded. Her orange hat was limp by the abuse it had received while trying to revive the Kishin Asura, and her white boots were scuffed and worn. Eruka looked a bit paler, probably from stress, and her hair was unkempt, its usual shiny glow dull.
Crona studied Free next, he, too, did not change that much. The brown spikes of his hair had dust and sand caked in it, the explosion Asura caused made dirt and dust fly everywhere. His thick muscles bulged from under his black shirt, the prison jacket around his waist. The white of both his prison pants and jacket were stained also by dust, dirt, and sand. She was going to look at his Devil's Eye next, but his eyes were closed while he was talking to Eruka, probably making a point of something. His feet were bare, as usual, but then Crona's eyes spotted a detail she hadn't noticed up until then.
"Hey, Free, you got your chain ball off your ankle." She pointed out.
Looking down at his now bare unchained ankle, Free grinned, "Yeah, got it off when the Kishin revived. The giant impact made the chain snap."
Crona looked to Eruka, "Where are the rest of the Mizune family?"
Eruka sighed, "They decided to stay home in honor of the oldest Mizune sister's death."
"Ah," Crona responded.
Eruka clapped her hands to get all of their attentions, "Okay, lets go!"
Free glanced toward Eruka, then he started to walk a couple feet away in the opposite direction of her. Crona wondered where he was going, but she wasn't too concerned because he eventually stopped to the point where you could only see his silhouette. Crona put her attention to Eruka again.
"Where's the party at?" Crona asked.
Eruka turned to her, "The witch's meeting castle, where else?"
"How are we going to get there?" Crona asked.
Eruka pointed toward Free, he was leaning on something big, "We're using that motorcycle Free stole."
Crona looked back at Free and recognized that the big shape he was leaning against as a motorcycle. Immediately, she rushed over to it to inspect it, brushing her fingers across the smooth metal. It was nice and sleek, obviously meant to catch attention, the paint glowing even in the dim light of the red night sky. Though Crona didn't have time to gush over its beauty, she was too concerned with the fact that the design and model was the same as Soul's motorcycle. Silently praying that it was some one else's motorcycle, she squeezed her eyes shut and leaned her head to the license plate.
'Please don't be Soul's, please don't be Soul's, please don't be Soul's…' she thought.
Slowly opening her eyes, the four gleaming red letters that shone at her from the license plate made her heart drop.
S-O-U-L.
"Is something wrong with the bike?" Free's voice suddenly asked.
Crona spun her head up to him. She quickly shook her head, hoping he wouldn't notice her panic.
"No," she lied.
"Good, since Eruka can't get out her Otama Jackson and I can't use my wolf form without releasing Soul Protect, we needed another form of transportation."
"Ah," Crona said, "but I can use my wings."
"No." Eruka answered.
Crona looked at her, "Why not?"
"It would attract too much attention."
"Oh," Crona responded.
Eruka gave a Crona a small push toward the seat of the motorcycle. Free was mounted on the bike, and he was waiting for them to get on. Hesitantly, Crona lifted herself onto the motorcycle, swinging her leg over onto the other side. Crona was glad her dress was made out of this particular fabric; it allowed her to move and spread out like no other dress would.
Eruka hopped onto the place behind Crona, bouncing excitedly. She reached over and grabbed Crona's hand, putting a small something in her palm. Crona looked down and saw that she had been given a rubber band. Confused, she gave Eruka a questioning glance, whom of which was tying her hair back.
"It's so you can out your hair up." Eruka explained, "These wind speeds get pretty bad and it can mess up your hair pretty bad."
Crona was inwardly smiling at Eruka's concern, "But my hair is really short, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem."
Eruka shrugged, the black dots at the edge of her mouth turning down, "Okay, Crona, but I'm just saying these winds kills your hair."
Free looked back to both of them, "You two ready?"
When they both nodded, Free looked down specifically to Crona, "Hold on tight."
Crona wrapped her arms around Free's thick waist, having a hold that would cut off the circulation of a normal person, but Free wasn't a normal person. The motorcycle growled and started to zoom down the stone road into Death City.
The wind rushed through Crona's hair, blowing it away from her face. Ragnarok came out of her back, letting his overly large tongue flap out behind him like a dog sticking his head out of a car window. Crona held on to Free tightly, the motorcycle had so much power and speed, she wondered how this wasn't fast enough for him.
'Well he is a werewolf.' Ragnarok said to her through his thoughts, not wanting to interrupt his tongue-flying-through-the-air fun by talking.
'True,' Crona thought back to Ragnarok.
Crona thought about that. Free probably was used to tremendous speed being both a werewolf and a witch. So it was probably normal for something as fast as a motorcycle to be slow to him.
Crona didn't expect any good sights, what with half of Death City being destroyed, but shockingly, there were several things open and signs glowing. Bright neon signs were in several stores, catching Crona's eye. They sped pass a bookstore, the lights still on inside. Knowing that Maka was very obsessive with books, Crona thought that Maka would most likely drag her to a bookstore one of these days.
After a few more minutes, the lights started to thin out when they left the downtown area, only streetlights, houses, and a few small shops spread on the sides of the road. But even after a while, those started to move behind them as they drove out. The buildings started to spread out as well as they started to enter the outskirts of Death City, the lights were all gone, the only luminance came from the moon.
"Finally, those lights were too bright for my taste." Free sighed thankful.
The carefully smooth roads were becoming narrower and bumpier the farther they drove. Then they came across a faded sign with a lamp over it to be eligible that said: 'You are now exiting Death City.'
When they left the Death City limits, the paved road slowly turned into a dirt path, leading into the endless desert of Nevada.
Sand spat behind the motorcycle, the wind making the grains mix into Crona's hair, and making her cough when she accidentally swallowed dust. Ragnarok started to cough as well when chunks of sand began to get caught in his mouth. After realizing that there was no way he could have his fun without having sand flying into his mouth, Ragnarok went back into Crona's spine.
They went on for a good hour or so, none of them speaking a word. The sand shooting at them prevented any conversation. Crona spotted a few small animals like lizards and kangaroo rats run across the large vast land and saw a cactus every few minutes or so.
As Crona squinted in front of them through the sand, she could see small black objects appear on the horizon. When they grew nearer, Crona recognized them as houses.
Free slowed down a bit, lowering the growl of the engine, as they passed through the rows of small houses so he wouldn't wake too many people up. The houses resembled cottages that were made of brattled wood and clay. Crona recognized this part of the desert, this was were she used to live with Medusa before. Crona ran the names of the other witches who lived there through her mind when they passed their homes. Crona immediately recognized her familiar home; its door stood slightly ajar, it looked unkempt for.
'No,' she thought, 'It's not my home anymore.'
She named more houses of witches, remembering how her mother had overpowered every single one of them. Crona felt relived when they finally left the string of homes behind, but stayed stiff in her seat. Eruka and Free seemed relaxed and at ease, they apparently weren't fazed by the area.
After a few, miles of the bare desert, Crona looked up at the sky because of boredom. But when the grinning moon began bleeding when it looked at her, she looked away trembling. Free glanced back at her questioningly, but returned to keeping his eyes forward when Crona mumbled something that sounded like '… I just don't know how to deal with this…'
Crona looked to the forward distance and saw something else. A big formation appeared in the moonlight, it was far away on the horizon. As they grew nearer the formation became an outline of large boulders of rock and stone. They reached high into the air; the rocks surrounded an ancient weathered down castle. The closer they came, the cold temperature of the desert night dropped lower, and fog seemed to appear on the border edges around the castle.
The outline of a big castle and its enormous boulders of stone stood out in the unadorned desert. The brass bell was silent in the tower of the ancient castle. Crona softly breathed the chimes of the bell ringing under her breath; usually whenever Medusa and she came the bell was bellowing its deep toll. Crona felt odd coming to this place without her mother, it was witch territory, and she was not a witch. There was no one to protect her, she was only human, sort of, and the witches wouldn't want her there. Medusa had only protected her because Crona was her experiment. But no one would protect her now, a weak, worthless, dependant human.
Crona raised her head from Free's back to look up at him; she had to squint to keep sand from getting into them. His big figure was set in concentration to get to the witches' mass castle, his shoulders hunched so his arms could reach the handlebars. It was possible that Free or Eruka would keep her safe, but what if they didn't? Crona felt Eruka shift behind her; probably excited about the freedom she had now from Medusa. Crona knew that Eruka thought of her as a friend, but was she willing to defend her?
While Crona thought deeply about the chances of the two with her protecting her, they were riding through the vast boulders looming above them. It was like a maze to get to the front of the crumbling castle, but Free managed to find his way. Free slowed the motorcycle to a stop in front of the castle's antique doors and the furious sand stopped spitting harshly at them. Immediately after the engine was turned off, Eruka jumped off the motorcycle with a giddy hop, stretching out her arms and legs, and let her hair down, swinging it in the air.
"Finally!" she exclaimed, "We're here!"
Crona looked up at the massive aged castle, it seemed intimidating and it gave her memories filled with fear. Free had gotten off the motorcycle as well, leaving Crona the only one on it. He was cracking his joints with audible pops, making Eruka wince and say 'Ew, gross.'
Free looked back at Crona with a curious look. She was still positioned in the middle of the motorcycle seat; her knees were clamped together nervously, her arms hanging limply to her sides, and her head was titled upward. Free followed her gaze and realized that she was staring up at the witches' mass castle.
Eruka seemed to notice this, too, so she went over to Crona and placed a hand on her arm. Crona jumped and swung her head around to look at Eruka, fear obvious in her eyes. Eruka looked at her in concern, trying to figure out what was wrong. Then she realized that the witches' castle probably brought back horrible memories to the young non-witch. Eruka stared into Crona's eyes with her black ones, but instead of looking into a deep blue, Crona's eyes were a pale blue-grayish color due to fear.
"Crona, I know that this place scares you, but nothings going to try to kill you." Eruka tried to comfort her.
The frightened eyes wavered slightly, wanting to believe her. Eruka thought that she would have to try harder to get Crona to trust her. So she set her black eyes to Crona's blue-gray ones and spoke calmly and soothingly.
"It's okay, Crona. We won't let anyone hurt you." Eruka said softly trying to reassure her.
Crona's pale eyes looked at her skeptically, "R-really, y-you'll pr-protect me?"
Eruka grinned; she was glad she had gotten Crona to trust her more, and bobbed her head, "Geko."
A small relieved smile lightened Crona's depressed face, and her pale eyes darkened to their usual deep blue color. Eruka stared at this unusually cheerful emotion upon Crona's face; Crona had usually been so depressed. Eruka seemed frozen, seeing a smile for the first time on the disheartened teenager. Even though the smile was small, it was enough to startle the frog witch. The closest she had ever been to seeing Crona happy was when the Demon Blade user was content with not being scolded by Medusa, but never true happiness.
Crona's beaming emotion settled back to its usual sad attire and the teenager looked at the frog with curiosity. Eruka noticed Crona's questioning look and just shook her head, making Crona wonder what had been on the frog witch's mind, but she decided that it probably wasn't vital.
Crona struggled to get her leg over the motorcycle, so Eruka helped her swing her leg over. Crona set both of her feet on the uneven sand and stood up, keeping herself up by having a hand on the motorcycle. When she took a few steps, she wobbled and tripped. Eruka caught Crona and supported her so that it'd be easier to walk.
"I must have been sitting on that motorcycle for a long time." Crona muttered.
Crona ran a hand through her hair, wincing when it hurt, 'I suppose Eruka was right. Wind and sand together does kill your hair' She thought.
As Eruka was leading a stumbling Crona, Free offered to carry the thin swordsman into the castle, but Eruka declined the offer quickly. When they approached nearer to the castle's large doors, Crona thought of something. She looked up to Free; he was to the right of her, strolling slowly with them to not get ahead.
"Um, Free?" she asked.
Free looked down to her, "Yeah?"
She avoided looking into his eyes; his Devil's Eye was glowing in the moonlight, "You're not coming with us are you?"
He raised his eyebrows, he seemed amused and offended at the same time, "What, you don't want me to come?"
Crona cocked her head to the side, "Well. Wouldn't it be bad since you took Madam Maaba-sama's…?"
Free realized what she was saying, he chuckled and winked his Devil's Eye, "Naw, I can go in."
Crona turned to Eruka, of whom she was still leaning on, "How?"
Eruka's black eyes locked with Crona's. Crona became scared, they were emotionless, but they were also grave, "Madam was killed."
Crona dug her heels into the rough sand and stopped suddenly, staring wide-eyed at the solemn witch. Eruka's mouth was set in a straight line; the dots at the edge of her mouth perfectly align. Crona slowly lifted herself from Eruka's supporting arms, trying to understand the emotionless eyes; Eruka bent her head to stare at the desert sand, hiding behind her hat. Crona looked up back to Free who was still grinning, his smile faded when he looked at her, but he didn't seem bothered like Eruka.
"B-but, w-what happened?" Crona asked.
Eruka looked back up to Crona, "When Kishin Asura revived, he had a battle with Shinigami, and he escaped. And yesterday, when we were planning the party for Medusa's death, he burst in and took Madam Old Witch's soul. He took witch Leila's as well, but after that, he just left. We decided since Madam was already near her death bed, that we stood still go on with the celebration, now also in honor of Madam Old Witch!"
Free grinned again and said to Crona, "So now I don't have to worry about my eye anymore, the witches all gave up once Old Witch was dead."
Crona stood shocked, "W-well then wh-who's going to lead the witches' mass ceremonies?"
Eruka furrowed her eyebrows, "We haven't yet decided about that."
Crona bit her lip, Eruka patted her arm, "Come on, there's still a Death Celebration inside. I don't want any of us to miss it."
Crona gave a small nod, "Yeah, I guess."
Eruka smiled sweetly and led Crona to the large stone building, Free strolling by them again. When they grew nearer, Ragnarok, who had been silent for quite a long while, began to stir inside of her excitedly. While Ragnarok was eager to reach the building faster, Crona was anxious. Suddenly Ragnarok began going on about if they food inside.
'They'd better have some food inside, I'm starving.' Ragnarok complained.
'Ragnarok, I don't feel you should be worrying about that.' Crona thought to him.
'Then what should I worry about?' he asked.
'Umm,' Crona struggled, 'I don't know, like how we'll survive in there.'
'You worry way too much. The idiots here just said they would look after your worthless self.' He shot.
Crona frowned, 'Yeah, but…'
'Whatever, I just want food!' he whined.
Knowing that arguing would get her no where, Crona replied, 'Just wait until we get there.'
When they finally appeared in front of the castle's door, Crona felt nauseated with fear. Gnawing at her lip, Crona watched as Free opened the heavy old wooden door that lead to the inside. Inside, it looked the same as it usually did, except that most of the witches had smiles on their faces and there was large table that ran across the room with food. Looking around, Crona saw some witches she'd never seen before, but a lot of them she recognized.
Eruka studied Crona in the brighter light of the inside of the castle. There were faint tear streak marks on her cheeks and her face was a soft gray with hints of pink on her cheeks. Below Crona's eyes were undried tears, and her eyes were pink. Eruka wondered if Crona had been crying previously before they got her from her new room at Shibusen, if so, what about?
"Crona, have you been crying?" Eruka asked.
Knowing that if she lied it would be dead obvious; Crona answered truthfully, "Um, yeah, I have."
"What happened?" Eruka asked.
Crona gave a brief explanation of what had happened, with Death the Kid grabbing her hair and yelling, to where he had threatened to kill her.
"Geko!" Eruka cried, "That little shinigami had better be lucky his father took you in, if he didn't I'd be bombing Shibusen right now."
Crona nodded sullenly; frightened that maybe Eruka would bomb her new home. Eruka was angered that someone had treated Crona so violently. In battle, okay, you're supposed to act violently, but after you're supposed to be allies? Even Eruka never did that, not really counting what she wanted to do to Medusa. Eruka had taken a sudden liking to Shibusen and Shinigami, what with them taking Crona in. Crona had always been like a little sister to her, ever since that time Medusa shoved the child at her.
"Eruka, take it." Medusa ordered, tossing Crona, still a toddler, to the young witch.
Eruka caught the small girl in her arms, "Wh-what?"
"I have some business to attend to and I don't need that thing in my way." Medusa said nonchalantly.
"What business!" Eruka exclaimed trying not to frighten the shaking child she was holding.
"I'm applying for a job somewhere that may prove worthy." Medusa explained.
"You snake who-!" Eruka was cut short when Medusa shoved her hand into her mouth.
"Now, now. No profanity in front of my child." Medusa whispered sweetly before she removed her hand from Eruka's mouth and walked away.
Eruka glared after the snake witch as she walked out the door, but suddenly she heard a small whimper. Looking down, Crona was crying, tears welled up in her big blue eyes. The child looked up at the white haired woman above her, wondering why her mother had left her, again, with a random person.
Eruka tried to calm the frightened girl. Tears were spilling from the toddler's big blue eyes. Eruka was speaking low, saying that she wasn't going to hurt her, to just calm down. After the child seemed to trust her a bit more, Eruka sighed in relief.
Eruka bent down to the small girl's height, looking into the shy eyes that were trying to look away, "Small snake witch, what's your name?"
The child's lower lip trembled, she was now clutching her left arm tightly, "M-my n-name?"
Eruka nodded her head; this child was different from her mother, timid.
The girl gripped her arm more tightly, her free hand clenching into a fist, "I-I'm- my name…it is…um, C-Crona."
"Crona…" Eruka whispered, "Such dark name for one from the Gorgon family."
Crona's blue eyes looked up confused, "Gorgon?"
Eruka returned her attention to the small snake witch, "Yes, that's your last name."
The child looked even more confused, "My… last name? Gorgon? Medusa-sama instructed me to respond to Crona, or Crona Makenshi if needed to in a different occasion."
'Makenshi?" Eruka thought, 'This little snake witch had a vocabulary, too."
"Little snake witch, I wonder why you would be named different from your miserable mother." Eruka pondered.
Crona tilted her head to the side, "Snake witch?"
'So many questions!' Eruka thought, 'How many questions has Medusa left unanswered to this child?'
"Yes," Eruka said, "Snake witch. Your mother is one, so you are also. Has she taught you no magic, yet?"
The child seemed taken aback, "Medusa explained to me several long times ago that I cannot become a witch, that I'm not, by some strange accident, able to do magic. So she has taught me other things, to replace me being a witch."
Eruka stared at the child as it shuffled its feet, looking at the ground. Medusa's child could not do magic, it was not a witch? It was only on very rare occasion that witches gave birth to a non-necromantic, the last time that happened was over thousands of centuries ago. Eruka decided to ask the child questions now.
"I-if you're not a witch and haven't been taught magic, what has your mother taught you?" she asked.
The child looked up panicked, as if something were about get her, "Sh-she t-taught me sw-sword mastery."
Eruka wondered what the girl was frightened for, but abruptly the child got a pained expression on its face. Crona whimpered and tears came out of her eyes, she clutched her head and started to groan. Eruka panicked, what was wrong. Suddenly, Crona began to scream, she feel onto her knees on the floor, curling inwardly into a ball. She was covering her head with her hands and was crying into the floor, her back heaving with her deep breaths. Eruka heard an atrocious ripping sound coming from Crona, Eruka didn't know what was happening. Then, Crona's back opened, letting out a mass of black liquid. Eruka stared at it horrified. It began to take shape, arms, a chest, and a head formed from the black liquid. A small creature, about the size of Crona herself, was staring at her with its x pupil eyes. Eruka gasped and wondered what it was.
Crona lifted herself from the ground, sniffling, tears running down her face, "I-I'm sorry. I-I'm just not u-used to it yet!"
The black thing began to pull at her pink hair, "You weak worthless brat! It's already been three months and you haven't gotten used to it?"
Crona whimpered and tried to push away the creature, "No! Stop it! Don't pull my hair! I don't know how to deal with the pain yet!"
The thing stopped pulling at Crona and supported itself by keeping one of its small hands gripped on Crona's head. Crona sniffed and stood up, straightening out her dress and brushing of dust. She looked up to the horrified frog witch and explained.
"R-Ragnarok is my weapon. Medusa-sama said that since I was no good for a witch, that I should learn to be a sword meister and become a Kishin. So she put Ragnarok inside me three month ago, and I still haven't gotten used to the pain of him coming out from my back yet. He and Medusa-sama call me pathetic and weak."
The thing called Ragnarok looked at Eruka, "I'm this little idiot's sword. But she still hasn't adapted to the whole idea, useless thing."
He vanished from sight, back into Crona's spine. The small child sighed, relieved that Ragnarok was gone, and sad that she, once again, was insulted. Eruka pitied the small girl; she probably had little to no self-esteem by now. Eruka reached over and ran her hands though the girl's pink hair.
"I don't think you're weak, you're not pathetic. I'm sure that you'll be a wonderful swordsman, don't let your ego drop too low." Eruka whispered.
Crona's large pale eyes widened in shock and more tears spilled over, but not from sadness. Eruka held the child close to her, letting the girl play with her white hair. Eruka wondered if she should ask Mizune to help her take care of the child, but decided not to, then the child would have to get used to the idea of another person. Eruka whispered small lullabies into Crona's ear and the child clung onto Eruka's dress to keep herself from falling restfully to sleep. Eruka soothed and played silently with the child more, cooing to her and treating her with comfort that Medusa never gave.
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This is for Copyright purposes. The song that Crona is singing at the very beginning was Lilium, the theme from the anime Elfen Lied. And in case you want to know (which you probably don't and think you're wasting your time reading this) I like to make Kid violent. I just do, so he's going to having some "grr" thoughts (I count grr as an emotion in my vocabulary) later on in the story about Crona. Anyways, PLEASE REVIEW! OR RAGGY WILL EAT YOUR SOUL!
