AN: Ahh I feel the love, about a hundred people have been following the story. I'm glad you all like the story, and I edited this chapter so it should be loads better. I try to update every Thursday, but I thank you to all of you for giving me the chance to take my time. This is a new fandom I'm writing for and each one is different. Now that I'm writing a chapter ahead, things will go smoother. Now, on to the review responses!
Chabeli05: I paced myself with this chapter, so hopefully it's better. I'm glad you liked how the characters turned out. One of my biggest concerns when writing Fanfiction is keeping characters in character, but still have them follow my desired story line. Thank you for reading and reviewing.
BloodyWolf3: Heheheh madness… anyway, glad you like the story and I hope you enjoy the story as it progresses. Thank you for reading and reviewing
B01: Fear not, the prologue will make sense as the story progresses. And thank you, as I said before I try to update on Thursdays, if I don't give myself a dead line the stories never get finished. Still thank you for reading and reviewing. ^^
CrazyAnime3: How could I not update this story, I have to get all these ideas out before their lost forever. Thank you for reviewing and reading.
silver dagger: I will never stop! Well I'll have to when the story ends, but that won't be for a while. ^^ The plot is taking some time to heat up, but you may see some more of Pandora and Hades in the future. Thank you for reading and reviewing.
And now to the story!
Kid squinted as bright light suddenly surrounded him, despite his blurred vision he could make out a few details in the room. A chandelier hung above him, bathing his body in white light. Behind him a stark black cauldron, perhaps iron, lay in the center of the room. Each blur to his left was mirrored on the right. Even the bookcase seemed neatly organized, though he couldn't quiet tell.
Someone grasped his shoulders which made him look up at a blurred silhouette before him. The white blur knelt to his level.
"Oh~ oh my." A female voice gasped. "Just look at you!" He tried desperately to read the expression of the woman, but all he could make out was an illuminated blur.
"Is something wrong?" He asked. His words felt awkward on his tongue and escaped his throat with a childish pitch. The woman's arms wrapped around him in a warm hug; the soft jersey of her dress tickled at his cheek.
"No, I couldn't be happier." She professed. He could feel tears begin to trickle down his back.
~o~
Kid woke with a start, immediately his gaze fell to the wall in front of him. His heart began to beat ferociously as he glanced around the asymmetrical room. As he fisted his hair, a strangled yelp ripped from his throat. The noise woke Crona abruptly, she looked up at Kid who was rocking slowly as he bit his bottom lip.
"Shini-kun?" She asked tentatively. Her hand trembled as she lightly rested it on his shoulder. Kid turned to the person who touched him. When he saw it was Crona, he relaxed a little. Memories of what had taken place the previous night flooded back. "Shini-kun, you're shaking!"
"I'm sorry, I must have frightened you." He apologized. His eyes drifted away from her and began to scrutinize the room once more. She stood and offered a hand to him. While they walked out of the room, Kid felt relief flood over him as he was once more surrounded by beautiful symmetry. He frowned as he felt something touch his shirt."Crona, what are you doing?" He asked when he noticed the girl was futzing with his clothes.
"Ah!" She blushed and immediately released the hold she had on his clothes. "You're shirt got rumpled and it was bothering me." She lowered her gaze, but not before straightening his tie clip. "School's about to start so…"
"Right!" Kid shouted, a little louder than he had anticipated. After a pregnant pause Kid bowed shallowly. "Er- see you later." Crona nodded and watched Kid sprint down the hall.
"What was that?" Ragnarok demanded as he smacked her on the head.
"What was what?"
"You know what I mean. Stop it or I'll steal your bed sheets!" Ragnarok threatened.
"I don't know what I did~" She whined. Her partner silenced her with another smack to the head. "Fine, I promise."
-8-0-8-
"KID!" Liz shouted, and ran across the class room. She enveloped her miester in a tight embrace. "Where we you last night, you had us worried sick!"
"Yeah." Patty smirked with a shake of her finger. "Explain yourself mister."
"…Liz…I can't…breathe." Kid choked out. Liz immediately released the suffocating shinigami. Other students filtered into the classroom as Kid caught his breath.
"What's going on?" Maka asked.
"Kid's been missing since his mission yesterday and now he's shown up for class." Black Star supplied. Everyone turned to look at the assassin inquisitively. "What?"
"How did you know that?" Liz asked with her arms crossed.
"Hello, I'M GOD!" Black Star proclaimed.
"And Patty told us this morning." Soul supplied.
"Anyway," Liz dismissed, "Where were you? You haven't been home since yesterday!"
"Yeah and you're hair's all messy." Patty commented. Liz had tried to stop her, but it was too late. Kid heard.
"…my hair? What's wrong with my hair!" Kid rushed over to the nearest mirror and stared horrified at his reflection. His hair was now disheveled and flipped to the side at an odd angle. "I'm…hideous." He slumped to the floor, defeated by his own hair.
"Well there he goes." Liz groaned. "I doubt we'll get anything out of him for a while." She went over to talk him out of the fetal position.
"What, why?" Crona asked, "What's going on?" Maka shook her head and sighed.
"Kid has these symmetry breakdowns. If he thinks he's done something asymmetrical he becomes extremely depressed." Maka explained. Crona turned to see Kid slumped on the floor going on about how he shouldn't live. She thought back to his panic attack when he woke up in her bedroom. Everyone seemed to make light of the situation, but she knew for a fact that if he stayed like that he would start to panic again. She walked over to where Kid lay slumped on the floor.
"Eh, Crona, what are you doing?" Maka asked. Crouching in front of him, Crona carefully adjusted the boy's hair back to his liking.
"There," she said, "it's symmetrical again." Kid shook his head.
"It's no use." He sobbed. "No madder how hard you try, I will always be an abomination. I'm a worthless piece of thrash that was born a deformed monster. I'm doomed, doomed for failure!" Liz groaned and massaged her temples in response to his antics; it was too early in the morning for this.
"What are you talking about?" Crona frowned.
"…this." He pointed to the three white stripes that decorated his hair. "This is my curse."
"But without those, you wouldn't be Shini-kun." Crona said. With those words everyone froze.
"Crona," Maka started, almost like a mother before a long talk.
"What, what's wrong?" Crona asked as she saw her friends around her struggle to swallow their laughter.
"Remember when I told you call people-" Maka began.
"But Shinigami-kun said it was alright." Crona defended.
"Man Kid," Soul chuckled, "you're letting girls call you by pet names now?" Crona had succeeded in halting the shingami's depression; unfortunately it had been replaced with embarrassment.
-8-0-8-
"Black Star will never let me live this down." Kid conceded. Crona tugged at her hair, her thin lips formed a delicate frown.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know." She testified.
After their friends had, had their fill of teasing Kid, they moved on to actual class. Now that class was over, the two sat at the darkest table in the library. They had already gleamed all useful information from the other four books and were on the last two.
Kid shook his head, the torchlight from the library mad his shadow dance on the floor. "No, it's O.K. Those two are just immature." Kid consoled. Crona bit her lip; she didn't want to make Kid uncomfortable in front of the others. It would probably be best if she didn't call him Shini-kun anymore, but he had said it was O.K. In fact the only people it seemed to bother were her friends. Coming to a decision she nodded, she wouldn't call him Shini-kun in front of the others anymore; but he would always be Shini-kun to her. After a while Crona was startled by Kid as he slammed his book shut. "It's no use." He sighed.
"Hunh?" Crona asked. The interruption had torn her from her own research.
"There isn't a single lead on Eibon in any of these." Kid groaned. It couldn't be, he was back on square one! Two weeks and all they could come up with was the identity of the magical tools.
"Eibon?" Crona gasped.
"Yes, he was the one that constructed the magical tools with my father. I found their signatures in the mechanism of the ghost train." Crona's frown deepened. "Crona?"
"I don't understand." She mumbled.
"What is it Crona?" Kid tried to contain his excitement. "Do you know something about Eibon?" Was he finally able to ask Crona about the wicken world?
"Well when I was younger the older witches would tell us stories while our mothers went to witches mass." She paused as she tried to recall the tale. "Once upon a time there were two young witches who were very curious about the world around them. They worked very hard to gather as much knowledge about magic as possible. The older witch gathered knowledge about enchantments, familiars, and pure witch craft. She wanted to teach her knowledge to witches all over the world. The younger sister gathered knowledge about sorcery, necromancy, and alchemy; so that witches would know what spells were forbidden. The two taught many witches over the years and watched them grow older and wiser.
"Now this reminded them of their own mortality. The two didn't want the knowledge they gathered to disappear. So they took a book and filled it with the knowledge they had gathered. Inside they placed a magic spell that would transcribe the knowledge of all who opened the book, so that when they died, the book would still collect knowledge. They called their creation Eibon.
"Unfortunately there was an error in their spell. When people looked to the tome for information, the spell would receive an imprint of the emotions felt by the reader. This error went unnoticed by the two sisters and they died before the spell could be fixed. Witches began to look into the book in search of a forbidden magic that would save them from death. The fear and hatred became trapped inside the book and gave the spell a life of its own. The book was labeled as a threat to the balance of the world and was sealed away. Never to be opened again.
"There might have been more, but I've forgotten the rest." Crona admitted. Kid shook his head; it was just a story, it wasn't true. It couldn't be true! If he acknowledged that there was never a person named Eibon then all of their efforts would be for naught.
"It's probably just a story to frighten children." Kid said. Crona folded her hands in her lap and averted her eyes to the stone floor. Some help she turned out to be. The two sat in the library, an air of gloom about them. Kid glanced up at Crona, a small frown plastered on her face. Standing from his seat, Kid tucked his hands in his pockets. "Come on."
"Hmm?" Crona looked up to meet the Shingami's gold rimmed eyes.
"We've been working too hard, let's take a break."
