"Okay so you know how pencils have a little rod in them?" Akira said to Liz as they and the sisters walked to school.

"Yeah?"

"How does it get in there? Do they just… grow the wood around the graphite or something?"

Liz looked at Akira's face to see if they were making a joke.

"Holy shit," she thought, "he's being serious."

"Okay, so they cut a wooden slab in half," she began, "and then carve a little well into it. Then they fill the well with glue and put in the lead. Then another piece of wood is glued on top of that."

"Like a sandwich!" Patty yelled, clapping her hands.

"Yeah, like a sandwich."

Akira looked at the two of them in awe.

"That's so weird."

As they walked they talked about little things, like food, and pencils, and Akira pointed out all of the plants they liked.

At first, Liz thought Akira was looking around everywhere because they just wanted to see everything they could,like they did on their way home last night. But they kept checking behind them, and they kept frowning.

"Is something wrong?" She asked finally.

"Oh, no it's nothing."

"You aren't acting like its nothing."

Akira was silent for a moment.

"Something shouldn't be here." They said finally. "it's too bright, the shadows aren't as dark as they would be normally."

"What's that mean?" Patty asked.

"I'm not entirely sure. Come on, we need to get to school." Their pace quickened.

It was only a block of an empty street later when a light like white hot iron blinded them, and the sisters heard a clang of metal on metal. When their eyes adjusted, a tall, broad, impossibly pale woman was in front of Akira, knife parried against gauntlet.

"Run and call my father." They said, rigid.

Patty turned into her weapon form and Liz caught her, ready to fire.

"DON'T FIGHT, RUN!" Akira yelled, and Liz bolted down the street and around the corner where there was a large enough window for her to use. She fogged up the glass with her breath and quickly wrote the number every student at the academy knew by heart.

"Lord Death Akira's in trouble we don't know what's happening but he told us to call you-" she would have said more but an inhuman shriek cut her off. That was clearly all he needed to hear before yelling for Spirit.

"Sit tight I'm on my way."

When the Thompsons rounded the corner the fight had moved further down the street, near an alleyway. Akira was bracing themself on a wall with one arm, and inflicting soul menace on the glowing woman the way they had Maka with the other arm.

Liz fired at the woman twice, hitting her in the face both times. Akira slumped their shoulder against the brick building, clearly injured, but with their back facing her Liz couldn't tell how.

Just then, as Liz was running towards them, the world got dimmer. Spikes as black as oil shot out from the alleyway and impaled the woman through Akira's chain. Both of them screamed, and Akira's arm went back to normal, with small oozing holes.

The woman glowed bright, partially dispelling the impalements, but a blade that shone like obsidian sprouted, hilt deep, from her throat.

All that was left after that was a dull white soul, murky like clouded water.

Akira collapsed against the wall, and the sisters, both now in human form, ran to them. Seeing Akira from the side showed what they hadn't realized even happened during the time the bright light first happened. The ornate hilt of a dagger was all that showed under their left rib.

They heard the clicks of boots from the alleyway, and while Patty lifted Akira's head and tried to make them focus on her, Liz looked around the corner to see a girl, younger than herself, in a violet cloak. Before she could call out to her, Lord Death came into view, and when the other girl saw him she ran and disappeared into the shadows with the click of silver boots and the hem of a yellow dress.