The DSM?

A/N: So so sorry for the lack of updates. Hope this makes up for it. Also, Kid may seem a bit OOC (out of character) in this so I apologize beforehand but there really is a reason I promise! Oh and we get to see into his thoughts a bit :D So without further ado, here's the long awaited Chapter 9 of "The DSM?"

Chapter 9: The Death Scythe Meister's First Mission?

"Death the Kid, Liz Thompson, Patty Thompson, and Dawn Law please report to the death room." Sid's voice boomed over the announcement system.

Blackstar had been in the middle of getting up off of the floor when the announcement came on and he cupped his hands over his ears.

"Why won't my ears stop ringing?" he grumbled miserably.

"It's all your fault." Patty giggled in her sing-song voice. "I guess Dawn doesn't like it when you upset Kid."

"No really?" I thought it was an honest accident." He retorted sarcastically.

"Wow she really hit ya good didn't she?"

"Patty come on!" Liz called impatiently.

"Coming!" Patty yelled before taking off without saying goodbye to Blackstar.

She skipped up to her sister and Kid who had started walking without her. Patty starting whistling and swinging her legs as she walked in a way that only she could. In fact, she was swinging her legs so high it appeared that she was attempting to do the can-can.

"It's a miracle you haven't kicked someone in the head yet." Kid mumbled.

As if on cue, some poor boy who wasn't quick enough to get out of Patty's way took one of her can-can kicks to the head. Patty just continued on her way though, completely unfazed by the now bleeding boy on the ground.

"Ugh I spoke too soon."

The group only made it a few more feet before Patty abruptly stopped as her eyes widened and it looked like she had finally realized just what it was she had done. As quickly as her moment came it vanished and she continued down the hallway, Liz and Kid following after recovering from their confusion.

"Um Patty? What was that?" Liz asked her sister cautiously.

"Oh! I was just remembering what Sid said."

"You mean when he told us to report to the death room?"

"Yeah?"

"What did he say that you were thinking about?"

"Well I was wondering why he called Dawn down too. I mean, she doesn't have a weapon partner right?"

"No, she doesn't." Kid answered for Liz.

"Then maybe it's not a mission?" Liz suggested although it sounded more like a question.

"Somehow, I doubt that." He muttered as they made it to the entrance of the death room.

Once the three made it to the end of the hallway they found Lord Death standing there alone with his back to them. Apparently though, he heard them enter because he turned around to face them.

"Hiya kids!"

"Hello Lord Death." Both Patty and Liz greeted him respectfully.

Kid followed suit with a polite nod and, "Hello father."

Lord Death tilted his head to one side as he looked at the children.

"Where is Dawn? I thought she would be with you three."

"Why would you think…"

"She went home!" Patty yelled, interrupting Kid's question.

"Oh, okay then." Death nodded.

"Well why would she go home? It's a school day." Liz asked, beyond confused.

Lord Death turned to face his mirror, back to the kids before answering. "Stein is currently, unable to teach your class."

Patty grinned and jumped up and down. "Sweet! School's out!"

Patty, Liz and Kid watched as Death fogged the class on his own mirror then, with one large finger, he wrote the numbers 42 42 376.

"42 42 376?"

"Yes." Lord Death responded as the mirror started rippling. "It became evident a while ago that it would be a good idea to get Dawn a mirror with her own number so that I could contact her as easily as she could call me."

Exactly after he finished his explanation the rippling stopped and an image of Dawn's living room appeared. After a few more seconds, said girl walked in wearing baggy black sweatpants, a red t-shirt and white slippers. Her normally tied back blond hair fell down around her shoulders, reaching down to her waist. Then she seemed to notice the faces in her mirror because she shrieked in surprise and nearly dropped the glass of water she had been holding. Although Dawn seemed to recover swiftly as she set the glass on her coffee table then proceeded to kick her feet up beside it, leaning back onto her couch with her hands behind her head.

"Hey guys." She said cheerily.

"Hello Dawn." Kid nodded, letting a small smile find it's way onto his face.

No one else had time to greet her before Patty was right in front of the mirror, hands waving around frantically and words flying from her mouth at a seemingly inhuman speed.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Dawn that was so cool what you did to Blackstar! You should have seen him after you left. He kept trying to get up but he couldn't 'cause you got him sooo good!"

Patty started making little punching motions as she continued.

"He didn't even see it coming! Then he was all like…" she began pretending to twitch.

"Patty…" Dawn drawled, face palming. Then she turned to Lord Death and simply tuned Patty out. "So, what-cha call for Death?"

Kid was surprised at how easily Dawn could talk so casually with his father. Most academy students spoke to him in a strictly professional manner. They wouldn't dare use such slang words and rarely would they drop the "Lord" title. Then again, Dawn wasn't exactly the standard academy student. Plus, his father even seemed to enjoy that she spoke to him in such a calm, laidback manner.

"Well I was wondering if you would like to accompany Kiddo, Patty, and Liz to investigate a kishin egg disturbance."

Dawn's eyes widened as she took her feet off the table in order to lean forward on the couch.

"Y-you actually want me," she pointed to herself for emphasis, "to go on a… a… mission?"

Kid didn't miss her shocked, disbelieving tone. It confused him though, had his father never sent her a mission until now? Surely he understood the need for her to practice fighting outside of the academy. Especially for someone with her abilities and risk of being attacked should anyone from outside the DWMA find out who she is.

"Of course!"

A wide joyous grin grew on Dawn's face as she practically leapt off the couch. "I'll be there A.S.A.P!" she said happily before giving a mock salute and giggling as she walked off to get changed.

"What's A.S.A.P. mean?" Patty asked, turning to Liz as the connection was cut.

Liz rolled her eyes. "It means as soon as possible."

"Oh…."

Within a few minutes Dawn walked into the death room in her normal attire only now instead of putting her hair into it's usual braid, it was up in a ponytail.

"I didn't bother to take the time." She explained as she walked up to the rest, looking much more calm then earlier. "So," Dawn clapped her hands together eagerly, "Where are we off to?"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"This place is a dump!" Liz complained as she poked at a bit of rubble with her boot.

Lord Death ended up sending the group to a small deserted town. It was so old that many of the buildings were crumbling to rubble, if they still stood at all.

"What would possibly be out here?"

"Hey sis." Patty interrupted, "Look at all those dark scary places made by the broken buildings. I wonder what could be in there."

Giggling, Patty skipped over to a dark alleyway between two buildings.

"Patty…" Liz whined while following her sister reluctantly. "You're scaring me."

Dawn rolled her eyes at the two and continued walking down the road, closely followed by Kid. She turned to look at the reaper with one eyebrow raised.

"You sure you should stray very far from your weapon partners while on a mission?"

He shrugged before responding, "They can handle themselves."

She looked at him skeptically.

"Well enough." He added. "Either way, I don't like the idea of you going off by yourself, in a strange area where a kishin egg is most likely hiding."

Her eyes narrowed slightly and Kid quickly realized why.

"Not that I don't think you can handle it. It's just that if we get split up, it's best to be split into pairs so no one is left alone. It's not like…"

Dawn started laughing lightly. "I'm just messing with ya Kid, relax. Now let's go find that kishin egg hmm?"

Both students walked through the ruined streets silently. After a few minutes Kid could no longer take not knowing if this was in fact her first mission. He cleared his throat to get her attention before asking.

"Hey Dawn?"

"Hmm?"

"Is this your first actual mission?"

"Yeah." She sighed.

"But, my father should see the importance in you gaining experience!" he exclaimed.

"I'm sure he does Kid. However there is still some other factor that has been preventing him from sending me on missions." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I believe the only reason he even let me go today is because you would be here as well."

He looked at her oddly, obviously confused.

"Oh come on Kid. This is one little kishin egg disturbance. I've no doubt that whatever may be here, you could handle it on your own. The only reason I am allowed to be here is because nothing is probably going to happen anyway." She finished with a dejected sigh.

"Hey, don't worry Dawn." Kid said placing a hand on her shoulder. "You'll get a chance to practice outside of the classroom. I'll make sure of it."

"Thanks Kid."

Just then a long high pitched scream filled the air. Both meister's eyes widened as their heads whipped to the direction the scream came from before turning to each other as they realized whose it was.

"Liz!" they both exclaimed, startled as they tore off in the girl's direction, the small blades that now stuck out of the ground where they had just been standing going unnoticed.

As the two burst into the alleyway that they had last seen Patty heading towards with her sister following, they found Liz curled into a fetal position on the ground with Patty standing over her. Patty's hands were on her hips as she lent over her sister, laughing hysterically.

"Patty!" Kid yelled angrily, obviously far from happy with the situation. "What's going on?"

"Oh hey Kid! Liz saw a spider!" Patty giggled.

Kid groaned as Liz continued to rock back and forth on her heels. She started mumbling unintelligibly to herself.

"You grew up on the streets, and you're afraid of a spider?" Dawn breathed.

"They're scary." Liz whimpered.

As Dawn and Kid attempted to raise Liz from her spot on the ground, neither noticed Patty slip away deeper down the alley until…

"Hey there mister. Yer kinda funny looking."

Dawn was the first to turn at the sound of the girl's voice. Standing in front of Patty was a tall skinny man but that was not what caught Dawn's attention. Every feature off his body was completely straight, he looked sickly pale and his eyes were glazed over. What was left of his torn and tattered suit was caked with dirt. However what caused Dawn to sputter some odd surprised sound and yank Patty away from the man, towards herself, Kid, and Liz, was the fact that sharp blades stuck out in lines that formed down his arms and legs. Even smaller ones stuck out from where his nails should have been on both his hands and feet.

Once she had pulled Patty away, the man's focus shifted to her instead. His head tilted to the side quizzically, his neck emitting an awful 'crack' as he did so, before he grinned maniacally. Not surprisingly, his teeth were unnaturally long and razor sharp.

"Power…" he growled in a voice that strongly resembled nails on a chalkboard.

Dawn winced, a shiver running down her spine at the sound. The man reached towards her slowly and she took a few steps back, dragging her and Patty back in line with Kid and Liz.

"Power…" he growled again, raising his voice.

"I don't think I even want to look." Liz whimpered, not lifting her head from her knees.

"Liz, Patty." Kid said firmly.

"Right!"

"Ok…"

Both girls complied, turning into weapon form. The man proved to be much quicker than he seemed at first because he swiped his hand, resulting in a blade from one of his fingers flying forward and hitting Liz in her weapon form. Just before she would have landed in Kid's hand. The momentum flung her backwards before she clattered to the ground. Liz turned back to her human form, the knife appearing lodged in her forearm. Taking one look at the blood flowing from her wound, she passed out instantly.

"Nighty night sis." Patty giggled from her spot in Kid's hand.

Said reaper was staring from the weapon in his hand to the one lying a few feet behind him. Dawn just stood watching him, hoping that he wouldn't have an 'episode' right now but knowing it was probably going to happen anyway. She was so concerned with what Kid would do next that she hadn't realized her back was turned to the strange man. She only saw it once the but of the knife had collided with Kid's temple and he slumped to the ground, unconscious. Swiftly, she turned to face the man, causing the blade meant for her neck to slice into her shoulder instead then drop to the ground because it was only the side of the blade that struck her.

For someone who seemed to have great aim, he sure didn't appear to have much control over which end of the blade hit his target. Although Dawn didn't mind because, had the tip of the blade hit Kid in the side of his head, it would most likely have caused him brain damage. She quickly closed the gap between herself and the man before jamming her palm into the man's exposed stomach and letting loose a sharp wave of her soul force attack. He was sent flying a few feet and his feet gave out from under him. It didn't take him very long to get back up on shaky legs. He growled before forcing the knives on his body to rearrange themselves, more appearing as well, in order to cover his entire body at even intervals, not giving her enough room for her palm to fit. There was no way she was getting in a soul force attack now, not without being guaranteed a knife through her hand, and that was all she really had!

"Damn it!" she groaned.

He only growled again in response and began throwing blades every which way in her direction. She shrieked and dodged as many as she could while making her way towards the closest piece of fallen rubble for cover. By the time she made it there two more blades had struck her, one in her thigh, the other in her midsection. Cursing, she pulled the knives out.

"Might as well try." She mumbled before quickly popping up above the rubble and throwing them at the unrecognizable man.

However they both simply hit the blades already sticking out of his body. Her time out of cover cost her as another knife caught her cheek and she fell backwards, hitting her head off a piece of metal. Black spots started interrupting Dawn's vision and she knew she was about to pass out. She looked over to see Liz lying unconscious, Kid on the ground beside her, and Patty still resting in Kid's hand in weapon form saying something about everyone going to sleep. In her last comprehendible moments, Dawn heard the roar of a powerful engine and the faint strains of distant sounding rock music. She smiled to herself as she blacked out completely knowing everything was going to be just fine.

Author's Note: Oh my gosh it's finally finished! I think it's safe to assume we all know who showed up right? ;)

I would like to thank all of the wonderful people who have either favourited, subscribed to, or reviewed this story!

Anach3403, animefreakiscool, CeleneTheMoonGoddess, Lost-in-all-Illusions, Shaded Moon Alchemist, Slyshindi, Aubrey09, Dragonet-Dialga123, kititi24, knitter8, MasouPanchi, mcoyne, and my buddy Sydney.

You guys rock and I solemnly promise to never konk out like that on updates again. But I hope this chapter makes up for it a little. Plus, I'm not sure where exactly Dawn and Kid's relationship is going so let me know what you would like to see and it shall happen! (as long as I can fit it in).

Reviews make my day! Just saying…