CHAPTER 10

A/N – Hello everyone! As usual, I have nothing interesting to say in the author notes (what else is new…) Anyway, it seems today is the 'big day' when Kid and Maka finally meet and not exactly on amiable terms. Oh well, long story short, here it is, folks! Enjoy the ultimate confrontation!

Warning: mildly graphic violence (quite boring really)

"You know, regardless of what the prince said earlier, if your mask accidentally drops and she sees your face, she must die. It's the law."

Under the white skull mask Kid gritted his teeth in irritation and his hands clenched on the handles of his two black blooded swords, currently concealed by his cloak. Unnoticed, Asura had sneaked behind him and now a pale hand rested on the younger shinigami's shoulder as Kylee's ward was poisonously murmuring in his ear. Kid wanted nothing more but to turn abruptly and hit him, if only just to wipe the damned grin off the other's face, but he kept his temper in check. Shrugging away from Asura's touch, the reaper settled for a grumbled swear instead. He could bet his head that Asura would be quick to report the possibly inappropriate attention Kid had gotten – being challenged by a girl no less – and he would never hear the end of this.

Stein had fastened the bandages too tightly and she could barely move her arm, Maka noticed. It was her left hand, but still, if she was to wield two swords, it would cause problems. As things were, it didn't matter much anyway, but she could not put up a shit fight and have Galiel disappointed. No, her master had to be impressed, and impressed enough to erase her debt. Impressed enough to make my death count for something…

The time was up so the blonde walked slowly towards the center of the Arena, eyes trained on the white sand sparkling under the still blinding afternoon sun and struggling to focus. The crowd fretted somewhat, though undoubtedly they must have thought it was going to be a very short and uninteresting fight. More like an execution I've asked for myself…

She lifted her gaze tentatively towards the King's balcony and noticed the prince saying something to his black shrouded guard. Then Black Star plopped back onto his seat carelessly once more and reached for his cup of wine, while the shinigami simply hopped over the railing in one fluid and swift move as if it was nothing. Maka watched completely baffled as his frame seemed to melt in some sort of cloud of dark smoke and disappear, only to reappear again down onto the sand.

What folly! I wanted to fight him?! He may have been a magic creature, but Maka could tell there was something different about the shinigami. His movements - as he sauntered casually towards her now - were smooth and graceful like the ones of an effective predator and not ones of a brute beast like Harthgor had been. Both her hands flew instinctively to the hilts of her weapons as the prince's guard got closer and closer, her gaze mesmerized by the deep, absolute black of his figure in the midst of all the golden and luminous nuances around, lured to the hollow eye sockets of the white mask behind which she could not see any actual eyes. Maybe it was empty? Perhaps he did not have a face at all? No, there must have been a body inside that peculiar attire, because she'd caught a glimpse of a pale, slim fingered hand when he'd jumped over the railing.

"Why did you challenge me, if I may ask?" the shinigami spoke – and Maka was baffled because she'd never expected him to say anything, by the Gods, she hadn't really thought that he could speak at all. His voice was strangely soft, strikingly so even, yet it had somewhat of a cold and impersonal, completely emotionless edge.

Now was a really bad time to be focusing on that sort of things, the blonde told herself, managing to snap out of her observations. Taking a deep breath, she decided to keep up the defiant act. And since Harthgor had insulted her and Evans, she would now insult the prince's shinigami, even if it was probably the last thing she would ever get to do.

"You must be very surprised, aren't you, shinigami? You must think all the girls adore you, but I think you're hideous behind that mask, otherwise you wouldn't be wearing it!"

Maka was only vaguely aware of the audience's reaction to her answer. Most gasped, awestruck at her boldness. Some booed, others laughed, but no one remained indifferent. In his seat, Lord Galiel seemed positively thrilled with what was going on.

Kid tsked and sighed – the presumptuous little brat, clearly an Emerald. But he wasn't mad, rather half amused at what a slap in Asura's face that must have been, for someone to assume the shinigamis looked hideous. She hadn't really meant it either, for her eyes looked up towards her master's balcony – she was only doing she was told, all the more now when it seemed she had nothing left to lose. But then the young reaper took a closer look at the almost petite blonde and his stomach cringed – her wound looked quite bad and she already seemed slightly out of balance, it probably wasn't long before she would no longer be able to keep herself up on her feet. Fucking hell! Still, she looked feral, so he was going to have to be very careful not to hurt her too much.

"Well then, if that's the case then I guess you'll never find out…" he chuckled in reply, drawing his two swords from under his cloak and weighting them simultaneously with a crafty spin, before tossing one aside demonstratively. "But let's not make this too… one-sided," the reaper added, making the crowd laugh.

Maka gritted his teeth. The damned bastard, he's so arrogant, just like his master! How dare he make fun of me in front of everyone! And it wasn't because he was a shinigami, any other fighter of the Stars would have acted the same. She took a deep breath, willing away the growing dizziness, there was no point in wasting further time.

Gripping her two weapons firmly and letting out a huff, the blonde lunged forward at top speed, almost foolishly hoping for a lucky blow with which to take the shinigami by surprise. But the prince's guard instantly blocked her two blades with his own, raising his arm with what looked like a rather lazy move.

Nevertheless, he drew back and out of range, one step, then a few more, continuing to simply block her attacks and making no attempt to deliver a strike of his own. Maka attacked relentlessly, swords searching for an opening, but there was none. The shinigami moved way too fast and it almost seemed like he was anticipating her own moves as well. The fruitless pursuit ended only a couple of meters from the Arena wall – what the hell was he doing? Why did he allow me to push him back all this way? Undoubtedly, he was playing, but Maka had had about enough of this game. Spinning the hilt of the right sword between her fingers to bring it forward, she drove both the fist and the steel handle with full force into the white skull mask behind which she intuited a wide grin at this point, eliciting an audible cracking sound. The blonde could almost hear the audience gasp at this.

"Seriously?" Kid asked with a bone chilling snicker which came out without him even trying too much. Clearly she had guts, the little Emerald brat.

He caught her left wrist with his free hand as Maka once more tried to slash at his face, this time with a blade, and pushed her closer, causing their swords to clash together. Unfortunately, the blonde did not have enough strength to reject him and her arm dropped, letting the shinigami's black blade slash through the front of her breastplate. Strangely, it barely scratched the upper part, but it all happened before she could notice and moving forward to strike back she caused the blade to get in deeper and bite at her flesh.

Maka yelped at the sudden pain and drew back quickly, gaze glued to the now bloodied tip of her opponent's sword, but before she could hit him again –as Kid had no doubt she was about to – he lunged and drove his own fist into her chest forcefully, sending the blonde flying and then crashing down onto the sand several meters away.

Maka landed hard on her back, losing one of her swords in the process and feeling once more the hardness of the armor digging into her back and limbs, bruising. The fresh cut stung like hell as she eventually moved to sit up, panting hard. The shinigami had not moved, he still stood in the shade of the wall, waiting patiently for her to collect herself off the ground. Every move was painful, it hurt everywhere, but she'd seen worse, Maka told herself, willing her body to stand, even if on shaky legs.

"What are you waiting for?" she called in a hoarse voice, fingers fisting around the handle of the remaining sword. "Come at me!"

Oh well, if we are to put on a show, let's put on a show…

"Shinigami martial arts, stance of sin. I'll finish you off now," Kid recited, his body twisting into an awkward, almost impossible pose. "Here I come!"

Only the blonde didn't exactly see him come… all there was again was the cloud of black smoke and barely a few moments later she was down on her knees, this time completely disarmed, while both her arms were twisted behind her back and held in an iron grip. The shinigami's other hand (she randomly noticed he had tossed aside the black blade) was gripping her neck, pulling her head backwards at a painful angle and applying just enough pressure to still allow her to draw some air. Wide eyed and finding it harder and harder to focus, she looked up through tousled bangs into the impenetrable eye sockets of the now cracked white mask hovering above her face.

This green, so deep and yet so bright… it almost looks unreal… it's her! I know it's her!

Kid had momentarily become so absorbed by his musings that his grip loosened a bit, causing his fingers to slide across the blonde's neck in a sort of caress before he could realise what he was doing and snap out of it. She was completely exhausted, barely breathing now.

"Time for you to sleep now, little Emerald…" he whispered, quickly touching a pressure point in the side of her neck. And everything went black.

Death the Kid currently sulked on his bed, frowning at his meager dinner after having duly concluded that there was no limit to the horrid proportions his mission was going to take. The prince had been pleased with his little performance, but Asura had thoroughly ridiculed him and Gur Kylee had been positively outraged that he'd allowed his mask to be ruined by a girl no less. A jaw dislocating slap had been promptly delivered to him by the fat priest and a generous set of whiplashes also promised if he were to pull such a stunt ever again, and all hell and eventually broken loose when the prince had called Kylee something along the lines of 'prudish old woman' to his face for condemning his bit of fun. And on top of everything, of all his problems, was, of course, the green eyed girl from the House of Galiel. A slave, with her days numbered… could I have been any luckier than this? What the fuck am I supposed to do now?!

"An Emerald? Are you sure about this, master?" Chrona looked puzzled, scratching his head as he pondered.

"Yes, she has the same particular features as the rest of the Emeralds in known history. And it's her, the one we're looking for, I just know it's her. It has to be, too, I hardly believe in coincidences," Kid replied, randomly picking at his plate. "An Emerald, of course. How the hell was I supposed to know, though?"

"Do you think Master Eibon knows about this girl then? I reckon he must know and must have kept it from you for whatever reason…"

The young shinigami snorted. "So we wouldn't loathe the plan even more, I guess. Either way, he wanted her found and it does not make any difference. Like I said, I know it's her. As for the Emerald part, I'll ask you to investigate, just in case. Find her family, or where she comes from. No doubt, Master Eibon would find it very insulting if we claimed to have discovered an Emerald bastard and that turned out to be untrue. But I doubt it – what better tool for Eibon to use for overthrowing the Ourouboros and place himself upon the throne than someone of his own bloodline?"

Chrona scratched his head again, plopping down on the small bed next to his master. "But how does that match with the prophecy? Could he somehow have manipulated the prophecy then?"

"We don't know what the prophecy really is, now do we?" Kid replied, still ill-humored as hell. "Only what he's told us. And if you think of it, it really makes very little sense for the Ourouboros to be destined to be defeated by some random girl, warrior or not. It makes far more sense that she should be from the bloodline of the rival family of mages. In the end, I think it takes a mage to kill another mage"

"I believe so, master, you must be right. I will investigate this matter right away. But…now what?"

The reaper shrugged and sighed. "Still not much of a plan, I'm afraid. But for now I have to make sure she'll survive her wounds… The black blood spares no one"

To be continued