Kid had a migrane.

It came out of absolutely /nowhere/ and woke him out of a sound sleep. He had things to do today, but it was 5 am, blasted unlucky odd number. He wanted his eight hours of sleep. Yes, eight was his number, but it was the optimum number of hours a person needed their rest.

Chrona was sound asleep, curled up in his lover's arms and snuggling against Kid's chest.

Migraines had been a recurring issue over the past few days. Kid had maxed out the safe dosage for Excedrin /twice./ Before Kim finally dumped an herbal remedy on his desk at home room. "Try this, its stronger than the Excedrin and doesn't beat your kidneys and liver with a hammer if you overdose."

"A... arigatou..." Kid mumbled quietly. "I don't know what's going on with me, these migraines just come on like an asymmetrical Mack truck."

"Stress? Our classes /are/ getting more intense. And if you react to /everything/ thats asymmetrical the way you did to the prospect of going into another pyramid, then you probably stressed your body out." Kim suggested.

"I don't know. Anyway, my system might be able to handle a little bit more than they say is safe. Those guidelines were made for humans, my body regenerates damage to vital organs. It takes a few days, but the right injections can speed that process up."

"Yes, but its best not to get into that sort of a situation anyway. /Trust/ me. When my mother was pregnant with me, she had seriously painful migraines /and/ aching ankles and back. She took that /consistently/. Now I may be ornery, but I'm perfectly healthy. So she must have done something right."

"So, how did it go?" Death asked Kid over lunch. "oh dear."

Kid's head was pounding. "Father what do you make of this?" He held up the small bag of herbal remedy. "Kim said it was something for pain that wouldn't put stress on the organs."

"hmmm..." Death picked up the bag, taking a pinch of the substance up on his fingers. "hmm, I haven't seen this remedy in ages. Centuries even." he sniffed it, then slipped a bit into his mask. "hmm, yes this is definitely the one I was thinking of."

"and?"

"Perfectly safe." Death handed the bag back. "I noticed you've been going through a bit of a problem with headaches Kid, is everything alright?"

"yeah, its just these... migranes..." Kid rubbed his forehead, he'd had one for the last half hour.

Shinigami-sama, also known as Lord Death, quickly measured out the required dose into the tea he'd set out for Kid, stirred in two spoonfulls of sugar and then handed it to Kid. "here, and a word of advice, sugar increases its effects. Its unfortunate, but our shinigami anatomy tends to metabolize conventional medicines at a very fast rate. If you wanted to take normal human medicine, you'd have to take the long acting dose, /not/ the fast acting one. It will be gone in a couple of hours if you take Excedrin." Death set the empty pain medicine bottle on the tea table rather pointedly. "If something's wrong you can talk to me you know."

Kid looked down into his tea, Kim must be a master herbalist because the herbal remedy was working almost instantly. He didn't want to tell his father that he'd been having sex with three of his classmates, or the sudden, intense needs for physical contact, even sexual contact, that he felt with those three and especially with Chrona.

"I'm surprised Kim knew that remedy, seeing as it was invented by Eibon's Order." Death mused. "Well well, quite surprising. I should have Athena pay her a visit. You know... a loooong long time ago, a witch from the Black Order sliced off my right arm. Eibon and Michelle tended my wounds while the limb regenerated. He gave me that very remedy Kim made for you to numb the pain, and Michelle figured out what herbs would stimulate the regeneration process."

"you can't do that without letting Kim know that you think she's a witch. And by the way, I followed her last night, she was visiting a witch funerary site in Choco Canyon." Kid frowned. "Its that powerful a remedy?"

Shinigami-sama made a face. "i hate that place. The witches can have it. I just don't want them hurting my students if they're traveling through the area. And if letting them commemorate their dead there unmolested will keep them from killing /my/ charges, then I'll do that." He sighed. "As for the remedy, yes, its capable in a concentrated enough dose and when mixed with sugar or fruit juices of numbing labor pains. Its that strong."

They fell into silence. "I found something there, about mother." Kid said quietly. "There was an inscription calling her a traitor. And when I put my tie clip up to a hole next to the inscription I found a message from her." Kid closed his eyes. "It said to go to the pyramid of Isis. That her gear would be there. Or something from it at least."

Death chuckled. "Stella loved treasure hunts. She used to hide the christmas presents in different places around the house and make me go hunting for them. And usually at the end of the trail of clues, she'd be waiting there with a big red bow tied to the top of her head and she'd say "last present, go ahead and open it." He heard a gusty sigh behind the mask, quite sad. "aaaah, mottainai..."

"What's that?" Kid blinked.

"A philosophical concept in Japanese culture, essentially it means longing for things that have gone and can never come back." Death sighed. "But what happened in the past, it /can/ come back." Death frowned.

"What can?" Kid asked.

"The sun didn't always have a face Kid. Nor did the moon." Death sighed. "For the world to be at peace, the forces that govern Magic have to be in balance with each other. When they aren't, we get the world the way it is now. With kisshins and witches and madness, massive destruction and devastation." Death replied. "But I can't use magic, I don't have that gift, I can't bring back what was lost. Only someone of Eibon's bloodline can. He was called the Great Wizard for a reason." He frowned. "Kid, Stella, she was Eibon's descendant. When your grandmother, Strega, died, she whispered something in my ear. She said that one day soon, someone would be born from her bloodline who could bring the balance back."

"You mean me."

"Possibly, it was less than a year before you were born. Or it could mean your children. We don't know. I am, however, willing to stake quite a bit on your success. I watched you fight the dutchman, what did you say to him?"

"that I didn't want evil destroyed, I wanted it balenced."

"That was the clue right there. Your OCD /was/ born of a disease, but I believe the form it took was because something inside of you seeks balance. Something deep inside your soul is telling you that the way things are is not how they were meant to be, and is trying to tell you what you were meant to do." Shinigami-sama replied. "But thats my opinion, perhaps you have a different one."

"You don't really know do you?"

"Magic is far from my specialty. I know a fair bit about how it works and its more subtle effects, but thats mostly oriented towards history and defense purposes. I /do/ know that people who have the ability to use Magic are very connected to their surroundings. Still, I can only speculate. Even though I've read Eibon's writings top to bottom, I still don't find any explanation for how someone who's magical abilities haven't been activated would manifest or hint at that ability being there. He gave very specific signs of what would happen when the ability emerges, but not before its ready to."

Kid closed his eyes. "I've... I've been having strange dreams, where the ancient deities are watching me, looking at me. They ask me cryptic questions that I don't even understand."

Shinigami-sama looked over at Kid with mild surprise. "Such dreams are part of the quickening. It means that the time has come for you to choose, activate your ability to do magic, and take all the teaching that goes with it, all the responsibility, all the vulnerability... or..."

"Or what?"

"Or choose to let the power lie, in which case, the Gods will sense your refusal, and the dreams will fade. It is a natural process that all people with the potential to use magic go through."

Kid sighed, putting his head down on the table. "I don't know enough to make these kinds of choices. I'm not closed to the idea if it makes Asura's madness weaker and brings balance to the world but... I want more information first." he looked depressed. "you can't tell me anything?"

"Other than fixing the balance could make our enemies weaker, not particularly." Death frowned. "You will need to figure out what your animal is though. I wonder... Stella's spirit guide was the Jackal. She was the priestess of Anubis and Bastet." Kid groaned. Anubis anubis anubis, that dratted jackal kept showing up in his life.

Kid didn't want to talk more about what was going on, he was ashamed really to reveal to his father that he was sleeping with one of his classmates almost nightly and two more of his classmates regularly. And the migraines pretty much made him forget. When he got one he didn't want to talk. And he /certainly/ didn't want to have a father/son talk about the birds and the bees.

Survival class was slightly different, and Kid /almost/ couldn't enter the area that day. "Now that we've done basic techniques, we're going to have a build off this week. Anything in this junk yard you can use. You must create something that will give you one of the survival basics, food, water, heat and communication, shelter, and security. You may work in groups of up to four."

The random, /jarring/ array of scrap wood, metal and plastic in the dump had Kid falling over immediately, blood spurting from his nose. Even though his brain comprehended what Azusa was saying, he couldn't help it, even the sky, with its clouds arranged at random, was more symmetrical than the junk yard.

"M... Maka-chan... Ki... Kiddo-kun um... ano..." Chrona tugged on Maka's sleeve. "Can I team up with you and Soul? Ki... Kiddo is... um... I don't think I'll pass this assignment if I work with him."

That jarred Kid awake. "Must... get... up..." he muttered, blushing furiously. "Must... brave... asymmetry... for... chrona..." He moaned. Then a few seconds later. "NOOOOOOOOO, even the sky is more symmetrical than this junk yard! Liz, Patti, quickly, cover my eyes!"

Patti laughed uproariously. Liz grabbed Kid by the collar. "Snap out of it. Your boyfriend is pairing off with someone else for the assignment, because /you're/ too neurotic to be of any use!"

Kid started to cry as Liz shook him. "You're right, I'm horrible asymmetrical scum not even worthy of Chrona... just flush me down the toilet with some toilet paper that doesn't have the end folded into a triangle." Kid wailed.

"Azusa-sensei, I think Kid needs a few moments to breathe."

Kid stumbled to a toilet somewhere in the jumble and threw up in it. "so... asymmetrical... cannot look." Kid covered his eyes with his sleeve, then crossed his arms over his eyes so that they were covered in a symmetrical fashion. Liz calmly dragged her Meister out of the junk yard.

Chrona started to cry. "I thought I knew how to deal with Kid's neurosis. But this is horrible, when he gets like this he doesn't want me anymore!" Chrona sobbed.

"Chrona thats not true." Patti said happily. "When Kid's neurosis gets out of hand he says a lot of things he doesn't mean. Its not you he doesn't want, its the junk in this junk yard." She patted him on the back. "When Kid gets like this, you deal with it by giving him a hug and telling him he's not whatever horrible thing he says he is."

Chrona nodded. In the end, Chrona ended up in a group with Maka, Soul, and Patti. Kim, Jackie, Ox and Havar were in another group. Kilik, thunder, fire, and Tsubaki were in group number three, and that unfortunately left Blackstar as the odd man out.

Azusa sighed. "Blackstar, one second, I'm going to see if Kid can continue and if not I'll have Liz keep an eye on him and put you with Kilik."

"Can you put me with Soul's group instead?" Blackstar asked hopefully.

"Blackstar, dude, we need someone else with strong muscles." Kilik pointed out. "Fire and thunder are too young to do much heavy lifting."

"I still want to be in Soul's group."

"But surely a big man like you wouldn't let two little kids lift heavy objects on their own." Kilik said slyly. Fire and Thunder looked up at Blackstar with hugely cute eyes. "After all, they could get hurt."

That did it. Appeal to Blackstar's ego and make it seem like they couldn't do it without him. "okay! You're totally right, it would be uncool for a big man like me to let a couple of little kids do all the work."

Soul snorted and burst out laughing.

"You have a week to come up with your builds. You may not use an electrically powered tool but you /can/ use the abilities of your weapons if you want."

Ox rubbed his hands together, motioning for Kim, Jackie and Havar to lean in close. "I got an idea, lets make an electrical storage cell that stores electricity from Havar's techniques."

"I want to do something that showcases Jackie's fire abilities though." Kim sighed.

Kid sat there dumbly outside the junk yard with Liz. Liz sighed, sitting back to back with her Meister. She was bored, but she wasn't going to leave Kid. "I let Chrona down. He wanted to be in my group, and I can't do anything."

Azusa smiled as she approached the two. "Kid, I can come up with a make up assignment. I wanted to challenge you though. Sometimes you have to push that neurosis down and confront it without being destructive."

"Thats not the point, I'm supposed to be looking after Chrona, and I /can't/ while he's in there."

Chrona curled up in his usual position while he, Maka, Soul and Patti tossed ideas back and forth. Ragnarok seemed to think they should make a flamethrower. Chrona shook his head and wanted to do something to do with water and food. Soul was thinking a heating system and Patti just decided to go with whatever they chose.

Maka hmmmed. "What if we make a solar work station? We can use sunlight to do all those things at once."

"okay, i'm listening." Soul was crouched with them.

"Well, the sun can be used for distillation, cooking, and heating." Maka explained. "The shelter would need to have a black surface to catch the heat, but could be very warm. For the still we'd need glass, for the cooking both metal /and/ glass. And we'd need some clear plastic tubing."

Blackstar, Kilik, fire and thunder put their heads together, trying to come up with something that could showcase Fire and Thunder's abilities as Nature Shamen.

Nature Shamen were a /unique/ psychic and magical phenomenon. They could use limited nature magic without being affected by the sway of magic that made witches hostile. And they had a powerful connection with their surroundings and a lot of empathy. In a combat situation, they were very reliable as an early warning system for concealed witches and kisshins. But they also had an ingenius sense for harmonizing with the very elements that posed a shelter risk.

Chrona suddenly stopped, and shook his head. "This is wrong." He muttered.

"What is?" Soul was poking through crates and pulling out large panes of glass for Maka to approve or disapprove as reflectors and focusing devices.

"I want Kid to be able to participate." Chrona said stubbornly. He sat down and refused to move.

"Okay /how/." Patti asked.

"Hey! We could make a symmetrical work area."

"I repeat, how?" Patti asked.

"um..." Chrona hesitated. "WALLS!"

"huh?" Maka blinked, looking at the panel of glass in front of her. "SHEET METAL!" She exclaimed. "We need it as straight and square as we can get." She clapped Chrona on the back. "C'mon Chrona, get up. This will help our build too. Patti, give me a hand."

"What are you going to do."

Maka began to draw. "4 walls of sheet metal, each consisting of 8 panels. The metal catches the sun's reflection and helps heat and light the area and we can put it to better use. Inside, we want a three sided leanto, preferably with a dark surface on the back and glass on the other two sides. Find two objects that Kid can use as a cane and something to cover his eyes so he can't see the junkyard."

"Heh, one for each hand."

"Thats right, Meisters can feel bare if they're away from their partners too long, having a cane in each hand would be a pacifying gesture not only for his OCD but the curvature of the canes would feel like the handle of a gun to a blind gun user. Liz and Patti can guide him further by sending out pings of their wavelength or by resonating with him while he walks in order to help distract his neurosis." Of course, a meister with any form of mental instability could often see an improvement in their condition through their training. So Liz and Patti themselves could help Kid surpress his OCD long enough.

"Once we get the panels up, we can get this moving. Chrona, patti, don't tell Kid what we're doing, it will be a surprise."

When Azusa came back, she blinked in surprise at the wood scaffolding that was already going up. "You've started already on fortifications? I'd have expected something more from you Maka."

Maka was concentrating very, very hard on the piece of sheet metal in front of her. "Thats not what I was thinking of ma'am, hear Chrona out please."

"Its not fair Kid can't participate in the lesson because of his OCD." Chrona said stubbornly. "So we're building a symmetrical work area for him to use as a sanctuary."

"Very good." Azusa got a small quirk of a smile on her face. "Extra marks if he doesn't have a reaction."

Maka frowned, studying the piece of sheet metal. "Patti can your bullets tear through metal."

"Oh sure, Oneechan and I have done it loads of times. Just because we shoot spirit energy doesn't mean it can't penetrate an inanimate object and leave a bullet hole." Patti giggled. "See if you can lift me Maka." she changed into a weapon.

Maka found adjusting to Patti's wavelength took quite awhile. She had to clear her mind of everything, calm herself, and then she felt the hyperactive vibration of Patti's soul. "Gotcha!" Maka lifted Patti off the ground. "Okay, I'm going to test your bullets to see how big a hole they make." Maka carefully aimed Patti at a test piece of sheet metal.

It didn't take long to use Soul, Ragnarok (in Chrona's case) and Patti to cut symmetrical sheets of metal. By the time the 15 minute warning went out by Azusa, they had the outer walls up. A broken yard stick and broken tape measure served as a flat edge to guage angle with.

So blindfolded, with Liz and Patti in his hands and Chrona gently pulling him by the arm, Kid carefully entered the special enclosure that Maka had designed. Soul grinned, replacing the pull out pair of panels that would act as an entry point. "We should mount these on a spring trigger."

"You brought me into the junk yard didn't you?" Kid asked, feeling over the blindfold.

"Chrona wouldn't work unless we found a way for you to participate." Maka deadpanned. "This was the easiest way."

When Kid removed the blindfold, he found himself inside of four walls made of sheet metal. Four small tables, one in each corner, and a larger table in the exact middle of the enclosure between the other two. Materials deemed alright had been placed in four piles exactly the same distance apart. And between them bins had been set up.

"I used what I knew about OCD to try to figure out how to distract you from it. And I came up with the idea of setting it up so you could take your OCD out sorting materials from the debris piles and figuring out what of it is usable. So the bins are for you to sort things into. You get to be our sorter." Maka snickered.

"What's usable?"

"Yeah, and usable doesn't mean symmetrical, it means its undamaged enough that we can fix it or turn it into something new." Maka told him.

Kid was slowly acclimating to the "sanctuary" from the asymmetry of the main junk yard. It was unusually hot, and bright, the sun was reflecting off the walls. But he could count the eight panels on each wall, the eight bolts used to fasten each panel to the wood frame, and that calmed him down long enough to catch his breath.

Kid groaned as he started to realize that in a true survival situation, symmetry might not be an option. There would be junk, disorder, chaos... it wasn't a good place to be. He'd have to learn to surpress his OCD long enough to get out of whatever area he was in.

Kid took a deep breath, hands out, carefully running them over the piles of junk, trying to pick some semblance of order from the chaos. There were several items in here that were useful.

Kid moved on to the containers, plastic barrels for large items, plastic buckets for small, each measured into a perfect circle. It was chaotic, but Kid's eyes, conditioned by his OCD, began to pick symmetrical shapes and intervals of eight placed carefully throughout the fenced in area. Even the physical features in the work area were arranged so that if Kid faced a wall, he could count eight objects arranged symmetrically. If viewed from above, the work area was almost in and of itself a geometric mandala.

Chrona looped an arm around Kid's waist and leaned into his side. Kid chuckled. "Thanks. Lemme finish checking okay? Then I'm all yours."

Kid didn't get to finish checking, the bell rang, and as they headed to their next class, Maka explained to Kid what she had in mind for their project. A shelter/compound arrangement that would allow for solar production of most of the survival basics. The one thing they couldn't get that easily was food, but they could account for that by rigging a solar dryer. Plastic tubing was easier than glass piping, but she wanted Kid to see if Liz and Patti could somehow rig their spirit bullets into a stream of soul wavelength rather than an actual bullet, with any luck they could create almost a welding sort of technique with it. And if that failed there was the fundemental manuver of channeling their wavelength into a finger sized stream for the same purpose. The issue was that this was difficult for most Meisters to get the hang of. Even Kid had issues with focusing and shaping his wavelength into a specific shape that wasn't symmetrical.

It was a long day, and at the end of it, he'd convinced Patti to massage the top of his head, and that felt a lot better. Then he went from head to toe through the house making it symmetrical before sitting down to go over Maka's designs. It wasn't particularly bad, two water distillers on either side of the shelter, the back end covered in... he couldn't quite read her hand writing on that spot... ah there it was, either something black or something made of metal to absorb the heat. Use two sheets of plywood on the bottom of the shelter elevated on bricks... why on earth. Oh yes, air circulation kept the shelter from becoming too cold. They were in the desert after all, the desert night was far colder than the daytime. A row of four solar ovens would be around the front of the shelter. Four? Not eight? Oh right... Kid realized Maka had been using numbers that could be added or multiplied into the number eight. Really, she'd been quite thoughtful hiding all these repetitions of his number in the project. And all to pacefy his OCD.

After he'd finished his homework, and his dinner, Kid retired up to his room with Chrona. And as the two of them drifted off to sleep, Chrona mumbled. "Kiddo-kun, your belly has a pretty glow..."

Kid sat up straight. "Chrona?"

"its all blurry though, I can't see it too well..." His hands lightly traced Kid's abdomen. Kid hissed in pleasure, the area was sensitive damnit!

It wasn't just physical sensation though, this... /powerful/ emotion wrapped him up in its grip. It wasn't bad, it felt amazingly good. But it had Kid even more confused than he'd been before. Kid shuddered in pleasure, wrapping his arms tightly around the other boy. Chrona blinked. "anooo..."

Kid smirked, nuzzling into Chrona's chest. "shhhh, go to sleep."

Kid was late to lunch, looking up archaic low tech builds for survival class and trying to find something that was symmetrical that he could make to contribute to the group project. But his mind kept going back to the disturbing swings of maternal emotion and lustful desire that had been plaguing him of late. Even with his migranes, Kid had still felt them.

And so, he decided to put aside his school assignment. He headed into the library, flashed his ID to get into the restricted section, and made a beeline for the section about Shinigami. He pulled out a book on Shinigami anatomy.

Four volumes and Kid was impatiently flicking pages when he found what he was looking for entirely by accident on page 85. And even then, he only noticed it because one of the page numbers was an 8. The volume was hand written, and very faded. But Kid had a sinking feeling that this was his father's handwriting several hundred years before. The thought of his father writing an academic treatise on how his species mated really, really evoked mixed feelings for Kid that ossilated between disgust and a need for answers.

intense pair bonding may occur, but it doesn't always happen just with one person. Shinigami who are undergoing this process develop a low level empathic sense for their chosen mate's presence, similar to the bonds they often share with their weapons.

Kid flicked to the previous page and soon he got the full passage. He read it four times over, and still couldn't quite process it.

Mating rituals between shinigami are very emotionally intense, and the first signs that a young reaper is coming of age usually come in the form of emotional pangs of need for affection or attention out of character for the individual. A powerful instinct to nurture, from animals to a garden to human friends and comrades may occur as well. It is especially small cute things that stimulate this response.

During mating, intense pair bonding may occur, but it doesn't always happen just with one person. Shinigami undergoing this process develop a low level empathic sense for their chosen mate's presence, similar to the bonds they often share with their weapons. This bonding reaction is triggered by sexual intercourse, and consists of small pulses of wavelength between the would be mates.

Chrona found Maka in the exact part of the library that Kid had just left, looking over books on sun experiments and sustainability. "M... m... maka-chan? Can I ask you a question?"

"Hmm?" Maka blinked out of her intense concentration on the book and smiled. "Sure Chrona."

"L... Last night right before I went to bed, I saw a blue glow in Kid's stomach."

"A glow? Where?"

Chrona pointed to the spot on his body. "here..." Lower abdomen. Maka frowned.

"My first reaction is that you were starting to develop soul perception."

"Thats what I thought, except its only right before I go to sleep and its really blurry." Chrona rubbed his eyes.

Maka shrugged. "i read awhile back that some people develop limited forms of soul perception. I even read about a case in 1850 where one of Blackstar's clansmen developed a synesthesia type form of the ability where the souls he saw were represented with constellations and astrological symbols, even nordic runes. I wouldn't worry about it too much, I think your soul is just developing the way all human souls do."

"But the light..."

"Thats the strange part." Maka rubbed her forehead. "Stein had me study the visual cues associated with soul perception when the ability first emerged. In a woman a smaller soul growing in the abdomen means a pregnancy. But Kid's a guy, I mean, there's a weapon mutation that allows male weapons to have kids but its like... super rare. Like less than 10 in the world at any given time."

Chrona nodded.

"Look, I'm not sure whats going on, if you're worried about him, tell Kid you're worried. Even if he says not to worry about him, its okay to tell him when you're concerned about him okay?"

Chrona nodded again.

Maka bit her lip. "Chrona...?"

"Yes?"

Maka hesitated, and then it just kinda boiled over, and Maka started to cry. "I... I found out something recently, I... I found out that... that mumma wasn't really mumma and..."

Chrona blinked.

"I found out that my other parent is Stein-hakase..." Maka sniffled. "And I don't know how to feel, or how I should be handling it. Mumma still feels like mumma to me. I can't feel any bond to Stein at all beyond that of a teacher and a student and... I mean... they never told me the truth. Papa was scared of what I'd say or do if I found out. He was scared I wouldn't turn out normal. But now... now that I've learned later I feel like such a freak."

Chrona shuffled over to Maka and hugged her tightly. "Maka-chan... what you told me goes for your father too. You should deal with it by telling him this..."

"I can't... I can't... there is... no bond, to either of them... I grew up hating my father for cheating on my mother, and it turns out their marriage was a sham to protect me. He did all that because he thought he was protecting me..."

Chrona was about to answer when he heard a... "YAHOO! ITS OVER HERE TSUBAKI!" Blackstar came running down the aisle. Then he saw Maka crying. "MAKA! Bask in the big wonderfullness of ORE-SAMA AND DRY AWAY YOUR TEARS!" Blackstar squeezed Maka and Chrona both in a choking tight bear hug.

Maka squirmed trying to get away. "Blackstar, can't breathe..."

"...ORE-SAMA WILL MAKE YOU SMILE AGAIN AND LAUGH A BIG HEARTY BELLY LAUGH BECAUSE BIG LAUGHS ARE THE ONLY WAY TO LAUGH, JUST TAKE IT FROM THE MAN WHO WILL SURPASS..." Maka, desperate for air, kicked Blackstar, aiming for the shins and accidentally hitting him in the crotch.

"YOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW" Blackstar yelled.

"BAKAAAA!" Maka chopped Blackstar on the head.

"SHHHHHHHHHH!" The librarian glared at Maka from the desk, and glared even harder at Blackstar.

Maka sniffled on the ground and Tsubaki smiled warmly down at her. "Are you alright Maka-chan? I know it was loud and rude, but he was only trying to get you to stop crying."

Blackstar sat there, stunned and clutching his crotch with one hand and his bleeding head with the other.

Maka wrapped her arms around Tsubaki and hugged the kursari gama. "Blackstar, do you mind if Tsubaki and I have some alone time tonight?"

"not at all..." Blackstar stammered.

"you going out with Tsubaki tonight?" Soul asked, peering around the corner.

"Yeah, why?"

"Blackstar and I have a Halo game and a couple of 2 liters calling our names... well, that and a /lot/ of sex." Soul grinned cheesily at his Meister.

"YAHOO!" Blackstar magically recovered and pounced Soul.

It happened in a flash...

BAWOOOOOOOOOOSHHH! A rush of magic shot through the library, Maka heard a yelp of shock from Kid, all coming from the restricted section.

Several blurs shot past her, one, two, three, four, five, six... a long pause, then a rattle, rattle, crash and an "oh BOTHER." and another crash. The bookshelf nearest Maka threatened to fall over on top of her. "SHIT!" At the time Maka thought the deeper timbre of her voice was from crying and the shock of being attacked. She instinctively grabbed Chrona and Tsubaki by the collar and hauled them out of the way.

Then the source of the crash became appearant. Kid was stumbling around with something clinging to his face. "HELP! I'm all off balance!" Kid's voice sounded almost like it had been knocked up an octave or two.

"oh fluff and bodkins, my cloak! Its caught on this bratling reaper's coat button!" A second voice shrieked.

"GET IT OFF OF MY FACE!" Kid yelled. "OFF OFF OFF!" he struggled, and pulled the... thing... off of his face. It ripped off a coat button. Kid's jaw dropped to the floor, then he fell over, blood spurting from his nose.

Only, Kid wasn't a he anymore, there were breasts pushing his coat taught, rather large ones too.

And suddenly behind him Blackstar yelled. "I... I... I... I'VE GOT BIG TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTSS!"

Soul laughed, then realized he'd changed too when his voice was different. "This is so uncool."

Chrona was slightly more buxom, but otherwise still the same.

The people in the library that afternoon were going through similar states of shock. Maka noted in disgust that her father was squeezing his own breasts and clinging to Stein, who seemed otherwise non plussed.

Liz and Patti ran for their Meister immediately. "Kid!" They both looked rather thuggish.

"What on earth?" Tsubaki had become tall, broad shouldered, and strong. Her normally curvaceous chest flat and hard. Her body was firm and well toned. Maka started patting herself over and realized her hair had turned short. Her form slender. She was wearing a boy's school uniform and a beret under her coat, which was suddenly very tight in the wrong places and too loose in the right ones.

The... thing, was face first in a pile of books, only its tiny bird like feet twitching in the air. "oh bother..." it was mumbling.

Stein finally managed to get an extremely lustful Spirit off of him and strode over, plucking the thing from the pile of books. "Well well well, Toc, its been what... twenty years?"

"About that yes..." The creature peered up into Stein's face... "Franken? I thought I knew that creepy wavelength!"

"How'd you get out?"

"The jail cell broke." Toc replied. "It was the watch towers combined with age and wear. Their rather nostalgic wavelength tore open the seal. And then /that/ bratling reaper blunders into my shelf by mistake, and the book got knocked over. All it took was the tap."

"Wonderful, that means I have to deal with an..."

Spirit latched onto Stein's waist. "me luv you long time, c'mon, lets go skip work for..."

Maka glared at Spirit, thumping a book menacingly in her hand. "Explain now or the both of you get chopped."

"Its quite simple." Stein replied. "There are three known copies of a magic tool known as "The Book of Eibon." One of them is in Shibusen's restricted section and /had/ special seals on it keeping what was inside from getting out into the city. One of them was taken apart by Arachne and we're still trying to retrieve the pages. The third is long lost. And Toc here is programmed not to tell us where it is."

"Ah well, there's a lot of things i'm programmed not to do. Knowledge must not be given freely, it must be earned." Toc had a rather sharp brittish accent, very proper and prim and this sort of a... querelous voice. (1)

Kid sat straight up screaming. "AAAAAAAAAH, I'M A GIRLLLLLLLLLL!" Then he fainted again. Patti laughed rather dumbly.

"I feel stupider."

"Tsuuuubaaakiiii..." Blackstar clung to Tsubaki's arm, rubbing his breasts along it. "Come play Halo with me and Soul. You can braid my hair!"

Tsubaki blushed, carefully prying her Meister off her, blushing furiously.

Maka glared at Blackstar, pulling Tsubaki to her. "He may be your weapon but he's my man." She stuck her tongue out at Blackstar.

"how rude!" Blackstar stuck her tongue out right back. "Stuck up nerd! You should get bent over a bed sometime it would do you good."

Soul started laughing. Maka chopped Blackstar. "Don't think I won't chop you just because you've been turned into a girl!"

Kilik burst out laughing too, he, Fire, Thunder, Ox, Havar, Kim and Jackie had pushed their way through the crowd. Kilik was wearing a school girl sailor suit, hair done up in cornrows and pulled into a ponytail. Fire and thunder were wearing rather cute little pinafores. Ox's hair had grown out, though his bangs hung down long and spikey. And Kim was... surprisingly /buff./ Jackie's hair was long, for a guy, pulled back behind her in a ponytail. Havar's hair had grown a few inches, and his female body was rather skinny and reedy, with just a hint of curve in the chest and slightly more round hips. But his feminity showed more in bone structure than it did in curves.

Stein sighed. "I'm sure Shinigami-sama's heard this."

"ah yes, well... no doubt he's been."

"STEEEEIINNN!" Shinigami-sama bellowed, striding across the floor. "Where is that little hoodlum?"

"Dad is mad." Kid deadpanned.

Shinigami-sama had taken human form, and /his/ body had become just as buxom and curvaceous as... well... Kid's mom.

Kid blinked, recognizing his father by his wavelength but not used to the flustered, irate expression on his face the slightest.

"Seal broke..." Toc deadpanned.

"you were supposed to maintain it." Shinigami-sama snapped. "For this very reason."

"It broke because you suck at making them." Spirit pointed out. "You /suck/ at sealing things without help remember?"

"Right now the only thing thats going to suck is you trying to spit out your teeth." Shinigami-sama threatened.

"With all respect sir, your seals are rather sub par. Perhaps the bratling reaper might have better luck." Toc said cooly. Clearly there was tension here. Kid couldn't place it, the two simply... did not... get along.

Shinigami-sama sighed. "I should explain." he told the students now staring at him and the strange puppet clearly animated to sentience by Magic. "inside the book of Eibon there are seven demons sealed in there to keep people from stealing its secrets. Each one stands for one of the seven deadly sins. The magic that came out of the book into the library is from the demon of Lust, the Succubus, and it changes people into the opposite gender, more specifically what they're attracted to in the opposite gender."

Which explained why Maka was slender and petite still. She clung to Tsubaki, though the kusari gama was giving off an increasingly flustered sexual wavelength. Tsubaki wrapped possessive arms around Maka's waist. Maka could sense the /tension/ in Tsubaki's wavelength. The weapon wasn't dealing well with changing at all.

Chrona was clinging to Kid, while Ragnarok was happily playing with Chrona's new chest and cackling meanly. At some point Chrona grabbed a fallen book and smashed Ragnarok on the head with it. "QUIT IT!" He yelled.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE BEING TURNED FROM A MACHO GUY INTO A CHICK?" Ragnarok shrilled. "I NEED TO BEAT YOU MORE!" Ragnarok started hitting Chrona in the head.

Chrona responded by shoving the book he was holding into Ragnarok's mouth and then punching him in the nose. "YOU'RE A HORRIBLE PERSON RAGNAROK! I HATE IT WHEN YOU ACT LIKE THIS AND I JUST WISH YOU'D STOP! WHY ARE YOU SO GROSS ALL THE TIME? EVEN WHEN YOU'RE A GIRL YOU'RE VULGER! YOU ACT LIKE MY SEX LIFE IS A JOKE AND YOU'RE INTENSELY DISRESPECTFUL TO THE PEOPLE I CARE ABOUT MOST BECAUSE IT BOTHERS YOU THAT THEY CARE! YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS RAGNAROK? YOU'RE JEALOUS OF THE ATTENTION! SO YOU THINK IF YOU MISBEHAVE LONG ENOUGH PEOPLE WILL PAY YOU ATTENTION!"

Ragnarok stared, face turning from black to pure white. Maka stared. Shinigami-sama plugged his ears. "Chrona?"

"I... I..." Chrona turned red in the face. "WHATS WRONG WITH MEEEE!" Chrona fell to the ground and whimpered, beating on the carpet. "I've suddenly got Maka's temper and Kid's self consciousness! Its very uncomfortable and I want it to stop!"

"yes well there is that." Toc croaked drolly. "By "what you're attracted to in the opposite gender" I also mean personality. So if there's someone you're quite fond of... you might find yourself picking up some of their habits. Sorry."

"I feel... bubbly." Kid frowned. "Sexy... like I don't have a care in the world! I don't even care how asymmetrical the books are... but for some reason, I'm having severe trouble dealing with the /stares./ I feel bare... naked..." Kid looped his arms around Chrona's waist, almost as if by doing so he could quiet the sudden sense of... being /bare./ How must people see him? With his neurosis, and now he wasn't a neurotically obsessive /boy./ He was a moody, neurotic, obsessive girl with low self esteem.

"God Chrona how do you /deal/ with this?" Kid demanded. "This is intolerable! I feel the sudden need to hide in my room and not come out! But at the same time I feel... perky? I feel stupider even!"

"That would probably be meeeee." Patti chimed. "You even have my chest." She heheheheh'd a bit, snickering like a thug.

Liz sighed. "What a drag, i'm going to have to redo my nails."

"its worse than that." Shinigami-sama sighed. "Toc and I are going to have to repair the seal on the book, I'm going to need you guys to put the seven demons back."

"I counted six blurs."

"Are you sure Maka?"

"Very, I have keen eyesight even as a guy." Maka replied. "School's long out for the day, my outfit is very uncomfortable, and I really probably should rest. I wasn't feeling particularly happy when this started anyway. And I can feel how uncomfortable Tsubaki's wavelength is from here."

By the time they got Tsubaki home, the poor weapon was red in the face with a tent between her legs. "g... g... gomen... maka-chan... I..." Tsubaki blushed.

"Are you okay?" Maka closed the door to her room and hopped up onto the bed, gesturing for Tsubaki to join her.

"yes... to be honest, I feel this way a lot when we cuddle like we do. You just can't see it because I normally don't have a penis but..." Tsubaki groaned. "You're just that arousing."

Maka blushed furiously, looking up at the kusari gama. "I turn you on that often?"

Tsubaki nodded, blushing. "I am actually far more lustful than I appear." she admitted. "Its just that I don't act on it. And with you, I was trying to be... polite... I knew it was your first relationship and you weren't feeling very secure in your sexuality in the first place."

"No, but this is my chance to explore it." Maka rested her head on Tsubaki's chest. "i've always wondered what its like to have a penis."

"really..."

"yeah, usually right before I'm about to masturbate but yeah." Maka blushed, "c... can I see? I'll strip if you will."

Tsubaki blushed furiously, hauling Maka into a passionate kiss. "Sure..." She purred. Maka blushed furiously, slipping off her jacket, gloves, and the shirt, hat and slacks that for some reason had replaced her usual outfit. It felt weird seeing the bulge in her panties, and when Maka slipped them off, her member bobbed free, half hard already from the lust she'd sensed from Tsubaki.

Their desire was feeding on each other, their movements slow, hesitant. Maka flattened her body against Tsubaki's taller one. Their lips met again in an earth shattering kiss. Tsubaki wrapped a hand around Maka's member and pumped, clumsily working it to arousal. "mmmph..." Maka growled softly. "Lube... Tsubaki..." She panted, trying to catch her breath.

Curse this male body, her female one was actually more sensitive but her male one seemed to have absolutely no control over urges that Maka had partially found frightening until only recently. What kept her going was the knowledge that regardless of body this was still Tsubaki. Still just as gentle, still just as tender.

The first finger going in caused Maka to squeak, Tsubaki had found lotion to prepare her with. The squeak was followed by a moan, for when the finger went in, the kusari gama's lips found her erection. Maka moaned a second time as Tsubaki took more of her in. The second finger pinched, and Maka raised her legs to give Tsubaki a better angle. That alleviated the pinching and gave access to a point the weapon was looking for.

Maka screamed in pleasure, head rolling back, neck arched. Yes, curse this male body with its lack of control. Tsubaki smirked, eyes half lidded as she began to lick the head, dipping her tongue into the slit. Maka groaned, writhing on the bed in pleasure.

Then the fingers were gone, and Maka blinked, pouting in disappointment. Then Tsubaki's lips sealed hers in a kiss, and the head gently pushed in. Maka moaned, arms tightening around Tsubaki's shoulders. "nnnggg..."

Tsubaki quieted her with gentle, feather kisses on her face and soft caresses while she waited for her lover to adjust. "move..." Maka mumbled. Tsubaki chuckled, only to be hushed as Maka pulled her down into a demanding kiss.

The weapon purred into Maka's lips, and started to thrust, shifting angle as she tried to find the spot again. Suddenly Maka bucked under Tsubaki, gasping and arching into the thrust. Tsubaki smiled, hands wandering Maka's body as she took a steady, slow pace that would allow them to enjoy themselves.

Two bodies moved and swayed against each other, covered in sweat, shivering and shuddering in pleasure. Tsubaki was able to draw the pleasure out for awhile, but then Maka felt her entire lower body writhe and her balls clench. "aaaahhhh..." She hissed softly. Tsubaki moaned Maka's name, coming to completion inside of her.

Exhausted from their exertions, the two seperated and lay there. Tsubaki wrapped warm arms around Maka's waist. "Maka?"

"Hmmm?"

"You alright?"

"Yeah." silence, and then. "Tsubaki?"

"Hmm?"

"I don't want to get up."

Tsubaki laughed, looping strong arms around her lover and smiling in a way that was purely her. "Then don't."

Kid peeked into the door to his father's study. Shinigami-sama was meditating, Spirit was in weapon form in his lap. Toc was fiddling with something on his desk. "Durn seal." The construct whispered quietly.

Ox ran up behind Kid. Kid carefully eased the door closed. "Did you get it?"

"Yeah, took me awhile." Ox pulled out a book on magical classification. "Toc is a magical construct. Its a broad category of beings from simple Golems and familiars to complex animated creatures. Toc is classified as a Fithfath. But there's some pretty deep shit mentioned in this book. Appearantly only the strongest magic users can make sentient constructs. It usually involves either implanting it with a piece of your own soul or charging it up with your wavelength like a battery."

"And a fithfath is?"

"A bundle of elemental materials, such as earth, wood, water, wind, ecetera, configured into a puppet and animated with an artificial soul. And here's the crappy thing, there's no law in Shibusen's charter about creating artificial souls. Its frowned upon, the process is highly controversial and tightly regulated. But there's no law against it."

Kid nodded, shivering. He didn't like that kind of research, but as he skimmed the passage under "Ethics" of that kind of magic he realized that the reason why Shibusen hadn't outlawed it was out of concern that outlawing research into artificial souls would result in the beings created by that research being treated as second class citizens with no rights. The reason for not making it illegal was to preserve the right to life of artificially made beings that had souls. In part, the reason why Sid was still allowed to teach was because certain kinds of protections were put into place for non human, non kisshin beings.

Toc was technically protected unless he broke one of shinigami-sama's rules.

Kid snapped the book shut. "How's Chrona?"

"Terrified, and trying not to show it. He started arranging the picture symmetrically, the one in the library?"

Kid groaned. "The personality altering must be in effect on him still."

"It isn't on you?"

"No, it faded about an hour ago, except for some strange fascination with giraffes."

Ox laughed. "Patti."

"Yeah, I seemed to have gotten some of her personality traits and some of Chrona's." Kid sighed. "I'm hoping the personality warping effects fading means that I'll change back. You Ox?"

"eh... well as you can see, my rampent crush on Kim has come to bite me on the ass." Ox said irritably. "Except for these two pillars, well... same build, same height, same proportions, and same hair."

Kid chuckled bitterly.

"And your father?"

"He and Spirit are meditating, and I'm hoping Toc is working on something to change us back."

Kid started walking towards the library in gallows manor, Ox walked along beside him. "Lets see if we can find something in the private library."

"And check on Chrona right?"

"Yes, hitting two birds with one stone." Kid replied. "i'm very concerned what Chrona is going through. And my neurosis is not a condition I'd wish on anybody."

Ox nodded. "OCD right?"

"Eh, sort of." Kid sighed. "Its an immune reaction caused by step bacteria. The antibodies attacked my brain, causing severe OCD."

"Pandas." Ox realized.

"You're familiar with it?"

"I read scientific journals, including medicine, frequently."

Kid nodded. "I got special permission from Azusa-sensei to carry antibiotics with me."

Ox sighed. "I wonder if Mifune's going to be alright."

"eeeh." Kid had completely forgotten about the samurai. "Well, why don't we go check on him in the hospital when we're back to normal."

Ox nodded, they turned the corner into the library and blinked.

Chrona was chin rubbing as he regarded a picture, carefully measuring it with a yard stick. "Yep, personality changes still seem to be effecting him." Ox stated.

Kid chuckled, looping his arms around Chrona while the demon swordsman checked the picture. "Hey there."

"I can't tell if I've got it right." Chrona sighed.

"Thats the way it always is for me." Kid chuckled, kissing Chrona on each cheek.

"Fortunately, the effects are only temporary." Shinigami-sama entered the library. "Gomen, son, I heard you outside my office, did you need something?"

"No, just checking up on you." Kid replied quietly. "I was worried when I found out it got you."

Shinigami-sama laughed. "Toc's gotten out before. And so has the succubus that causes this."

"Really? When?"

Shinigami-sama chuckled. "Back when Spirit and Stein were students here. Azusa had just become a deathscythe and had celebrated by getting a huge stack of books out of the restricted section of the library and sharing them with Kami and Stein. They'd accidentally grabbed the Book of Eibon, and when Spirit started being Spirit he accidentally broke the seal on the book." Shinigami-sama chuckled. "Ooooh, the current generation of Deathscythes and their Meisters were such rugrats when they were students." (2)

"The implied mental images are disturbing." Stated Kid.

Shinigami-sama squealed, hugging his son. "Oooooh, you were such a cute baby! Kiddo I should show you your baby book sometime! I even have the hair from your first haircut! Its got a cute ickle line of sanzu in it."

Kid's face twitched, he fell over, whimpering gloomily. "You even have pictures of me as an asymmetrical baby. I'm a failure. I was born a failure. I'll die a failure... wait a minute... THE LAST THING I WANT TO SEE IS THAT I HAD STRIPES IN MY HAIR AS A BABY TOO!" Kid yelled, getting up and glaring at his father angrily. "DO YOU HAVE TO EMBARRASS ME IN FRONT OF MY FRIENDS?"

Shinigami-sama started to cry. "MY KIDDO KUN HATES ME!" He sobbed, throwing his arms around Spirit and wailing.

Spirit stared at Shinigami-sama, reaching for the side of his head. When he found no screw, since he didn't have one, he scratched the side of his head, tilting it the same way Stein did. "You have my sympathy but... SPIRIT CHOP!" Whack. "Snap out of it boss."

Shinigami-sama groaned. "This is your fault, I'm only five percent attracted to you, and now I have YOUR DAMNED FUSSY FATHERNESS!"

"And now you're not acting like me, which is creepy by the way, you're acting like Stella."

Kid sighed. "I don't know how to deal with this." He plopped down next to Chrona.

Chrona wriggled out of his arms and moved to the picture again trying to measure the angle.

"We've gone insane, all of us, only explanation." Ox groaned.

"Its okay son! You and your papa can deal with it together!" Shinigami-sama squeezed Kid so hard he nearly choked. Kid made a gagging sound, wormed his way out of Shinigami-sama's arms, dragged Chrona bodily out of the library and to their room, and locked the door.

"Sorry... I know you were... checking... but I... don't know... how to... deal with... father being like this..." Kid panted.

"Its okay, I don't either." Chrona shuddered, slipping off his robe, moving to inspect his female body in the mirror.

Kid sighed, slipping off her shirt, figuring that his father couldn't get in, and he really wanted to cuddle with Chrona at the moment. Even if he were his normal self, Kid would be intimidated by his father acting like that.

Intimidated? Yes, Kid realized that normally he was intimidated by his father. He also realized that this was no exception.

Kid shivered as he wrapped his arms around Chrona. Chrona groaned, snuggling into Kid's grip and stretching his legs. Then Chrona turned around and squeezed one of Kid's oversized breasts. "Our breasts aren't the same size!" Chrona pouted.

Kid laughed, letting Chrona's hands wander down his female form. Chrona giggled. "You're pudgy." Chrona poked Kid's abdomen. Kid squealed, jumping a mile and knocking his head into Chrona's. Then he turned to figure out what Chrona was talking about. Then he realized his abdomen had swollen slightly. It wasn't much, in fact it wasn't by much. Kid got up, entered his private bathroom, and stepped on the electronic scale.

"eeeek." Kid squeaked. "I gained weight!"

"Maybe its cause you've had such a bad headache you haven't been exercising."

Kid sighed. "My OCD's been aggravating me, and it should be easier for Stein to see it when I'm in female form."

"Kid." Chrona looked up at him worriedly. "It shows in your male form too."

"WHAT?" Kid hadn't noticed.

"Its not as noticable, only about half..." Chrona blushed furiously. "I should have said something earlier shouldn't I?"

"Yeah." Kid rolled his eyes skyward.

"I only say something now I think because I'm changed. I was too worried about your freaking out. Now I've got Maka's outspoken ness in my head and I feel like shouting angrily at almost everyone and..." Chrona blushed. "I'm sorry, its so weird having Maka's temper in my head. I'm not afraid to speak my mind now, I might even blurt something out I might have kept quiet before."

"In a way, perhaps this accident is a good thing, it gives us insight into the minds of the people we care about." Kid blushed furiously. He didn't want to let Chrona go, and with the pinkette demon swordsman's personality, and pieces of Patti's in his head, he realized he suddenly had an insight into one of his weapons and his lover.

Kid reached out to flick on the radio, rather bored. The speaker on NPR was quoting in a quiet, mournful tone. "We learn nothing save through suffering, the wisdom of the Gods is forced on us." (3)

Kid smiled, perhaps today wisdom from the gods had been forced on him, but it wasn't necessarily an unpleasant experience.

Toc is a manga character, so there isn't really a voice actor for him. The voice Toc is speaking with in the fic is the voice I'd use if reading the Soul eater manga chapters with him in them aloud.

Imagines baby soul eater characters dressed as the Rugrats, shudders.

I can't remember the greek philosopher who said this, but its being quoted in the story by Michael C. Ruppert. A peak oil guy and one of my favorite authors on the subject. His work is worth looking up.