A/N: Woo! This story has reached 102 reviews! Thank you so much everyone, you have no idea how much it means to me.

August 20

I taped in my last box of cigarettes here in this book. I want to keep it to serve as a reminder of how I used to live, so that in a few years, when I look through this book, I'll be able to see what a long way I've made from our lowly street days.

By the way! Future me, if you're looking at this, you'll remember that you hid an emergency $50 under your mattress. Just in case. Thanks!

So, first day of no smoking. This is how it went down:

I quit smoking about 24 hours ago, at 5:32 pm. Here's to over 24 hours without a cigarette!

Today I had to force myself to not reach into my pocket to grab a smoke. I've been drinking a lot of water to try and take my mind off of it. I've also been chewing gum, chewing on straws, chewing on pens, my nails, and eating lots of food. Kid even made me a cup of "symmetrical" tea with lots of sugar and milk to help me relax a bit. It actually worked! And better than cigarettes ever did, at that. I feel completely at ease right now. I guess I should thank him, but that would make him think that I like him, which I don't.

Patty got me some of those sugar sticks that look like cigarettes for me, and I thought they were real cigarettes for a second. I was about to freak out because I saw she had a pack of those. But they're actually very tasty. I've been sucking on a lot of those.

I don't regret a single minute of not smoking so far.

That's about it for my cigarette diary today, but luckily I have some more news.

We did some more weapons training today and Kid got a better hold on us. He's able to shoot 18 bullets in 8 seconds now. He still refuses to hold us the right way, but I can't say I mind too much. Honestly, I think it looks pretty cool.

We're meeting his father soon. I can only imagine what he'll think of us. What if we don't make a good impression? What if he judges us because of our past? What will he do to us then? Slay us on the spot? Would that be the reason Kid took us in in the first place? To have us killed at the hands of the grim reaper? Are we that gullible and desperate?

No, that wouldn't happen. I'm thinking too much about this. I'm sure Mr. Lord Death is a nice guy.

Kid also told us that after we get used to being partners, we'll be able to go on our first mission together. We'll eat the souls of Kishin eggs.

We were also given a basic lesson of what our jobs are.

Our job is to be the weapons of Death the Kid, who will use us to defeat Kishin, evil beings that eat the souls of innocent humans. Apparently, if you eat a lot of innocent human souls, you turn into a monster and your soul is impure. We eat the souls of Kishin eggs, and collect them in our magazines. We won't turn into Kishin, because we aren't eating innocent souls. Kid told us that if a weapon eats 99 Kishin egg souls and the soul of 1 witch, someone who's magical and apparently all part of one big cult or something, they'll turn into a Death Scythe. A weapon of Lord Death himself. That's pretty neat! But he also told us that the Witch's soul is the most difficult and tedious to get. If you mess up getting it, then you have to do your soul collecting all over again. Sounds pretty harsh! I'm glad I'm not the meister and I don't have to be the one to deal with all of this.

Kid also told us about a whole bunch of other weapons. There's scythes, hammers, spears, lanterns, swords, katanas, so on and so forth. I still think we're the coolest kind.

And he explained that the Academy is an organization made by Lord Death himself that trains kids to be able to fight kishin. It's called Death Weapons and Meisters Academy, or the DWMA for short. Kid doesn't go there and we were told that we aren't going to be attending since we have to stay with him.

Most kids would be cheering if they didn't have to go to school, but I dunno. In a way, I do want to get an education. I want to learn new things. I want to make friends. I want to sit at a table for hours at a time doing homework. I want to feel safe within its walls. I even want to be able to complain about it like every other normal kid my age is able to do.

Is that weird?

I don't know. But I'm really tired because Patty and I were running around all day. I think I'm gonna take a nap. It's going to feel great going to sleep and being able to breathe properly.

-Liz