Authors: Notes
This is another chapter that has a mature content tacked on to the end of it. Read it in the lemon section for those of you who like mature content can read it in the Forever In the Never After Lemon Sequence, which is being updated as a separate story. As always, lemons are optional; you don't have to read them to understand what the heck happened. For those who hate broken apart work the chapter will be posted in its entirety on my web site, which is you can get to from my profile.
One more thing: Definitions.
Tanuki- Japanese folk lore creature, often confused with a raccoon dog. Tanukis are raccoon demons that can morph into other things, and are popular lawn ornaments in Japan. Tanukis have huge gentalia that they use as weapons, according to a ancient Shinto lore. ...I can't tell you to much more or I will ruin it. Anyway I didn't pull this crud out of my rear. It's actually from a jump rope rhyme and in a couple of plays. Look it up on Wikipedia if you want more weird tanuki info.
Grigori- type of angel, or angel/human hybrid in Jewish text mentioned in the Kabala. Also in some religions Grigori are fallen angels. Got to love language when one word means a ton of different things to different religions. Maka is mentioned being a grigori in the manga I'm unsure if it was mentioned in the anime.
Ecoplasam- Ghost slime.
Izanami no Mokoto - Shinto death goddess. Also, a creation goddess who stabbed the world with a spear and made the islands of Japan.
Izangi - her husband. If you'd like more information on them, wiki them as well..
Remember I always use religion , history and weird cultural references in my writing. I'm not big on Mary Sue characters so I figure it's better to pull from cultural references and interesting historical figures. Enough of my ramblings… on with the story!
Chapter 25: One on One
Death the Kid looked out over the cliffs of the netherworld. Its' ice blue vortex twisted, engulfing an endless stream of souls. His hand rested on the Tanuki, stroking the dog-sized animal's back while the beast scratched its nose into the dirt and grubbed for maggots and worms.
"I figured I might find you here." Maka said quietly, falling onto the ground next to Kid. She patted the Tanuki on the head and it looked up with its muddy nose and licked the dirt from it.
Kid looked at the Tanuki with a soft expression and then over to Maka with wet eyes. "This is all my fault. All of it. If I could have collected more souls and controlled things better the enemy wouldn't be able to move around using the dead. Our mothers wouldn't be trying to kill us. I've caused dissention in the team. If I just would have manned up and taken over things from Dad none of this would be happening. If I hadn't screwed with your natural life maybe the Grand Design wouldn't be targeting you. You and Soul probably would be fighting better than ever and we would be chain resonating as a team without any issues whatsoever."
"I don't think any of that would have mattered, Kid. My mom has been gone for a long time and so has yours; who knows how long they've been zombies. As for the souls and you taking over, you can only do things so fast. It's like asking to grow up quicker and have everything right now; it just doesn't work that way. And maybe you're not ready for all those responsibilities yet. Maybe the lack of control you're complaining about is because physically your body knows it can't handle all that stuff yet. As far as screwing with the natural order my life, I'm really glad you did. I think I would have been dead by now if it wasn't for you. And as for Soul, well things were changing between me and Soul before you and I started dating. You need to go easy on yourself. But I want to know, honestly, is all this what's bothering you or are you afraid of facing your mother? She seemed, well…"
"Scary?"
"I was thinking more like crazy. Like Kishin crazy."
Kid snuffed and dried his eyes and applied pressure to his sinuses to stop the throbbing that had formed in his head. After he felt like he had control of his eyes he began. "That's because she is 'kishin crazy', maybe even crazier. Mom has spent a lot of time in Hell. You're Shinto-Buddhist."
"Yeah, but I fail to see what's that got do with anything."
"You ever heard the tale of Izanami-no-Mikoto? All religious mythology usually starts with some grain of truth. "
"Izanami was the creation goddess. The story goes that she and her husband Izanagi stabbed the earth with a spear and brought it into being. It's a Japanese creation story."
"Yes that's the first part of the story, but do you remember what happened after all that? Izanami died giving birth to her child, and Izanagi was so angry at her death that he decided to go into yomi, the lands of the dead, to find her. When he found her there were nothing but shadows around her. Pure black that id her appearance. Izanagi asked her to come home he took her hand and told her she would come."
Maka interrupted and tore into the story. "But Izanami told him she couldn't leave because she ate the fruit of the land of the dead. She was horrifying and he ran away from the site of her, sealing her in the netherworld with a huge rock he placed at the entrance. Your mom doesn't look like a rotting carcass and as much as your dad loves her, I seriously doubt he would ever flee from her."
"My mother died giving birth to me and because of her misdeeds as a reaper she wound up in hell. And not the one you saw today but one of the lower levels. The level that is nothing but black, where the air is so thick that you continually choke and can't breathe. Anyway, my dad went in to get her back out. Completely against the code of the Shinigami. We don't mess with Hell; we only can only alter things on the first two levels of it. "
"Where the hungry ghosts are."
"Exactly. Dad got her back out of it, but her mind was affected. From what little I understand, he did something to her with the lazarus and her flesh was healed. But her mind, well, she wasn't a stable person when she was alive and being in hell didn't improve that. She was okay at first. She promised Dad that she would stay here in the Never After with him and take care of me. That she would only do her duty as a reaper and then come back. Things were good for a while. But eventually she grew tired of it and started to stay away longer and longer. By this time my father had imprisoned the Kieshan and was trapped here. He was busy, so mother was seeing to my reaper training. I saw people die horribly at her hands and then she'd take me home and act like it never happened. One night I caught her torturing people that weren't meant to die. She was using her abilities in awful ways. She knew that I saw her and she chased me. She tore me up pretty good, but I just kept running. I don't know how, but I outran her and made it through a mirror. I ran straight back home to Dad and told him everything. My mother didn't come back after that; she was afraid my father would never let her back out again and might cast her back down to Hell. She was afraid of being sealed in here forever. Dad wouldn't send any of the Death Scythes after her, but I honestly can't say if was to protect them or her."
"So she teamed up with someone and told them how to use the Lazarus to bring people back to life just as she was brought back to life. Kid, we're not responsible for our parents' actions." Maka soothed gently.
"But all the same, she has to be stopped and I know it will come down to us to do it."
Maka rested her forehead against Kid's and she stroked the hair from his face, "It's going to be okay. I'm still confident that Stein will come up with a way to reverse all this. We can't just give up hope. All we need to do is have faith. Faith in ourselves, faith in those around us and faith in each other."
"You seem so confident, so at peace." Kid whispered before he crushed his mouth against Maka's. He kissed her deeply trying to make that confidence a part of him, tried to absorb it from her body with his. Kid broke off the kiss and nuzzled Maka's neck; she giggled from ticklishness and nearly crushed his head between her chin and her collar bone.
"Do you have any idea how much I love you right now?"
"Quit it." Maka giggled as Kid ran his hands down her sides. Her laughing faded into a hysterical wheeze as Kid dug under her ribs.
"I can't help myself." Kid said. Some of the pain lifted from his heart as he tickled her; "That laugh of yours is infectious; it just warms me all over." He ran his fingers over the bends of her knees and made Maka shriek with laughter. His golden eyes stared down into her emerald ones and he kissed her giggling mouth.
"I mean it though, I love you. I want it to be like this forever." Kid reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. Maka looked at the mint colored box with the ivory ribbon and took it from Kid's hand. She leaned against his shoulder halfway pushing him over. "What's this?" she asked, confused.
Kid slid her farther away from the cliff's edge. The blue souls glittered around them, bobbing around at eye level interested. They danced around the cliffs like fireflies avoiding the streams of the vortex to watch.
"Open it." Kid urged.
Maka slid the ivory ribbon off the box, and looked at the small velvet black box inside tucked neatly inside it
"Huh. It's another box."
"Open that one too." Kid said, sweating a little. Having discussed wedding plans, it all felt more real now, and this was just one more step to solidify it. Holding the ring in his pocket for the entire day had been agony. Even while they were training it had made him feel nervous. Like he was carrying his heart in that little velvet box. Maka wasn't making things easier either; she didn't understand what he was trying to do and it made him half queasy. His palms were sweating like mad.
She snapped the velvet box open and stared, unblinking, at the contents. "Holy crap!"
"Is it too big? Do you not like it? It's too gaudy, isn't it? I insisted on the canary diamond even though the jeweler said the blue ones were in style because of some royal wedding hoopla."
Maka placed a finger against Kid's lips without looking up. She pulled the ring out of its box and stared at it. It didn't look real sitting in her hand. It was made of platinum, with gold carefully hidden in the mille graining that held three diamonds. The center diamond had a yellow tint and glowed like the sun while the other two shimmered with perfect white clarity. Golden wings held up the white diamonds, something you wouldn't even see unless you turned it upside down or looked at the ring straight on. The heavy band was engraved with symbols; Maka recognized the runes carefully hidden in the complicated braiding embossed in its surface.
"Do you like it?" Kid whispered, feeling the need to break the awkward silence.
"This is an engagement ring. A really beautiful engagement ring" Maka choked out.
Kid got up off the ground and tried to dust himself off. When he'd planned this moment, he hadn't envisioned himself covered in ectoplasm and dirt. He took a deep breath and got down on one knee.
"We didn't have time to do this right before, so I'm making up for it now. I don't want to propagate a rumor about our engagement; I want it to be for real." He stared into Maka's eyes and began. "Maka Albarn, ever since you came into my life you've filled it with happiness. You outshine any star or sun for me and your smile lights up my entire world. Please share your forever with me and accept this ring as a token of my love."
He took the ring and slipped it onto her finger, and kissed it. Maka tried to respond but it felt like there was a knot in her throat. She had read about these moments in books and seen it in movies, but she was unprepared for it to happen to her. She felt her whole body shake and she covered her heart with her hand. Unsatisfied with her inability to respond, she tackled Kid awkwardly to the ground and kissed him. She started with just one kiss but it turned into many, covering his entire face.
"That is a yes, right?" Kid laughed, feeling Maka squeeze him tighter and tighter.
Maka opened her mouth to say yes but still couldn't find her voice. Her tears dripped onto Kids face and she nodded her head fiercely, both embarrassed and lost for words. Slowly Kid lifted her off the ground and stood with her in his arms. The souls were buzzing around them this way and that looking, watching. It was curious; he had never seen them act this way before. There was a certain level of excitement in the way they whipped around. They circled him almost playfully as he headed back to the house. The tanuki trotted along behind them. It snapped at a few of the souls buzzing around and followed Kid and Maka inside.
"Guess you think you're getting some champagne since I gave her the ring and proposed the right way, huh?" he asked it. The tanuki stared back at him with intelligent eyes. It slapped its bushy tail against the floor, then its' long pointed nose went up in the air and it made a light barking noise.
"Who are you going to tell first?" Kid asked Maka.
"My dad, then Patty and then maybe Black Star."
"Not Tsubaki?"
"Patty's done a lot for me and I think she'll be the most excited."
Kid nodded in agreement. "Why Black Star though?"
"Because he's my oldest friend. I want to tell Soul before anybody else, but I'm afraid of the response I'm going to get from him."
"Best not to push it. He'll come around though."
"Yeah, I hope so. I miss him; I don't like all this fighting we've been doing."
Kid stole a kiss from the bundle in his arms. I wonder how Black Star is going to take it? Kid thought to himself. Even that thought couldn't chase his happiness away though.
"I need a shower. You got slime all over me." Maka teased, "Wanna come with me?"
"Are you going to take your underwear off this time?"
"Yeah, but not the ring. The ring stays on."
"Absolutely perfect." Kid whispered. He walked into the kitchen glowing with happiness. All hell might be about to break loose, but right now he was more content than he'd ever been before. The Tanuki scrambled in ahead of him and lay down under the kitchen table.
Spirit and Stein looked up from the coffee pot, surprised at the change in Kid's demeanor. An hour ago he'd taken off upset and now he was carrying Spirit's daughter into the kitchen bridal-style and seemed all smiles.
Spirit immediately gravitated to Maka, looking for wounds, scratches or anything else that could have disabled her enough for Kid to be carrying her.
Stein raised an eyebrow at the sight, "I take it you're done chickening out now? You gave a real bad showing today in front of your teammates. We sent the rest of the kids home. "
Kid ignored him and looked only at Maka. She hopped down from his arms and bounded over to her father.
"Papa look! Look at my ring, isn't it beautiful?"
Spirit felt like the wind had been knocked out of him when he saw the big cluster of diamonds sitting on his baby's hand. He thumped down in the nearest chair, feeling like his legs would give out on him at any second.
"You proposed." Spirit gulped for air, gaping like a fish out of water. He stared at Kid and a mix of emotions raced through him; depression and concern finally giving way to panicked anger.
"You're awfully young to be getting married." Stein admonished. "I don't see how you two can let yourselves be distracted by frivolous behavior when we're about to take on such strong enemies.
Kid glared at Stein coldly. "Can't you just be happy for us without criticizing for a change? Yes I know we're young, but the fact of the matter is that Maka is still being hunted by the Grand Design. In essence, she's dying. You can't hear the seconds of her life slipping away like I can. The sound of the clock ticking away in your ears, telling you that the person you love most could be taken away from you between one second and the next. There will be casualties when we go up against my mother and this idiotic Baron person. I can't just stand back and wait to do this when everything is happy and calm. I won't take that chance when there's a possibility that one or both of us won't come back. If I wait it might be too late."
Maka shut her eyes and pushed herself against Kid's chest. She didn't have any words for Stein. She wasn't angry but it hadn't occurred to her that Kid could hear the ticking of her clock just as she had heard the clocks of the people they'd reaped. She hid her face, disappointed and a little sad. She had hoped her father would be excited and happy for her. Instead he sat lifelessly in a chair while Professor Stein scolded them.
Stein removed his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes. "This isn't good. You have the worst timing ever. I just hope your selfish behavior doesn't put your whole team at risk." He snapped, pointing his finger In Kid's face.
The Tanuki pushed its way in front of Kid, clearly feeling the need to protect him from the anger in Stein's voice. It gave a loud chittering screech, followed by a low, dangerous-sounding hiss. The raccoon-like animal glared at Stein and began to swell. It beat its' tail against the floor, hissing and shrieking as it doubled in size.
Spirit, Kid and Maka stared in amazement, but Stein regarded it with cold scientific eyes.
"What is this?" He asked, circling the Tanuki with predatory gleam in his eyes. He rubbed the stubble on his chin and licked his lips hungrily.
"It's a Tanuki!" Kid yelled as the creature grew taller. Its' head was almost up to the ceiling now, and its belly shoved a couple of stainless steel carts across the floor. Food and chairs scattered everywhere.
"Aren't you an interesting specimen?" Stein told the bulbous animal. "Never seen an animal that could transmute its own body before. What did you call it again?"
Spirit looked at the young couple cautiously. "It's a Tanuki, right kids?"
Both of them nodded staring at the creature, which had gone from dog sized to filling at least a third of Lord Death's massive kitchen.
"In the old poem Tanukis were pretty aggressive." Spirit warned Stein, who ignored him. He yanked a black marker from his pocket and patted the Tanuki's large belly. "I wonder if it will stay this big once it's unconscious?"
"Maka, Kid no sudden movements okay?" Spirit advised.
"Maybe we should get it some more gin?" Maka offered.
Mrs. Winchester, Ehrich Wiesz and Reginald entered the kitchen behind Lord Death. Winchester started to scream when she saw the large animal and the mess it had made, but Erik and Reginald clamped their hands over her mouth.
"What in the name of PT Barnum is that?" Wiesz croaked.
"Mr. Wiesz, Mr. Reginald; I think the Tanuki might be angry. We didn't give it any gin today." Maka told them.
Reginald found that hilarious and began to chuckle. "You forgot to feed it? That wouldn't have caused all this. It's being protective. Looks like that fellow over there has done a right good job of pissing it off."
The Tanuki slapped its tail angrily and growled at Stein. Death's shoulders began to shake and he choked on repressed laughter. "Would you look at the size of that thing's balls? They're huge! I always wondered why all those Japanese statues show Tanukis with balls as big as their heads."
Kid gulped when he saw what his father was looking at. Death slapped his hand on the kitchen counter, cackling hysterically and the Tanuki looked everybody over, showing its wickedly sharp teeth. Spirit sensed impending danger slid away from Stein and in front of the kids, holding both arms out to protect Kid and Maka as much as possible.
"I just get a son-in-law and now I'm going to be eaten by a raccoon beast with giant balls. Could this day get any worse?"
"What are the odds?" Death howled, clutching his stomach. Stein uncapped the black marker and began marking the Tanuki's belly with it, making an educated guess as to where he should put the first incision. The huge animal looked down at Stein and howled in fury. Suddenly the beast swung around using its sack as a wrecking ball, knocking Stein into turned over kitchen carts, up against the refrigerator and then the. Taunuki jumped in the air and brought its' oversized genitalia straight down on Stein, pinning him to the floor.
"Gawf, get it off me!" Stein cried in horror.
Lord Death laughed even harder and beat his knee. "Oooh Stein, you are a riot! I should have visitors more often."
Spirit picked up Maka and Kid and hauled them toward the back door, "I told you provoking a Tanuki was a bad idea! If my Maka gets hurt….."
"Oh god, it's sweaty! And it's crushing me!" Stein squealed, "So help me I'm going to dissect you soon as I'm free!"
The Tanuki ground its huge family jewels against Stein's head, squishing his face against the floor and eliciting a girly scream from the professor.
Lord Death was paralyzed with laughter and Spirit was paralyzed with fear, leaving the ghosts to get things under control. Reginald unlocked the liquor cabinet and extracted two large bottles, one of peach schnapps and the other of malt liquor.
"Come on, Nutsy. Get off the strange doctor. Come to daddy." He coaxed.
"Nutsy?" Lord Death shrieked, "You named that Tanuki Nutsy? I love it."
Reginald held out the liquor bottles to the large raccoon-beast and it wagged its tail happily, nearly ripping Stein's legs off in the process. The tanuki got up and made its way to Reginald, its genitals dragging Stein across the kitchen floor until Weisz caught him by the feet and pulled him free.
"I think I may have just had a near death experience." Stein gasped as Weisz and Mrs. Winchester lifted him from the floor.
"Good god you reek." Wiesz complained, covering his nose, "I'm dead and I can smell you!"
Reginald held out the bottle of malt liquor enticingly and the tanuki followed him out of the kitchen and into the mud room, shrinking as it went. Nutsy snapped the bottle from Reginald's hand and drank it down in one hefty gulp. Reginald ran outside, whistling, and the tanuki chased after him for the second bottle.
"Reginald is keeping that thing as a pet?" Lord Death gasped. "Hell, that thing is better than a three headed hound any day…Nutsy." He started giggling again and put his head down on the counter.
"That will teach you to try to dissect everything you see!" Spirit yelled at Stein in his best parental tone. He rubbed Maka and Kid's backs and glared at the scientist.
"Come on Doctor, let's go get you cleaned up." Mrs. Winchester prodded Stein out of the kitchen like a naughty child, clucking with disgust.
Spirit looked down at Maka and saw that whatever anxiety she'd had was gone. She hugged onto his waist and Kid just stared wide eyed and amazed, too shocked for words. Spirit stood beside him, suddenly realizing how tall the boy had gotten. Kid was almost seventeen, the same age Spirit had been when he married Kami. A year younger than he'd been when Maka was born. Suddenly Spirit remembered being too young and too stupid, and too much in love…and how everyone had been so very happy for them.
"Okay, honey you can show Papa your ring now."
Maka peeled herself off Spirit and swung around, giggling as she dangled her hand in front of her father.
"See it even has wings on it, holding up the diamonds." Spirit stared down at the ring, feeling a little melancholy as he flashed back to Kami; proudly showing off the diamond he'd spent weeks choosing for her.
"You did a good job, Kid. It's beautiful. Fit for my princess."
Kid grinned up at Spirit. "She's not going to stop being your daughter just because I proposed to her and we're getting married. I want to assure you that I have no intention of taking your little girl away from you. If anything, you're just gaining a bigger family."
Spirit eyes brimmed with tears. He yanked Maka and Kid back into his arms and began squeezing the life out of them.
"Is that true? Maka do you feel that way too?"
"Papa you're smothering me." Maka gasped.
Spirit let go, his whole body trembling as he waited for an answer from Maka. His eyes threatened to spill over as he waited nervously for Maka to catch her breath.
"It's true, Papa. I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to become a Shinigami and act as a reaper but we're still family. You and I are blood. Nothing is going to change that." She stared over at Lord Death. "Family, all family, is important."
Spirit's heart sang and he spun around with both kids squashed in his arms again.
"Did you hear that Mort? You and I are going to be in-laws!"
Death removed his mask and walked over to his son, looking stern.
"You know, in my day it was proper for the young man to ask the girl's father before proposing."
Kid blanched and looked away from his father.
"Yeah I know I should have done that. But I was afraid..."
"Afraid Spirit would say no" Death scolded. "You know better, Kiddo."
"I know, I know." Kid blushed, embarrassed. He looked up at Spirit, "I'm sorry, sir."
"Hey go easy on him, Mort. Today's a happy day." Spirit laughed and ruffled Kid's hair. As penance for his poor etiquette, Kid stood there and let him do it.
"You're right, it is" Death agreed, "Let's celebrate while we can!" He fetched some crystal flutes from the dining room and popped the cork on a bottle of champagne. Spirit had never felt more like celebrating. Maka's forgiven me at last. Please let this last longer than just today.
They toasted the happy couple and shared a moment of perfect happiness. One moment, and then Lord Death put his arm around his son's shoulders and all of Spirit's complacency vanished. They looked exactly alike. Death's Sanzu lines were complete and Kid had his mother's golden eyes, but there was little else to set them apart. Death's face was, perhaps, a bit more careworn and gaunt but he still looked like a man in his twenties. Spirit realized that if they were compared, almost anyone would think that Spirit was the older of the two. Was this going to be Maka's fate? To stay a child forever and be forced to watch everyone she knew age and die in front of her. Lord Death had waited a thousand years before having his first child; if Maka followed suit Spirit would never live to see his grandchildren.
Death felt Spirit staring and noticed the frown on his face. He seemed deep in thought and his lips were tight and thin as he chewed on them.
"Something wrong, Spirit?" he asked over the rim of his champagne glass.
"You look so young." Spirit blurted out, "Younger than me."
"If my appearance makes you uncomfortable I could put the mask back on. It doesn't bother me, I'm used to wearing it all the time." Death sighed. "I hate the damn thing but traditions must be kept up. Besides I've found that most people become uncomfortable around someone who continues to look young while they age. It forces them to confront their mortality on a daily basis and plays hell with them. Hard for me, too, staying the same while everyone else changes." He realized that he'd killed the celebratory mood and tried to lighten things up.
"Things aren't so bad now that I've got Kid and they'll be even better with your beautiful daughter around!" He said, slapping Spirit on the back.
"My daughter is giving up her life so you and Kid will have company?"
"No, that's not it at all. Kid explained his intentions of changing her into a Shinigami to me a while back and when I agreed to it I felt, and still feel, that Maka needed to know exactly what that means. Your daughter is going to have the rare opportunity of staying young forever. She'll get to about twenty five, same as me, and then everything will just stop for her. Shell never get old, or worry about illness. She'll inherit the Shinigami immunity, and eventually she'll be called on like Kid is being called on by the Never After. A grigori soul embedded into the form of a reaper. A true angel of death."
Spirit shuddered. I'm still not convinced that this reaper business is the right choice for my Maka. I can handle the marriage, after all that's going to happen one day anyway. But a Shinigami, I'm still not entirely sure what that really means for her."
"It means she'll be a Demi-god."
Spirit exhaled loudly. "Buddhism teaches that life as a Demi-god is a pain ridden existence, one of obligation due to the massive powers they wield. Understand I'm a Scientologist and a Unitarian. That allows me to pick beliefs from many faiths, but the one core principal of all of them is to improve yourself. It seems like my daughter will be damned in some way. Unable to live a normal life. I'm glad that she's safe from the Grand Design here in the Never After, but she's taking on responsibilities that are going to rob her of her youth. What about college, and having a chance to experience the world? Maka you can marry Kid but I can't just sit back and watch you throw all this away, especially when I don't know what for. Why on earth did you decide all the sudden that you want to become a reaper; that your purpose in life was to become a Shinigami? I know you love Kid, but love can change. Death is forever."
Maka took her father's hand and looked up pleadingly at him, trying with all her might to make him understand.
"I want to help people and this is my way to do it. I'm going to graduate from the Academy soon and be a full blown meister. Soul will be taking an assignment as a Death Scythe, and I can either tag along, or start over. Or I could be a part of something bigger. Papa I've seen what happens to people when they die. Their souls are ripped out of their body by the Grand Design and it's painful and terrifying. Sometimes they're left wandering the earth not sure what they're doing or what they are even are anymore. They're frightened and confused and alone, and no one should have to go through that if there's an easier way to do it. They should all have a chance at re-incarnation, not be stuck wondering the earth as a ghost."
Kid coughed and Maka realize her mistake.
"Not just reincarnation but whatever their faiths say is on the other side of the vortex."
Spirit stared at her, annoyed and confused, "Vortex? What is she talking about Mort? I don't understand a lick of what she's saying."
Death looked back over his shoulder, ignoring Spirit's question. "You can come in! Quit lurking and eavesdropping; it's annoying."
Reginald, Ehrich Weisz and Mrs. Winchester glided back in the room, eager to participate in the conversation.
"It's a noble cause your daughter is undertaking. You probably wouldn't understand because you're not dead yet." Reginald told Spirit. He reached up and twisted his handle bar mustache thoughtfully. "I died out in the jungle in the middle of nowhere. I had no clue what had happened to me, I just remembered being sick and then all the sudden I was stuck in a foreign country with no one to communicate my death. Mrs. Winchester here spent her whole life creating a house to keep the spirits from finding her, designing rooms to trap them She hadn't considered the repercussions of dying in a place designed to trap spirits and became one of the trapped herself. And of course there's Ehrich here. He was enamored with the idea of becoming a spirit and then found out that after he was, he had no real way to communicate that there was such a thing to his millions of followers."
Wiesz snorted. "I still think I should be allowed to go to one of those séances held on my birthday. There would be a whole lot of folks that would understand that there is life after death if you do."
"Out of the question!" Kid and Lord Death yelled in tandem.
"Do you want the spiritualist movement to revive and have charlatans playing on the grieving again? You spent most of your life opposing such things as mediums. If you returned you'll just fuel a whole new movement of them." Death scolded.
Wiesz gulped. "No I don't want that. I guess the great Harry Houdini must continue to be dead. It's too bad; it would have been my greatest trick."
Maka slapped her forehead. "Ehrich Wiesz -Harry Houdini why didn't I put that together? I actually read a biography about you. God, I'm such a dolt!"
Wiesz gave her a huge grin. "So you have heard of me! I knew there couldn't be a person alive who hasn't heard of Harry Houdini!"
Death gave an exasperated huff. "Lose the ego and you might be able to move on, and quit being a hungry ghost. How many times do I have to spell it out for you?"
"It's been at least a hundred," Mrs. Winchester sang happily. "He'll never learn, but that's what you get form employing no good carnies! You know, some of my best friends were mediums when I was alive."
Lord Death's tone grew grouchy. "You see what I put up with? All day long, ghosts whining and bickering. I'd give my back teeth to do some field work again. Heck I'd even be happy chasing down a few runners. Anything to break the monotony of the three stooges here. They're the most thick-headed ghosts I've ever encountered. Each of one of them have been here over a hundred years."
Mrs. Winchesters nostrils flared. "Who would make your tea and iron your sheets if I was gone, you old fuddy-duddy? You wouldn't last two days taking care of this place by yourself. You best be glad your son visits so often to make you shave and bathe or you'd have mushrooms growing from your ears, and hair and beard as long as Rip Van Winkle."
Maka giggled as she watched the ghost berate Lord Death, who sank farther and farther into a kitchen chair. Spirit was getting into it too; arguing about Shinigami magic and the fact Maka should have no part of it. Death clutched his head.
Kid took Maka's elbow and took her aside. "Why don't we get out of here while they're all distracted? You leave first so your dad doesn't get suspicious." He whispered in her ear softly.
Maka looked at him blankly. "What are we doing again?"
Kids reached down and pinched her butt, "We were going to go celebrate." Kid whispered playfully "You remember, you wanted to go get cleaned up?"
"Oh!" Maka recalled, finally catching his drift. She grinned at him and exited the kitchen, while Kid made his way through the fray to his father.
"Dad, is it okay if I use the new shower you put in?"
"I don't care what you do!" Death growled, taking his anger out on his son. He turned back to his argument with Spirit while trying to ignore the banter of the ghosts. Spirit continued to hold with his no-Shinigami policy, yelling to be heard over the din.
"Thanks a lot Pop! I'll make sure to clean it up when I'm done."
"Whatever. Go do IT and try not to drown," Death muttered, waving his hand in dismissal and not looking away from the ghosts or the angry Death Scythe.
Kid jumped up and clicked his heels as he scurried from the kitchen. He peered at Maka who was leaning against the wall and took her hand. "Come on we're going to use the new room!"
"New room?" Maka asked squeezing Kids hands and swinging it as she walked beside him down the hall.
"Yeah, to 'celebrate'! You're going to love it!" Kid answered suggestively.
Those Craving Adult Content go read it in the mature section of the fic. Under the Forever in The Never After Lemon Section.