s-k3 Okay, okay! It's finished this time, see? I think I know how to get through this story now. (I was originally going to have the GW plot line with Usagi there too, but that would just be soooo boring for me to write.) Hopefully, I'll be able to write faster now. To everybody whose been mad at my slowness, I have to things to say:

1) I'm sorry. I didn't think people would like this story when I started writing it. It was kind of a throw-away side project. Unplanned, and fairly sporadic. So it's been hard for me to write it.
2) I had schoolwork. I kind of wanted to graduate from high school and all. And RIGHT AFTER graduation I left the country. So no free time. Well...until now. *grins evilly* So here we go:

Oh yeah...I didn't explain it before, but 'Dokenai' means naive, and 'Dokenaiyo' would mean something like 'How naive'. Umm...I think. 'yo' is a weird suffix.


Shinigami to Karitenshi
Chapter 2

Usagi blinked. Duo blinked.
A moment suspended in time as the simply stared at each other. Then, like wind up dolls starting up, they slowly began to move again. Usagi first, by putting a hand to her mouth and taking a step backwards.

"You can see me?" Usagi gasped.
"Yeah. Shouldn't I?" Duo questioned back.
"You just...you haven't ever been able to for a while." Usagi shifted her feet in the sand, and suddenly found the ground to be fascinating.

The golden girl digging her feet into the beach looked familiar to Duo, but he couldn't quite place where he'd seen her before. Which annoyed him, because he doubted he'd forget a face like hers. She was absolutely gorgeous. A little pale though...
Just then, the obvious slapped Duo across the face.

"Hey! You're that girl! From my dream!" Duo yelled. 'The one who kissed me..' he added silently.

The girl did something similar to a blush but not quite. She winced and hunched her shoulders over a little, embarrassed.
"Sorry 'bout that. It was tha ONLY way ta get'cha back here. I know it's kinda odd but...it's the rule." she was babbling again.

Duo's ego deflated a little. He'd never had a girl apologize for kissing him. Especially for a nice kiss like that. Wait...gorgeous, nice kiss....focus Duo! There are more important things at hand here. Girls could come later. Right now he had to worry about how she knew about his Gundam. Quickly, he leveled his gun at her, wiping any trace of mirth from his face. If she really did know about Death Scythe, either she was from Project Meteor, or she was a spy sent to get rid of him. Either way, her fate was sealed.

"Well, lady, I'm sorry too. It's nothing personal you see, but nobody who lays eyes on my Gundam can live."

Duo had expected her to be at least a little scared. At worst, maybe she wouldn't react at all, or attack him. But instead, she just burst out laughing.

"Dokenaiyo!" she exclaimed between giggles. "Geez, Duo! Ya can't shoot me. It wouldn't do no good to try it either. But'ya can if ya like to see..."

Duo scowled at her arrogance (as he perceived it) and fueled by her mocking tone, he took at aim and shot her in the shoulder. He instantly regretted it.

"Oh, geez! Lady, I'm sorry I-" he stopped when he noticed she was simply staring at him, and there were no visible wounds, no blood anywhere on her.
'Impossible! I'm not that bad a shot...'

She simply sighed, in a way a teacher does when they need to repeat a common fact.

"You can't bleed if you don't have blood, Duo."

Duo stared wordlessly at the girl for a few seconds. Had she just read his mind? Naaw...he probably just didn't have a very good poker face. He'd have to work on that. For a second more, he considered the situation. Then Duo burst out laughing much like Usagi had moments before. Slowly, he made his way closer to Usagi, who had her arms crossed over her chest and a very put out expression on her face.

"Yeah, right! Good joke! No, really, you moved didn't you? You must be pretty fast to dodge a bullet like that, huh babe? Are you sure you're okay? Here, let me check-"

Duo cut off for the second time, when the hand that was supposed to end up on Usagi's shoulder ended up on the other side of her back. He looked at her suspiciously, and moved to grab her upper arm, but again his hand passed right through. Wrist, nothing. Waist, nothing (damn). Chest....I don't think so. Finally, Duo stepped full in front of Usagi, stared deep into her eyes, leaned forward and...

...pushed his arm through her stomach.

"Whoa." Was all that he could say, as he twisted his arm around, and passed it through her stomach a few times.

"Could you not do that? It's making me feel a little sick..." Usagi bit her lip and stepped back. "Does Gundanium rust?"

"What?" Duo shook his head. Where had that come from?

"Does Gundanium rust? Death Scythe is still at the bottom of the ocean, you know." Usagi tilted her head to the side a little. "That is what started this entire thing to begin with."

Somewhere in the back of Duo's head, some backwards old man was singing:
'There's a hole in the bucket,
Dear Liza, Dear Liza,
There's a hole in the bucket,
Dear Liza, a hole.'

"Then let's fix it." Usagi smiled over her shoulder and headed out to the ocean.

"Hey wait! That waters' freezing! You might drown!"

"Duo, I'm already dead!"

"Oh. Right. I knew that."

Thankfully, Usagi could no longer see him, or respond in any way. That he could hear at least. Duo let out a long breath and flopped down on the beach. She was certainly...different. Hadn't he always been taught that angels were beautiful golden haired women that...okay, that part was right. But weren't they supposed to have wings? And harps? And be sweet and motherly? Usagi definitely didn't seem like anyone's mother. She was like him. Except she was a total babe. It was too bad he couldn't touch her...

'She's dead.'

And then there was that whole dead thing again. That was going to take some getting used to. Except...

********************Flashback********************
Duo walked to school, eyes downcast and mouth pouting. A girl of his age, about six, skipped happily along beside him, blonde pigtails bobbing with each step. She was humming to herself, and seemed unaware of the ill spirits of her companion.

"I can't believe I gotta go to school wearin' this!" Duo muttered, gesturing to his clothes.

"I think it's cute!" the girl chirped, as she surveyed Duo's clothing. He was dressed in a long black smock, with a collar similar to a priest's. A silver cross hung from his neck, and stood out against the dark of his other clothing. It was formal clothing for Maxwell Church.

"You think everything's cute." Duo replied sourly.

"Yep." Usagi giggled and then spun around, causing her own white dress to flare out. "Aren't you excited Duo?! You get to go meet new people! You get to learn about....about...everything! I remember my first day of school...."

Usagi sighed, and a wistful expression replaced her happy one.

"How could anyone like school so much."

"Oh, I hate school." At Usagi's words, Duo nearly tripped.

"But...but you just..."

Usagi laughed again.

"Race you to class!" she called over her shoulder and took off down the street.

"Hey!" Duo whined as he took off after her. "No fair! YOu got a head start! And you can walk through mailboxes!"

It turned out that due to Usagi's little race, Duo managed to get to school on time. That would later prove to have been something of a minor miracle. For now, all Duo would do was complain.

"..and I almost ran into some lady and her dog thanks to you, not ta mention I hit my side on a mailbox, and I'll prolly have a bruise tomorrow..."

Usagi just rolled her eyes, and ignored the boys. However, a group of other boys could not do the same. They stared at Duo, or to them: "That funny new kid who talks to himself."

"What's he doing,?" one asked.

"It looks like he's talking to a tree." answered another.

"He must be some kind of freak." said a third. "Look at his clothes."

As the students filed in, Duo stood uncomfortable before the class, and introduced himself. The teacher smiled, and indicated he should take the empty seat near the back. As Duo was walking to his seat, one of the boy's from earlier, Patrick, stuck out his foot, tripping Duo. The class giggled a bit under their breath as Duo brushed himself off. Usagi scowled, took a deep breath, and blew the note papers on Patricks' desk out the open window. The boy scrambled to catch them, and the class laughed even harder.

Patrick glared at Duo as the teacher called for the class to settle down, but Usagi just smiled and winked at Duo, who mouthed silently, "Thanks Usagi."
********************End Flashback********************

"Usagi..."

"Duo!" The focus of his thoughts broke through his trip down memory lane. "I think you need to see this!"

Usagi was floating just a little above the war, several meters out. Her eyes were wide, and she was motioning for him to come quickly to where she was.

"Huh?"

"Oh never mind! I'll do it myself."

She disappeared below the surface once again. But this time, the water moved where she had once been floating, the water churned and created small currents that suggested something was coming ashore. Because of course something was. A rather large something. The head of Death Scythe emerged after a moment, as it stomped it's was to the shore. But it wasn't alone.

It was towing with it a second mobile suit. It seemed to be having a little trouble towing the second mech out of the water, and Duo wasn't surprised with that. (He was however, surprised that his Gundam appeared to be possessed) From the looks of it, Usagi had found another Gundam. That meant that it's pilot was probably close by as well. Another Gundam pilot...

Duo looked once more at the two figures, one kneeling in the surf of the beach, and the other looking vaguely like a lifeless china doll. And Usagi, perched happily on top of Death Scythe. Duo had only one thing to say.

"Whoah."