Just one week after the Kishin's reign of madness was brought to an end, Crona's adjustments to his new and now permanent life in Death City was average at best. Seeing as how he was someone that tried to destroy the city back when he was with Medusa and how he betrayed the DWMA the first time he tried his hand at living in the city, there was definitely tension between him and other people. Thankfully for Crona, he wasn't completely alone in transitioning to his new lifestyle. He did have Maka, Soul, and all their friends to talk to, and he also had the likes of people Lord Death, Spirit Albarn, and Professor Stein to make him feel welcomed in his new environment. It definitely wasn't easy for him, but having people that were willing to support him did make things a bit easier.
However, he knew that he wouldn't have the company of others all the time. There were times when the staff would be busy or some of his friends were off doing something else. Today was one such day, as Maka and Soul were off on a mission given to them by Lord Death, Black Star was probably off goofing around and Tsubaki was acting as his unofficial babysitter, he had no clue where Liz and Patti were at this time, and Death the Kid was busy studying in the library, and he didn't really want to bother him. He was just stuck in the lunchroom, unsure of where to sit and holding a tray of food, sweating profusely in a bout of nervousness. The only other company he had at the moment was Ragnarok, and he was starting to get impatient at Crona's standing around. He certainly felt no shame in popping up and speaking his opinion either.
"Hey dumbass, are you going to pick a table to sit at or what?" Ragnarok asked in a highly irritated tone of voice. "There are free spots all over the damn place around here, so you better choose one before more people arrive." Crona looked up at his companion with a look of nervousness and uncertainty.
"There are so many people here though Ragnarok," he said meekly, to which Ragnarok scoffed at. "I'm not sure how to handle sitting around people I don't know that well."
"So what, are you going to eat underneath the tables or something like a creep?" Ragnarok's expression became more suggestive at the thought. "Actually, maybe it won't be so bad. You might even get to see a girl's panties."
Crona's face became a shade of dark grey, a side effect of him having black blood. "Ragnarok, that's not nice!" The sword gave off a cheeky grin.
"Hey, I don't mind if you swing the other way kid." That remark did not help how Crona was feeling.
"Ragnarok!"
"Hey, come sit over here!" A voice called from a nearby table. A female's to be exact.
Crona and Ragnarok looked over to where they heard the voice and saw a table occupied by some people that they were at least a little familiar with, much to the former's relief. The owner of the voice belonged to a girl with short pink hair. It was Kimial Diehl, or simply Kim as she was called by her friends and peers. Her table was occupied by her partner and best friend Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre, or simply Jackie, and besides them, there was Ox Ford and his partner Harvar D. Eclair, and finally Kilik Rung and his partners, the Pots of Fire and Thunder. It was a pretty lively table all things considered, and Crona was just standing there dumbstruck wondering exactly why they wanted him of all people to join them. Naturally, Ragnarok did not care about what his meister thought.
"Well, what are you waiting for dipshit?! Walk over there already and quit standing around like a statue!" He proceeded to start beating over his head. "I know your mother's name was Medusa, but her snakes didn't turn people into stone! Get moving already!"
"Hey, quit it Ragnarok!" Crona whined as he made his way to the table, the students inviting him over looking at him with surprise and even a small amount of disturbance. "Also, please don't mention Medusa. She makes me uncomfortable and I don't want to be seen as an outsider." Ragnarok just folded his small arms and looked away before making his way inside his host's body, Crona finally reaching his destination and taking a seat.
There was a moment of silence, the only sort of audible noise coming from the movement of the forks and spoons scraping against the food on the platters of the meisters and weapons. It seemed like time was at a standstill for Crona as he watched everyone at the table either consuming their food or looking directly at him, the dull sound of the students conversing at the various other tables in the cafeteria becoming more and more blocked out. Not a single word could come out of Crona's mouth. All he could do was sit still and slowly pick at his food, slow and small chunks entering his mouth, and he swallowed without chewing. It was an uncomfortable and unfamiliar feeling to the pink haired boy. Suddenly though, almost as if sensing his unease at sitting at a table with other people, Kim spoke up again, equally as inviting and kind as when she first asked for him to come over.
"So, you must be Crona, eh?" Her tone was laid back, yet with a layer of cheerfulness. "You know, our pal Maka seems to speak quite highly of you in spite of everything you did." That last part made Crona physically tense, his pupils getting smaller and an ever so slight shake enveloping his being. It wasn't lost on the group at all.
"R-Really now…" Crona commented shyly. Submissive. Afraid. He stopped eating his food as his fingers tensed, and he swore he could hear the faint thumping of his rapidly increasing heartbeat. Thankfully for him, Kim was not the oblivious type, and so she put a comforting hand on his shoulder and gave him a smile so warm that if he didn't know any better, he could swear it was Maka looking at him instead.
"Hey dude, no need to worry about us," she reassured the black-blooded child. "If it makes you feel any better, we know about your history with that bitch of a mother. We don't blame you for the type of person you turned out to be." Crona's body stopped shaking, and this time he froze up entirely, though whether it was due to him feeling more anxious or the opposite was something lost on everybody at the table. Unbeknownst to the group, several students looked their way with mixed looks of concern, curiosity, and in rare instances, smug malice.
"Kim, I think the boy needs some time to adjust," Jackie spoke up as she pulled her friend away from the still meister. "He has been through a lot, and he isn't familiar with us as he is with Maka's group."
"Jackie's right," agreed Kilik nonchalantly as he took another spoonful of his meal, the Pots greedily scarfing down their food on both sides of him. "Just give him some space, let him warm up to just simply being here with us, and slowly he will start opening up eventually." Ox raised an eyebrow in doubt.
"What if he never opens up though?" That comment earned him a slap to the face from his weapon partner. Ox shot Harvar an annoyed expression as he rubbed the faint red spot on his cheek. "Hey man, what the hell?!"
"Choose your words wisely next time bro. Are you trying to give Crona the wrong impression?" Harvar's voice was laced with his own tone of annoyance. It was at that point where one of the bystanders decided to speak up, and unfortunately for the group, it was one of the more rotten students.
"I can see why your dumbass friend is doubtful of the pink-haired freak." This particular student's cocky attitude caught the group's attention, and certainly not in a good way. The annoyance that Ox and Harvar displayed towards each other was nothing in comparison to the soul piercing glares aimed at the pompous student, Kilik's spoon hung in his mouth as his accusing eyes darted towards the one who dared to speak, the Pots looked like they were ready to start a fight, and while Kim was busy trying her to comfort a solemn looking Crona, Jackie's brown pools were now screaming bloody murder.
"Who gave you the right to talk dipshit?" Jackie shot back, her tone filled with a subtle dominance and slowly bubbling rage. That wasn't enough to keep the insulting student from snickering, all the while displaying an arrogant smirk that Kilik really wanted to sock right off his ugly visage.
"I said what I said slut," if Jackie didn't want to murder him previously, she definitely wanted to mutilate and eviscerate his body now. "Gossip goes around quickly. We know about that creepy science experiment that you're treating as human." Crona just shrunk into a ball and hid under the table. That did it for Kim.
"I'm going to have to ask you to shut the hell up before I go over there and kick your ass buddy!" She exclaimed, pointing at him with her left hand while balling her right into a fist so tight it made her knuckles white.
Still unfazed, the student exploded into full-blown laughter. "Oh this is rich! That failed abortion of a human is so much of a bitch that he needs to hide behind another bitch! Man. Even his edgy little Play-Doh Muppet is doing jack shit to help him." At this point, Ragnarok, who was listening in on what was going on but paying it no mind, decided to come out and express his incredible offense, and express it he did.
"WHO IN THE FUCK DO THINK YOU ARE YOU SON OF A BITCH?!?!" Ragnarok shot out of Crona with so much force that it brought the poor boy out from under the table. Everyone else was just taken aback by the sudden outburst. "YOU EITHER HAVE TO HAVE SOME MAJOR FUCKING BALLS OR BE A FUCKING IDIOT TO MESS WITH ME YOU DICKHEAD!!!"
"Ragnarok! Please stop-" Crona tried to calm him down, but Ragnarok only shot him a glare and pressed his fist hard into his head.
"NO WAY CRONA, I WON'T STAND FOR THIS!!!" All of a sudden, Ragnarok grabbed ahold of Crona's partially finished lunch tray, making his user's eyes widen in fear knowing what he was about to do. "THIS GUY WANTS TO FIGHT?! LET'S FUCKING GIVE IT TO HIM!!!"
That was it. With one single throw, Ragnarok pulled the trigger that would spiral the entire lunchroom into absolute chaos. The tray hit the student's face so hard that it pushed him off the chair. Once the tray fell from his face, all that remained was a black eye and a broken and bloody nose, decorated in thick layers of mashed potatoes, gravy, a chicken patty, and some chocolate milk, spilling all the way from his head and dripping from his chin. All of that, with the cherry on top being the look of raw, unbridled, fiery anger in the boy's eyes. His response was short, but it was enough.
"Game on."
"FOOD FIGHT!!!" Another kid exclaimed as they gleefully threw their own tray towards a random student. With that, the lunchroom turned into a warzone.
Chaotic didn't even begin to describe what was happening. Kids throwing chunks of pork and squeezing juice out of their boxes, servers hiding behind their stations or in the kitchen as they tried to not to get hit, and some students even going as far as trying to stab others with their utensils, plastic or not. The savage energy radiating from the lunchroom during this time felt comparable to a small of the Kishin's madness, and the screams of excitement, pain, and anger painted a portrait of a disorganized battle arena. The only other people that were desperately trying to stay out of the action were Crona, Kim, and the rest of their group as they hid behind a flipped table in the corner, not that this stopped Ragnarok from trying to launch a turkey leg into some poor kid's throat.
It was at this moment that Crona began to realize just what he got himself into when he joined these people. Even if he didn't know them well enough to consider them his friends, their eagerness to try and get him to open up and their protective nature towards not just him, but each other as well in this situation, reminded him a lot of Maka and how she gave him a chance when not many others did. Of course, there was always the chance that they could be leading him on, but the aura they gave off said otherwise. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to talk to them more. Maybe they could even become more than just simple acquaintances.
Of course, Stein and Spirit came in as they began to wonder why classes were so empty, and they found their answer when they opened the door to the lunchroom. Naturally, this led to Spirit getting a pie to the face and meatloaf getting shoved into Stein's mouth. All the students stopped once the doors opened, but the damage had been done, and the look on Spirit's face, while that of mild annoyance, made him appear as if he was struggling to contain his anger. People couldn't really tell what Stein was thinking, but then again, the mere presence of the deranged doctor was enough to send chills down their spines.
"Lord Death will know about this." With that simple declaration, he left, though not before Stein wiped a bit of pie from his face, the meatloaf now held in his grasp. He sucked on his fingers as he followed after his former weapon partner.
"Banana. Interesting." His faint muttering could be heard in the now dead silent battlefield of a lunchroom.
By the end of the day, most of the students got extra work to do, with the one abhorrent student getting a month's detention with Stein. Lord Death laughed in his head at the deep fearful expression that adorned the kid's facial features. As for Crona and Kim's group, they admittedly didn't have too much work to do due to their active abstinence throughout the whole debacle, and they chose to blame them having anything to do at all on Ragnarok being an impulsive idiot, much to the weapon's dismay. So that brought them to the present, heading back home after a crazy day, especially for Crona.
"Well, that certainly could have gone better." Kilik commented, his school bag over his right shoulder, the Pots walking behind him in a straight line.
"At least we weren't expelled or anything." Jackie replied in an attempt to lighten up their spirits.
"How about we all go to one of our places and all study together?" Ox proposed. "It's bound to make things easier for all of us if we tackle it together."
Kim sighed. "I suppose that's true," she looked back to Crona, who was following them from the very back. "Hey, Crona? I'm sorry that we didn't make the best first impression on you. I suppose we'll be seeing you around. Take care, okay?"
For a moment, Crona looked back up at Kim's apologetic face. Just as everyone was about to leave, he mustered up all the courage in his body and spoke.
"Wait!" They all looked back at him. Their attention was a bit intimidating, but he continued nonetheless. "It's not your fault. In fact, I was thinking maybe we could...um…"
"Yes?" Kim asked.
"...Would it be okay if I...joined you guys and...studied with you all tonight?"
He shut his eyes tight and lowered his head. He was expecting rejection. He was expecting to finally see the true colors of these people claiming that they wanted to be his friends. He was expecting to be scolded, laughed at, or insulted. Every terrible thing in the book, he was prepared to take it on and head back to Maka and Soul's place. Yet, it never came, and instead, he looked up to see a joyous smile on Kim's face, alongside everyone else.
"We would be honored to have you join us Crona." Kim responded.
For the first time that day, Crona actually managed to pull off a smile. A genuinely happy one. For the first time since Maka came into his life, he felt at peace. For as terrible as this day at the DWMA had been, in the end, it was all worth it. It was worth meeting Kim and Jackie. It was worth meeting Ox and Harvar. It was worth meeting Kilik and the Pots. Like a baby eagle leaving their nest, Crona felt like his life was beginning to grow ever brighter.