A/N: Hello ladies, gentlemen, and hermaphrodites! Today, K8 Dunn and Maria Presentations present to our lovely audience, a Hug a Platypus Production…Holding Out For a Hero, Chapter Two! Oh, and what's this? A letter from a kind reviewer! His/Her/It's name is Oushuu Shinigami! On behalf of K8 Dunn and Maria Corporations, we thank you for requesting Hiro as a character. And yes, here it is. Please turn off all cell phones and pagers as we begin the presentation.
Chapter Two
A Meeting with Shinigami and New Leads
~8~
Zoey walked hurriedly past the guillotines above her head. Zoey was never one to be excessively paranoid, but she never figured out if they were just for show or if they actually were lethal weapons. She certainly did not want to find out today.
As she continued her walk forward, she saw the familiar black cloak and comical mask. It could only be Shinigami-sama. She quietly pondered how she would explain to him what her situation was. It wasn't an easy subject to bring up, and it was even harder to describe how she was even here or why. The death god towered above her as she stopped her movement several feet away.
"Hey, hi, yo~! What's up? How are you?" he greeted merrily. Zoey bowed.
"Well, Shinigami-sama, I've been better," she admitted. Shinigami-sama tilted his mask curiously at the pinkette.
"Hey, I don't think I've ever seen you before. What's your name?" he asked. Zoey smiled childishly.
"My name is Zoey DeClour," she stated. Zoey's mind was screaming at her to demand Shinigami-sama to give her clothes and a bed, but she refused to let her impatient mind take over rational thought.
"Okay, Zoey-chan, right?" he asked, as if he was about to commit this to memory.
"Yes sir. That's right," she replied, becoming more impatient by the second. Shinigami-sama clapped his hands together happily.
"Okay then! I've got it memorized! So, Zoey-chan, what brings you here? Are you a Shibusen student? Or are you here to enroll? Come on, don't be shy!" he urged. Zoey quickly summarized what had happened to her in the past twelve hours in descriptive detail.
~8~
By the time she was finished, Shinigami-sama had a grave, yet inquisitive look upon him.
"I see. And you don't remember how you got here? You don't remember anything at all?" he asked solemnly. Zoey shook her head. Shinigami-sama sighed.
"Dear me, it still happens. I can't believe they would even attempt it after what happened the last time," he shook his head sadly. Zoey raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Sir, what are you talking about?" she wondered. Shinigami-sama paused a bit before saying,
"Did you know that there are more dimensions than one?" The young girl was taken aback by this.
"W-Well, I've always thought so. B-but people considered the idea ludicrous. They said it was never possible or that the idea other worlds existed was fool's talk," she said. Shinigami-sama inhaled deeply and told Zoey,
"The Shinigami realm is real. Don't let anyone fool you. Every um…anime, right? Right…every 'anime' you've ever seen is real. One of them, 'Death Note' I think it was, ties into every world there is. 'Death Note' is only one. The Shinigami Realm ties into every dimension there is, including yours. Now, you say that you were sleeping soundly, and then woke up on the outskirts of Death City, right?"
She nodded vigorously.
"Well, most shinigami don't have much to do except cause natural death and gamble. Sometimes, when gambling and extending their own lives isn't enough, they will do bad things to innocent people.
For instance, Ryuk was so bored that he dropped his first Death Note into one of the human dimensions. That little incident caused a lot of people to die, and that caused other shinigami to want to do the same thing. When Ryuk came back, he was in a lot of trouble with me, one for the amount of damage he'd caused and two for tricking me into giving him a second Death Note. The amount of apples he brought back did nothing to lessen his punishment.
I've heard that some other shinigami like to take innocent humans like you and place them in unfamiliar environments. It seems that one of them must have messed up and sent you here.
Some side affects of this phenomenon are gaining a new body, state of mind, and on rare occasions, new abilities. Most humans die before they have the chance to really live or die in the process of transportation. You, Ms. DeClour are in a small percentage of people who live past six hours. I'll probably have Dr. Stein run a few tests on you before we do anything rash," he inquired.
Zoey listened intently. Different dimensions, shinigami, and Death Note? It was all real? A trillion questions filled up her head. Did Shinigami-sama have a Death Note? Was she going to die? What tests awaited her? Would she ever get back home?
"Now I know this is all very confusing to you," Shinigami-sama continued, picking up on her uneasy wavelength. "But given enough time, you'll get used to living here. Now, there's something else I'd-"he was cut off at the sound of his doors opening. Zoey turned around, curious about whom it could be, right when Shinigami-sama was giving her crucial information. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw who was walking past the guillotines.
~8~
The first thing Zoey noticed about the new entities in the room was the familiar black and white hair, followed by two blondes. One was giggling like mad, the other listening to the first one. It was the trio of Death the Kid, Liz, and Patty.
"Father, I need to discuss an urgent matter with you. It seems that the toilet paper in the school bathrooms are not folded into a symmetrical triangle," Kid said hurriedly. He stopped when he noticed Zoey standing in front of his father.
"Father, who is this?" he asked, studying the pink haired girl. Zoey's face scrunched up in an irritated fashion and crossed her arms over her chest defensively. Shinigami-sama dropped his serious attitude.
"Oh, hiya Kid~! This is Zoey DeClour," he greeted, gesturing to Zoey. She waved to the trio. Patty giggled.
"Kya-ha-ha-ha! She's in her jammies!" Patty chortled and pointed at the girl. The pinkette's all too familiar blush spread across her cheeks and her grip on her sides tightened.
"Anyways, Kid, I need you to do me a favor," Shinigami-sama continued. Kid's I'm-about-to-have-a-symmetry-fit expression set on his features, and his voice had gone up a few octaves.
"But Father! What about the symmetry?" Kid whined. Shinigami-sama sighed again. It took all of Zoey's willpower to not burst into a fit of insane laughter at the two shinigami.
"Right now I need you to escort Ms. DeClour to the nurse's office. I'll call Dr. Stein to head down there as well and he will take it from there. Then we can fix your symmetry problem. How does that sound~?" the elder coaxed. Kid's whiny demeanor dropped and a smile replaced it.
"Thank you Father. I'll take her down there right now," Kid beamed. He motioned for Zoey to follow them. Reluctantly, she followed the group and they all walked out of the Death Room.
~8~
The quartet was all but silent (with the exception of Patty's constant giggling) until Kid spoke up.
"So, Ms. DeClour-"
"It's Zoey," Zoey corrected, cutting the young shinigami off.
"Pardon?"
"Enough with the Ms. DeClour stuff. I'm tired of formality. Call me Zoey," she insisted.
"Erm, okay, Zoey. What brings you to my father's school?" Kid asked.
Zoey quietly explained her situation to the group.
"That's terrible! I don't know what would happen if Patty got sent to some weird dimension!" Liz wailed. Patty laughed.
"It'd be okay onee-chan! I'd find you!" Patty assured. Liz hugged her sister in despair.
"No way! That's touching Patty!" Liz cried. Kid rolled his eyes.
"All of that aside, that does sound like quite the predicament. Do you think Father will send you home?" he pondered.
Zoey shrugged.
"I'm not sure. Your father didn't say anything about sending me back. I think I'm stuck here until he decides what's best," she inquired. Kid nodded in agreement.
He stopped the quartet in front of a dark wood door. The little street-sign-like plaque read 'Dispensary' in bold letters.
"Well, here we are. And don't worry, Dr. Stein is not permitted to perform surgery on another human being without my father's permission. There is nothing to be afraid of, I assure you," Kid stated. He turned his back to the pinkette and faced the two blondes.
"Now, let's go ask my father about getting that toilet paper issue fixed," he announced.
"You're hopeless Kid. Totally hopeless," Liz groaned, but followed her meister regardless. Zoey was relieved to see some comic relief in her once peaceful life. She turned away from the trio and faced the cracked door.
"Probably from when Black Star kicked the door open in episode eight," she thought. She laughed a bit as she recalled him kicking the Dispensary door open and tried to make Soul feel better, only to get a dent in his cranium, courtesy of Maka. Without a hitch, Zoey pushed the door open and was greeted by Dr. Stein. She bowed politely at the doctor.
~8~
"Shinigami-sama told me everything. I need you to sit down," he said. Zoey quickly deposited her rear into the chair next to Stein's.
"First, I'm going to need you to fill out this paper," Stein showed her the paper for emphasis. "I'll need a blood sample. Then I'll check your blood pressure, have you take a few vision tests, and I'll need to see how your coordinating and flexibility skills are." Stein listed and wrote something on a clipboard. He handed Zoey a clipboard with several blanks on it. She swiped a pen from the desk beside her and began to fill in the blanks.
Name: Zoey Maria DeClour
Sex: Female
Age: 14
Birthdate: November 21, 1996
Height: 1.7 meters
Weight: 49 kilograms
Mother: Jeanna Maria Brock
Father: Christian Lee DeClour
Address: ?
Phone Number: ?
Meister or Weapon? ?
Stein looked over her paper and grinned.
"Don't worry, we'll know the last question as soon as I get a sample of your blood," he said gleefully. Zoey gulped a bit. She didn't know how Dr. Stein was with needles, and she most certainly did not trust him with one. Despite her wishing, the doctor shuffled through some bins and pulled out an empty syringe.
"Now, you're going to have to relax. I'm perfectly sane right now, so there's nothing to worry about," Stein stated as he got some rubbing alcohol and a bandage. He cleaned the ligament that connected her bicep to her tricep with alcohol. Zoey relaxed her arm and Stein stuck the needle in her vein.
She watched the empty syringe fill with her blood without flinching or making a sound.
Stein quickly removed the needle, soaked up the remaining blood with a cotton ball, and placed the bandage on the wound.
Stein then squirted the blood into a test tube and held it under a machine. The machine extended a thin metal rod and sucked up the blood. It then made several loud humming noises and several graphs appeared onto the monitor of a computer attached to the machine. Stein rolled his chair over to the computer and read the graphs.
He reminded Zoey of her mother, who was a phlebotomist. She used to allow her to help out with blood tests as a child.
~8~
Stein's chair rolled over to Zoey.
"I've read the graphs,"
Zoey fidgeted impatiently.
"Well, what do they say?" she asked curiously. Stein adjusted his glasses before saying,
"It appears you have weapon blood. Now, I don't know what you look like as one, but I do know you are a Walloon sword. Those types of swords were common in Germany, Scandinavia, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. They were issued to the Swedish army by Gustavus Adolphus as late as 1850 I believe. Walloon swords are known to have great versatility in combat. They were known for being light, flexible, good for both cutting and thrusting, having an ambidextrous hilt, and having shell guards and knuckle bows,"
Zoey's eyes widened. This man was an encyclopedia. Though she was glad she finally knew what she was, she still was curious about one thing.
"Dr. Stein, what does my soul look like?" Zoey asked without a hint of doubt in her voice. Stein chuckled at her straightforward request.
"Bold, aren't we?" he laughed. Zoey smiled a bit while Stein adjusted his glasses. He peered into her soul.
"Your soul is very small," Stein noted. Zoey's heart was slashed with disappointment.
"Despite that, it has a lot of potential. I also see a lot of happiness, spunkiness, and energy. You're just being polite. If you knew me better, you'd act a lot looser," he continued, smiling.
Zoey laughed. This laugh, however, was not the shy, controlled laugh from before. This was a true, hearty laugh, deep from her belly. Stein smiled even wider.
"What's this?" he inquired curiously. He tilted his glasses.
"You have a Grigori soul! It contrasts with your hairstyle though," Stein chimed happily and gestured to Zoey's straight, pink locks.
"Oh well. We'll look back into that at a later time. Right now, I need to run more tests. I'm going to take your blood pressure, so just relax…"
~8~
Zoey stared at herself in the mirror. The floor was littered with locks of her once straight hair. Upon looking into the mirror, one could see that she had cut it furiously.
Her straight pink hair was now short and spiky, two long strands framing her face. Zoey had also pulled her hair back into two spiky, short pigtails.
She walked around the Dispensary bathroom, looking at her hair inquisitively. Her two pigtails bobbed up and down as she walked around the tiled area. She smiled gleefully at her reflection.
Zoey had checked her results from the tests Dr. Stein had run. She had 20/20 vision, an eight out of ten coordination score, and a nine out of ten flexibility score. Stein said she had the makings of a gymnast. But Zoey wasn't interested in the Olympics.
What she was interested in was a meister. She had pondered who would take her in ever since Stein had told her that she had weapon blood coursing through her veins. She would make a fantastic weapon, Stein had said.
A knock on the door distracted Zoey from her thoughts. She rushed to the door and was greeted with Dr. Stein. He laughed.
"I see you changed your hairstyle to match your soul. You were pretty accurate too," Stein said, brushing one of her pigtails. Zoey giggled madly, as the freshly cut hair tickled her head.
"Anyway, Shinigami-sama told me to give you these," he held up the pile of clothes in his hands. Zoey took them dutifully.
"It was all we could do on such short notice. Shinigami-sama said that he would have Liz and Patty take you shopping sometime this week," he recalled.
"However, I think these are better than your pajamas." he finished. Zoey blushed a bit, shut the door behind her, and began to change.
~8~
Zoey peered into the mirror again.
The new clothes were sort of baggy, but they certainly were better than her PJs.
Zoey now donned a grey tank top that came up to her clavicle and black shorts that were rolled up to reveal a yellow inside. She still had no shoes, but that didn't bother her much.
She breathed onto the clean glass and wrote Shinigami-sama's number. Blue ripples crossed the mirror until a clear image of the death god had replaced the reflective surface.
"Hiya Zoey-chan! What's up? Oh, you look good in those clothes! And your hair is different! I like it!" Shinigami-sama sing-songed.
"Thanks! I believe Dr. Stein has filled you in on my test results?" Zoey asked. Shinigami-sama nodded.
"Yep! He sure did. You had better results than a lot of the meisters that enrolled! That's super!" he praised.
Zoey blushed and rubbed the back of her neck.
"Aw, you're just sayin' that to flatter me," Zoey teased. Shinigami-sama chuckled giddily.
"Hohoho! You're just peachy. Now all you have to do is find a meister! Since you're not…erm…from around here, do you have anyone in mind?" he asked.
Reality grabbed a hold on the young weapon. She mentally face palmed herself. How could she be so dumb? A huge blush crept across her face and she managed to stutter out,
"A-Actually, Shingami-sama, I-I do have someone in m-mind…"
~8~
A/N: And that is where I leave it for now. HOLY COWS ON MERCURY THIS CHAPTER WAS LONG! I hope you all enjoy because my fingers are going to need some rest… ;A;
Oh yeah, review! It makes me feel tickly rainbows in mah brain! :3