The Newspaper Club combed the Academy from top to bottom, but Moka was nowhere to be found. Tsukune stood in the infirmary staring at the empty bed that Moka had been in not moments ago. He couldn't help but to worry that something terrible had happened to her. As he was lost in his thoughts, he heard Kurumu and Yukari enter the room.

"I've just checked all the dorm rooms," Kurumu reported, "But I couldn't find her anywhere."

"She must be trying to hide herself," Yukari observed, "I've been trying to find her through my crystal ball, but her energy is hidden from me."

"But why?" Tsukune asked, "Why would she need to try to hide from us? This doesn't sound like her."

"I don't know," Yukari admitted, "But if she's on campus, she's doing a good job of hiding herself."

"Except she's not on campus," Mizore said from the air vent.

"Waugh, Mizore?!" Tsukune jumped, "How long have you been in here?!"

"I don't keep track of time," she admitted as she got out, "But I've just checked every square inch of this campus and beyond simultaneously, and she's nowhere on the map."

"Are you sure about this?" he asked, "Maybe you may have missed something."

"Nope," she answered solemnly, "Sorry Tsukune, but Moka isn't anywhere within miles of this place."

Tsukune felt his heart sink. He had prayed that she might have stayed close so that he could protect her, but now he felt completely useless. He stared at the rosary in his hand and wondered if it was going to be the only thing he'd have to remember her by.

"What are we going to do now?" Yukari asked, "We've got an entire school full of killers coming after us! How are we going to stand up against them without Moka?"

"Well then," Kurumu growled, "We'll take care of this problem ourselves. We'll tell the students through the newspaper what's coming so we can prepare ourselves for an all-out war."

"But Kurumu," Yukari protested, "Without Moka, what can we do against-"

"Who gives a crap about Moka anyway?!" she interrupted, "That bitch abandoned us, so now we have to handle this on our own!"

"I hate to admit it," Mizore began, "But Bazooka Girl has a point. We can't rely on Moka to save the day all the time. Now that she's gone, we'll have to stand on our own."

"Yeah, but," Yukari began, "Can we really do this?"

"Of course we can!" Kurumu answered, "I don't care how many of them there are. There's no way they can stand up to a whole school full of monsters. And if we need to, we can also call in some outside help."

"Hold on," Tsukune asked, "What exactly do you mean by 'outside help?'"

Maka and the others made it back to the DWMA at long last. They headed straight for the school's library in order to make a strategy.

"Damn it," Black Star cursed, "If only they hadn't gotten away, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place."

"Not quite," Maka told him, "If there really is an army of monsters on the other side of that barrier, they would be coming after us sooner or later. Now that we know about them, we can take care of this problem before it becomes one."

"Uh, yeah," Liz squeaked, "How about we not and just say we did?"

"We can't," Maka answered, "We've already committed to this mission, so we have to follow through."

"Do you think I'll get to see her again?" Crona asked dreamily.

"Wait a second," Maka told him, "Are you talking about that snow girl you fought?"

"Damn it, Crona," Ragnarok growled, "What the hell is wrong with you?! That bitch tried to kill you, and you're sitting here dreaming about her?!"

"Hey, don't talk about her like that," he told him, "She's not like that at all. She may be a little cold, but she's really sweet, and kind, and pretty…"

"Listen, Crona," Maka interrupted, "I know what you're feeling right now, but you need to put that aside. You have to remember that she's the enemy here."

"Huh?" he asked, "Oh, right…"

"What the hell is taking Kid so long?!" Black Star yelled, "Hasn't he found anything out by now?"

"Quit complaining," Kid told him as he was reading a book, "We need to know everything we can about this enemy if we want even a chance at defeating them."

"Alright already," he answered, "But haven't you found anything yet?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I have," he responded, "According to legend, three powerful monsters known as the Three Dark Lords created an alternate dimension hidden from the real world by a powerful barrier exclusively for monsters. In the center of this world is a school called Yokai Academy that trains monsters to be able to blend in with humans without their knowledge. This must be what Maka sensed through the barrier."

"But wait," Maka interrupted, "If a place like that really exists, how come we haven't heard about this before?"

"I can't say for sure," Kid answered, "Father's never been one to reveal what's going on in his mind. What I can say is that these monsters have somehow flown under our radar for so long that it will be hard for us to tell who's really a human and who's a monster."

"What are you saying?" Tsubaki asked.

"I'm saying," he responded, "That they could be anywhere now. They may have even been able to infiltrate the academy."

Just then, they heard their friends Ox Ford and Kim Diehl approach them.

"Hey guys," Ox told them, "We heard you were back, so we – Waugh!"

Before Ox could finish his thought, Black Star jumped on him and wrestled him to the ground.

"Is that so?" Black Star growled, "Admit it monster, you thought you'd try to sneak up on us and get rid of us while our guard's down! Well you're not going to get the better of me!"

"What are you talking about?" Ox asked, "It's me, Ox! I'm not a monster!"

"Oh, yeah?" he responded, "Then prove it!"

"Black Star!" Tsubaki stressed as she pried her meister off of Ox, "He's not a monster! Just get off of him already."

"Well anyway," Kim said once everything died down, "We heard you had a little bit of a run in with some monsters during your mission. What happened there? Did you get the soul?"

"No," Maka answered, "Unfortunately, they ducked into some sort of barrier before we could finish them off."

"A barrier?" she asked, "What kind of barrier are we talking about here?"

"Don't know," Maka admitted, "All we know is that it looks like an ordinary brick wall, and that a bus is capable of driving through it."

"From what we can tell," Kid added, "They appear to be holed up in some place called Yokai Academy."

"Wait a second," Kim began, "Did you just say Yokai Academy?"

"Do you know about it or something?" Liz asked.

"Uh… nope, nothing," she lied, "It just sounded like an odd name to me."

"Is that so?" Maka asked analytically.

"Well then," Kid continued, "I suppose that's a reasonable conclusion. As we were saying, we need to find a way to get through this barrier in order to complete this mission."

"Can't you just dispel the barrier?" Ox asked, "It would seem that that would be the easiest solution."

"That would be the worst thing we could do," he answered, "With that much concentrated monster energy being released into the world, it would certainly plunge the world into chaos."

"Oh," Ox responded, "I see."

"Anyway," Kid continued, "We still don't have enough information to launch an attack on Yokai Academy. We'll have to know everything we can about this enemy before we can even think about taking them on."

"But still," Soul interjected, "Even if it is a school, it's still an army of monsters we're going up against. There's not much we can do on our own."

"Ah, but you forget, Soul," Kid told him, "That we have an army of our own."

Everyone looked amongst themselves as they remembered their war against Arachnophobia and the kishin. They knew that they could count on the rest of the DWMA to back them up when they needed them.

"I take it," Ox began, "That Spartoi will be leading the charge in this battle?"

"But of course," Kid told him, "After all, we are the elites of the students here."

"You got that right," Black Star added, "There's no one who can beat us when it comes to fighting!"

"Alright," Kid said, "We'd better get moving. Ox and Black Star, you two go find Kilik, Harvar and Jacqueline and bring them back here. Liz, Patty, I want you to go spread the word about the upcoming battle. I will go talk to Father about setting up a strategy for attack. The rest of you continue research on anything related to Yokai Academy. We'll meet back here in one hour. Agreed?"

Everyone went off to do the tasks they were assigned. The only ones left were Maka and Kim. Maka smiled at her friend and placed her hand on her shoulder.

"Just so you know," she whispered, "I already know you're a witch."

Kim nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard that.

"Y-you know about that?" she stammered, "H-how did you…"

"Don't worry," Maka assured her, "It's just that my Soul Perception is strong, so I can see a witch's soul even if they have Soul Protect on. But it doesn't matter if you're a witch. You're my friend Kim, so I still trust you."

"Really?" Kim asked.

"Of course," she told her, "Oh, and don't worry; I haven't told anyone yet."

"T-thank you Maka," Kim said, "I'm glad that you feel that way. But please, do me a favor and don't tell Ox about this."

"I won't," Maka promised, "I'm sure you have your reasons for not wanting him to know. Well then, shall we get to work?"

"Yes," she answered, "We've got a long ways to go before we reach Yokai."

Over the next several days, Yokai Academy was in an uproar. The Newspaper Club published their newest edition of the Yokai Gazette which detailed their run-in with the meisters as well as everything they knew about the DWMA. Soon after that, everyone, students and teachers alike, began preparing themselves for battle. Most of the teachers had cancelled their classes so the students could focus on training. And the ones who didn't still encouraged them to give everything they had for the Academy. The News Club was no exception, spending their time divided between their paper and training to fight. Tsukune and the others were waiting in their meeting room.

"You know," Ruby said, "I had my doubts about fighting these guys without Moka, but things are really coming along. Everyone's been doing everything they can for the Academy that I really can't see us losing this fight."

"See?" Kurumu squealed, "I told you we didn't need her around. We can do this on our own. I've been practicing this new technique, and there's no way some stupid meister is going to beat me with this little trick under my sleeve."

"I agree," Mizore added, "They may be coming here expecting an easier fight, but they're going to get quite a nasty wake-up call."

"Well," Yukari began, "I know that everyone is working hard to protect the school, but I'm still not sure that we'll be able to do it. So just as a precaution, Ruby and I have been learning about this new spell called Soul Protect that is supposed to keep us hidden from the meisters' Soul Perception."

"Pfft," Kurumu laughed, "What do you think is going to happen? We can take them, so there's no need to go hiding from them."

"Yeah," she started, "But still, you can't be too careful."

"Oh, come on," Kurumu told her, "If I say we can take them, then we can take them. If you're too much of a little kid to stay, then go right ahead and hide."

"Shove it, Titty Pie!"

"But still," Tsukune said as Kurumu tried to strangle Yukari, "Are we really doing the right thing going up against them?"

"Come on, Tsukune," Gin told him, "You're not still hung up about Moka, are you? We still have to fight them with or without her. You're going to have to forget about her for the time being."

"You know how I feel about her," he answered, "I can't just forget about her. But that's not the problem."

"Oh?" Gin asked, "And just what is the problem then?"

"I'm just not sure we should fight them," Tsukune told him, "I think that this may all just be some big misunderstanding."

"What are you talking about, Tsukune?!" he asked, "You heard the girl yourself that she wanted to take Ruby's soul. What part of that was so hard to understand?"

"I don't know," he answered, "I just think that there's something that we're not seeing here."

"Fine then," Gin told him, "Let's assume for some bizarre reason that they aren't our enemies. What are we supposed to do now? They're the ones attacking us. We've spent the past few days preparing for attack. Are we supposed to just throw all that hard work down the drain and let them kill us all?"

"I don't know," Tsukune repeated, "I just don't know…"

Gin sighed, "Listen Tsukune," he said, "Maybe you need to take a rest. Why don't you just go home for a while? Visit your folks, maybe take a vacation. You wouldn't be much help here anyway. Just take some time to clear your head before you snap."

"But I can't leave you guys like this!" he answered, "They could show up at any second!"

Just then, they heard the door open. They turned to see a very familiar-looking girl standing in the doorway.

"Shizuka? Are you in here?" Blair asked, "Oh, it's you guys."

Immediately, Kurumu let go of Yukari and ran straight for Blair. She grabbed her shoulders and pinned her against the wall.

"You," Kurumu growled, "You were with those meisters. Now what do you think you're doing here? Are you trying to pick us off when we're least expecting it?"

"No, that's not it at all," Blair told them, "I was just trying to-"

Before Blair could finish her thought, Ms. Nekonome entered the room.

"Sorry I'm late guys," she began, "I got held up trying to – Oh my, what's going on here?"

"Oh, there you are Shizuka," Blair exclaimed, "I've been looking all over for you."

"Blair?" Nekonome asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to warn you," she answered, "The DWMA is coming to attack."

"We know about that," Ruby told her, "But what we want to know is how you managed to get through the Great Barrier in the first place."

"What do you mean, 'how I got through'?" Blair asked her, "I'm a graduate of this school. It's only natural that I would be able to make it in here."

"You…" Yukari began, "You're an alumna?"

"That's right," Nekonome chimed, "Blair and I were both in the same class here at this very school."

"We were pretty close friends," Blair added, "Weren't we, Shizuka? But wait, no, that's not what I came here for! Shizuka, we need to get out of here before Lord Death's army gets here."

"Why?" she asked, "When are they coming?"

"Right now," Blair answered, "They should be at the barrier at this very moment!"

"What?!" Kurumu yelled, "Well in that case, we'd better go give our new friends a traditional Yokai welcome. Let's go!"

"Right behind you," Mizore told her.

The rest of the Newspaper Club soon followed after. As they were leaving, however, Gin pulled Tsukune aside to talk to him.

"Hold on a second, Tsukune," he told him, "Before we go, I want to know something. What did you mean when you said that I knew how you felt about Moka?"

"Uh…" Tsukune said, "Let's just forget about that for now. We've got a job to do."

"Alright," Gin surrendered, "But we're not done talking about this."

With that, the two hurried off to battle.

Sure enough, the DWMA's army had gathered just outside the barrier. Every able-bodied meister and weapon pair had enlisted to help in the battle against Yokai Academy. Maka and her friends were standing right next to the barrier speaking to the DWMA's strongest meister Dr. Franken Stein and his partner Marie Mjolnir.

"So this," Stein began, "Is the place where you say that the bus to Yokai Academy disappeared to?"

"Yes professor," Maka answered, "I sensed that they were heading to a place that had a lot of monster souls gathered in one place. From what I can tell, that can only be Yokai Academy."

"That would seem to be the case," he responded, "I'm sensing some magical power coming from this wall. I assume that this must be the Great Barrier."

"What do you mean, 'Great Barrier'?" Black Star asked, "Is that what this is called?"

"That's correct," Stein told him, "The Great Barrier was created by the Three Dark Lords themselves to keep hidden the enormous amount of monster energy that would result from an entire student body of monsters. As such, no human can ever get through the Barrier."

"But if that's true," Marie started, "How are we going to get in?"

"Leave that part to me," Kid told her, "Father and I have a pre-established Soul Link that we will use to transfer his power through me to open a hole in the barrier. Maka, I'll need you to call on my Father through the mirror and give him the signal."

"All right," Maka replied, "I'm on it."

She pulled out her mirror and wrote the Death Room's number on the glass. The mirror rang and Lord Death's image appeared in the mirror.

"Well, hello there Maka," he told her, "Have you reached the barrier to the Monster World?"

"Yes, Lord Death," she reported, "Everything's all set. We're ready whenever you are, sir."

"Splendid, splendid," Lord Death chimed, "Now just sit back and leave the rest up to me. I'll take care of the barrier. You just be sure that everyone makes it through quickly. If we leave it open for too long, the monster energy could leak out into the world and cause all kinds of chaos."

"Of course Lord Death," Maka answered.

"Good," he told her, "Now tell Kid to get ready and aim at the barrier wall."

Maka did so, and Kid got into position. He pointed his arms at the barrier and waited. Soon, he felt incredible power coursing through his body. That energy was released from his arms and hit the barrier. Once the energy had left Kid's body, a hole opened up in the barrier, revealing a long, multicolored tunnel on the other side.

"The way is open," Maka called out, "Everyone hurry on through!"

Everyone ran inside the barrier into the tunnel. Maka stayed behind to make sure everyone made it through. Once the last meister made it in, Maka hurried inside as the hole closed up behind her.

"Everyone made it, Lord Death," she said into the mirror, "We've made it to the Monster World."

"Good job, Maka," Lord Death told her, "Now, all that's left to do is to make your way int…"

Before Lord Death could finish his sentence, his voice faded away and static filled the image. Soon, the image broke off entirely, and the mirror turned back to normal.

"Lord Death?" Maka said, "Lord Death, can you hear me?"

"What's going on, Maka?" Soul asked.

"I don't know how," she answered, "But somehow, I lost connection with Lord Death."

"Hello? Hellooooo?" Lord Death said into his mirror, "Well, that's strange. Now how could I have lost-"

Before Lord Death could complete his thought, another image appeared on the mirror. A hooded figure with glowing eyes sat at a long desk looking directly at him.

"Hello, Lord Death," it told him, "It's been a long time."

"Ah, I remember you," Lord Death answered, "I thought that school sounded familiar. Hi, how have you been all this time?"