I do not own Bleach or Soul Eater, nor do I intend to garner any revenues from the use of their characters and universes.

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Shinigami Chronicles

Act 1: Hollow Eater

Chapter 5: Pound Cakes and Strawberries

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It was a gorgeous morning. The sun was grinning in the east, with no clouds to block out its halcyon light. The air was crisp with the last remnants of the previous night's cold, yet to be heated into its arid afternoon state. The city outside was quiet save for the few vendors who opened their stores at sun-up, the sounds of their shoe-steps and various methods of travel only accentuating the promising atmosphere.

The morning was, in a word, "cool".

Despite the hours Soul had spent lying in bed awake the night before, he'd managed to still get a good night's sleep. It was a little trick he'd picked up from hanging out with his brother on nights before performances. It was the same trick he used to keep his cool when the chips were down: Just roll with whatever's got you worried. No matter what, even it looks like you've got no chance, just smile and take it in stride. It might not solve the problem, but it'll sure aggravate the cause of it.

Soul smiled to himself. Knowing Red, there was probably something to what he'd said the night before. Still, it wasn't going to do Soul any good to worry about it now. For now, he would just enjoy the morning. When whatever Red was referring to unveiled itself Soul would deal with it then.

Soul yawned and stretched his arms above his head clasping his hands together as he leaned forward to stretch out his back. He responded the sun's manic grin with a more subdued lopsided smirk of his own, swinging his legs out of the bed and standing tall before reaching down to stretch his legs out. After which went about the business of getting dressed, having showered the night before.

It wasn't until Soul was in the process of donning his prized leather jacket that he realized that there was something different about this morning's routine. He hurriedly thrust his arms into the sleeves of the jacket as he turned to face the door. He waited for about thirty seconds before raising an eyebrow at the situation.

"Maka, hasn't made her grand appearance yet." Soul murmured. Odd. Though Maka wasn't a slave to her routines like Death the Kid was, she didn't often break them. Then again, she could be waiting on the other side of the door with a preemptive "Maka Chop" at the ready. He wouldn't put it past her, although he had no idea what she could be angry about.

"Hey, Maka!" Soul called out to the door. "If you're there, I'm sorry about whatever it is I'm supposed to be sorry about." Crap, that didn't come out right. "I mean, uh, sorry about that…thing I did. Whatever it was."

Soul sighed. Even if he had come up with a convincing apology, she probably wouldn't have answered. Not if she was in the throes of a righteous fury. Best to man up and take whatever it was she had to dish out.

"I'm coming out." Soul called as he went to open the door. He braced himself for a book to the head as he opened the door, readying his legs for a quick side or back step. It would probably infuriate Maka even more, but he couldn't pass up the chance to see Maka's angry pout. That always brightened his day, in even the most adverse of conditions.

Unfortunately, no book came when Soul thrust the door open, his eyes vigilant for any sign of attack. No, Maka was nowhere to be seen. Soul frowned disappointedly. He'd had his best smirk ready for it and everything.

"Guess I hadn't ticked her off after all." He muttered with a somewhat bored expression. "Oh well." He started on his way towards the stairs when he noticed something else: there was no scent of breakfast in the air. Maka never missed out on a hearty early morning breakfast. That was just how she did things. Then again, a change of pace every now and then wasn't bad.

Soul continued to think this until he got down to the empty and pristine kitchen, no noticeable signs of Maka's presence in sight.

Soul frowned. Was she still in her room? That was not like her at all. She always woke up before the sun did. She hardly ever slept in, unless she was sick, or tired from the day before.

"She hadn't said anything about feeling sick." Soul murmured as he made his way back up the stairs "But there were the dreams…"

Soul quickened his gait, half jogging to Maka's room as his bored expression slid into a darkly worried one. He slowed to a more casual power walk as he approached his meister's door shaking his head a couple times to loosen up. Worrying wasn't going to do him any good. Whatever was happening, he'd deal with it when he found out what was going on.

He knocked on the door lightly as he called "Maka? You in there?"

No response.

Thankfully, Maka had left the door open. Soul smiled privately to himself as he let himself in. Maka left the door open at night. That little tidbit of information could come in handy.

Putting thoughts of April Fool's day pranks and Christmas surprises to the side, Soul found Maka's room to be more of a mess than he'd originally expected, with a myriad of books, lined papers, writing utensils and various articles of clothing strewn about the place.

"What a mess." Soul muttered as he entered the room. Maka was generally a neat and tidy person. Her room being in this state set off more than a few alarms in young demon weapon's head. Something was definitely wrong here.

Soul wore a more serious expression as he approached Maka's bed, treading lightly so as not to step on any of the many objects that covered the floor. There was a lump under the bed covers, suggesting a body was there, but it only took one touch for Soul to realize the nature of the body in the bed.

"Pillows" Soul murmured as he lifted the covers to be sure. "Not cool." He looked over at the bedside window which, he now noticed, was open. Looking out from it, he saw a myriad of paths that Maka could've taken if she had indeed left through there.

"Not cool at all."

[-]

Ichigo gave the morning sun a dangerous glare as he locked the door to his temporary home in Death City's suburbia. Last night's sleep was less than pleasant, considering that he still had to wear the limiter bands and anklets while he was in Death City. At the very least he was able to expel the soul he'd found the night before, so it was less uncomfortable than it could've been. However, after taking the soul back into his body so he could hand it off to Sid before the extra-curricular exam , Ichigo was looking forward to shedding his limiters when everything was done more and more.

The walk to Shibusen was fairly uneventful, as Ichigo did his best to be cordial to everyone who said hello, and got used to his current persona as one of Shibusen's new alumni. He got lost a few times but found that the populace of Death City to be quite willing to oblige when it came to directions.

When he arrived at the steps to the meisters' school, following the lead of the fish vendor he'd met the day before, Ichigo marveled at the sight that stood before him. The Shibusen school, built like some kind of skull-ridden multilevel cake, was both childish and disturbing at the same time. On closer inspection, it appeared that the cake-like trappings were more of a shell than an extension of the building they adorned, a darker more traditional form of European stone-masonry bristling underneath its youth inspired outer shell.

Ichigo could only wonder what prompted the castle's redesign.

Those ruminations would have to wait, however, as Ichigo caught sight of Sid waiting out in front of the school, a serious expression apparent on his visage. He raised an eyebrow. "You look frazzled."

Ichigo gave the dead man a slightly irritated glare in return. "What makes you say that?"

"Rings under your eyes" Sid noted. "Never a good sign."

"Didn't sleep well." Ichigo replied, the irritation slowly seeping out of his expression. He refrained from mentioning the fact that he got lost on the way to the school. No need for any more indignities this morning. "Am I late?"

"Yeah," Sid replied with a small chuckle, "but you at least got here before your students did."

"Huh." Ichigo murmured. "Know where they are?"

"I know where one of them is." Sid said simply "Haven't been able to get him to move a muscle."
Sid thrust his hands into his pockets sheepishly. "Chrona's still not used to zombies apparently."

"Imagine that." Ichigo said blandly

"If Maka were here, things would be a little different." Sid said, bringing a beleaguered hand to his brow. "Suffice to say, Chona would at least be willing to come out of his hiding place." Sid let his hand droop down in front of his eyes. "As it stands, I'm going to have to go with plan B."

"Plan B?"

"You meet Maka on your own and let her introduce you to Chrona, while I call in some reserves to take care of the assignment."

"To take care of…" Ichigo repeated "This was an actual mission?"

"That's right." Sid replied "I figured a real field situation would be the best introduction."

"What kind of field situation are we talking about here?"

"Don't worry" Sid answered with a placating gesture. "I wouldn't send them into anything too serious with a man they didn't know. This was just a simple recon mission."

"Recon?"

"Strange things happening in a village in the Czech Republic. Rampaging golems and like that."

Ichigo frowned "Rampaging golems is a simple recon mission?"

"It's not as bad as it sounds."

"Sure it isn't" Ichigo replied blandly "And there's a flaw in your plan Sid."

"Yeah?" Sid asked "What's that?"

"I have no idea who Maka is." Ichigo crossed his arms "Or where to find her for that matter."

Sid raised his index finger in a pausing gesture as he fumbled through his pants pockets for something. A moment later, he produced a picture, paper, and a pencil.

"That's Maka" Sid said as he flicked the picture at Ichigo.

Ichigo moved to snatch the picture out of the air but missed as the photo careened around his hand and into his face. Pulling the picture off his visage, Ichigo held it at arms length for examination. With two large blonde ponytails, green eyes, and a cheerful grin, this Maka had quite the innocent unassuming look to her.

"Don't mistake the innocence for weakness." Sid said without looking up from his paper and pencil as he jotted an address down on the page. "She can be fierce when she needs to be."

"Uh-huh" Ichigo murmured as he folded the picture and stuffed it into his pocket. "You keep pictures of all of your students on hand?"

"Just the probable targets." Sid said simply as he finished writing on the paper. He moved to flick it at Ichigo as well, only to have Ichigo step in to preemptively snatch the paper out of Sid's hand. Sid continued as though nothing had happened. "Impromptu briefings are easier with pictures."

"I see." Ichigo said darkly as he read the address. "Everyone's fair game huh?"

"I never flinched from my duty, no matter how grizzly" Sid replied "That's the kind of man I was."

"Grizzly duty, Grizzly mistakes." Ichigo murmured shaking his head as he folded the page and placed it in his pocket as well. "By the way, I ran into something last night."

Sid, who was turning to leave, threw Ichigo a questioning look. "What kind of thing?"

"Dunno." Ichigo said simply "It moved like a monkey, and seemed pretty feral."

"Vaguely humanoid?"

"Yeah"

"Probably a corrupted soul." Sid said bringing a hand to his chin "What did you do with the remains?"

"You just assume I killed it?" Ichigo balked

"Didn't you?"

To this Ichigo rolled his eyes and snorted.

"Thought so."

"Didn't destroy its soul though." Ichigo said, holding out his hand. He loosened visibly as he let the grey soul appear in the palm of his hand. "Didn't know what to do with it."

"That's… different." Sid said as he eyed the soul appraisingly.

"What?" Ichigo asked

"Probably nothing" Sid replied frowning as he quickly absorbed the soul into his own hand. "Still, it wouldn't hurt to have Stein look at this."

"What's wrong with it?" Ichigo asked darkly

"I'll tell you at some other time." Sid said as he hurried toward Shibusen's main entrance. "Right now, I need to make sure our boys in Euro Branch investigate the village while the intel's still good."

"Hold on, I—" Ichigo started, but stopped abruptly as he realized Sid was a fair bit faster than he'd thought. The man had already disappeared into the confines of Shibusen, his rushed footsteps existing only in memory as Ichigo gave a dejected sigh. "—don't know where Maka's address is…" Ichigo finished, trailing off into a dejected mumble.

It wouldn't be a problem normally, but Death City's street nomenclature was nonsensical at best, with the few streets that did have numbers winding about so much as to make it impossible for them to follow any sort of mathematical order.

He pulled the picture and the address out of his pocket, examining them once more. "768 Guillotine Way, Death Bed Apartments, Apartment 147. That sounds inviting" Ichigo muttered under his breath "Blonde hair. Green eyes. Innocence." He frowned. "Poor kid. Probably has no idea what she's gotten into." He brought a hand to his chin "Hell, I'm not even sure, beyond the fact that she has hollow potential." Ichigo glared back at the main entrance to Shibusen. "You could've at least told me her symptoms Sid."

With that, Ichigo turned away from the meister school, focusing on the maze of a city that now lay before him. There was no way he was going to find the apartment within the day without help. However, he had met at least one person he could ask for directions without seeming to conspicuous. Now if only he could remember where that guy's shop was.

A thoughtful scowl appeared upon Ichigo's visage as he tried to remember. However, he found that he couldn't concentrate as something was tugging incessantly at his pant leg.

Looking down, Ichigo found the cause of his distraction: the cat he'd met when he first arrived in town.

Ichigo's scowl faded into an easy smile as he said "I don't have any food for you."

The cat shook its head in a no gesture as it sat down on it haunches and favored Ichigo with an inquisitive gaze.

"So it's not food this time, huh?" Ichigo murmured. "Well, I'm kinda busy at the moment."

To this the cat mewed cutely, tilting its head in an innocent, inquisitive manner.

Ichigo sighed good-naturedly as he knelt down to the cat's level. "Well, if you must know." He said as he held the picture where the cat could see it. "I'm looking for this girl. Maka Albarn. Word has it she needs my help."

For a moment that the cat just stared at the picture with what appeared to be an appraising gaze. Then, without warning, it lunged forward and snatched the picture right out Ichigo's hand, and bounded off into the city.

"Hey!" Ichigo exclaimed as he scrambled after the clue bearing cat "Come back here with that!"

The cat, however, paid him no heed.

[-]

Soul now stood just outside of a small deli in Death City's market district, his worry masked by his usual bored expression as he scanned the streets. He hadn't found any trace of her anywhere in the city. Even in her usual haunts, no one had seen her out and about. The deadline for the extra-curricular assignment had long since passed, and that worried Soul more than anything. Maka was never one to miss a chance at extra training. She was usually the one looking for Soul when it looked like they were about to be late.

"Maka, where are you?" Soul muttered as he turned his gaze up to the cloudless sky. "You're making me worry about you." He began to go over all the places he'd searched for her again in his head, but was interrupted when a loud voice cut through his introspective silence.

"Behold mere mortals! The glorious man above men, master of masters, and god among gods has arrived!"

Soul smirked not bothering to look in the direction of the call "Hey, Black Star."

"Yo!" Black Star cried as he performed a front flip down from the roof of the deli to landing heavily on his feet for dramatic effect. He was grinning madly as he dusted himself off. "Looking up when you should be looking around, there, buddy?"

"I know Maka's not here." Soul replied as he gave Black Star their customary fist bump greeting. "I checked. Twice."

"Well check a third time. It's not like you've got anything better to do."

"Speaking of better things to do, didn't you have some training scheduled today?"

"And abandon you in this time of need? That would be blasphemous."

"Blasphemous?"

"Well of course. Gods don't leave their friends in the lurch, not when they need 'em"

"Uh-huh" Soul muttered. Truth be told, he was more surprised that Black Star had used the term "blasphemous". "Black Star, do you even know why I'm looking for her?"

"Nah, but you asked me if I'd seen her, and my god sense said you were really worried about her."

A smug smile formed on Soul's visage. "Tsubaki said I was worried, didn't she?"

This earned Soul a hard jab in the shoulder as Black Star replied with a grin "Alright, so I'm still working on the god sense thing. Make no mistake, I'll become the master of that too. Just you watch." Black Star then threw his arm across Soul's shoulder in a carousing manner. "So are you worried, man? I mean it takes a lot to get you ruffled. Gotta be something serious if you're worried."

"Nah." Soul replied as he gave Black Star the easiest grin he could muster. "I'm just a little nervous. That's all."

Black Star's grin lessened "About?"

"Well, I was kinda late for the extra-curricular stuff we were gonna do today."

"How late?"

Soul shook his head.

"You mean you didn't even get to go? That's balls man."

"So I've been trying to find her so I can apologize…"

"Say no more." Black Star said with a devilish grin as he released Soul's shoulder and stepped in front of him. Then, before Soul could react Black Star threw a powerful right hook to Soul's stomach.

This garnered a strained "oof" from Soul as he clutched his stomach and gasped for the wind that was knocked out of him.

"Tell Maka I'm sorry for holding back, but I wanted to leave something for her to 'Maka Chop'"

"You're too kind." Soul wheezed as he braced himself on one of the outer walls of the deli.

"Yeah, I am." Black Star's grin got larger, if that was even possible "But that's what friends are for."

The young ninja technician then turned away from Soul and launched himself high into the air towards the roof tops "And now I take my leave." he cried as he bounded up the various implements of the apartment district to reach their roofs. As soon as reached them, he struck a gallant pose. "So that others might bask in my glory."

In the time it took for Soul to recover from Black Star's surprise attack, the young ninja had already crested the horizon, headed towards the market district at blinding speeds.

Soul smiled as he slowly picked himself up off the side of the deli. Even holding back, that boisterous little ninja was vicious. Still he usually didn't pay enough attention to people to be perceptive with them. Tsubaki on the other hand, seemed to always know, even if she hardly ever said so. Seemed like all she ever did was keep an eye out for everyone else. Odds were even on whether or not she'd note how deep Soul's worry was when Black Star returned to her. It was almost a given that she knew and was just being as unobtrusive as possible.

Soul considered all this as he found his usual seat in the deli and ordered his usual soft bread beef sandwich. It was a sandwich whose doughy consistency, meaty filling, and tactful use of seasoning came close to the tepidly mild yet filling texture and taste of a soul. Although it was arguably the pound cake that came with it that really did the job. Served cold, it had a thicker more solid consistency to it, and a subtle side flavor that changed with each week. The two combined were a fair enough substitute to mollify Soul's hunger for the real thing.

As he waited for the order to arrive, Soul began mull over his findings again, searching for anything that could point to Maka's whereabouts. He became quite engrossed in his thoughts, tugging at his cheek introspectively as he pondered. He became so engrossed that he almost didn't notice the commotion outside the deli as an orange haired man barreled past the display window. Almost. It was the loud cry of "Dammit, stop running away!" that caught Soul's attention.

He looked up just in time to see the door to the deli swing inward with a purple cat hanging on to the handle of the door. The small feline quickly flung itself off the door landing lightly on the ground and fervently scanning the room.

No mistaking it, that was Blair. Soul could only wonder what that cat witch had gotten herself into this time. No doubt whatever she was carrying in her mouth had something to do with it. Maybe if he played it cool she wouldn't notice he was here.

Sadly, this was not the case, as Blair almost immediately found Soul slouching on a stool near the far end of the deli. She was practically a blur of purple motion as she rushed forward and threw herself into Soul's lap.

Soul gave Blair an annoyed look. "Whatever it is that's happening, Blair, I don't want to know." Soul said as he moved to shoo her off his lap. He stopped when he saw that she was holding Maka's picture in her mouth. "This is her student photo." Soul murmured "What are you doing with this?"

To this Blair simply tilted her head, projecting innocence from her beguiling eyes. Soul wasn't buying it.

"That won't work on me Blair. I know you."

Blair mewed disarmingly, once again giving Soul that stare of feigned innocence.

This only made Soul more incredulous "Don't give me that." Then he realized something. "Blair, why aren't you talking?"

As if to answer his question, the orange-haired man who'd rushed past the window before burst into the restaurant. His irritated glare surveyed every inch of the deli with an unmistakable air of menace.

Not cool. Knowing Blair she'd probably taken one of her games just a tad too far. No doubt this guy had a bone to pick with her, and was more than likely justified in his desire. Soul didn't have time to deal with that kind of thing.

Perhaps if he just played it cool, the icy eyed man wouldn't notice. The idea seemed like a fairly good one, until Blair decided to greet the man with her sultry cat call.

If the guy hadn't known she was there, he knew now, as his gaze fixated upon Blair, and then refocused on Soul. The eyes stayed focused on Soul as the orange-haired man made his approach.

"Great" Soul muttered under his breath, pretending he didn't notice the encroaching man.

"That your cat?" The man asked, crossing his arms.

Soul put on his best devil-may-care expression as he turned to face the man. "I wouldn't say that she's mine." Soul said casually drawing a hand across Blair's back. "But she hangs out with me a lot."

"That so?" The man replied "That cat's pretty smart, if a bit mischievous."

"I wouldn't say she's a—" Soul began, but was interrupted by claws digging into his thigh. He caught Blair glaring at him out of the corner of his eye. Apparently she didn't want him to finish that statement. But perhaps if he modified it. "—normal cat." Soul finished.

Blair appeared to find that version of the sentence to be acceptable to her. It seemed she wanted this guy to think of her as a cat for some reason. That was different from her usual way with men, but it was probably just another one of her games. Perhaps if Soul played along he'd be able to avoid getting too deeply involved in it.

"So I gathered" the man replied. "Anyways, I need that picture she's got there."

"What for?" Soul asked, modulating the accusatory incredulity of his voice to something closer to vague curiosity. "You have a fetish or something?"

"Nothing like that." The man said with disgust. "I'm a new teacher at Shibusen. I was supposed to observe Chrona and Maka in today's extra-curricular assignment, and get some lessons ready for their future studies."

"That so?" Soul asked allowing just a pinch of boredom to seep into his curious tone. "I never heard anything about that."

Ichigo narrowed his eyes dangerously "Why would you hear anything about it?"

"I'm her partner." Soul said as his food arrived. "Soul Eater Evans."

"Soul Eater?" Ichigo repeated. "What kind of a name is that?"

"It's my kind of name." Soul said matter-of-factly, as he took a bite out of his sandwich "And what I am."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow at this. "So you're a meister?"

"Nah" Soul replied as he took another bite out of his sandwich. "They don't eat souls."

"A Scythe then?"

"Nah." Soul replied with a chuckle "I'm not on that level." He then allowed his hand to become a minuscule red and black blade and used it to cut the remains of the sandwich in half. "Just Maka's partner, a demon weapon in training."

Momentary surprise flickered across the man's face, followed by annoyance. He then shifted his gaze from Soul to Blair, who nodded her head and mewed in her innocent way. Soul wasn't sure what that meant, but apparently it was enough to mollify the orange haired man.

"Huh."The man said as he took a seat one stool away from Soul. He didn't turn to face Soul as he said. "The name's Ichigo."

Soul smirked, gulping a large bit of meat down his gullet. "Japanese right?"

"Yeah, something like that." Ichigo replied. "So you're Maka's partner."

"You're gonna believe what I say after just meeting me?" Soul asked, slicing himself a piece of pound cake.

"The cat seems to trust you." Ichigo remarked "She seems smart enough to know when she's around someone she can trust. At the very least, no animal would take up residence in a man's lap if it didn't trust them."

Soul pursed his lips knowingly. "She knows how to disarm me."

"She led me to you." Ichigo continued. "I think she knows that you can help me out here."

Soul looked down at Blair who was giving him a meaningful look. Asking with her eyes for Soul to trust this man that he just met. Soul sighed. It probably couldn't hurt. At the very least Ichigo appeared to be someone who didn't fly off the handle at a moment's notice, although his earlier display was not encouraging.

"So you're looking for Maka." Soul said as he bit into the pound cake, relishing the light hint of lemon that was apparently the flavor of the week. "Any particular reason why?"

Ichigo frowned. "According to Sid, something may be wrong with her soul. I can't get into the details here, but I need to see her to know if it's what I suspect."

"I see" Soul said, a tinge of worry managing to manifest itself on his visage. If there was any doubt before now, this man's supposed reasonings would confirm that something had in fact affected Maka, and that that something was more than likely connected with the dream from the night before. An uncool fact, but one that was probably true nonetheless. "Well, you won't find her in the city." Soul noted, no longer eating. "I've been looking for her all day, and haven't found even a trace of her."

"That's bad." Ichigo said with a scowl. "She's probably not in the city anymore. If what I think happened, happened."

"What do you think happened?" Soul queried.

"I can't say here." Ichigo replied "But we need to find her, and fast. Problem is my soul sensing abilities aren't worth crap. I couldn't find her, even if she was in this city."

"I can't say that I'm capable of anything like that either" Soul noted with a frown. However, his visage brightened with a smirk as looked down at the purple cat that sat in his lap. "But Blair might be."

"You don't mean," Ichigo started with an incredulous look. "The cat?"

Soul grinned toothily "She's not exactly a normal cat."

Ichigo cast his gaze upon Blair as she sat on her haunches a confident look in her amethyst feline eyes "So I gathered" he murmured shaking his head. "So I gathered."

[-]

Maka was confused. She had no memory of waking up or doing any portion of her waking routine this morning. Nor had she any recollection of making any rounds through Death City before this moment of awareness.

Yet here she stood, in a remote section of the desert, some indeterminable distance out from Death City. At the very least, she couldn't find the city on the horizon.

Clad in a light skirt and blouse with nothing else to protect her from the Sun's increasingly burning gaze, Maka couldn't help but think she was forgetting something else. Something more important than her daily routines, although she couldn't fathom what it was. A darkly unsure expression surfaced upon Maka's visage as she searched the cloudless skies and rolling dunes for an answer to the quandary of what it was.

The sandy world before her yielded no answers, although she found yet another quandary to investigate. Her right hand was gripping something very tightly. The object was cold in her hand, despite the ever rising noon-day temperatures, and felt like something akin to a handle.

Right. The dream. Last night. It was last night right? That was the longest instance of the dream that she'd ever had. Even still her memory of it was hazy at best. She remembered dancing with the leaves and drifting into the shadow laden forest, curiosity goading her ever forward. She'd seen something in the wind charged darkness, glinting in the moon's stark eyeless gaze. She'd grasped it, and then…

And then, here she was.

She drew her gaze to her right hand and found a relatively small hatchet resting within her solid grip. Upon closer examination its hilt appeared to be of a deep obsidian hue, with varying lines of grey swirling up to the axe head, whose silver sheen bore etchings of a similar style to the ones that adorned the hilt.

Her confusion dwindled into listlessness as her eyes followed the lines that wandered about aimlessly. The lines had nary a beginning or end to any of them, their paths continually cycling and crossing, merging into one another in a purposeless, endless waltz, moving towards a destination whose location, though seemingly assured to be somewhere on these intertwining paths, appeared to have no sure path or direction to arrive at it.

She could feel herself getting lost in the maze. Lost in the many winding pathways that meandered across that weapon. Something irrational in her wanted to know where they all ended and where they began. Wanted to find that place, go there, live there, be there. Be that place.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" came a voice like a siren's whisper on the wind.

Maka bit her lip finding her gaze at rest upon the head of the axe, staring at a quarter of her own pale blonde visage, one singular eye returning her stare. Yet something was amiss. Something was out of place. Though the eye, skin and hair were hers, the gaze behind them that leered out from the reflection was most certainly not.

She shook her head a bit to regain her bearings, but found that her eye still leered back, the whisper coming forth once more.

"An endlessly winding path that only finds itself in the end." The incongruous reflection murmured.

"Who are you?" Maka murmured, finding it slightly hard to focus on the eye through the hatchet's designs.

"Who does it look like I am?" The whisper replied, the eye moving as if in concert with a face beyond the confines of the hatchet. "I think it's fairly obvious."

"You're not me." Maka said firmly giving the hatchet a sidelong look.

"True." The whisper replied. "I'm not you."

"Then who…?"

"Only you can answer that." The whisper replied

"I don't like riddles."

The reflected eye narrowed amusedly "It's no riddle. I can't answer before you do."

Maka closed her eyes and shook her head once more "I'm going insane."

"What makes you say that?"

"Nothing seems real."

"Maybe you're deaming?"

Maka frowned. "Dreams are mental concoctions, built by the mind to represent and implement its actions while one is not conscious. Said actions are confined to the manipulation of the body, soul or souls that said mind is linked to.

"Text book answer." The whisper stated, a bit of amusement filtering into its disembodied voice. "As expected of the ever studious Maka Albarn."

Maka said nothing to this, her frown deepening.

"But as any judicious student of the occult mind should be aware," the whisper continued, slowly evolving into a dark murmur. "perception of reality is entirely controlled by that same mind. One can never really know whether life is a vivid dream or dreams are in fact life."

"Only if you don't have a grip on what reality is." Maka muttered taking a cross-legged position in the sand as she laid the hatchet down. "I think mine is slipping."

"Because," The voice said in a mildly amused tone. "you don't know if I'm real. If this is real?"

Maka said nothing to this, simply closing her eyes.

"Then it appears there's only one way to tell." The voice continued. "Wake up."

Maka's eyes shot open at this statement. Once again she swept the desert with a vigilant gaze, and once again she found not the answers she sought. Only the hollow silence of death's desert, and the lonely dust laden wind that traipsed across its ochreous sands remained. Both hatchet and voice were nowhere to be seen or heard.

[-]

It hadn't taken long for Blair to lead Soul and Ichigo through the city to where she believed Maka's last whereabouts were. Though she had no formal training in witchcraft, her own self-training was sufficient enough to grant her a modicum of extrasensory capabilities. Not much. Just enough to get a vague idea of soul's locations within a certain radius if she focused enough. And while this skill couldn't normally be used to locate a particular person, her familiarity with Maka's wavelength was enough for her to at least pick up on her general location if she was in the vicinity.

It was this familiarity that allowed her to catch wind of Maka as she slunk through the city the other night. At the time she hadn't thought much of the fact that she was headed towards the edge of Death City. She'd simply assumed Maka was dealing with pre-mission jitters in the same way the Blair dealt with her own conundrums: prowl the city streets until she forgot about them.

Now followed by Soul and Ichigo, she was focusing as hard she could to find any trace of the young meister. With a bit of effort Blair found a faint trail of something akin to Maka's soul wavelength, although it appeared to be vastly diluted. The trail lead her and the others to the huge double doors that opened into the barren blazing desert.

Soul frowned as Blair stopped at the double doors. "Is this where the trail ends?"

Blair nodded.

"So I was right." Ichigo said as he swept his gaze across the expanse of desert sands that lay beyond Death City's main entrance. "She did leave the city."

"Yeah." Soul murmured "She could be anywhere out there."

"This is bad" Ichigo said with a frown. "If she's left alone in a desert like that, there's no telling what could happen to her."

Soul gave Ichigo a suspicious look. "You're not just talkin' heat stroke. You mean other factors, right?"

Ichigo nodded "Yeah"

"I don't suppose you want to tell me about those factors?" Soul asked darkly.

Ichigo closed his eyes for a moment before he replied. "If you're her partner, then you need to know." Ichigo said soberly. "And I will tell you. Just not here."

"Where then?"

"On our way out to the desert."

"You have a plan to find her?"

"No" Ichigo said "I have a plan to bring her to us."

[-]

Meanwhile somewhere in France two men stood near a pay phone just outside of a restaurant in the theater district of Paris. One was waiting patiently nearby as the other took what appeared to be an important call.

"This is very short notice… We're on break… I don't care if we're the closest ones, I'm not giving up my chance to visit Moulin Rouge... Not if I die beforehand… Easy? You're assignments are never easy… It's really that simple?… And you're sure I won't die… I don't like dying… I have your word on that?...Alright fine, but only if you promise… Right… Bye."

"Sounds like we've got work." The man waiting outside the booth said.

"It's nothing big Kyouren." The man in the phone booth replied. "Just a bit of recon in one of Czech's magical villages."

"It's never that simple Sakkon."

"Don't I know it." Sakkon replied.

[-][-][-][-]

Notes From Days Long Past

Mizuiro's Diary

[-][-][-][-]

Today was pretty eventful. That's saying something considering the usual excitement at Urahara's shop when Tatsuki and Keigo are around. Every other time I look Tatsuki's got the guy in a head lock or is bashing him on the head for some stupid comment he made. From what I can tell it's all in good fun. At the very least she hasn't broken any of his bones yet. Of course when Jinta gets involved there's no telling what can happen.

But I'm getting off topic. Today started out normally. As normal as normal gets anyway. Went to class. Ichigo was absent again. Something I've gotten used to, although Tatsuki and Keigo seem a bit bitter about the fact that we never know where he is. Especially Tatsuki. I think Keigo's just going along with it so he doesn't get hurt.

Anyway, school was uneventful. However, the walk home was different. Or rather it was different in a way that was becoming the norm. It was the third time I'd found myself walking home alone. Tatsuki was off consoling Orihime for various reasons I don't and probably shouldn't know. Keigo was off being Keigo somewhere. Thinking back, I think his sister had something to do with it. Probably trying to get him to bring Ikkaku back. In any case, it wasn't something I wanted to be involved in.

At any rate, I was walking home alone when a hollow attacked. Not such a big shock I suppose. I was alone and was vaguely associated to Ichigo, Chad and the rest. It only made sense that I'd be a target. Is it pathetic that I had resolved not to fight back if a hollow appeared. That I'd resolved to just die gracefully? I don't really know for sure why, but that resolution allowed me to be calm when the thing appeared.

However, it wasn't actually after me. No, there was a child it was rushing after. Nothing seemed special about her at the time. Not that I was worried about that then, mind you. No I was more worried about the fact that that little girl hadn't made the same resolution that I had.

It was stupid of me, but I followed the monster as it chased the girl, stealing someone's unchained bike in hopes of catching up to her in time. I don't know how, but I managed to get a hold of the girl. The rest of that escapade was kind of a blur. I just remember riding as fast and as hard as I could, hoping that Ishida, Chad, Urahara or Yoruichi showed up to save the day. I had no such luck though, as I found myself cornered and alone in some random corner of Karakura.

So I did the only thing I could do: I hugged the child close to me and shielded her with my body. All I wanted was for someone, anyone to show up and save the day. I'd settle for Kon if it meant we were going to live. But that was when the really weird thing happened.

I heard the little girl mutter some gibberish about crows and shadows, and before I could comprehend what she had said we were both falling. I don't know how long we fell, or what we were falling through. I didn't have the courage to look. I just clung to the girl even more tightly than before, and prepared myself to take the landing for her.

But the landing was gentle. Even so, it took me awhile to loosen my grip and open my eyes. We were in soccer field near the elementary school. And the girl had fallen asleep in my arms. Not wanting to look like a pedophile, I first thought that I should take her to the police so they could find her parents. Then I realized that the police couldn't protect her from the hollow.

So I took her to Urahara's. I'm sure he knew what to do to keep her safe right? He knows better than I do, that's for sure.

In any case the rest of the day was fairly normal. A godsend in my book.

Although I have to wonder. What happened when that girl and I were cornered?

February 24th 2013

Mizuiro Kojima

[-][-][-][-]

More to come…

Was it enjoyable?

Or perhaps not?

Either way, inquiring minds want to know