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

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Shinigami Chronicles

Act 1: Hollow Eater

Chapter 7: Shadow of Desire

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Maka stood alone, skirting the edge of a deep canyon under a starlit night somewhere in Death Valley. Her posture and form had shifted from haggard and tired to alert and stimulated, a wild yet darkly focused expression on her visage as she stared down into the valley. She was leaning forward in an eccentric manner, somehow managing to hold her precarious position and posture despite having more than half of her body extended past the edge of the canyon.

Yet no fear registered in those emerald eyes as they scoured the valley walls. No, her ardent sweeping gaze radiated an eager anticipation that flew in the face of such concepts as fear and doubt. In short, she was hungry, and at the moment that was all that mattered.

"There you are" She murmured with a smile as her gaze fell upon what appeared to be a cavernous indentation halfway down her side of the canyon wall. "A lost soul, waiting just for me."

She then allowed herself to topple forward off the edge of the canyon, hatchet in hand as she tumbled end over end through the air, her smile never wavering for even a second. Her seemingly uncontrolled fall continued until she was moments away from passing the entry to the cavern.

Flowing out of the tumble with what could only be described as instinctual fluidity, her hatchet found its way to the cliff face, digging deep into the sandstone and shale. Her descent slowed considerably as she fell into an awkward position, sliding down the cliff face with her body at a forty five degree angle below where her hatchet was lodged, her feet loosely planted on the cliff wall. Her chest was to the wall, her head looking downward with her free hand reaching in that same direction as well.

She came to a halt just in front of the cavern entrance, clinging to her hatchet with one hand, as the rest of her body hung down past the upper lip of the cave. A cheschire grin formed on her visage as she raised a hand to her brow in a searching gesture, sweeping the cavern with wild eyes.

She wasn't searching for very long as her opponent made no pretention at hiding from her. There standing in the middle of what looked like a path through the multitudinous stalagmites that lined the cave, was an orange haired man, holding a rather large sword above his head like a beacon.

"Ha!" the more than slightly disturbed girl cried as she dislodged her hatchet from the cavern's upper lip and fell to the ground in a wild flailing manner, landing on three limbs in a rather animalistic pose, hatchet upraised in her left hand. "Soul Meat!"

Ichigo frowned as he tightened his grip on his blade. There was no mistaking it: The eyes and the hair matched those of the girl named Maka. Her innocent resolve was nowhere to be seen, however. If this was anything like his own experiences with hollowification, the Maka he was warily watching at this moment was some facet of her persona that was overshadowing the rest of Maka's soul. Hopefully there was something in there for him to cast light upon, although, even if there was, it was still going to be hard. Dealing with the internal soul conundrums of others was a weaker aspect of Ichigo's repertoire as a soul reaper.

"This is gonna be messy." Ichigo murmured with a frown, eyes locked on his now grinning opponent.

To this Maka replied with a perverse giggle, suddenly leaping forward. She crossed the distance between her and Ichigo in one bound, rearing back with her small weapon to hack at Ichigo's shoulder. It was a haphazard attack that Ichigo dodged easily, sidestepping Maka's flying slice and stepping into a firm swing with the blunt end of his enormous blade. The counter attack caught Maka in midair, striking squarely in the small of her back as she passed Ichigo.

The disturbed girl gave a surprised "oof" as she was thrown forward through the air, her back now to her opponent. It appeared however, that she was not entirely fazed by that attack, landing lightly on three limbs for a mere half-second before launching herself into a turning backwards lunge, her hatchet brandished for a horizontal strike.

The quickness of Maka's unorthodox rebound caught Ichigo off-guard, as he just managed to raise his blade in time to protect his neck from Maka's attack. However, as Ichigo moved to make a counter attack, Maka hooked the notch of her hand axe's handle on Ichigo's oversized blade, utilizing Ichigo's strength as well as her own to fling herself away from the orange haired swordsman as he swung his blade in retaliation. Bounding away with a series of wild twists and leaps, Maka continued her retreat, Leading Ichigo into and around the cavern's multitudinous stalagmites that jutted out from the ground.

Soul watched this all from behind a set of stalagmites that were nearer to the cavern's holding facility entrance, a dark expression on his visage. He'd seen Maka like this once before, back during Asura's release when they had drawn upon the black blood to face off against Chrona. However, there was something different about it this time. Back then, Maka's movements were entirely wild and nonsensical, her body running off of a form of instinctual madness. At the time, Maka herself was preoccupied with quelling Chrona's madness through soul resonance, and had to let her body run on autopilot. The black blood, acting as a conduit for random thoughts and tangents that appeared in Maka's subconscious, allowed her to fight Chrona physically while she used her conscious mind to deal with Chrona's soul directly. At least, that was how Maka had explained it to him a few days after that encounter. Maka had also called it a rather messy and embarrassing fight, much preferring her usual quick and aggressive yet precise attack style.

This time however, Maka's movements, though apparently instinctual, appeared to be far more controlled and directed than the crazed and confused movements that she'd displayed during Asura's release. Her movements were lighter, sharper, evoking a wildly flexible control. It was as though this style had incorporated elements of Maka's original and preferred methods of attack. He wasn't quite sure what that meant, and that worried him a bit.

In any case, Maka's wild movements were going to make the task of catching her to try and talk her down a bit of a feat, even with Ichigo doing his best to tire her out. Maybe if he called out to her that would be enough to get her to take back control from whatever it was that was in her.

Just as Soul thought this Red's familiar voice chimed in from the back of his mind. "Then why not call out to her now?"

Soul frowned, attempting to ignore the little red imp. Undeterred by Soul's non-response the imp continued. "Why not try now, if you think it can work? You know her. You know the strength of her soul. You know that it would take less than a word from you to snap her out of this. So why not now?"

Soul said nothing as he crept behind a rather large stalagmite, the fight between Ichigo and Maka nearing the cavern entrance.

Red chuckled "You liked it didn't you? When she was maddened. The wild freedom she gained. The thing you've been cultivating in her all this time. A freedom to act on feeling. To ride on emotion. On Instinct. "

Soul scowled as he watched Maka twirl to the right of Ichigo, throwing an upward cut with her hatchet at the end of the spin. His scowl only deepened as she barely managed to dance out of the way of Ichigo's counter attack with the broad side of his blade.

"Shut up, Red" Soul growled as he darted in closer to the fight, taking care to stay within the shadows of the stalagmites.

"Isn't that why you wanted to play her that song in the first place? To see her dance? To see her move to the dark rhythm of instinct? Of your instinct?"

"I said shut up." Replied, continuing his clandestine approach.

"That's why you won't play it for anyone else isn't it? It ruins it. Ruins your creative vision. Or perhaps it's something more carnal than that?"

"Red, if you won't shut up, I'll shut you up myself."

To this Red laughed perversely. "I'm just telling you what you already know."

"It's not like that." Soul replied biting the inside of his cheek as he stopped within five meters of Ichigo and Maka's fight "I'm not like that."

"Oh you poor Soul." Red said with a disappointed timbre in his voice. "So wrapped up in your own façade that you don't even know your own desires."

"I know enough." Soul murmured.

"I wonder." Red continued, his diminutive figure suddenly standing on the side of the stalagmite Soul was hiding behind. He grinned as he locked his gaze with Soul's "Is that why you won't acknowledge what your favorite flavor of soul is?"

"Damn it Red!" Soul exclaimed thrusting a warding hand at the little red goblin. "Shut up! Shut the hell up!"

And just as suddenly as the little red demon had appeared he was gone, as though he had never existed in the first place.

Soul allowed himself a calming breath, attempting to regain his composure. However, that composure was short lived, as a wild cross between a perverse giggle and ecstatic laughter assaulted his ears. He turned just in time to see Maka bounding towards him in an erratic zigzagging path, Ichigo chasing after her with his sword upraised.

"Soul!" Ichigo cried as he sprinted in behind the disturbed girl. "Look out!"

Soul frowned, doing his best to maintain some modicum of his cool as he centered himself. He knew better than to try and avoid Maka completely. In this state, she was too quick for that. No, only one thing would be quick enough.

Soul clenched his fists to steady himself as he cried "Maka! Calm down already!"

Despite Soul's ardent request Maka continued her approach, tackling Soul to the ground and pinning him down at the chest with her legs. Her axe was raised towards the ceiling of the cave, her free arm braced against the cavern floor in preparation for a killing blow.

Ichigo's voice became a cross between a growl and a roar as he raised his pace to an even higher level, momentarily releasing his blade with his left hand to undo the limiter band on his right arm. As he did so he reared his blade back in preparation to cleave Maka in two. There was a frenzied look in Ichigo's eyes as he reared his blade back for the attack. The look in his eyes was far more frightening to Soul than any form of killing blow that he could think of at the moment.

No doubt about it. If that man swung his blade at that moment, whatever he hit was going to die.

Soul raised two placating hands from his prone position, motioning for Ichigo to stop his advance. "Wait," he said carefully as he slowly brought his hands to Maka's shoulders. "Just wait."

At this Ichigo halted his attack, gaining a slight air of confusion as he lowered the angle of his blade slightly. However, he refrained from replacing the band.

Soul sighed in relief as he stared up into the pair emerald eyes that he knew so well. "Maka?" he murmured tightening his grip on her shoulders slightly. "You there?"

A surprised somewhat lost expression formed on Maka's visage as she returned Soul's gaze, naught but her harried exhalations escaping her slightly open mouth. Her loss slowly morphed into disdain as she realized what she'd intended to do only moments before. She began to shake her head dazedly in disbelief at the realization.

"Soul?" she murmured in a shaken voice. "I was—" She stopped halfway, biting back the rest of the sentence as her expression became markedly more worried. "I'm..." Maka trailed off once more only mouthing the words that would finish that sentence.

Soul opened his mouth to make a reply, but was interrupted by Ichigo's voice as the orange haired ex-reaper queried "You all right?"

Suddenly Maka stiffened, her worried expression giving way to a darkly wary one as her eyes darted towards the location of Ichigo's voice. "Who…?" She managed

"A friend" Soul replied as he leaned his head over to call out to Ichigo "Yeah, I'm alright." Soul paused a moment before allowing himself a small smirk. "It's not exactly my ideal situation, but I guess Miss Tiny Tits here will have to do for now."

It was at that moment that miffed realization crossed Maka's visage, as she no doubt realized the suggestive position she was in. Soul only barely caught the transition to pure irritation as Maka's patented "Maka Chop" that followed hammered his head into the ground.

This final act of annoyance, appeared to be all that Maka had energy left to do, as she promptly collapsed on top of Soul after the chop. It resulted in an unintended follow-up to the attack, as Maka's forehead crashed into Soul's nose.

This garnered a sharp nasally "Ow!" from Soul as he clutched his face in pain. "Dammit Maka" He hissed as he moved to slide his partner off of him. "You're violent even when you're knocked out."

Ichigo chuckled to himself as he watched Soul unceremoniously hoist the unconscious Maka on to his shoulder. He could just hear the demon weapon's muttered complaints about how heavy she was.

"They're partners, huh?" Ichigo murmured shaking his head. "I guess my dysfunctional relationship with Rukia was somewhat normal after all." There was something vaguely terrifying about that statement, but Ichigo couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

"So what now?" Soul asked turning to face Ichigo

"To containment." Ichigo said as he buckled his limiter bands back into place. "We've got a lot of work ahead of us."

[-]

Somewhere deep inside the hollowed walls of Shibusen, a dark figure stood alone inside a bare and expansive room, whose only accoutrements were a set of iron-wrought arches and candle stands lined up on either side of a deep red carpet that led to the center of the room. It was there, atop an upraised plateau of marble that a rather strange entity, whose ragged black robed form contrasted sharply with his comically large white blocky hands, stood. The true nature of his body was something of a mystery as no indication of legs, arms or indeed, any humanoid appendages could be seen beyond the folds of his dark attire. The immense mirror that hung in the air beside him served only to enhance this fact, clearly showing that no side of his body conformed to a solid structure. Only a mask possessed of color and design qualities similar to his immense hands, gave any indication that the being was even remotely human. And even there, no face could be seen, with only a dark pervasive void residing behind its ocular sockets.

He appeared to be in deep thought, holding the chin of his mask in one of his enormous hands as Sid made his way into the room.

"So strange." the masked being murmured in a surprisingly warm voice. "I just don't know why that happens."

Sid, who had come within a few meters of the upraised plateau, crossed his arms as he took an inquisitive stance. "Why what happens?"

At this, the dark robed being turned to face his visitor, the eyes of his mask narrowing thoughtfully as he flowed down off the plateau. "It's the same question I've been asking since the fall of Arachnophobia. " He lowered his hand from the chin of his mask "Why do they disappear?"

"The souls you mean?" Sid replied "I'm not sure if there's an answer to that, Death."

"There is." The masked being replied "And don't call me Death. That was my old name."

Sid shook his head "Shinigami roughly translates to death god. It's not all that different."

"There's a difference." Shinigami replied "So long as children train within these hallowed walls there will always be a difference."

"I don't know." Sid replied "Names mean what they mean. And those two names mean the same thing."

"Names are words" Shinigami replied "And words mean what we think they mean. The students here think of me as a leader, teacher, and protector. They call me Shinigami-sama. So here, in Shibusen, Shinigami-sama means leader, teacher and protector. " Shinigami's eyes became mirthful "The title is a little high flung for my tastes, but it's a bit nicer than 'bringer of death'"

"Fair enough." Sid said as he crossed his arms. "At any rate I came to give you my report."

"Ah yes, what can you tell of Ichigo's progress on situation with Chrona and Maka?" Shinigami queried "I trust he's taking good care of my students?"

"So far at least." Sid answered, crossing his arms. "He's still hasn't met Chrona yet."

"And Maka?"

"Not sure on that one either." Sid crossed his arms. "I sent Ichigo off to meet her. I would've taken more steps to make sure they met without a hitch, but there were several other orders of business that needed taking care of."

"Busy as always" Shingami nodded "Don't forget to take it easy every once in awhile. You may already be deceased, but I know you're still capable of becoming dead tired ."

"I never stopped until the job was done." Sid replied. "That's the kind of man I was. Speaking of reliable people, how's Spirit taking the whole Maka hollowification thing?"

Shinigami brought one enormous finger to his mask in a shushing gesture. "He doesn't know yet."

"You didn't tell him?"

"I want to know as much as I can about this situation before we divulge the information to him. I won't stand for it if the information we give him is in error. I owe him that much."

"That's all well and good, but will he be able to focus with that on his mind?"

Shinigami nodded to this. "He's no stranger to imminent loss. He will, for all intents and purposes, appear to be completely lost and distraught. But," Shinigami proffered a single finger in an annotative gesture. "When the time comes for him to do his job, he will do it to the best of his ability, regardless of the situation. That's why he's my right hand scythe. I can always count on that red-haired womanizer.

"I'll trust your judgment then." Sid said with a shrug "At any rate, Stein's still working on figuring out the soul Ichigo found the other night. He's made some progress, but it doesn't look like anything within the standard realms of closed soul designation.

Shinigami's eye's narrowed thoughtfully "And in the realm of open souls?"

Sid shook his head "It's too early to tell. Stein said that its wavelength was fairly chaotic, which would suggest that its something that at least shares some of the open soul's properties, but it still looks like a closed soul."

"Strange." Shinigami murmured, momentarily stroking the chin of his mask. "I suppose we'll just have to wait and see." He lowered his disembodied hand from his mask. "Anything else to report?"

"Yeah." Sid replied "On the matter of the mission to the village in Czech. We've got some very bad news. First off, the golem was real. Not an illusion, brought on by insanity."

"I see." Shinigami "Were your men able to contain the golem?"

"Yeah." Sid replied "They did that but that golem was just the tip of the iceberg."

"So I gathered." Shinigami replied "Weaponized golems haven't existed for a long time."

"This one wasn't weaponized." Sid said with a shake of his head. "The golem was being controlled by a demon weapon chainsaw named Gericko. From what was said in the reports, it sounded like he'd been waiting for the opportunity to let it run loose. However, if it were only him, this wouldn't be as much of an issue.

"Of course." Shinigami replied "Gericko was one of her followers, wasn't he? A servant of Arachne. I take that as meaning that she has finally decided to reveal herself."

"Exactly." Sid said with a nod. "The golem was her hiding place. No doubt she's already been gathering her forces in secret."

"No doubt." Shinigami concurred "What about your contacts? This sounds like more of a dangerous situation than they could've handled."

"Justin was sent in as reinforcements. He was the one to report in." Sid answered. "Sakkon's original body was lost during the fight, so we won't be able to debrief him until we replace it here. As for his friend, Kyouren, he disappeared almost as soon as Justin arrived. We don't have any more details than that."

"I see." Shinigami said stroking the chin of his mask thoughtfully. "Let me know when Sakkon is ready to make his report."

"Will do." Sid replied, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Well, that's all I have to say. I'll be leaving if there's nothing else you need done. I've got to catch up on what Ichigo's been doing for the last few hours.

Shinigami nodded. "Inform me as soon as you make contact." He then proffered the enormous index finger of his right hand in an annotative gesture. "And don't worry about your other duties for awhile. I didn't bring the Scythes here just for the extra company, though I do enjoy their presence."

"Don't worry." Sid said with a smile as he turned on his heel to leave "I'll take care of this hollow business."

As Sid left the expansive white room, Shinigami raised an enormous hand to the chin of his mask once more, only to think better of it a moment later and raise the hand to scratch the brow of his mask as he returned to the realm of his own thoughts. "Hollow business." He murmured with a slight chuckle. "Haven't heard him use that term in a long, long time."

[-]

The first thing she noticed when she awoke was that she was dead tired. She felt entirely drained, more so than…before. Oddly, she was very certain that "before" was a short time ago, yet she couldn't recollect when or where "before" was. Regardless, now was not then, and then was not now. Finding out where she was at present took priority.

Following this notion she came upon the realization that an odd tingling sensation was flowing from the small of her spine to the rest of her body, a cold prickling sting rolling through her numb, sluggish muscles as the tingle made its sojourn to her fingers and toes. It felt like the entirety of her circulatory system had been constricted by a vice or tourniquet, denying her body the energy it needed to move.

Even her eyes were largely unresponsive as she struggled to open their impossibly heavy lids. It didn't help that the lights that awaited them in the world beyond were of scalding brightness. She found herself flinching away from what appeared to be the burning gaze of a set of fluorescent lights that hung several feet in the air above her.

She gave a small groan, blinking her eyes several times as she made an effort to sit upright. This turned out to be a fair bit more difficult than she'd expected, as she only barely succeeded at raising her head two inches above what she now realized was a pillow before she was forced to let gravity take its course. She scowled in annoyance as her head flopped heavily into the pillow. She hated feeling this weak.

It was at that moment that she realized that she didn't know how she'd gotten here. Further more that she couldn't remember what she'd been doing for the last…hour? No more like day. There were fleeting glimpses. A glimpse of herself trudging through the desert. The sounds of Shibusen's streets in the middle of the night and the feel of cold rough cobblestone on her feet. The feel of her mother's picture in her hands as she clasped it to her chest amidst the clothes, books and hair implements she'd scattered across the room looking for the portrait.

Wait. No. She hadn't done that, had she? If she had, it didn't make sense. She always knew where the portrait was. She was the one who hid it. She'd hidden it away so Spirit would stop coming over to gaze at it in his forlorn way. There was no reason for her to search so frantically for it. Not when she knew exactly where it was. Yet somehow she knew that she'd been the culprit who'd thrashed the room. That knowledge and her memory were fractured like the wistful remembrances of dreams, lost to the ether of the subconscious, but ever present, waiting just beyond the edge of perception.

"Always in the last place you look. The one place you can't. Made all the more beautiful for its nearness, though one may never again relish its presence in full."

Maka frowned. She recognized that voice. She vaguely remembered something akin to a conversation with it in some bright hot place, although she was unsure of when this had happened, or what had transpired during said conversation.

Maka swallowed, squinting into the light above as she waited for her eyes to focus "Who are you?"

There was a slight chuckle in the voice's reply. "You're the only one who can answer that."

Maka frowned. That answer felt annoyingly familiar. "I don't know you."

"Amazing how you can speak the truth and tell a lie at the same time." The voice remarked "I wish I could do that."

Maka's face contorted in confusion as she blinked the last of the bleariness out of her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"You know me." The voice remarked "You just don't know my name."

Maka attempted to sit upright once more so that she could scan the room for whomever it was that was talking to her. The sounded like it was coming from somewhere close by. Unfortunately Maka found that she still hadn't the strength for it, settling for turning her head to the right.

"I would if you told me it." Maka said impatiently as her eyes took in the details of the right side of the room. Aside from the bleach white beds that lined the rusted steel walls of the room there didn't appear to be any signs of life there. Although it was hard to tell as the light above her appeared to be the only light source in the room. The rest of the room was obscured by an unsettlingly bleak yet familiar darkness. She ignored the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that insisted that she was forgetting something very important, continuing her conversation with the familiar voice. "I don't think it's that hard for you to tell me your name."

"Harder than you might think." The voice returned "I don't know what my name is."

"Then how would you know if I guessed right." Maka retorted as she turned her head to the left, sweeping her eyes across that side of the room. Yet it appeared that the left side was identical to the right, although what lay within the shadowy abyss on either side was beyond her.

"I'd know." The voice replied "As would you."

"Right" Maka returned tartly, her patience having run dry quite some time ago. "What good does knowing your name do me anyway?" Maka scowled in frustration as she thrust the back of her head into her pillow, turning her gaze upward into the hanging fluorescents once more.

Now that her eyes had adjusted, she could tell that the light above her was of the circular variety, with a bed of ten glowing bulbs crammed together in its many holed silver frame. She hadn't noticed before, but it appeared to be swaying slightly, gently lolling back and forth under some unknown force of impetus. The lamp's trajectory shifted slightly just as she realized this, become vaguely elliptical in its path.

"I can offer only one thing." The voice noted.

Now Maka was certain. The voice was coming from above her, emanating From the hanging lamp fixture. Maka strained her eyes and neck to try and get a better view, but found both to be stubbornly rooted in place. The tingling sensation she'd felt when she had awakened was beginning to intensify, her body feeling like it was being stung by an army of bees. She grimaced in discomfort as she queried in a strained voice. "What's that?"

"An end to loss." The voice answered, as Maka struggled to keep her eyes open. "And to weakness."

Maka opened her mouth to make a reply but found that the words wouldn't leave her lips as they had become numb and unresponsive. She could the air she would've used to speak, catching in her windpipe, as it began to close up on itself. Her consciousness was slowly ebbing away, her senses deadening even further than they already had.

Just as Maka's eyesight began to blur, she saw the silhouette of head peak out from the behind the swaying fixture above her. She could barely see its appraising amethyst eyes as its long locks of bleach white hair obscured them. Its complexion was just as white as its hair, its black lips very much standing out against its skin. However, all of that was merely a side note to one particular fact that put Maka on edge: the thing had her face.

"I'll be in touch." The thing said with a mischievous grin as the last of Maka's consciousness drifted away. "Sweet dreams."

These were the last words Maka heard before she returned to the empty darkness that lay behind her eyelids. Soon afterward the prickling twinge of blood flow constriction increased, growing from the stings of a thousand bees to the stabs of a thousand knives, constant and unrelenting. She opened her mouth to cry out in pain, but her lips wouldn't comply her lips clamped in place by some invisible cover. her trachea seemed to constrict even further with the attempted cry, causing her to almost choke on her own words.

Then, as suddenly as it had increased, the stabbing pains in her body disappeared, leaving in their wake a shaky rubbery streams of weakness, that ran all throughout her torso arms and legs. Her throat, though strained and raw, was no longer constricted, life giving oxygen flowing through it with relative ease once more. Oddly, it appeared that the air was being fed into her lungs by some extraneous means, as she could feel it flowing inward across her tongue, despite the fact that she was certain she was exhaling at the moment.

"Looks like the treatment worked." came a voice she didn't recognize. "Looks like she'll be okay."

Maka opened her eyes tentatively, gratified to find that her lids were working properly now. She found that the light beyond was just as bright as before, however, the dark silhouette of someone's head obscured the blinding beam, allowing her eyes to adjust at their own pace.

"Maka?" the silhouette said in a voice that she very much recognized. "You alright?"

Maka attempted to make a reply, but found that it was muffled under what appeared to be breathing apparatus. She scowled in annoyance attempting to bring her hands up to remove the mask, only to find that they were strapped down at her sides. She growled in frustration at the predicament, the fierceness of her utterance only growing as she realized her legs were strapped down as well.

This garnered a rakish grin and chuckle from the silhouette which Maka recognized to be Soul now that her eyes had adjusted to the light above.

"Yeah, it's you alright." Soul said with a laugh. "Welcome back."

To this Maka gave an exasperated sigh, wanting very much to display her frustration on Soul's head, but settling for the comfort of knowing that she was in the presence of one of her most trusted friends. She wasn't quite sure what all was going on, or what she'd been doing for the past…day? Maybe two? Whatever the case, Soul was here with her. That was enough to raise her spirits a little. Only a little.

A moment later an Orange haired, brown eyed man came into view, his hands moving in to assumedly remove the breathing apparatus. "You're Maka right?"

"Yeah" Maka replied, warily eyeing the once substitute shinigami. "Who are you?"

"I'm Ichigo." Ichigo said with a nod as he unlatched and removed the breathing apparatus. "Shibusen's hollow specialist."

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

Notes From Days Long Past

Last Will and Testament

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

Dear whoever is reading this,

As I am writing this, I am making the last preparations before heading off to my doom. Due to an unfortunate series of circumstances, I have been forced to conform to the whims of a crazy woman, who doesn't seem to care about her own life. She is also heading off to her doom, dragging my best friend and me along with her. And as much as I'd like to resist, I know the end result will be the same as if I don't: Death.

You don't believe me? You think that's an extreme reaction? Well I guess it would seem that way, considering I haven't said anything about the circumstances. As my newly selected heir, you should know why I'm about to die.

But where to start? Well I guess we'll start with what's going to kill me if I do go. They're called hollows. Weirdly shaped ghost things that eat souls. I know, I didn't believe in them at first either. That is until I almost died after stumbling into a battle between a hollow and a shinigami. The shinigami called it an arrancar or espada, or something like that.

What's a shinigami? They're kind of like superhero ghosts. Except a lot more scary to be around, cause they don't care what gets in their way when they're beating up hollows. Most of my friends say they're here to protect us. Even if they are, I still think they're scary, rude, violent and obnoxious. Here's hoping none of them find this letter before I'm already dead.

Anyway the hollows had started grabbing and eating children's souls a little while back. Now I thought the smartest thing to do would've been to let the shinigami handle it. However, according to a certain crazy girl I know, they were too busy to notice. It was a true enough statement. Their war is still going on right now. The War of Masks I think is what they're calling it. According to Ichigo (my friend who is a substitute shinigami. Don't ask. It's complicated) it started only months after the Winter War. I knew that the war was going on, and that the shinigami were strained because of it, but I also know that I'm not a shinigami, and that I don't have special powers.

Tatsuki didn't and still doesn't care about that. She threatened unbearable pain and suffering if I didn't try and help. I really should've said no. I really don't like life threatening situations. More so than I don't like pain. But I couldn't just let her and Mizuiro do it alone. What kind of friend would I be if I did that?

So we started finding and gathering the kids in a safe house, hiding them from the hollows. The work was dangerous, and it seemed like it was never over, but at the same time, it felt like we were actually doing something right. We were helping out the shinigami. Helping out Ichigo. Though he wasn't there(He's never around these days. Don't ask. Long story) I felt like we were finally being useful to him. Finally making our friendship with him worth something. Maybe he might even that we're friends out loud.

Then they took Keiko and Mizuiro. Just snatched them up right from under our noses. It took us awhile to find where they took them, but we eventually did.

They're in a place called Hueco Mundo. It's full of hollows, arrancars, menos and who knows what else. It's a dangerous place, where no living soul should go. Unless they want to die.

And Tatsuski insists that we go there. I know the shinigami aren't here to help, so we can't ask them, but Chad, Ishida and Orihime said that they'd go (they're also kind of like super heroes. Don't ask. I'm not even sure what's going on with them) I knew the moment Orihime said she was going, Tatsuski would want to follow her. What I don't get is why she's asking me to come.

I don't have powers. Or training. I'm willing to admit that I'm a coward and I don't like fighting. She knows that just as well as anyone. I'd just die the moment I got into danger. I know I would.

Then again, she didn't threaten me this time. She only asked, and then left me to think about it. I don't know what that means, and I'm not sure what I feel about that. It's scary when she's threatening me, it's true, but, this open ended question, with no ultimatum really scares me. Especially since it's her that's asking.

Why? Because in the end, I decided to go with the stupid decision. I can't make the other choice. I can't not go. What kind of friend would I be if refused this favor to the only people who've ever been willing to tolerate me for more than a week? I'd be some sort of horrible thing that is farthest away from being a friend. I'd be some kind of non-friend. Not only does that sound super lame, but I'd never live it down if that's what I became. I'd hate myself forever, and so would they.

So I'm going off to die in Hueco Mundo. If the others don't come back after I've died, I leave all of my earthly possessions to you. This also includes my annoying older sister. Take good care of her and make sure she doesn't get into trouble with the shinigami. (She has a thing for baldies. Don't ask, cause I'm not telling)

Oh and the second choice I could've made that would've killed me anyway?

Don't ask. Cause I think you already know.

Signed,

Keigo Asano.

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More to come…

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Ciao for now.