CHAPTER 4:
LIFE AT THE DWMA
Living in the same household as Death the Kid wasn't too hard, once you got used to his tantrums and rants about symmetry. When he wasn't in the grip of such madness, he was a polite, erudite, and intelligent speaker. Harry and Crona got along well enough with him, and may well have anyway, even without their old friends being his Weapon partners.
Not only that, but they often had sparring sessions together. Death the Kid wasn't really fond of what he called their 'asymmetrical' fighting style, but he was impressed by their power and skill, no mean feat considering that Kid was very much a Reaper, and not actually human. They certainly gave him a better workout than Soul and Black Star did when Kid decided to join the Academy not long before Harry and Crona did. In fact, Harry and Crona used their most powerful Swords Dance style, One-Winged Angel, frequently against Kid.
Lord Death himself was a revelation. He was like a goofball father who was embarrassing to his brood, but a warm, cheerful, fun and friendly guy to anyone else, though those who annoyed him got prompt physical reprisals via a 'Reaper Chop'. Harry liked him, despite his earlier misgivings about Lord Death, and wished he had had Death as a guardian than the Dursleys, though they set the bar pretty low. Crona was still nervous around Lord Death, but she got used to it. In fact, she knew how to deal with Death far better than she knew how to deal with many other people she met.
Death had also told Harry some other interesting things. He knew a little of the events on the World of Exile, where Harry had been born, and told Harry that there was a hidden community of Sorcerers and Witches, albeit ones who, for the most part, didn't feel the Pull of Magic, probably because their magic was more diverse. Indeed, his parents had been magic users, but they had been murdered by a Sorcerer called Voldemort, who was a Kishin Egg, albeit a scrambled one (Death's words rather than Harry's). After all, Harry bore part of Voldemort's soul in his scar, a fragment Harry was glad Death removed after explaining the matter. Harry was famous on that world because he survived an instant death curse, though Death said that the reason why was that Harry's mother used a ritual that protected Harry.
Harry, to be frank, wasn't that sorry he wasn't there. He didn't want fame for something he didn't do. He'd prefer to get fame for things he did do, though he preferred to protect Crona, and those precious to him.
Speaking of Crona, she had a tendency to sit in the corner of their rooms, as she often did, though she at least put a chair into it. She enjoyed having walls at her back, though Harry, and everyone else, were worried about her calling her spot Mr Corner. Harry was used to it, admittedly, but it didn't stop him from worrying about his best friend. She had gained in confidence since they escaped from Medusa, but Crona was still skittish outside of battle, and was socially awkward in the same way that Black Star had a big ego. Medusa had left some pretty deep scars, and Ragnarok, while he had toned it down, was still fond of teasing and tormenting Crona.
On occasion, Harry and Crona visited Soul and Maka. Now that the initial friction of their first meeting had dissipated, and Soul had learned of Harry being a distant relation, they became friends. Maka, in particular, made an especial effort to reach out to the two of them, Crona in particular. Harry saw that Maka was drawing Crona even more out of her shell, despite the insults of Ragnarok. Soul drew the two of them in with his love of music, and while his attitude sometimes left something to be desired, he was nonetheless a decent guy in the end.
Of course, they also had to deal with Maka and Soul's strange roommate (of sorts), a young woman called Blair, who, at first glance, seemed to be a Witch, and a very flirtatious Witch at that. In fact, she was actually a cat with a lot of magical power, but preferred to spend time in a more human form, of a buxom, purple-haired young woman with golden eyes, frequently clad in a rather skimpy version of a stereotypical witch's outfit. That being said, Blair got along well enough with Crona and Harry.
And then, there was Black Star. Harry and Crona weren't fond of the wannabe ninja, but Tsubaki was another matter. The long-suffering Weapon was eminently likeable, more so than her partner, and Crona and Harry frequently talked to Tsubaki whenever Black Star was off doing something stupid.
The teachers were a mixed bag. While Sid the Zombie did intimidate Crona a little, he was easily the nicest of the teachers, and Harry and Crona warmed to him. Franken Stein was a competent and interesting teacher, true, but he also had this scary obsession with vivisection and dissection. The fact that he was one of the strongest Meisters the DWMA ever produced, more than capable of taking out a Witch without a Weapon to help him, only lent an edge to that fear. Spirit Albarn, however, had a very weird attitude, focusing his attention on the female students. Maka had confided to Harry and Crona that Spirit was her father, and that he had recently been divorced from her mother, who was currently engaged in work for the DWMA overseas. It was because Spirit was very much a lech, someone who gawked continually at women, and had engaged in more than one affair. He was protective of his daughter, but he still had a lecherous nature.
Some of the other class members looked at Harry and Crona with suspicion, considering that the former was a Sorcerer, and the latter had a demon weapon for blood. The shy girl's introverted nature didn't help, and neither did Ragnarok, who sometimes burst from Crona's back to offer some crude remark or other.
Mifune helped clear some of that one day, during one of his lessons in the training ground of the Academy. He asked Crona and Harry to come forward. As they did so, Mifune said, "I fought alongside these two many times, and I consider them to be more impressive than many of you. They may not look impressive, but a fundamental concept of combat, and indeed, life, is that appearances can often be deceiving. It is rare that any Meister can wield two Weapons simultaneously, and Crona's situation is hopefully unique to her, in that she has a demonic weapon within her very blood."
Harry changed into his Weapon form, and then, Ragnarok burst out of Crona's back, and then formed into his sword form. "The three of them," Mifune continued, "have developed attack styles depending on the situation, known as Swords Dances. Grand Cross and Dark Messenger, for example, are better for individual opponents, while Dancing Mad and The Extreme are meant for groups of adversaries. One-Winged Angel is a desperation style, equally suited to an army or a massively strong opponent. Crona, Harry, we'll have a sparring session. Dark Messenger style."
Crona and Harry agreed, and went through Dual Resonance, before they were ready to fight. Dark Messenger, despite its ominous title, was a rather flamboyant, theatrical style, compared to the harder-hitting, brutal and pragmatic Grand Cross. So it suitably wowed the audience of students as Harry, Crona, and Ragnarok sparred against Mifune. If Mifune went all-out, he would be able to defeat them, albeit with some effort. But this was meant more as a demonstration, as well as a friendly spar.
After a few minutes, the spar was halted. Harry and Crona returned to their seats, knowing they had impressed their fellow students. Black Star made some stupid announcement that they were upstaging him, but Harry and Crona ignored the rambunctious boy. Harry noticed Crona flinched whenever Black Star began yelling about some subject or other, usually about himself. He really felt sorry for the long-suffering Tsubaki. While technically they worked well together as a team, Tsubaki was the only person remotely tolerant of someone like Black Star.
It was thanks to Harry and Crona beginning to gain some credit within the DWMA that they made another friend, and managed to get things cleared up in the DWMA. Kim Diehl turned out to be a Witch herself, albeit with less destructive magic, and it was Harry and Crona's performance, as well as the presence of Angela, that had her outing herself. Although there was considerable division regarding her, most people accepted her status as a Witch. It also meant that she grew closer to one of the brainier members of the DWMA, Ox Ford.
They were witness to one of the most funny sights when Black Star and Death the Kid went to seek out the Holy Sword, Excalibur. Later, they came back with these bizarre expressions, like a mixture of extreme boredom, despair, and annoyance, like they had encountered some eldritch entity that was pure tedium.
As it turned out, that wasn't far off the mark, as Death the Kid would relate to his Weapons, Harry, and Crona later. Excalibur had an ego that made Black Star's look tame by comparison, and was only interested in talking about himself, as well as making ridiculous demands of any would-be wielders.
Their friendship with Maka came in handy when the time came for one of the key exams. While Harry and Crona didn't reach Maka's level in terms of the theory, the studious girl was certainly a decent enough teacher. Soul and Black Star, however, attempted to cheat, with amusing consequences. Poor Death the Kid, however, couldn't even start his exam due to his neuroses. Those three failed, miserably, though Harry and Crona consoled the young Reaper afterwards.
They heard some disturbing news, though. A pair of Witches were sensed in Death City shortly before said exam, only for one of them to die suddenly, and the other disappeared, presumably using Soul Protect to hide herself. When Maka and Soul, who lived nearby, came to it later, they only found the school doctor, Dr Megaera 'Meg' Dirae(1). Meg was certainly lusted after by many adults and more than a few students at the DWMA. But there was something about her that had Harry on edge. Like she seemed to look at him and Crona for just a touch too long whenever they had examinations and check-ups. Or that she seemed to want frequent blood samples from them. But she also seemed rather cheerful and nice, and Harry chalked his misgivings down to nerves and skittishness.
Rumours had also come about, according to Kid, from the Witches. Apparently not long ago, just after the Witches were sensed in Death City, there was a security breach at a prison the Witches kept their worst criminals in. Rumour had it that an infamous inmate, one who had supposedly stolen the eye of Witch leader Maba, had escaped, killing a number of guards in the process. Further details were scarce, admittedly, given the few lines of information the DWMA had into Witch society. Harry had never been part of it, and Crona had never attended a Witch's Mass before she fled Medusa. Kim had severed most ties with the Witches when she fled for the DWMA, though she still had one or two contacts there (which was where the rumours came from), while Angela hadn't attended a Witch's Mass since going into the custody of the DWMA. She didn't mind, as she didn't quite get what went on, and thought many of them scary.
Angela seemed to thrive in the DWMA, despite the fact that she was surrounded by people nominally raised to hunt Witches like her down. It was because there was no malice in her (save for pranks) that she endeared herself to so many. The fact that Mifune scared a lot of people who dared to make comment helped. Then again, she was also happy that she got many new 'big brothers' and 'big sisters' helped.
A few weeks after joining the DWMA, they finally got to go on their first official mission. Not solo by any means. Death the Kid was going to investigate a series of disasters in the Baltic Sea. A number of coastal towns had been attacked by some malevolent force, and while the young Reaper was confident that he could do so solo (well, solo meaning he could do so along with the Thompsons), both Kid and Lord Death himself agreed that this would make a good mission for Harry and Crona to come along for. A dangerous mission, but the pair had faced danger before.
Kid messed around with his usual fuss about keeping things symmetrical before they left. Once through a portal, for the rest of the way, Kid would use his jet skateboard, Beelzebub, while Harry and Crona would use Ragnarok, who could sprout wings. They would then hire a boat, one of the more discreet means of getting to the remote towns that had been attacked.
As it turned out, they were about to embark on a mission that would uncover a startling revelation about the DWMA…
CHAPTER 4 ANNOTATIONS:
And there you have it: Harry and Crona settling into life at the DWMA, along with Mifune and Angela. Oh, and Kim's been outed ahead of schedule, and probably to better effect. Because Soul hasn't been infected with the Black Blood, Free hasn't been confronted yet, though Medusa has freed him to act as her minion. And, of course, Eruka and one of the Mizune sisters has confronted Medusa, with the same results as in canon.
And yes, Meg Dirae is Medusa. Details later.
It's probably pretty obvious, but the Swords Dances are named for the final boss battle themes from the Final Fantasy games (Grand Cross being the name given to the Neo-Exdeath battle theme from Final Fantasy V when it was remixed by the Black Mages).
1. Dirae is the Roman name of the Furies/Erinyes, and Megaera is one of the names of said beings, meaning 'the grudging' or 'the jealous one'.