"Now today since I'm the only one available to supervise we can't have more than one dual going on at a time." Said professor Stein, draped across the back of the chair he rolled into the second campus outside. "Maka and Soul, dual Akira. The rest of us will watch."
"Are you sure?" Tsubaki interjected, "Professor, Akira doesn't have a Meister, it may not be-"
"Hush" Stein interrupted, "I'm sure Akira will be just fine." He grinned and rested his chin on his arms, which braced the back of the chair. "You three can start now."
Maka and Soul took one end of the clearing, and Akira took the other. Soul transformed, and Akira's right arm became a silver metal chain with a triangular blade on the end. Before Maka could make the first move, they had jumped three feet straight into the air, and shot the chain at her left ankle. She deflected it easily by twirling Soul and knocking the chain off course, but that was the move Akira wanted her to make. They wrapped Soul's blade like a mummy, flicked the chain up, and sent him soaring through the air behind them where he crashed, swearing, through the trees a few pool lengths away. Maka, now weaponless, tried to deflect the next line of chain by knocking it away with her forearm, but it snaked around it and swung around her torso. She then felt a sudden, powerful zap, as her soul wavelength was assaulted Akira's own. As she fell to her knees from the shock she could hear Tsubaki yelling for Stein to call off the dual, but he wouldn't. The attack stopped shortly after she fell, and Maka closed her eyes. She perceived all of the people on the side, watching the fight, she perceived Soul, running back towards the fight, she perceived everyone, including Akira, whom she scrambled back from in fear. Instead of a regular soul like that of everyone else, Akira's surrounded them like a bubble. It was a dark raven feather blue, with veins of scales the coloring of a witches purple.
It wasn't human, or weapon, or witch, or kishin egg, or even shinigami. It wasn't a mixed type soul either.
It was no soul type she had ever seen.
"MAKA!" Soul yelled, and she popped her eyes open. He had launched himself at Akira, who was standing right in front of her, his arm in blade form, aimed at Akira's neck. They caught the blade with a silver gloved hand, and he was thrown back several yards by the deep, blue purple light that had emanated from their chain when Akira has ensnared Maka.
This time when Soul ran towards them he and Maka grasped arms, and he turned into his weapon form. Now Akira had their back against Soul's blade.
That was not a good position to be in.
But Maka wasn't in a good position as close as she was to them either.
Akira let out another wave of Soul Menace onto the both of them, and leaped out of the way of Maka's swing. The next swing Akira blocked by holding their chain with the other hand, catching Soul's blade above their head. Then, out of the right side of their abdomen sprouted a scythe blade even larger than Soul's. In the same movement the blade appeared in Akira snared Maka, cutting her. Akira stopped the motion before it got more than half an inch deep.
"Are you ready to stop now?" Akira asked their wincing opponent.
Before Maka could answer they heard a shout, and Tsubaki's chain-scythe wrapped around Akira's waist, right above where the blade protruded. Akira was yanked away by BlackStar.
"You really want to see how I fight that much, huh?" They asked him.
"Is that a fucking challenge?" he snarled, his face inches away from theirs.
"BlackStar no." Tsubaki said sternly. He sighed, and she turned back into her human form.
Akira returned their chain whip to its former arm appearance, and turned to Maka and Soul. Maka was holding her side, but it wasn't bleeding very badly. Worse cuts had been had from just shaving her legs. This wouldn't need any more than some antibiotic ointment and a bandage.
"So you two are done?" Akira asked. Maka nodded, but the look on Soul's face made it clear that it was definitely not over.
"Pitty. You two were just getting started." they murmured.
"Akira, Soul, take Maka to the Dispensary to get a bandage." Stein said, adjusting his glasses. "And Tsubaki I believe that it is my job as the teacher to say when a duel is over, not yours, am I correct?"
"Yes Professor." She said stiffly, though everyone knew she was right to have gotten BlackStar to stop it.
"Now since you and BlackStar are so eager to fight, why don't you and Kimi duel next?"
The silence on the walk to the dispensary was deafening as Soul made a point to put himself between Akira and his Meister.
"I didn't mean to cut you, I didn't realize my blade was going to be so close when it appeared. I'm sorry."
"It's okay, it isn't very deep." Maka said.
"You should know your weapon form better." said Soul bitterly.
"I haven't used that one in a long time, alright? I didn't mean to cut your girlfriend." Akira said aggressively.
"She's not my girlfriend!" Soul yelled as Maka laughed. As the three of them walked on, the quiet wasn't so charged.
Soon, however, it was broken again by Akira's voice.
"So what was that thing you did when you closed your eyes?"
Maka clenched her jaw as she remembered what Akira's soul looked like.
"It's called Soul Perception. When I close my eyes I can focus in on people's souls and see what they look like, and what they are."
"So you saw my soul?"
"Yes."
"Well I guess I should tell you what I am then." Akira laughed. Soul threw a puzzled glance first at them, then at Maka.
"And here I was thinking I'd be telling Liz and Patty this first."
"What are you?" Soul asked, completely lost.
"Well, it's a bit complicated. I'm Kid."
Maka and Soul both stopped walking.
"What?" they said in unison, completely dumbfounded.
"I'm Death the Kid. Technically."
"Technically?" Soul questioned.
"So all of that stuff at lunch about the orphanage wasn't actually true but the rest of it was. I'm half demon. My mother is the eighth Warlord, the Demon Queen Memoria. You see, Asura was made from a split section of my father's soul, but only his soul. I am made from a split part of his soul, and a split part of Memoria's. For a really long time I lived with her in the Under Realm because she wanted to know what being an involved parent was like, and back then the two soul parts were connected in one piece. But eight years ago I was sent here to be my father's heir, and they split into separate Shinigami and Demon from the stress of how different everything was. All you've known until now was purely Shinigami. Now I'm purely Demon."
"Holy shit." Soul muttered, and Maka elbowed him in the ribs.
"So why are you a weapon all of a sudden?" She asked.
"My mother was the first Death Scythe, as in my father's first weapon. I could probably still be a Meister, I've always been able to change into a weapon, but it was easier to just be a Meister before. I'm kind of worried that my wavelength has changed too much to wield Liz and Patty though. Either way everyone's going to have to know this. Since I'm a different soul I'm a different person, but I have all the same memories and stuff, so I know all of you. Anyway, we should keep going to the Dispensary so they can clean and dress that wound."
The three of them continued to walk.
"And what caused this?" Mira asked while she got the necessary materials to tend to Makas cut.
"We were in Battle Arts and I forgot how wide my scythe blade was since she was closer to me." Akira said scratching their neck.
"Well atleast you had the mind to stop it from going any deeper, otherwise we'd have to call Stein in for stitches." She joked, the four of them knowing that she's just as good with stitches as he is, "You two may want to ice your arms as well." She added, gesturing to the purpling bruises left behind from Akira's chain form.
"Who should I be expecting next?" Mira asked after she was done with Maka.
"BlackStar and Kimi were starting when we left." Soul said, catching the icepack the nurse tossed him.
"Tell Stein he needs to start bringing a first aid kit next time he teaches Battle Arts. In fact, Kid, bring him this one so no one has to come all the way here for another little cut."
Akira caught the white plastic box with ease as they were walking out the door.
"Will do."
"She called you Kid?" Maka questioned on their way back to the second campus.
"Yeah, all of the faculty were alerted of the situation yesterday morning."
"Is that why Stein had us go up against you?" Soul asked.
"Yeah, he probably wanted to see the difference between a demon's fighting style and a shinigami's. Otherwise he may have called it off sooner."
"Nah, he wants to see our limits."
"Ya'll killed a fucking kishin I don't think he would want to see a fight that takes any of you to that kind of limit."
Soul snorted and Maka grinned.
"So tell us about your mom, not much is known about the only female warlord." Maka said.
"Yeah, and she likes to keep it that way."
"How long ago was she even here anyway, It can't have been that long ago since you're here, right? Wouldn't it be known if she came to Death City?" Soul asked.
"Uh, well, about that actually. Demons and Shinigami are immortal unless they have an heir, so we take a pretty long time to grow until the stopping point. I'm actually about 700 years old."
"What?!" Soul and Maka exclaimed in shock.
"Which is the developmental equivalent of being about 15 in comparison to those with human lifespans!"
"Yeah but 700 years old?!" Soul practically screamed, "Dude you're practically ancient!"
"I AM NOT!"Akira screeched. Maka couldn't stop laughing.
"Anyway," said Maka, almost out of breath, "tell us more about your mom."
"Well, people call her Lady Memoria, but she also has other names, like Patisaecula, and Liberalis. She is the supreme ruler of the Lower Realm, and the Eighth Warlord. Her madness affiliation is the Madness of Eternity. She was my father's first weapon, the original Reaper Scythe, and the weapon he used to fight Asura the first time. The people nickname her Blackthorn, after a tree the Celts say symbolises discipline, control, strife, and perspective. It's on her crest now," They pulled out the silver chain that had been hidden under their shirt. It was long, with a round locket about an inch in diameter. Carved into it, centerpiece, was an image of the sharp, twisting, gnarled branches of the Blackthorn tree.
"Underneath the tree is a serpent," said Akira, pointing, "Because they symbolise eternity and ballance, and she always thought of it as a union between her and my dad. Up here," they said, pointing to the symbol next to the trunk of the tree, under the branches, "is the alchemical symbol for magnesium, for eternal flame. This might be outdated though, she may have added a new carving on the other side of the trunk since I've left. I don't know."
"What's inside of it?" Maka asked, and Akira undid the clasp.
On the left was a picture of Kid, who still had the lines of Sanzu, but they were greyed out instead of bright white, with a girl who had pale grey skin and hair that was the color of wood, if wood could get rusty. Her bangs were white. They looked to be about 13, and were smiling. Kids eyes were a bright hazel, and the girls were a deep sapphire blue.
On the left looked like a family portrait, with the two children from the other picture as well as a young looking woman. Her skin was the color of obsidian, and her eyes shone like opals. Her hair was a deep crimson, and you could see needle like teeth in her smile. Her face was all sharp angles, like someone had painted it with a ruler.
"That's my mom, and my sister Rowan." Akira said after a moment of silence.
"That's your mom?"
"You have a sister?" both Soul and Maka said at the same time.
"Yeah, she's the first demon. My sister is younger than be by a few months. She won't be mom's heir, but she'll help manage the kingdom."
"How is your mother the first demon?" Maka asked, fascinated.
"Spontaneous generation from magic and other elements put together by the entity of that realm."
"Entity?" she questioned.
"The realm as a manifested living being. He doesn't appear often but when he does we call him granddad."
"Maka's gonna have to get a notepad for all of these questions," Soul joked. She shoved his shoulder and blushed. Akira grinned, looking like their mother.
"Your teeth changed!" Maka exclaimed. "How did that happen?"
"Oh, I, uh…" Akira mumbled, suddenly self conscious, "new ones came in the day before yesterday." Their friends looked horrified.
"You just generated new teeth?"
"Mhm." They shoved their hands into their pockets and stared at the ground as they walked.
"How did that work?" Soul asked slowly.
"They all fell out and then these ones grew in. It wasn't… terrible…"
"What else happened? Is all this hair new too or something?" He tried to joke.
"No, the lines just disappeared. I'm not sure you want to know what else happened."
"Well whatever took you two days to go through must have been some serious shit so you can tell us."
Akira and Maka both glanced at Soul.
"It's gross." Akira warned.
"I'm sure we can handle it."
"Well demon skin is grey, first of all. The second thing that happened was that change."
"Your skin isn't grey though."
"I borrowed Liz's foundation kit."
"Oh."
"So I lost all of my teeth, then all of my skin peeled off-"
Soul and Maka's stomachs jumped into their throats.
"Hold on it actually came off? I thought you meant it just changed pigmentation!" Soul shouted.
"Well it needed different cells to change pigmentation."
"Did anything else happen?" Maka asked faintly, hoping that was it.
"Well," her heart sank. It wasn't over. Why did Soul have to ask the first thing.
"Demon blood is really different from regular blood. It's basically black, but it isn't the same as the stuff Medusa made because that was synthetic. When the new blood started being generated, it made my body reject the red blood."
"What happened then?" Soul asked. Maka was ready to throttle him.
"I bled from every possible opening for a couple of hours."
They walked in a nauseated silence the rest of the way to the second campus.