Mr. 96: Demand for this fic is so great, I'm skipping chapter two and going to the real part of the story!
They returned back to the Death Room. "Ah! Good! You've got the Zangetsu!" Death said, greeting them, "How'd it go? Were there any troubles?"
"Don't even go there, please….." Maka said, hanging her head.
"It was a piece of cake!" BlackStar shouted, "Of course, I could carry that thing with just one hand! No, one finger!"
"…..It was impossible for you to lift, wasn't it?" Death said, having an anime sweatdrop behind his head.
"How'd you know that?" BlackStar said. "Nobody could lift a sword like that! Not even a god!"
"Well, naturally," Death said, opening the coffin, "It can't be lifted by anyone but me! And even then, I have to be in my true form to do it!"
"True form?" Maka asked, "What are you talking about, sir?"
"My father's appearance is nothing but a disguise," Kid explained, "His true form is kept underneath his robes. But even I've never seen it."
"So, you gonna show us or what?" Soul said, getting impatient that nobody was going to explain to him why on Earth they had to find a God-forsaken, hated sword.
"Very well, then," Death said, putting a hand to his mask, "I will show you….my true form." He took off his mask, and robes shot out everywhere, unwrapping from his body. When they were all gone, Death stood in a new form.
Everyone gasped in awe. Death had bright orange hair, cut short, and despite his age appeared to be a young man in his late teenage years. He wore a loose black robe, which appeared to be a samurai outfit.
Maka, Tsubaki, Liz, and Patty all started blushing. "He's so unbelievably hot…." Liz said, sighing. Even Maka had to admit she agreed with Liz, although she was extremely embarrassed about it. Stop doing that! she hissed to herself, You know you shouldn't be thinking like this!
"Will you all cut that out?" Death said, becoming extremely annoyed, "I'm 800 years old and I'm married! Geez, it's the same thing, every time I show people my true form…."
"H…..huh?" Maka said, being put off by Lord Death's sudden apparent transition from the friendly goofball that was fit to host a children's show on PBS to an unusually irritated teenager. "Is this really the same Death that we all know?" she whispered to Soul. "He seems…..a bit different. I mean, I don't remember him ever sounding that…irritated…."
"Hell if I know. If he's kept his true form a secret, I don't think we know much about him to begin with," Soul said.
"I hope you realize I heard that," Death said, "Sigh…..my disguise forces a dummy personality onto me, so I become totally different every time I take it off. Got it now?"
Everyone became silent. "What? Is it so surprising that I can get angry? Kids these days…." Death sighed.
Maka giggled. "Oh, it's nothing," she said, "It's just…well, you really sound like Soul now that you're in your true form."
"I was thinking that, too….." Tsubaki said, leaning forward.
"Oh, yeah, now that you mention it, he really does sound a lot like Soul, huh?" BlackStar said.
"It's almost freakishly uncanny…." Kid said.
"What are you talking about? I don't sound like that!" Soul said, "I'm a cool guy who gets all the girls. He's an old geezer who…."
"REAPER/MAKA CHOP!" Death and Maka said at once, hitting Soul over the head—Maka with her book, Death with Zangetsu.
"C…..correction," Soul said, bleeding, "He's the cool guy who can kick people's asses and get all the girls. I'm the one who runs away from fights and needs Maka to beat anyone."
"Actually, I was mad at the 'gets all the girls' part," Maka said, putting away her book.
Death sighed. "Anyway, my real name is Ichigo Kurosaki. Originally I was a normal human, but I met a Shinigami named Rukia Kuchiki. She was attacked by a Hollow, an evil spirit which I suppose was the origin of the Kishin in the modern world. When that happened, I had to take her powers. Afterwards, I met the Gotei Thirteen, the organization which most Shinigami work under, and later joined them officially. After a few hundred or thousand years or so, I never bothered to keep track of the time….well, something happened, I ended up here and now, and after observing events I decided to step in. Even so, I was way too powerful to fight without tearing up reality, so I took to wearing that disguise to not only hide my identity but also to limit my power. Even the dummy personality played into this somewhat." He scratched the back of his head, "I gotta say, I really hated wearing that…..that was the crappiest design for a costume ever created!"
"Then why on Earth were you even wearing such an uncool outfit to begin with?" Soul asked.
"Didn't you pay any attention to what I was saying? I'm not the only one at this job!" Ichigo shouted, getting angry, "It was a collaboration effort between Kid's mom, her brother, who, by the way, does my job for me every now and then, and Stein!"
Maka's eye twitched. "You mean Stein designed that? That's unlike him…"
"And I never heard you mention my mother before, father," Kid said, "Who exactly was she? Was she this Rukia you mentioned, or was she that girl in the photograph with the red hair and the large…"
"Uhh…..moving on!" Ichigo said, nervously smiling, "After a while, it got pretty busy for me. So, I started training people to take the role of the Shinigami, with the Demon Weapons replacing the Zanpaku-To. But Zanpaku-To are living creatures, so I couldn't complete it until Arachne created the Demon Weapons based on my notes."
"Okay, we get all that," BlackStar said, "But why do you need to change into your true form right now?"
"With everything in mind, I didn't have much of a choice. I can only leave Death City in my true form, and I need to do that in order to go on a special mission. The seven of you are people I can trust with the knowledge of my true form, and I had considered you for it, but….it's far too dangerous for you. The fact is, you're rookie Meisters, and I can't fight at full strength and protect you at the same time," Ichigo said, his tone becoming incredibly serious.
"What?" BlackStar asked, "But…..but I'm BlackStar! I'm the biggest Meister there is!"
Ichigo sighed. "Look, I don't wanna hurt your feelings, BlackStar, but…..you're a bit of a weakling. You're not even 'big', for crying out loud, you're actually the shortest person I know."
BlackStar became enraged at this. "I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE DEATH OR NOT! NOBODY CALLS ME WEAK! TSUBAKI! ENCHANTED SWORD MODE!"
Tsubaki seemed hesitant at this, but complied. BlackStar charged at Ichigo. The god of death became visibly annoyed and shouted "WITCH HUNTER SWORD VARIANT: GETSUGA TENSHO!" He fired a blast from Zangetsu and BlackStar was flown back.
"Get the picture?" Ichigo said, "From now on, don't go on about surpassing God. I'm the real thing, and if you're so weak that you can't take my simplest attack, well….."
Maka became frightened. That was his simplest attack….? But it was so much more powerful than the normal Witch Hunter!
"It doesn't matter how strong you are…" BlackStar said, getting up, "I'm going with you on the mission!"
"Yeah," Soul said, "You think you could just keep this from us? I gotta admit, you have the coolest voice I've ever heard, but you're the biggest jerk I've ever met if you're not gonna let us go on the mission!"
"Father, I have nothing but the utmost respect for you," Kid said, "But if you kept this from us, and then just ask us to sit back while you go on a mission that you've freely admitted is the most important and dangerous one you can go on alone…..I'm afraid I have enough reason to doubt you as it is. Please allow us to go on this mission with you, father. If it is truly as dire as you say…..you may need us."
Maka nodded. "I can't sit back and watch while you risk your life, sir!" she said, "I know it's your orders, and I know how powerful you are, but…I can't let you go on this mission alone!"
Ichigo sighed. "You know, you're all a lot like me when I was younger," he said, "Alright, let's do this: Fight me and beat me, I'll allow you to go along with me. But on the condition that you keep my true form a secret."
The group of Meisters and Weapons nodded. Soul, Liz, and Patty quietly turned into their weapon forms and flew into their respective Meisters' hands.
"Fair warning, though," Ichigo said, "If you go up against a Shinigami, there's no guarantee your soul will survive!"