Author's Note: Whazzup? Sorry it took a while... please enjoy!

Soul Eater Chronicles Episode 5: Dreams and Nightmares, Why Am I Crying!?

"TSUBAKI!!!"

Black Star cried out, waking himself from a terrible nightmare. Panting heavily and covered in sweat, he looked around and recognized the safe and familiar surroundings of his room. Upon realizing that that had happened again, he threw himself back on his pillow and heaved a heavy sigh. This dream has been occurring for the past several days now. It's the same nightmare where he's confronted by his father, White Star, and Tsubaki's older brother, Masamune.

Although having experienced this over and over, it soon grew tiresome and repetitive. But what kept him awake is that whenever Tsubaki dies at the end, she would always blame him for not being able to protect her from death. Even if he would soon realize it to be a bad dream, it was still a cruel and painful reminder of his weakness and limitations.

"What should I do?" he asked himself.

The digital clock beside his bed read 2:02 A.M. so it was still quite dark outside. He groaned at how early it was but got up. As he did with the previous nights before, he would first raid the fridge for a cold drink and then proceed to do several forms of exercise until he'd pass out due to exhaustion.

The next morning, around 10 o'clock, Professor Stein wheeled into the classroom and began writing their topic of the day without so much as a smile or a "good morning". The students experienced the same kind of silent-treatment coming from their class with Sid earlier where he entered class with a dead look on his face. Just like Stein, he moved quite slowly and seemed detached from everyone else. It was like he was a zombie or something.

"Stein-sama, are you alright?" asked Tsubaki.

"Huh?" Her words were able to reach him as he suddenly realized the difference between the blackboard and the wall. "Oh... um, you're getting a new teacher today... so class dismissed..." without any further explanation, he shooed them away so as to return to his thoughts.

"Well that was weird..." said Kim as she walked together with Tsubaki.

"We're having a new teacher today? Why would that bother Stein-sama – and Sid-sama as well?" she wondered.

"Meh, who cares? I'm just happy I'm able to say a few lines."

"Lines? What do you mean?"

"Oh nothing, nothing," she laughed, acting as though it were some random joke, "Anyways, since it's only us here, I might as well warn you about how the upcoming chapter is- HEY!" In an unfortunate stroke of bad luck, a half-asleep Black Star was abruptly thrown into the scene. In doing so, Kim was unintentionally bumped off-page.

"Black Star, where've you been? You missed class," Although the boy wasn't wearing anything except his 'sleeping' boxers, Tsubaki accepted this and assumed it was part of some steal-the-spotlight idea of his.

"Huh?" a bit dazed and confused, he managed to walk with her and grace the hallways with his undeniably, overwhelming, WTF-inspiring presence.

"I'm not really sure what's happening, but everyone's been disappearing lately. I could have sworn Kim-san was standing right there. She was warning me about something. It was like this morning, Maka, Soul, Liz, Patty, Kid and even Blair-san... With all of you absent, everyone else looked like grey outlines and silhouettes. It felt really weird," she said quite sadly as they walked towards the entrance.

Outside, where the Panting Sun was shining brightly, Black Star was fully awakened by the sudden blast of heat. "EEEEH!? What the heck!?" he gasped when he found out what everyone there was looking at. "Look!"

There at the distant steps came a very unexpected person. He was dragging along a giant holster full of katana swords whilst having a single one in a normal scabbard at his side. It looked as though he'd just arrive from a long journey seeing as how his clothes were torn and weathered by the unforgiving desert sun. He stopped at the middle of the grounds and stood there with a valiant form and a fearsome battle aura.

"M-Mifune-sama!?" Tsubaki was just as surprised as everyone else.

"Hold it!" Ox, Kilik and their weapons Harvar, Fire and Thunder suddenly appeared beside the two.

"Check that out," Ox pointed to Mifune's right leg. It was almost unnoticeable due to the man's presence, but there was a small person hiding behind his leg.

"Wait. That's–"

"Exactly, that's a witch – a rare opportunity," Ox and Kilik flashed their glasses in a typical Azusa manner but with added evil smiles.

Meanwhile, a peaceful morning tea party was taking place at the Death's Room.

"Achoo!" sneezed Azusa.

"Bless you," said Joe whilst pouring himself a cup of the rare Uncle Bob's Rumba Coffee.

This prompted Spirit to comment, "Someone must be talking about you."

"Don't be ridiculous. We aren't in some manga or anime," she responded.

"Yeah. It's a shame though... anyway, where did Shinigami-sama head off to again?"

"I think he went to return the Book of Eibon, he's still probably at the vault right now."

"We should leave him alone. Yesterday was pretty hard for him," sipped Joe. "Rather, you two should have some of this RUMBA COFFEE!" getting teary-eyed by the delicious taste, he looked up as though heaven was shinning down on him.

"Yeah, I guess – Whoa! Looks like he's here!" Spirit pointed to one of the screens. There, they saw a victorious Mifune standing atop a pile of battered students.

"That's what you get for trying to bully Mifune!" chided Angela, the witch-child of whom Mifune protects quite stalwartly.

"H-He defeated them in no more than ten seconds?" gasped Jacqueline, who was one of the students smart enough not to tangle with such a formidable opponent.

"Wow. As to be expected from Mifune-sama," said Tsubaki.

While they all stared in awe, Black Star was seriously getting ticked off that this person was getting all the attention. Ever since Maka defeated the Kishin, he knew that his one, real chance of surpassing god went out the window. The reason why he'd been quiet these past few months was because he knew it was just a fluke. In fact, as he sees it, for someone as great and awesome to humble himself like he did by allowing Maka to deliver the finishing blow, he should get a medal or better yet he deserved the freakin' Nobel Prize for that. But did he get anything? No. There was not even a single "Thank You" or cash donations or at the very least they could have just erected a 150 meter tall, gold statue or something.

"Heh. So you finally found the balls to come here for a re-match?" spat an arrogant Black Star.

"What are you talking about? And can you please put a shirt on, you're scaring Angela," he said as the little girl was covering her eyes in fright.

Ignoring his words, Black Star circled the pile without breaking eye-contact. "I know what you're trying to do!" he shouted, gritting his teeth. Like what was mentioned earlier, Black Star was the humblest of men. Even without fame or recognition, he would've learned to live with it as long as Tsubaki was there with him. But for someone (else) to do something pathetic like a meagre show of strength and unjustly receive a praise from Tsubaki is unforgivable.

Stopping short of the stone steps, Black Star raised his fist and shouted, "I'm gonna kick your –"

"OUT OF MY WAY!" all of a sudden, he was easily thrown to the side by a very pissed-off Liz Thompson who just climbed up the long steps. Even the mighty Mifune and the mountain of students were quick to flee her rampaging path. "WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON KID, I'M GONNA KILL HIM!" she roared.

"W-What happened?" groaned Black Star as he was coming to. The first thing he saw was a cheerful Tsubaki.

"Are you okay?" she smiled.

"What's goin–" he froze upon realizing that he was having a pillow lap, meaning that his head was resting comfortably on her lap.

"Black Star, you know you shouldn't exert yourself too much. Your wounds haven't completely healed up so you're not that strong yet."

"I know... wait. What did you just say?" he was surprised by her words.

"I said, you aren't that strong yet so you should-"

He wasn't sure the first time but now, "HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT?" Those same words were always said in his dreams by Tsubaki as she blamed or pitied him for not being able to save her from dying. Though it was painful, he knew it was only a dream and that the real Tsubaki wouldn't say those things or even blame him for his weakness. It seemed now that he was wrong. He was such a fool for thinking such things.

"Black Star, what's wrong?"

"HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT?" he cried. Tears were flowing from his eyes. "SORRY IF I'M NOT STRONG ENOUGH!" he quickly got up. "DON'T TOUCH ME! STAY AWAY FROM ME!" he screamed at her and ran down the steps, crying as a boy of his age would.

Tsubaki was shocked. She looked down and found drops of his tears on her lap. She couldn't understand what had happened or why it did. She could only sit there as the boy disappeared from view.

"Black...Star?"

Author's Note: Thanks for reading!... Oh right, what Kim was about to warn Tsubaki or you, the readers, is that the next chapter is going to be... slightly ecchi (I'm experimenting).. it's between Kid X Blair the Witch... you've been warned... so if you don't like that stuff (like my chief editor) you should still read it... ^^... so as to know whether I should change my rating to M or something... don't worry, it isn't going to be full-blown 18+... I think... ^_^