Episode 6: Doubt

"Hello! Are you all okay there? Have you got Kid?"

"Affirmative, Shinigami-sama. However, we have a problem."

"A problem? What happened? Is Maka alright?" blurted Spirit.

"She's fine, Spirit-sama. But we've also captured the witch that took him."

"I see," the Shingami went quiet for a moment. He must be reassessing the situation, "Okay! Bring her here! Bye-bye!"

"Yes sir."

Meanwhile at the back, the rest of the gang were silent as they watched over Kid who slept soundly with the witch, Blair. The two were resting on separate stretchers before them.

"Why can't we just finish her right now?" asked Black Star.

"We can't. Well, not yet anyway. We don't know what she did to Kid."

"That's right, Maka-san. He hasn't sustained any injuries whatsoever, so it must be psychological," reported Nygus after a brief examination.

"Kid-kun," the Thompson Sisters were worried. Even the happy-go-lucky Patti looked serious. But there was nothing anyone could do. The only person who could answer all the questions was knocked out herself.

"Soul, are you okay?"

"I don't know. I really don't know," he was saddened. He couldn't get it out of his head. The memory of him playing the piano in the midst of their Team Resonance earlier was still fresh in his mind.

"Screech Gamma!" Crona readied her Demon Sword.

"Witch Hunter!" Maka's Demon Scythe changed into a large, crescent moon-shaped blade. Soul played harder on the piano as they approached the climactic finish.

"Soul Distortion!" Blair shouted.

"What the heck?" the strings of the piano snapped the instant he pressed down on the keys, thus creating a terrible sound. Their Team Resonance was shattered at that moment.

"But, at least we've managed to beat her," sighed Tsubaki.

"Did we?"

"Crap!" Soul suddenly transformed back into his human form along with Tsubaki. The Demon Sword, Ragnarok, shrank back into Crona's body.

"Hah!" Blair laughed. Oddly enough, she was right back where she stood, "If you idiots think that an attack like that could work against me, then you have another thing-"

BONK!!!

Blair was lying in a small pool of her own blood. A large bump formed at the back of her head after being struck by the helicopter's tail.

"So it was a lucky break, right?"

"Maybe. But we didn't have a chance of beating her back there. She was toying with us."

"That was a fluke! The next time we fight, the GREAT ME WILL SHINE!" Black Star declared.

"I agree with Maka. Something happened that's why we lost control. That's also why we couldn't align our wavelengths, Black Star." A moment of silence followed afterwards. Bringing in a witch instead of killing it was dangerous if not fatal as evident by their last experience with Medusa. Stein went nuts and defected as a result. With this in mind, they couldn't help but feel that the Shingami's decision was somewhat hasty if not incorrect. Anyway, their fears would later be confirmed or denied when they reach Shibusen.

As they draw closer to the end of their mini-escapade, a new adventure begins elsewhere. After wallowing in total darkness, Death the Kid finally opens his eyes and wakes.

"Where am I?" were his initial thoughts. It was as though he had just woken up after a deep slumber. It was dark. He was still sleepy. His eyes were a little blurry. He could move his body, though everything was very heavy. He felt drained. Then as he closes his eyes to rest, he hears a song. A spotlight reveals someone not too far away. It was an older woman by the sound of her voice.

"Arachne," he mumbled. He wanted to do something however, his body was too tired. The Mother of All Demon Weapons stood on the stage and sang "Fly me to the moon" by Frank Sinatra. She was actually pretty good. Soon, a second spotlight revealed two people on the dance floor. Similarly to the witch, Soul and Maka were in black formal attires. They were having a slow dance.

"What's going on here?" Kid thought. He managed to sit up. He found himself in an empty booth. There was nothing on the table except an old bronze lamp. It was emitting a very weak light. He looked around, and there were other booths nearby.

"I hate my life," said a strange-looking creature. It was drowning itself in liquor. Unbeknownst to him, that organism was the little red imp that used to reside within Soul. Meanwhile, a couple of booths away was another bizarre sight. Professor Franken Stein was seated back, staring at the ceiling. He was still as a statue with a lit cigarette in his mouth. What really made this weird was the fact that Medusa was there, cuddling with him. They were both in their formal attires.

"This place is too dark. I don't know how to deal with this," he heard someone whispering. He turned to discover Crona under the table of the booth behind him. She was hugging her knees, cowering in fear.

"What the hell is this place?" He remembered all those Kishin eggs surrounding him earlier. He also remembered being in serious pain when Blair and that Mizune witch trapped him in a magic circle. The pain was too much that he lost consciousness.

"That's it. This must be a dream," he concluded.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," someone uttered.

Kid was startled to find someone seated right across the table. An overwhelming aura pressed down on him. The air grew dense and made it difficult to breathe.

"Asura!" he gasped.

"How's the old man?" smiled the Kishin. Unlike everyone else there, he was in his casual skin-clothes. He looked the same as the last time they met.

"Welcome to my world," he said and leaned back. Seated behind him was someone pretty familiar. He couldn't see her face, but the cowboy hat and short hair were a dead give away.

"Are you surprised?"

Since Kid was at a loss for words, Asura did most of the talking. He explained that they were now in one of the many levels of insanity within his soul. In this place, one could see the many souls which have succumbed to his madness. With a snap of his fingers, the entire area was illuminated. This was due to the countless souls that materialized around them. Before Kid could even inquire on how it that was possible for Asura to retain his soul even after Maka's Ultimate Punch of Courage, the souls swirled up like a tornado and altered the background. Everything and everyone vanished. The place became windy all of a sudden. Kid was blinded by some dust.

When he recovered, he found himself in a different surrounding. He was standing on a vast plain of nothingness. The ground beneath him appeared to be dried mud. It was barren and full of cracks. Apart from that, numerous wooden and iron crosses were planted on the ground. The sun had already disappeared below the horizon and set the sky ablaze.

"A world locked in forever twilight," Asura declared, "the soul of the Shingami's son."

"W-What?"

"Let me tell you the truth about the Shinigami," he grinned.