Episode 8: The Eye: Revelations of Madness!

"Death Room," is the innermost sanctum of Shibusen. It is where the Great Shinigami lives. Here, he can monitor all the major activities occurring around the world. The many victories of Shibusen against Arachnophobia were all due to the strategies planned from here. It had been more than three months ago when Medusa entered this realm, made a deal with the Shinigami, and betrayed her older sister, Arachne. The showdown between the Shinigami and the Kishin was held here.

In conclusion, the Death Room is a place of importance. It is a place of Intelligence, Diplomacy, and Power. After several weeks of rebuilding, the Death Room is once again put into use. This time, it's used to deal with the new threat.

"So, you're the witch?" asked the Shinigami in his usual goofy voice.

Blair was wheeled in on top of a wooden cart. Basically, it was a wide square piece of heavy oak wood with wheels underneath. Heavy-duty chains secured Blair and bounded her to the platform. She was breathing hard, almost panting. She was also visibly shaking, in fear maybe? However, this act was merely to conceal her Echolocation ability. This unique ability allowed her to form an accurate mental map of the places she's been. After sensing a vast expanse around her, she already knew this was the "Death Room" And before her was the powerful Shinigami himself.

She was still blindfolded, but pretended not to know where she was for she would turn her head from side-to-side as though looking for the speaker.

"Where am I?" she said acting all scared, all the while using her special ability. Comparing their figures to those at the party, she was already aware of the other people there. It was Stein and Spirit to her left; Azusa and an unknown woman were to her right.

"Cut the act! You aren't fooling anyone here," uttered the unknown person.

"I see," Blair changed composure, and then spoke in a more serious tone, "Then let's get straight to-"

"SHINIGAMI CHOP!!!"

"OUCH! THAT HURT!!!" Blair began cursing out loud. With a large sweatdrop on their heads, everybody looked at the Shinigami for an explanation.

"She took Kid. What am I suppose to do?" he said. And that ended the mini-chapter, "Shinigami-sama, the Interrogator!"

It was Spirit's turn. He took the direct approach. "What have you done to Kid?"

"Well, let's see. I-" she momentarily pauses and sniffs the air, "Phew! Is there a skunk in here or am I imagining things?"

They all looked at Spirit who smelled his armpits, "That's my colon!" he shouted.

"Oh, I see. So you must be pretty desperate to date skunks, huh?"

Spirit started protesting and defending his manhood from those hurtful words. Of course, this only ended with a, "SHINIGAMI CHOP!!!"

All eyes were back on the Shinigami again.

"He was horsing around. What am I suppose to do?" was his excuse.

It was now Marie's turn, while the Shinigami and Spirit were ordered to distance themselves after being scolded by Azusa. This was to prevent anymore "clowning around"

Marie crouched down and stared at Blair. She restrained herself from suddenly pulling Blair's hair out. She was pretty angry, yes. But all this anger was actually directed to a certain witch. Blair was only caught in the crossfire because she symbolized Medusa, and every evil act that she did. However, this wasn't the time or the place for such things. Kid's life was on the line, so Marie calmed herself.

"Listen to me," she said, "We won't hurt you. Just tell us what you did to Kid, okay?"

At first, Blair looked puzzled by this. Then she tried to bow, but the chains won't let her.

"Okay. I will tell you everything-" They were relieved by her answer, "-everything I know, Obaasan." The word "Obaasan" was equivalent to the words, "Granny/Old woman" After hearing that last part, Marie smiled though her smile couldn't conceal the large pulsing Anime vein on her forehead. No word could describe the amount of anger and frustration she had. Although, if a crowd of extras were suddenly at the background and some guy shouted, "OH NO SHE DIDN'T!!!" Then those words would easily explain Marie's dilemma.

"O-obaasan?" she was cringing her teeth, barely keeping it together. Azusa tried to calm her, but in vain. "W-what do you think I am? An old lady!!!"

"Calm down, Marie!" If Stein hadn't been there to hold her back, Marie would've flattened Blair like a pancake with her hand.

"Marie-san?" Having known the identity of the unknown person, Blair smiled. Meanwhile, Azusa was disappointed with Spirit and Marie. Not only did the two Death Scythes failed to produce results, but they couldn't even act professionally. So they ended up sitting in a gloomy dark spot of depression with the Shinigami. The words, "Worthless failures!" were floating above them after being repeatedly scolded by Azusa.

"She really knows how to lay it on thick," sobbed Spirit.

"Am I a worthless human being?" murmured Marie.

Anyway, it was Asuza's turn now. Where the others failed, she will succeed. She used Soul Perception to keep Blair's soul under observation. It was so still that it seemed frozen. But any magical activity would immediately cause a disturbance.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Isn't it rude though that people talk to you without introducing themselves first?"

Azusa looked down at the captive. Her eyes almost narrowed down to slits. She didn't like this situation at all. They were being led around from the very beginning. It was clear now that this devious person had planned everything, from the abduction to her capture.

"I am Azusa, Yumi. I am the Death Scythe in charge of East Asia, which I assume you already know," she raised her glasses, "So would you mind telling me who you are?"

"Nope," she looked away.

"What? But I just told you who I am and-"

She yawned, "I don't feel like telling."

Azusa clenched her fists. She was losing patience with this person. Of all the enemies she faced in the past, she had never ever met someone who acted so immature and childish, yet be able to manipulate everyone like puppets on a string.

"Don't get your panties in a twist. Relax or else I'll tell everyone your little secret," she said playfully.

"What secret?" Azusa had no idea what it was.

"The secret that you LIKE Spirit," she grinned.

"What are you talking-" she felt a sudden chill and a sickening feeling. She slowly turned her head and found Spirit looking like the luckiest fool in the world. He was smiling from ear to ear, and his face was sparkling with happiness. Instead of a dark gloomy spot of depression, he was actually surrounded by a pink bubbles-themed aura. His eyes were replaced by big puffy red hearts.

"It's a lie," Azusa flatly denied the allegation. Unfortunately for her, Spirit was already far too deep in one of his twisted fantasies to even make contact with reality. He was just sitting there, cupping his cheeks, and smiling like an idiot.

"Enough!" shouted Stein. The Shibusen teacher had kept quiet this whole time in order to study their captive. Although he did enjoy watching three of the most powerful Death Scythes behave like children, he saw that this interrogation was going nowhere. He approached the witch and pulled out a bird's feather from his coat. It was probably from the endangered rare bird which he almost dissected some months ago.

"What are you-" before Blair could finish her statement, the tip of the feather gently stroked the top of her nose. That was it! The Dreaded Itchy Nose torture! The feather irritated Blair so much that it made her nose extremely itchy.

"Stop that!" she cried, unable to scratch it. She violently thrashed about, but the chains did not give way. Her need to "alleviate the suffering," was overwhelming that Marie noticed Blair had dug an inch through the wood with only her nails.

"That's enough, Stein," she said, touching his shoulder, "tell us everything or else."

"SCRATCH ME FIRST!!!" she demanded, still thrashing about. Marie complied. Blair was so relieved that she told them what they wanted to know. She explained her reason for abducting Kid. Medusa and Arachne were dead. They were despicable, yes, but that doesn't change the fact that they were still witches. With their deaths and the Kishin's, the Balance of Power had shifted too much towards the Shinigami that Mabaa, Queen of all Witches, had no choice but to resort to such drastic measures.

"So that was an attempt to kill the Shinigami's son!?" Spirit was furious.

"Hardly," she said, "the true intent was to 'enlist' the aid of an ancient weapon. This is a weapon so powerful that it almost killed the Shinigami. Need I say more?"

"Vajra!" they were all horrified by the revelation. Vajra was Asura's partner before the former was devoured by the latter. According to Maka and the others, Asura dropped his weapon before he died. So they combed the entire castle from top to bottom in search of it, but there wasn't even a single trace of its existence.

"Where you able to recover the body?" asked Azusa.

"How should I know? Your minions broke my concentration. But I don't know if the other witch succeeded."

"Why would she need Vajra? That Demon Weapon's soul had long since perished," the Shinigami asked, this time, in his original serious voice.

"It's not the soul, but the body she needs. More precisely, she wants an eye to replace the one she lost." As if things couldn't get any worse, it did. Mabaa was planning her return to power and she's going to use Vajra's left eye to do it. It was frustrating that all of these were happening right at the moment where Shibusen's at its weakest. The Shinigami, the Death Scythes and most of the students were badly injured during the last fight. The World was still recovering and it wasn't prepared for another great battle.

Nevertheless, it was their responsibility to stop such evil. The Shinigami Weapon Meister Vocational School was built for this exact purpose to stop the rise of another Demon God and to prevent the world from plunging into madness.