Chapter 2: A Casual Conversation with Death

"Hiya, heya, and howdy do, Mandy. I don't see you in here often!" Lord Death exclaimed. It was the following day, and just like Melina promised she brought Claire to see Lord Death, the head master of the DWMA. Claire openly admitted that she had a different idea in mind of what the conversation was going to be, parts of it including hellfire and evil laughs. Instead, Death's room was rather pleasant, with bright sky blue walls and cloud puffs slowly moving across the floor. Even Death himself wasn't that scary. His entire body was covered in a black robe except for his two comically huge white hands, and his face was covered with a skull mask.

"I'm doing just great, Lord Death. And it's Melina, by the way…" Melina replied, bowing to the head master. "I would like to introduce Claire Underwood. She would like to enroll here at the DWMA."

"Splendid! Are you a weapon or a meister?"

Claire kept shut again, still not knowing the answer to this question. Lord Death turned to Melina.

"Ohhh Minnie. Have you not explained the concepts of weapons and meisters to our new student yet? For shame." He playfully scolded, pointing a giant finger at Melina.

"Melina. And it's harder than it seems I guess. Besides it's better coming from the mouth of the founder himself, am I right?"

"Hmm, very well. I suppose I will start from the top. Years ago, the DWMA was founded to teach young students how to fight off the demons and evil spirits that haunt lands all over the world. The student body is divided into two groups: First you have weapons, humans that can transform into living various weapons. Melina here, for example, is a weapon. The other half are meisters. These are the students who wield the before mentioned weapons. By partnering up like this, the weapon-meister combinations travel the world defeating demons. Their final goals may be different, but most usually reach for the goal of becoming a Death Scythe, a personal weapon for yours truly. In order to do this, the weapon must consume 99 evil souls, and one witch soul. Is all of this making sense to you so far?"

Claire nodded.

"Good, now I will ask you a simple question: Have you ever noticed spikes or chains or claws coming out of you at any point in your life."

Claire actually took a few seconds to think about it, "No sir, I can't say I have."

"Congratulations! You are a meister. Yaay!" Death cheered, confetti flying. Melina also cheered rather loudly.

"Yes! This is awesome! That means we can be partners!" Melina exclaimed, hugging Claire tightly. Claire still had very little clue as to what was going on.

"Slow down Max. It's clear that most of this is still sinking in for Ms. Underwood. Do you mind waiting outside? I would like to speak to her one on one."

"Of course, Lord Death." Melina bowed once more, and then skipped out of the Death Room, leaving a lost Claire and the god of death in the same room alone.

"So you're Claire, yes? Daughter of Maria and Kevin Underwood?"

"Yes. You knew them?" Claire asked.

"They were students here actually. Both of them were meisters, and pretty good ones at that. I was saddened by their passing." Claire noticed a shift in Death's tone, from cheerful and carefree to brooding and somber. Claire began to suspect that her parents meant more to this school than she first expected.

"Um, Lord Death, sir, would you happen to know how my parents died? My family always says it was a car crash, but I have the feeling that that's not the case."

Lord Death sighed, "I actually have no clue either. All we know is that their car was found exploded in the bottom of a cliff, with no trace of them inside.

Hearing the story of her parents' death surprisingly didn't make her that upset anymore. Instead, it relieved her a bit. Still, she felt like there was more to the story than Death was letting on. She didn't bother to press on though. Perhaps later.

"Thank you Lord Death. I think I am ready to enroll."

This changed Lord Death's mood back to cheerful, "Excellent! I just need to take a quick peek at your soul, and then you'll be ready to go."

"My soul?" Claire screamed, clutching her chest. Her mind automatically went to images of Lord Death swinging a giant scythe at her heart.

Death waved his hands in an attempt to calm her down, "Nothing scary, my lady. If you want, I can take you with me." Not waiting for an answer, Death approached her and put a finger on her forehead. Suddenly, Claire blacked out…

She woke up in a pitch black abyss. She didn't know which way was up or down. She was just floating. She twisted to her left to see Lord Death there with her. His cloak was the same color of the black around them, so he was just a mask and pair of white hands.

"OK, great! Your soul should be around here somewhere… there it is!" Lord Death began to float over towards a strange light in the distance. Claire followed. They finally reached the light source. It was a pale purple orb, about the size of a basketball.

"Is this… my soul?" Claire asked. Lord Death nodded. Claire reached out and touched it. It was warm to the touch. When she held it in her arms, she felt something inside her warm up. It was the same feeling when she hugged her rabbit, or when her family had hamburgers for dinner. Or even when she used to hug her mom and dad after she had a rough day at school, and they would make her hot chocolate to make her feel better.

"It seems that your soul is strong and healthy. Perfect for a young meister. And judging from the teal spot, you hold those your family very close to your heart."

Claire was confused, but then turned the orb around again and noticed the teal gem, identical to the one on her bracelet. This put a smile on Claire's face.

"It seems that you are more than ready to be a meister." Death snapped his fingers and they were back in his room.

"Welcome to the Death Weapon and Meister Academy, Meister Claire Underwood. I'm excited to see your progress here. Now go ahead run along. I'm sure she's waiting for you outside."

"Thank you Lord Death." Claire replied, running out of the room to meet up with Melina.

"She's going to be good. I can tell." Lord Death turned around to see Spirit, his in- house Death Scythe, coming in from the big mirror in the room.

"Oh, Death Scythe Spirit! I forgot you were even in the room! How are you?"

"I just got off the phone with Maka. She says she and Soul are in Canada investigating a powerful collection of powerful souls. She says it's nothing to get worried about for now, but she will keep us updated.

"Hmm, it seems like your little Maka has really grown up. She's becoming quite the Kishin hunter."

"Yeah. I'm not too stoked about her dating that Soul kid, but other than that…I'm the proudest father in the world." Spirit replied, wiping his tears away.

"Right! So what do you think of the new student. I'm sure you were listening in, yes?"
"A little bit. I didn't expect the daughter of the two meisters of her parents' caliber to know nothing about her soul or the DWMA."

"I suppose that they wanted her daughter to grow up living a normal life. Being a demon hunter is quite the task, as I'm sure you know."

"Meh, it's not that bad. Oh yeah, late reaction: How come you didn't tell her the truth? About her parents' death and all? I'm pretty surprised she bought you not knowing. I mean, aren't you the Lord of Death? You know how everyone dies. Kind of an occupational thing."

"I would but I really don't know this time. Even if I did, I'm sure the news would surely discourage her."

"You think so? I can't read souls well, but I saw it on her face. She looked kind of happy. I think she wants to know more about her parents. I mean, it's not like you hear that your dead parents were high level demon hunters."

"Hmmm, I suppose you're right… Oh well! I'm sure with time she will find out more. Who knows? Maybe she really will be as good of a meister as her mom and dad."

"Yeah, but there's one thing she be."

"And that is?"

"As good looking as her mother was."

"…Reaper Chop!" The smoke rose, leaving Spirit on the floor clutching his head in pain with a giant rectangular chasm in the top of his head.

"Have some decency, man. That's her dead mother." Lord Death deadpanned.

"It doesn't matter! She was supposed to be mine, ok?! Curse that damn Kevin and his charm and sense of humor and…" Soon Spirit's voice began to crack, and he began to bawl as memories of his heartbroken past love life began to rush back to him.

"What a baby…" Death thought to himself.