"Starting today, you have a new teacher." Cid looked towards the classroom entrance. "Although actually... even though I say that..."

Rick was sitting in the front row, looking back at Cid from a student's chair. In front of him was a notepad, and he was paying rapt attention.

"Rick-san... if you would..."

"Sure." Rick reached up to his head and brought down the fox mask. For a moment, his soul wavelength flashed, although most of the students couldn't tell. Even without a resonance, the mask seemed to react strongly, and after a moment, Rick was replaced by Kitsune-except that her face remained covered by the mask. His clothes, again, did not transform, but she pulled at his belt, tightening it before leaping over the desk and standing in front of the class.

"Hi~" she said, landing in front of the podium and leaning against it. "My name is Kitsune, and I am an ex-Witch. Pleased to meet you all!" The visage on the mask maintained the same expression, a pleasant-seeming grimace, but her voice was friendly. "I have a lot to teach you about magic, and also Madness!"

There was a lot of chatter in the classroom, but Kitsune waved it off. "So, let's start by letting you ask questions!"

Ox was the first one to throw down the obvious objection. "What the hell are you talking about? Why should we trust a witc-"

Before anyone had noticed, Rick was back in the front row, raising his hand. "Kitsune-sensei," he asked. "What makes a witch different from a magic user?"

He threw down his mask, transformed as he jumped over the desk, and leaned casually against the podium again, this time as Kitsune. "Why, excellent question, Rick! Witches have a long history, one that deals with bloodlines, master/student relationships, and many other things. However, the most important difference is in the soul."

Kitsune released her soul protect, and close as they were, most of the students could feel something odd, at least a little. Only Maka could sense it clearly, and she had felt it before.

"Well, unfortunately, I'm not quite a 'witch' in soul anymore," she admitted. "However, that 'soul wavelength' is still within me."

Maka closed her eyes and tried to feel it out, but she couldn't quite understand it. She could identify the soul wavelength as a witch's, but she couldn't pick it apart.

Then, suddenly, Rick was in the front row again. "Question, Kitsune-sensei! Why do they call it a 'soul wavelength'?" Maka noticed, with alarm, that he had also been writing in his notebook.

"Why the heck has he been taking notes if they're the same person...?"

Kitsune leaned clasped her hands theatrically and squeed a little. "Ah, Rick-kun, you're such a good student! "

Maka's face fell. "Wait, is he doing that just to flirt with her?"

Soul stared along with her. "That's.. somehow creepy."

"Human wavelength, Kishin egg, anti-demon wavelength, Witch, the the wavelength of madness... they have their own feelings, like frequencies of sound. Some frequencies are gentle and soft, some are stready or rythmic. However... like sounds, some are painful." Kitsune clutched at her chest sadly. "Feeling inadequate... when it is simply something that happens to you, then it doesn't matter, because it will pass. But when it is who you are, when you have no choice but to try to grow strong, then there is nothing left to live for but hatred." Her hand tightened.

"Hatred for the reason you're weak. Hatred for those who judge you as weak. Hatred for the people who don't have to live with being weak." Her wavelength flared for a minute, and the room seemed to tremble for a minute. "And... hatred for the people who pretend you are the one with the problem."

"Oi, oi, is she for real?" Soul leaned over towards Maka. "What do we do?"

Maka was feeling the tremble in the wavelength. "It's strange... even though I know what she's saying is wrong... it feels like... it feels like..."

Suddenly, the wavelength changed-or, it was overpowered. Rick lifted one mask, and brought the other across. His form changed again, to that of a tall woman with golden hair, her face covered with a mask that smiled gently.

"The soul wavelength is a powerful thing, as you can see." Her voice was musical. "It defines us, but it is also indicative of something-of our health, and our happiness." She, too, put her hand against her heart, and squeezed gently, as though with regret. "You've been told it before: a healthy 'soul' resides in a healthy mind and a healthy body."

The classroom was stunned for a moment. Ox raised a hand. "Um... who are you?"

Suddenly, there was a pounding, as though from a long ways away. As it grew closer, it sounded more and more like footsteps. Then, suddenly, the door burst open, and Spirit flew through it, aimed straight at her. "Eeeeeeriiiiiiiiiiin!"

Instead of either getting hit or counterattacking, Erin stepped to one side at the last moment, reached out with one hand, and captured Spirit in a hug that sent them both spinning around. Before he could even start babbling in his usual way, she pulled him against her, and stratched at his head like a puppy. Spirit let out a contented sigh, and after a moment of wiggling happily, he relaxed.

"When people are in pain... when people lose a part of themselves that they needed... a wavelength is born that might never die. Or perhaps it would be better to say that your existing wavelength has a hole eaten in it."

Ox raised his hand again. "Um... you didn't answer the question. Who are you?"

"I am one of three souls that have become part of the same person." She patted Spirit's hair. "Once, I was a weapon. Spirit... who is called Deathscythe now, he was my younger brother. Rick was my meister. When we tried to fight a witch, we were trapped by a spell. It was because of that that we found the soul of the extinct witch, Kitsune, sealed inside me, as part of my blood as a weapon. Her power, and my ability as a weapon, both went crazy, and we three came to live in the same body."

"However, my wavelength is special. With time, I can mend that hole in a person's soul." She held Spirit against her tightly for a moment. "It isn't permanent, but it gives the soul a chance to heal-like binding a wound." She patted Spirit's head one last time, then picked him up and leaned him against the podium. "Because of that special property, and because there were three of us, we were able to bring Kitsune back from madness, and with her magic, we separated the three minds, giving one a body, and making two into masks."

"Although... just as we accomplished that for the first time..." she turned to look at the doorway, where Stein was standing just outside. Immediately, a terribly black look came over her face. "SOMEONE INTERRUPTED."

Somehow, with that look, even Stein seemed genuinely frightened. However, after a moment, she took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. "Well, and then it took a while longer to pick the pieces up again, that's all."

Spirit looked sadly at her. "Erin..."

Suddenly, Rick was behind the desk again. "Excuse me, Erin-sensei, this is interesting and all, but shouldn't we get back to the lesson?" His right hand was writing notes in the notebook again, although he didn't look at them at all.

After a moment's switching, Kitsune was back at the front of the room. Her menacing wavelength had disappeared, and she was composed. "Actually I need a little break. We'll end here for today."

As she turned to leave, Spirit stood a little straighter from the platform and watched her go. He followed her with his eyes as she strode out of the room; as she approached the door, her belt slipped, and her pants fell, to much ado from the class. She picked them up, tightened the belt down, and stalked off without comment.

It was a moment before Spirit realized he hadn't reacted to the slip at all.