About 2 hours in the ride, we reached a boat stop. Bill parked his boat besides it and I began to gather my things together. Two guards stood there, on opposite sides. "What brings you here?" Spoke up the Guard on the left. "U-um, I'm- I am Crona Makenshi, I've come here to be interviewed by King Joseph". Immediately they knew who I am.

"Oh, please forgive us. Let us help you on your way" The guards quickly assisted me off the boat, and took my bags which Bill handed to them. "Thank you so much Bill I appreciate you so much." "It's no problem, Crona. Good luck out there" Bill tilted his hat and started his boat. I waved good bye to him until he was as far as 100 feet. I smiled to myself.

"Would you like for us to assist you on your way Ma'am?" The right guard asked me. "O-oh no, I'll be fine on my own, thank you. I'll take a bus on my way". The guards bowed, and went back to patrol. I walked up a pair of stairs that lead off from the shore. I looked down at my feet as I climbed the stairs, making sure I don't accidentally trip and get a nose bleed. It would be embarrassing to visit the king with a cast on my nose, I thought to myself. I laughed lightly as I imagined the scenario in my head:

"Hello, your majesties! I've come here to be the best protector of your lovely kingdom! I couldn't be happier to be at your service! Please let me take care of you" I imagined myself curtsies. My nose had a while puffy cast, as if my nose had broken. My nose then let out a stream of red blood as I confidently smiled with a cocky expression.

King: My word. What happened to your nose?

Me: I fell on my way here my king. I let the evil stairs of death take a beating on me. But don't you worry.. I gave those stairs no mercy and left a shoe skid mark as revenge!

Princess: AH! How brutal you are Missus Makenshi. How on earth could someone be so cruel. *The princess placed the back of her hand on her forehead and tilted back, as if she had fainted.*

King: I'm sorry to say this, but I cannot allow such a terrible person like you in my castle. You are to be escorted out.

Me: Just you wait! I will leave skid marks all over this town, you hear me? You won't see the last of me!

My face flustered with laughter. I sighed happily as I reached the last step. I looked up from where I stood.

My eyes grew with great astonishment. The Kingdom looked like a large city more than what you would think of from a story book. Hell, it looked like a small country from up here. I saw stores, Buildings, Houses, restaurants, companies, goodness.. there was so much I could assume form a birds eye view. The city steeped downwards a bit in the distance, and trees covered my sight from seeing more, meaning there was more to see miles away. It was about three or even four times larger than my city just from above. Which didn't surprise me, it was a kingdom after all. But Archive city was the largest city to my knowledge , that I've ever known or been too…Come to think of it my memory was quite burry. Have I ever been out of Archive city before? I shook the thought as I began to walk myself along the streets of the kingdom.

I walked myself to a bus stop bench and sat down. I waited not even two minutes before a bus had arrived. I saw it as strange at first, but then I remembered the man I spoke to on the phone said the bus would come at exactly 9:45am. I looked at my phone quickly and saw it was exactly 9:45am. He was impressively correct about its timing. If anything I'm more impressed at the bus driver. I stepped into the bus and threw in a few quarters as a tip. I took a seat at an empty spot and shifted, letting my bags sit down. I lightly rubbed my shoulders as I looked out the window.

I saw the people walking around the streets. The friends and families, innocently laughing with no care in the world. This must be one of the nicer areas of the city.. I thought to myself, thinking back into Achieve City. Back at my home city, everyone there knew where the good spots and bad spots were. The good spots were where you wouldn't or rarely got mugged at. And mugged wasn't all my city was known for.. After all, The bad spots.. had their own stories to tell. I thought back to the times Ragnarock would save me, back when we were only kids.

XXX-

Crona, held on to her black knee length dress that her mother had given to her as a birthday present. Its sleeves were long and ended with white cuffs, along with the turtle neck that fitted her thin neck without it being too tight, leaving enough space for her neck to breathe. The ends of her dress had a downward facing triangle design, which was laced with a white diamond design. Her head was down, as if looking down at her feet. Her short cropped lavender hair covered her eyes but tears were visibly pouring down, slowly to the concrete floor and onto her black shoes, as she walked.

"M-mommy.. Wh-where are y-y-you.." She chocked softly, between sniffles. It's been four days since her mother had been away. Her mother had told her she'd be gone for a short while, but four days was too much for young little Crona. Even if Medusa was a terrible mother to her, she still depended so much on her. She tried so hard to impress her mother, when she got the chance. At times she would congratulate Crona with a pat to the head, but she never smiled enough. Crona wished she could have seen it one more time, before she left to where ever she was now.

Crona continued to aimlessly walk down the dark empty streets, with her head still down, deep in thought.

"Hey, you" Crona heard the man say, but she assumed it wasn't towards her, so she continued to walk, now holding onto her arm, wishing she could just disappear into the dark layers of the night.

"Hey Kid! I'm talking to you" Suddenly a massive hand grabbed Crona's collar, which forced her to look up. Her eyes were watery and scared.

"W-wh-" Crona could barely speak, not even a word. She was so startled by the unexpected action from a stranger that wasn't her mothers.

"Why're you all alone in these streets huh?" The man said with a grim smirk. Crona had a good look of the man. He was a tall and lanky man, with a little muscle in his arms. He had brown hair and had a crazed expression on his face. The man's breathe smelled strong of something that made Crona's nose tickle, which made her want to cough, but she held back the cough with a swallow.

"Huh? You're not gonna answer me? I'll teach you a thing or two about not answering to people when they're speaking to you-" His words slurred. He threw Crona down to the floor and Crona yelped in pain. The back of her head had hit the concrete, hard. She wanted to get up and run away but she just winced whenever she made a sudden movement. The man crouched above her. He was about to land a fist down onto Crona's face until a rock slammed down the man's nose, followed with another, which caused the man to fall back, grunting in pain. Crona slowly sat herself up, and scooted her body away backwards, before her back bumped into what felt like legs. Crona looked above her and saw that it was Ragnarock. He looked pissed with a large rock in his right hand.

"You god damn, bastard. I'll kill you if I had the time." Ragnarock threw the rock that was on his hand with great force, at the man's right eye. The man screamed in pain. Crona squealed as she saw blood running down the man's face. Ragnarock quickly scooped up Crona in his arms and ran back the direction to their home street.

"What the hell were you thinking coming here all alone at a time like this?!" Scowled Ragnarock as he had her wrapped up on his shoulder. Crona began to cry again. "Ugh, there you go again crying. It's pathetic…" Crona sniffled, and began to wipe her tears, even as they kept coming down.

As they made it to their street, he set Crona down to her feet. She was about four inches shorter than him from his chin, down. Ragnarock rolled his eyes and tucked his hands in his pockets.

"Th-.. Than-Thank you Raggy." Crona said timidly. Her tears had stopped. Only her puffy eyes remained.

"You damn right better be thankful. Next time you wanna go on a midnight walk, come get me first alright? If you don't, just imagine what could of happened if I didn't happen to have crossed the same area you were in! Geez…" Crona looked down and fiddled with her dress. "O-okay. I'm r-really s-sorry. I-I won't go alone a-again". "Good. Now let's get you home. I'll sleep over since I'm home alone too anyways". Ragnarock said, inviting himself. "A-alright". They both walked themselves back to Crona's house.

-XXX

I smiled at the memory. Sometimes I think he was following me, making sure I would be safe on my way. He knew what I went through, even if I never admitted or said anything about it.

The bus ride seemed so short. The bus had stopped at another bus stop, and I decided to get off and walk the extra blocks myself. The driver even insisted on driving me there, but I thanked them and told them that I didn't want to be a bother, plus it was only a few short blocks before I reached the coffee shop I was instructed to meet an escort on. I fixed the straps of my bags on my shoulders and supported them with my arms, and walked myself casually to the coffee shop not too far away.

The coffee shop was cute. It looked old fashioned, yet it looked modern. Perhaps a way to describe it is.. A modern –vintage, style? Yeah, that sounds about right. I sat down on one of the outside umbrella tables, and placed my bags besides me. "Hah, good thing I didn't take the offer, it was right around the corner" I smiled shyly. All of the people I've met are so nice to me thus far. I thought to myself. I wonder if the king and princess will be as well..

I was in such deep thought that I had not even noticed someone was standing at the right side of the table.

"Pardon me, Miss. Are you by any chance named, Crona Makenshi? " I hoped in my seat, startled. I even let out a small squeak to make it even obvious. I covered my mouth instinctively and looked up at the person who addressed my name. The person had beautiful golden-honey eyes. It was a man, perhaps my age? He looked mature so maybe he was older, but then again.. Appearance can be deceiving.

He had a black suit on with white stripe arrangements on both sides. It was rather…unique. But what caught my eyes more was that he has white strips circling his head. They were past half his head and looked as if they were inches away from connecting. 'Why didn't he dye the rest of his head?' I asked myself, still looking at the man.

"Ma'am?" I yet again, got startled. How surprising.

"O-O-Oh sorry. I-I'm really s-sorry…. W-What were you a-asking again?" I shyly looked down at my hands. Fiddling with the tips of my fingers. The male's eyes looked down at my bags.

"You're new here?" He asked politely.

"Y-yeah. I came here from Achieve City." The man's expression changed. "Is that so? What brings you here to the kingdom?" He sat down on the chair that faced me. He looked so formal when he sat down… was he royalty?

"W-well… I-I came here to be interviewed-" I mumbled. I was a bit shy. And I didn't want to say out loud I was going to be interviewed by the king.

"An interview huh? With the king?" I looked at him surprised. He noticed my surprised expression and crack a smile.

"H-how did-" "No one else has bags as full as yours in this coffee shop." He chuckled. I smiled and chuckled with him.

"My name is Death the Kid. You can call my Kid for short if you'd like." He stood himself up and extended his hand. I shyly took his hand." My name is Crona Makenshi. It's nice to meet you".

"I shall be your escort to the Kingdom's castle this evening", He quickly checked his pocket watch (How much more vintage can this place get) "It's only 12:05PM" He stuffed his watch back into his coat and looked me up and down for what felt was more than just a minute. I looked and him and then away, whenever our eyes met. I Held my shoulder with a blush. "U-um-".

"I've got it"

"H-Huh?"

"I'm going to get you a symmetrical dress. It has to be symmetrical. We need to go shopping now" He demanded while extending his hand to me. I was freaked out and inched away from his hand a bit.

"W-what? What do you mean? I-I don't w-want you to waste your money on me. I-I've got my own dress" I insisted.

"Show me the dress" I dug into one of my bags and pulled out a long black fitted dress. It was long sleeved and slightly wrinkled due to the folding. "Mm… Well it is symmetrical. But those wrinkles bother me. Plus.. I like to style people my way" I sweat dropped. Why's he so into symmetry? His hair isn't even symmetrical.

"Please, Crona. Please let me buy you a dress" He said, practically begging.

"B-But what i-if you run out of money? W-what if you can't buy yourself food for the week? I can't deal with being the reason you'll starve" I had a bit of a panic.

"Crona."

"Yes?"

"I'm rich. It would take more than a few hundred dresses to make me go starving."

"….." I looked down "O-oh.. Still I don't kn-"

"Let me spoil you just for today. I promise this is for the both of us. Symmetry will be greatly appreciated by the king." There he goes with symmetry again…. I sighed and hung my head a bit. "Fine… Nothing expensive though, okay?"

"Brilliant! Now, Shall we get going? I'll take you out to lunch and dinner as well. We have enough time."

"B-b-bu-"

"Ah ah ah!" He took my hand and gave me a smile. "Let's go. There are many stores awaiting your arrival."

I let out a pained groan. I felt defeated.