A/N: I update fast, ne :P?
Well this chapter still has no romance... well, maybe a little.
It's also set one month into the future.
Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater or any of it's characters
Falling into the Madness
The Mind of Death the Kid: Exactly one month later
"Wow, it seems you've gotten slower in the past month," Mad smirked as Kid continuously swung punches and kicks at his head swiftly, but the madness had dodged just as equally swiftly.
"A month? It only seems like a few minutes," the shinigami replied roughly in between attacks. "But... time does differ in here. They're probably all worried sick for me."
"Friends, friends... It's always about friends with you. That word just makes me sick by even the mere sound of it," Mad acidly declared as several tendrils of darkness slithered out from his sleeves. The darkness instantly went for Kid's vital areas, but the shinigami had dealt with the attack numerous times and knew how to deal with it.
The shinigami quickly grabbed one of the five tendrils and used it to do a one-handed hand stand by kicking upwards. Kid would then wait for the other tendrils to come for him and once it was nearly touching skin, he'd jump off and shoot his newfound power for amplifying his wave length into the dark tentacles, causing them to explode.
"Heh, maybe you're the one who's gotten slower," the shinigami smirked wildly, one that could even be in comparison to Stein's own evil 'dissection time' grin. His heart was pounding out of sync and out of control due to the adrenaline rush. "But I can't believe I just noticed, but you're asymmetrical with parts of your robe in tatters, even your hood is crooked."
"All this time you've been trying to destroy me when you could've learned how to harness my power, what a shame for a powerful being such as yourself," the madness sighed as Kid only got more infuriated... and insane.
His middle sanzu line was on the verge of connecting due to all this consecutive training and his speed and strength had increased ten- fold. "I don't need your power you asymmetrical scum. You deserve to die a brutal death, as well as that asymmetrical crack-head Asura."
"Hm, you've become quite feisty," Mad added as the young meister in front of him continued to stay on the offensive and attack him from every which way. In truth, Mad felt quite overwhelmed and even a bit over-matched as he watched the shinigami progress in skill every time they battled. "And stronger…"
"Well this extra soul training is actually maturing my sanzu lines extremely fast, a lot faster than normal," Kid explained as he jumped back a few feet from Mad and re-took the stance of sin.
The madness smirked and for once, took the offensive "Heh, there's an opening!" Kid yelled as Mad rushed him head-first. "Have a taste of my wavelength!" The shinigami quickly shot out his right hand, only to have the cloaked man flip over him.
Kid quickly spun around to aim a single wave length-charged kick for the man's head who was currently facing the other direction filled with all of the emotions he's felt in the past month, hate, rage, depression, shock, denial and many more. The kick solidly planted much to Kid's surprise and sent the cloaked man instantly shooting into the darkness yelling something about a cheap shot.
"One thing I've learned in here is to fight dirty when needed," the Shinigami called back at Mad as the madness began to swear loudly and float even deeper into the darkness. "It may not be gentlemen-like or even noble for that matter, but I'll do whatever it takes to see my friends."
Death Weapon Meister Academy: 6:45 AM, outside of the school
"Yo, Black*Star," Soul greeted warmly as he walked up to the assassin and ninja tool approaching the school. The death scythe had been standing next to the door only moments ago, but spotted them. The two quickly exchanged high-fives and began to walk towards the school in a comfortable silence with Tsubaki silently trudging a few steps behind.
"So, how'd your date with Maka go, Soul?" Black*Star inquired once they approached the courtyard. "You've been going out with Maka since Kid had gone into that soul-coma in the infirmary."
"Oh, it was cool," Soul replied, smiling his lop-sided grin. "We caught a movie, went to get a smoothie, yeah. But where is that shinigami stationed now? I hear roomers about Lord Death moving Kid around to different hospitals since he trashes one nearly once every two days."
"Um, the last I heard, he was getting extensive medical care somewhere in Europe," Tsubaki whispered, just loud enough for the two best friends in front of her to hear. "But I recently found out yesterday that the doctors' all say he's going to die anyways since random serious wounds keep popping up and he has lost pints and pints of blood."
"Maka's going to be depressed when she finds out…" Soul murmured depressingly as his smile slowly faded. "Especially at his funeral."
"Speaking of Maka, where is she?" Black*Star question, slightly bewildered as he abruptly stopped walking, awaiting an answer from the death scythe.
"Oh, she's currently in the infirmary running errands for the teachers, she's been acting really weird ever since Kid was hospitalized," Soul responded apathetically. "She's acting the same way she acted when I took that blow back in Italy. It's like she doesn't smile anymore… they're all just so damn fake now. Like she blames herself or something, God I hate it when she acts all emo like this."
"Perhaps I can talk to her after class?" Tsubaki requested as the three continued to walk. "And maybe I can gather a few other of the girls like Kim, Liz, Patti and Jacqueline." Soul grinned and turned towards Tsubaki.
"You do that, maybe you can cheer her up," Soul directed as he then turned back around and continued towards the school ahead of the others. "Well, I've got a death scythe meeting today and I'm not sure how long this one will last so you'll have to walk her home and all, Tsubaki." The ninja weapon nodded and too continued walking with Black*Star who kept abnormally quiet.
The meister and weapon reached the school within seconds, the halls still empty with only a few stray students finishing up extra-credit projects or quickly rushing to finish their homework.
Black*Star turned the corner to his locker with Tsubaki following silently behind him, slightly uneasy due to her partner's sudden out of character-ness. "Hey! Tsubaki? Black*Star?" a voice called from behind them. The two stopped quickly to see who was calling out to them to find Liz and Patti both walking up to them, Patti giggling out of control and Liz smiling an obvious fake smile.
"What are you two doing here this early? You two don't usually get here until eight," Tsubaki interrogated. "Did you two not finish your homework or something?"
"No, we finished…" Liz sighed and took on a saddened expression. "Shinigami-sama called us here about an hour ago to discuss our partner reassignment. Apparently Lord Death isn't very faithful in his son miraculously recovering."
"It's really that bad?" Black*Star inquired suddenly as he folded his arms over his chest. "I mean, if I were the one lying there dying, you guys wouldn't give up on me of course, because I'm such a big star and I can't die. You know that because I have a strong soul and spirit. Maybe Kid really isn't dying… but fighting."
"I don't get what you're saying," Liz asserted, her eyebrows knitting together and forming a furrow. "If Kid was fighting, wouldn't that just kill him due to his sickened soul? I know he's a grim reaper and all, but he's not immortal. Even if he did somehow survive in Anubis, survived the madness' full power, fended off Mosquito and came out alive Eibon's book, even this would kill you, Black*Star."
"That's not what I'm getting at at all," the usually boastful meister declared, more grim sounding. "I'm saying that what if he's just fighting off the madness in his soul? Like Soul kind of did with the black blood?"
"Black*Star…" Tsubaki whispered. She had never heard her meister so serious the whole time she knew him. Was this really that important to him? Tsubaki was still unsure, and he was the closest thing to family that Black*Star had.
"I guess it's possible… but the chances are slim," Liz muttered and continued towards her locker. "Come on Patti!" The younger Thompson sister quickly snapped out of her daze and caught up with her sister without another word.
"Hey Tsubaki, we should really get to class, it's almost seven after all," Black*Star added, which made the weapon slightly jump, but nodded anyways and followed her meister.
By the two reached the classroom, most everyone in the Spartoi was there. All except for Ox and Harvar who were both currently out on a mission and Soul who was at a death scythe meeting.
Both of them quickly took their seats above Kilik and the pots with Soul's empty seat next to Black*Star with Maka sitting on the other side of the empty seat and Liz sitting silently next to Tsubaki. Stein entered the room only moments later on his computer chair, spewing some nonsense about another dissection.
"Oh yes," professor Stein abruptly said out of character just as he was about to pierce into a rat of some sort. "I nearly forgot, Kid has fully recovered and is being driven to the school as we speak. He recovered a couple days ago and passed out on the airplane though. But the reaper is fine now and should be arriving in a matter of minutes."
The room instantly filled with chatter and Maka went wide-eyed, along with most of the others involved in the mission for rescuing Kid from the book of Eibon. 'At least we won't have to be pared up with that dorky one-star meister,' Liz sighed in relief as she smiled widely and Patti clapped and giggled. 'But if I do recall, Kid still is kind of a dork when it comes to symmetry.'
"Settle down, class," Stein yelled across the room as he reclaimed his scalpel. "Kid is only being transported here to be placed in the infirmary. He may be conscious, but he still has several serious injuries and needs to remain hospitalized." The room instantly went silent and the young meisters continued to watch the dissection.
None of the members of the Spartoi could keep their focus though. Their thoughts only kept drifting back to the safety of their friend every time they even tried to eerily pay attention.
Shibusen Infirmary: Same time
"Welcome back, Kid," Nygus smiled warmly as two medics carried the young shinigami into the large building on a stretcher. The meister looked asleep at the moment, so she left it at that for the meantime as she directed the medics through the maze-like hallways of the DWMA until they approached the doors to the nurse's office.
"You can set him down on the bed next to the window, boys," Sid's weapon directed as they walked through the doorway and into the bright room.
Kid couldn't help but smile at the sound of voices again; he was finally back, the madness was gone and it just seemed to good to be true. "Are they all doing fine?" the shinigami whispered, his mesmerizing eyes struggling to get and keep open.
"Well, if you're talking about all of your friends, then yes. They've been worrying like crazy," the weapon replied as the medics set his body down on the ivory bed and she pulled up the covers. "Just rest for now, okay? You can talk to them after class is dismissed for the day."
"N-No, I can't," the reaper whispered, struggling to sit up. "One, I feel… weird. More muscular yet hurt at the same time. And secondly, the medicines are not placed symmetrically. I can't rest easy without knowing they are SYMMETRICAL!" 'Yup, Kid's back,' Nygus smirked and silently departed from the room without another thought.
The young asymmetrical meister instantly shot up from the bed and ran over to the medicine cabinet, mismatching several medicines hundreds if not thousands of times. "Who keeps a place this asymmetrical? Whoever did this deserves to be shot, buried, dug up, shot and THEN buried AGAIN!"
His hands and arms moved inhumanly, looking only like a blur as he moved every medicine in the cabinet until they were perfect. It only took several minutes, but Kid did it to the last angle and detail. "Phew, now I can rest easy for a while."
The shinigami yawned and finally noticed his clothing for the first time. It definitely wasn't his symmetrical specially-crafted suit. Just a plain symmetrical white undershirt and a little baggy black slacks. Apparently someone had heard about his obsession with symmetry.
"Oh well, this will do until my father gets me a new suit or something," the meister sighed, then took a seat on his bed. His body was instantly hit like a bullet with pain. Kid winced and collapsed onto his bed clenching his stomach. 'You're not getting grid of me that easily, shinigami," a voice that sounded eerily like Mad hissed within the depths of Kid's mind.
"I-Impossible! You're dead! Destroyed!" Kid yelled, trying to fight the pain as he managed to crawl under the white covers. 'As long as Asura breathes, I will be in your mind, haunting you.' "You scum… get out of my head…" 'Nah, that's no fun. I'll just stick around. But for now, sleep.'
Shibusen Lunchroom: Around Noon
Maka, Black*Star and Tsubaki all sat silently at a lone table at the far end of the room, barely enough chairs for the three of them. Black*Star even had to wrestle one of the one-star meisters for a chair.
"Are you going to visit Kid-kun after school?" Tsubaki inquired, trying to strike up a conversation and break the tension they all knew was there. Maka quickly finished chewing whatever she was eating, most likely an apple, and swallowed.
"Yup, definitely," the young meister replied, smiling a real smile for once. "He must be pretty lonely or bored without anyone to talk to. But I hear Kid likes to read… is that true? Maybe I'll bring him a few books…"
"Bah, reading is for baka people," the blue-haired assassin snorted as he sat leaning on his chair whilst eating a large slice of pizza. "They're just paper with print on them; no real enjoyment. I mean, why read about an adventurous tale including fame, glory, and surpassing god when you could do that here?"
"I have a feeling that that's the only genre you'd ever read, Black*Star. But I also think that there's no such book about a bonehead idiot who's parent were killed because they turned into Kishin, was transported to an odd school and is now trying to surpass a grim reaper, the lords of Death," Maka sighed as the assassin childishly stuck out his tongue and made a face at the meister.
"Um, I do recall Liz telling me one time over the phone that Kid does enjoy reading far more than television or movies," Tsubaki contemplated, trying to remember clearly. "If I remember correctly, Kid-kun is fond of really any genre but prefers the classics like Shakespeare…"
"Awesome! This is perfect! I'll just grab a few books from the library that I've read on the way to the nurses office and read them to him if he's awake!" Maka cheered enthusiastically. "Thanks Tsubaki!" The weapon just smiled and continued to eat silently.
"Books my ass…" Black*Star grumbled acrimoniously. "Who the hell needs em'? Books this, books that… why not just rip off my ears and feed them to the dogs." The assassin continued to rant acidly in his seat as he avoided looking at the other two at the table and stared at the opposite end of the room instead.
"My apologies, Maka, Black*Star was never really good at reading," Tsubaki whispered, hoping her partner didn't hear her in any way, shape or form. "He likes to keep it a secret so let's leave it that way, okay?"
"Oh, I already knew that, Tsubaki, there's no need to whisper it. He told me in the second grade when he asked me to tell him what on of his textbooks read when the print was about size thirty-nine," Maka replied casually, acting as if Black*Star was currently not present. "He just has an attitude I guess, just like Soul."
"Oh my god!" Tsubaki yelled as the bell rang from behind her head loudly. "Well, we should get to class or else Sid-sensei may throw us into detention." The blue-haired meister instantly jumped onto the table, his right fist thrust into the air.
"AHAHAHA! I'LL BEAT YOU ALL TO THE CLASSROOM!" the assassin yelled, suddenly regaining his charisma and bliss. Black*Star then began to jump from table to table, people yelling at him to get down at every one until he reached the door and dashed out of the room.
"That idiot," Maka sighed as she picked up her tray and headed for the garbage can with Tsubaki following closely behind.
A/N: I was going to include Maka visiting Kid but… no. Too much writing :P.
Review :D!