Eibon spent most days in the Death Room with Lord Death. It's just where he wanted to be, he'd said. He often watched student's missions with the reaper, but not much else. Over the course of so many centuries, he'd found the best way to pass time was to do nothing at all. He was a master of patience. Lord Death, on the other hand, insisted on interacting with others to pass time. He was always either trying to make conversation with Spirit or Eibon or just talking to himself.

"Kid told me Ame is doing well with her training," Lord Death told Eibon one day as they sat at the table drinking tea. Eibon didn't respond. The only term that could express how he felt was 'socially exhausted.' "I wonder what the Demon Lord is doing right now…."

Although Eibon didn't say anything, Lord Death knew he'd disturbed the wizard. He waited patiently for Eibon to say something.

"That girl doesn't know when to quit," he finally spoke up. "She just keeps going. Tell me, Death, is that a sin?"

"I don't believe in giving up," Lord Death said. "That would be the sin. Ame should try her hardest. Lately, we have only quit. Ikiru and Yuki… even Asura. Ame is bringing back that spirit of making things happen, even if it takes a lot of time and effort, you know?"

Eibon thought about it. He'd never really seen any difference between humans and gods, so he hadn't even taken it into consideration. He stared at his cup of tea with a passive smile.

Encounter; A Wager or a Truce?

Everything was fine. That sounds hard to believe, but nothing actually bad had happened since the revival of the world's most dangerous villain. However, no one let their guard down. They were ready when the Demon Lord attacked the school. She didn't look much different from the last time she'd been there, except her raven black hair was longer, and she now sported her own dark wardrobe instead of the torn shrine maiden outfit she'd stolen from Ame.

Everyone was fighting. They needed to get her out of the city before she caused any damage. They all knew that she could crush the entire city flat if she really tried, but she didn't. Her attacks weren't very serious, and she acted more like she was playing with them to get more used to Ame's brush powers than anything else.

"Why is she going easy on us?" Soul asked as he and Maka were thrown against a building.

"If she really wanted to, she could take care of all of us," Maka said. "She's already gotten rid of some of our lesser fighters."

"She's just playing now," Lord Death told the others. "She just wanted a final fight before we got the other death weapons in the city. She's probably just testing her power on some easy kill before launching a real attack."

"What are you waiting for, Demon?!" Ame demanded as she lunged at the Demon Lord. The other girl raised her black sword (styled similarly to Ame's Seven Strike), and easily repelled Ame's attack. She licked the red blood off her sword with a smirk.

"I tire of you always calling me by my title," she said, charging at Ame and attempting to stab her with her sword. Ame leapt straight up to dodge the attack, and the Demon Lord looked straight up and with a wave of her hand, drew a line of black blood from herself to Ame. She flew through the air until she was almost on top of Ame, and they clashed for a brief moment. "I'd much rather you call me by a name. Shiro, perhaps."

"Shiro?" Ame kicked the girl in the stomach and touched back down to the ground. She quickly reviewed what little she knew of the name. It was the word for castle or white, but it was also used as a male name. Ame meditated over the name more carefully. The only other thing she could come up with was the name of an anime character. She narrowed her eyes. No, that couldn't be right.

"Like the girl from that stupid television program," Shiro continued with an amused grin, swinging her blade over her shoulder. "Also called the 'Wretched Egg.' Able to fight and kill, and all she had to do… was bleed."

Ame growled. She hated how Shiro was able to make everything about Ame seem evil or perverse. Shiro had made herself into an almost carbon copy of Ame, and she was doing it all wrong. Ame darted around the courtyard before shooting an arrow at Shiro's back. The arrow stabbed her shoulder, but she was hardly fazed. She pulled the arrow out of her flesh forcefully and ran her tongue along its tip. Her grin widened, as if a fun thought just occurred to her.

"I see you've been learning some new tricks," she mused. "How about I show you something I've learned?"

She turned on her heal to face Ame, and for a moment, all Ame could see were Shiro's bloody red eyes. Then she saw it—she transformed! It was as if it was all a disguise. Well, actually, Ame wasn't sure what she saw; she wasn't even sure gods could do that.

"As you can see," Shiro said, her voice taking on a deeper tone. The demon now had a male form. "I can approach you as either a man or a woman, whichever you prefer."

"That's disgusting," Kid spat. Shiro frowned and shifted his gaze back to Ame.

"Let me show you something else I've learned," he dropped the arrow and threw the blood off his hand onto the ground. The blood ran between the stones and formed a strange pattern on the ground. It began to glow, and Ame felt that something bad was about to happen.

"Summon!" Shiro yelled. "Black Dragon!"

Ame felt her body pulsate once before she felt to her knees, her entire body quaking with spasms. Kid stood next to her protectively.

"Ame," he tried to talk to her. "What's happening?"

Ame couldn't speak. She felt black blood force itself from the pit of her stomach upwards, gushing out her mouth before she could stop it. She knew what Shiro was doing, but she couldn't even bring herself to stop it. Meanwhile, Kid was kneeling next to her, holding her still.

"Ame, you have to stop!" he yelled. If Shiro got enough of Ame's black blood, she could create manifestations of her own demon gods to fight against the gods of the Zodiac. Ame stared at the pool of blood on the ground clump together and rise off the ground in the form of a black, serpent-like dragon. It circled around Shiro once before pausing to float in an arc around him. Seeing the mischievous look in the demon's eye, Ame quickly forced herself to her feet and wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth. She looked up at the sky and drew a constellation of a white dragon in the midday sky.

"Yomigami!" she commanded. "Go!"

The white and red dragon lunged for its black counterpart and they began to battle it out. Ame couldn't do anymore for the fight. She slid back down to her knees, and felt familiar arms wrap securely around her.

"She's lost too much blood…"

That was the last thing she heard before everything went black.

Soul Eater

How did she get there? Why was she there, imprisoned by her counterpart? Her evil counterpart? Why did he just take her like that? What could he possibly want, taking advantage of her like this? Of course. He just wanted to defile her. That was all. It wasn't for love, neither was it for the satisfaction of tasting her body…. He just wanted to hurt her.

"…she's still unconscious, but she should be alright."

Ame opened her eyes slowly at the sound of Kid's voice. She was in the dispensary, lying on a bed. He'd probably brought her here after she passed out. She wanted to get up. She wanted to know if the others were okay, and if Shiro was still around. She couldn't feel his soul response anywhere nearby, so she assumed it must be safe.

She looked up and saw Kid sitting next to her bed, reading a book quietly. He didn't seem at all worried about her; she'd only passed out from blood loss. He glanced up at her, and upon seeing that she was awake, let out a small sigh and closed his book.

"Ame…" he said quietly, reaching forward to hold one of her hands with his and put his other hand between her ears. He ran his hand down her neck and pulled her close in a tight hug. Ame didn't move in or resist. Even if no one was worried about her, this was still a tough time for everyone.

Maybe he just needed a hug.

After Ame recovered, she went to the Death Room to meet the other Death weapons. Marie, Spirit, Stein, and Azusa had gathered in the room, as well as Justin and four people Ame didn't know personally. Lord Death began introducing them as Dengu Dinga, the death scythe in charge of Africa—

"I see your call was finally accepted," Ame noted immediately.

"Shut up."

The other three were Tsar Pushka, the death scythe in charge of Eastern Europe, Djiin Galland, in charge of West Asia, and Tezca Tlipoca, who was in charge of South America. This guy puzzled Ame more than anyone else; although they were all pretty weird, Tezca-kuma didn't look human. He looked like a bear. In a suit. That had to be suspicious.

"Ame?" Lord Death tilted his head. "These guys have been with the academy for years; there's no need for doubt, really."

"Then why was your call rejected?!" Ame demanded.

"Will you just let that go already?!" Lord Death threw his arms up in the air in exasperation.

"So, this is Okami Amaterasu," Djiin said. He bowed once. "It's an honor to meet you."

"There's that word again," Ame said. "Why does everyone keep calling me 'wolf'? I mean, I assist in the previous saving of the entire Earth, and no one knows who I am. Then suddenly, I bit one guy and everyone knows that I'm a freaking animal."

The other death weapons chuckled at her childishly prideful display. This only made Ame more upset, but before she could do anything brash, Azusa explained.

"Amaterasu, your first title wasn't 'Inochigami,' but it was actually 'Okami.' Depending on how it is written, the title could mean 'wolf,' or, in your case, 'greatest god.' It's a term of flattery and respect; by now, it's much more important to everyone that you're a powerful god. It no longer bothers anybody what species you take the form of."

"Is that so?" Ame hummed to herself as if she was distracted by something else. In her mind, she was paying close attention, but she was too embarrassed and flustered to come up with a decent reaction to everyone's sudden flattery. Besides, it wouldn't be unlike the DWMA to accept animals into their program; Tezca-kuma's meister was an ape. She wanted to say something to finish off that statement. 'Small world,' maybe?

She suddenly grinned and turned to Dengu. "I bet I'm the reason you finally took his call, huh?"

REAPER CHOP!

"Dammit, Ame!"