Kid squinted as bright light suddenly surrounded him, despite his blurred vision he could make out a few details in the room. A chandelier hung above him, bathing his body in white light. Behind him a stark black cauldron, perhaps iron, lay in the center of the room. Each blur to his left was mirrored on the right. Even the bookcase seemed neatly organized, though he couldn't quiet tell.
Someone grasped his shoulders which made him look up at the blinding silhouette before him. The white blur knelt to his level.
"Oh~ oh my." A female voice gasped. "Just look at you!" He tried desperately to read the expression of the woman, but all his vision refused to clear.
"Is something wrong?" He asked. His words felt awkward on his tongue and escaped his throat with a childish pitch. The woman's arms wrapped around him in a warm hug; the soft fabric of her dress tickled at his cheek.
"No, I couldn't be happier." She professed. He could feel tears begin to trickle down his back.
Kid woke with a start, immediately his gaze fell to the wall in front of him. His heart beat ferociously against his chest as he glanced around the asymmetrical room. As his hands strangled his hair, his chest heave. The noise woke Chrona abruptly, she looked up at Kid who was rocking slowly as he bit his bottom lip.
"Shini-kun?" She asked tentatively. Her hand trembled as she lightly rested it on his shoulder. Kid was so focused on his breathing that he forgot she was there. He relaxed a little. Memories of what had taken place the previous night flooded back. "Shini-kun, you're shaking!"
"I'm sorry, I must have frightened you." He apologized. His eyes drifted away from her and began to scrutinize the room once more. She stood and offered a hand to him. While they walked out of the room, Kid felt relief flood over him as he was once more surrounded by beautiful symmetry. He frowned as he felt something touch his shirt."Chrona, what are you doing?" He asked when he noticed the girl was futzing with his clothes.
"Ah!" She blushed and immediately released the hold she had on his clothes. "You're shirt got rumpled and it was bothering me." She lowered her gaze, but not before straightening his tie clip. "School's about to start so…"
"Right!" Kid shouted, a little louder than he had anticipated. After a pregnant pause Kid bowed shallowly. "Er- see you later." Chrona nodded and watched Kid sprint down the hall.
"What was that?" Ragnarok demanded as he smacked her on the head.
"What was what?" She rubbed the top of her head with a frown. How many times did she have to tell him they shared a body, but not a brain. It was impossible for her to understand what he was thinking.
"You know what I mean. Stop it or I'll steal your bed sheets!" Ragnarok threatened.
"I don't know what I did~" She whined. Her partner silenced her with another smack to the head. "F-fine, I promise."
He should have know returning to class that morning would cause a scene.
"KID!" Liz shouted, and ran across the class room. She enveloped her miester in a tight embrace. "Where were you last night? You had us worried sick!" Chrona was the only person who lived at the school and it was uncommon for anyone to stay at the school over night. Especially for people like Kid, who had a mansion in the city.
"Yeah." Patty smirked with a shake of her finger. "Explain yourself mister." At least Patty trusted him enough to go out on his own.
"…Liz…I can't…breathe." Kid choked out. Liz immediately released the suffocating Shinigami. "I'm sorry I didn't call. I don't have an adequate excuse." It seemed Liz still thought of him as a defenseless trust-fund kid. He wished she'd remember he was a demi-god of sorts. Having weapons as partners was more of a family tradition than a necessity. He did feel guilty for making the two worry. Normally, he wouldn't go anywhere without them. Other students filtered into the classroom as Kid caught his breath.
"What's going on?" Maka asked. This wasn't a conversation he wanted to have in front of his other friends. Why hadn't he woken up sooner?
"Kid's been missing since his mission yesterday and now he's shown up for class." Black Star added casually. Everyone turned to look at the assassin inquisitively. "What?"
"How did you know that?" Liz asked with her arms crossed.
"Hello, I'M A GOD!" Black Star pounded his chest with pride. No one took the ninja seriously though and his best friend could only laugh.
"Patty told us this morning." Soul whispered to Maka.
"Anyway," Liz dismissed, "where were you?"
"Liz, can we please talk about this later." Kid could feel everyone in the room staring at him. He wished he could just crawl into a hole and disappear.
"Yeah and you're hair's all messy." Patty commented. Liz had tried to stop her, but it was too late. Kid heard.
"…my hair? What's wrong with my hair!" Kid rushed over to the nearest mirror and stared horrified at his reflection. His hair was now disheveled and flipped to the side at an odd angle. "I'm…hideous." He slumped to the floor, defeated by his own hair.
"Well there he goes." Liz groaned. "I doubt we'll get anything out of him for a while." She went over to talk him out of the fetal position he assumed. It was then that Chrona walked in, having been carefully instructed to not enter the class with Kid. She nearly dropped her morning pastry when she saw her friends gathered around Kid.
"What's going on?" Maka shook her head and sighed.
"Kid's having a symmetry breakdown." Maka explained. Chrona turned to see Kid slumped on the floor going on about how he shouldn't live. She thought back to his panic attack when he woke up that morning and how debilitating it had been for him. Everyone seemed to make light of the situation, but she knew for a fact that if he stayed like that he would spiral into a full panic attack again. She walked over to where Kid lay slumped on the floor.
"Eh, Chrona, what are you doing?" Maka asked. Crouching in front of him, Chrona carefully adjusted the boy's hair back to his liking.
"There," she said gently, "it's symmetrical again." Kid shook his head.
"It's no use." He sobbed. "No madder how hard you try, I will always be an abomination. I'm a worthless piece of thrash that was born a deformed monster. I'm doomed, doomed for failure!" Liz groaned and massaged her temples in response to his antics; it was too early in the morning for this.
"What are you talking about?" Chrona frowned.
"…this." He pointed to the three white stripes that decorated his hair. "This is my curse."
"But without those, you wouldn't be Shini-kun." Chrona said. With those words everyone froze.
"Chrona..." Maka started, almost like a mother before a lecture.
"What, what's wrong?" Chrona asked. Her friends struggled to swallow their laughter.
"Remember when I told you, you only call people-" Maka began.
"But Shinigami-kun said it was alright." Chrona defended.
"Man Kid," Soul chuckled, "you're letting girls call you by pet names now?" Chrona had succeeded in halting the Shingami's depression; unfortunately it had been replaced with overwhelming embarrassment. Perhaps the floor wouldn't be too bad a place to stay.
"Black Star will never let me live this down." Kid conceded. Chrona tugged at her hair, her thin lips formed a delicate frown.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know." She wasn't too fond of getting laughed at either. Perhaps this was why Kid had been so careful to hide what they'd been doing.
After their friends had, had their fill of teasing, the day was able to proceed. Now that class was over, the two sat at the darkest table in the library. They had already gleamed all useful information from the other four books and were on the last two.
Kid shook his head, the torchlight from the library made his shadow dance on the floor. "No, it's alright. Those two are just immature." Kid consoled. Chrona bit her lip; she didn't want to make Kid uncomfortable in front of the others. She nodded, she wouldn't call him Shini-kun in front of the others anymore; but he would always be Shini-kun to her. After a while Chrona was startled by Kid as he slammed his book shut. "It's no use." He sighed.
"Hunh?" Crona asked. The interruption had torn her from her own research.
"There isn't a single lead on Eibon in any of these." Kid groaned. It couldn't be, he was back on square one! Weeks of searching and all they could come up with was the identity of the magical tools.
"Eibon?" Chrona gasped.
"Yes, he was the one that constructed the magical tools with my father. I found their signatures in the mechanism of the ghost train." Chrona's frown deepened. "Chrona?"
"I don't understand." She mumbled.
"What is it Chrona?" Kid tried to contain his excitement. "Do you know something about Eibon?" Was he finally able to ask Chrona about the wicken world?
"Well when I was younger the older witches would tell us stories while our mothers went to witches' mass." She paused as she tried to recall the tale. "Once upon a time there were two young witches who were very curious about the world around them. They worked very hard to gather as much knowledge about magic as possible. The older witch gathered knowledge about enchantments, familiars, and pure witch craft. She wanted to teach her knowledge to witches all over the world. The younger sister gathered knowledge about sorcery, necromancy, and alchemy; so that witches would know what spells were forbidden. The two taught many witches over the years and watched them grow older and wiser.
"Now this reminded them of their own mortality. So they took a book and filled it with the knowledge they had gathered. Inside they placed a magic spell that would transcribe the knowledge of all who opened the book, so that when they died, the book would still collect spells. They called their creation Eibon.
"Unfortunately there was an error in their spell. When people looked to the tome for information, the spell would receive an imprint of the emotions felt by the reader. This error went unnoticed by the two sisters and they died before the spell could be fixed. Witches began to look to the book in search of a forbidden magic that would save them from death. Their fear and hatred became trapped inside the book and gave the spell a life of its own. The book was labeled as a threat to the balance of the world and was sealed away. Never to be opened again.
"There might have been more, but I've forgotten the rest." Chrona admitted. Kid shook his head; it was just a story, it wasn't true. It couldn't be true! If he acknowledged that there was never a person named Eibon then all of their efforts would be for naught.
"It's might just be a story to frighten children." Kid said. Chrona folded her hands in her lap and averted her eyes to the stone floor. Some help she turned out to be. The two sat in the library, an air of gloom about them. Kid glanced up at Chrona, a small frown plastered on her face. Standing from his seat, Kid tucked his hands in his pockets. "Come on."
"Hmm?" Chrona looked up to meet the shingami's gold rimmed eyes.
"We've been working too hard, let's take a break."