A/N: Hey, everyone! Welcome to my first "Soul Eater" fic. (Or my second, I don't know; I think I may have tried to write one a long time ago but got unhappy with it and deleted it or something.)

A little background here: "Soul Eater" has a special place in my heart, because it was the first anime that I watched and truly liked, or at least an anime that wasn't something like "Pokémon". I first watched Episode 18 on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block in the summer of 2013, during a family trip through Las Vegas and across the Southwest (ironically the same region that Death City is supposed to be at). The other shows that aired during that time didn't catch my interest, but "Soul Eater" did.

Afterwards, when summer ended and my senior year of high school came rolling in, I tracked down an online place where I could watch "Soul Eater" in its entirety, I watched it from beginning to end, and I was hooked all the way. When I completed my "Soul Eater" experience, I was so sad to see it end, and I decided to try out other anime to fill that void. I know "Sword Art Online" and Studio Deen's "Fate/stay night" were next, but I forgot the exact order now.

Anyway, you could say that if it weren't for "Soul Eater", I wouldn't have discovered the wonders of anime in its broadest form.

Another thing: I remain an anime-only viewer, after all this time. Yes, I'm aware that the manga has a completely different ending from that of the anime, and that the fandom prefers the manga ending. I'm sure that it's superior in every way to how the anime wraps itself up; in hindsight, Maka taking down Asura with a single punch does seem anticlimactic and too simple of an ending. Even so, I can't help but reject the manga ending, at least for the sake of this story, because of what it does to my favorite character: Crona. I'll elaborate more in the ending Author's Note, but in layman's terms, please bear with me, manga fans, for this story is set in the anime continuity.

Alright, enough of this rambling! On with the chapter. ENJOY!

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Disclaimer: All forms of "Soul Eater" absolutely DO NOT belong to me in any way! My only right to ownership is this specific story. All other rights of ownership automatically go to Atsushi Ohkubo, Square Enix, Gangan Comics, and Bones!

Prologue

The adolescent sat alone in their dimly lit, minimally furnished room, facing their boring, empty desk and the small book that it held. They unclasped the small buckles that kept the book securely closed, but they hesitated to open it. Instead, they took a deep, shaky breath of apprehension and stared blankly at the book. It was as if they knew that its contents contained a curse, a curse that they knew would doom them to an eternity of suffering and damnation. The ambience of the room was only accentuated by the sounds of the light shower outside, the droplets pattering softly against the windowpanes with a random yet rhythmic sequence.

Eventually, the gloomy silence was broken by the sound of rippling flesh and sloshing mire. A mass of black ooze burst out of the teen's back, but they didn't react beyond a small, single spasm of impulse. At first, the mass flowed and undulated, maintaining its shapeless state, but within seconds, it took on the shape of a small humanoid being with two arms ending in gloved hands, an X stamped upon its face, and eyes with X-shaped pupils. The being remained attached to the adolescent's back, like a demented flower sprouting from black soil.

"Well, if yer gonna stare holes into that thing, Crona," the humanoid remarked in a vicious tone that wasn't befitting his tiny voice whatsoever, "then by all means, go on ahead! But remember, that Maka bitch is gonna chop us in no time if ya don't get your hand movin'!"

"She wouldn't do that, Ragnarok," the teen replied in a meek voice that didn't match their gangling stature. "And I...I think Tsubaki explained it already. The phrase was...'chop, chop'? It's another way of saying, 'Be quick.'"

Ragnarok crossed his arms indignantly. "Yeah, and that makes no fuckin' sense. Why not just say 'be quick', then? Cut to the fuckin' chase. Bitch wanted us to write gay stuff in a book, not chop Kishin Eggs. And speakin' of 'chop', she still does that for a livin' with her dumbass dictionary. ...Heh heh heh, dictionary."

Crona squirmed in discomfort at the memories. "Maka wouldn't do that. She knows I can't deal with being chopped like that."

"Not to you. But when it comes to me, well, it's open season for No-Titties."

"Don't call her that," the teen replied, halfheartedly yet genuinely. "That's mean, Ragnarok."

Ragnarok clasped his hands with an overdramatic gasp. "Ohhhhh, that's right, I forgot it's against the law to discriminate against flat-chested bimbos. Okay, then it's Small-Cheeks." Then, he dug a gloved fist into Crona's scalp before they could respond. "And don't forget, Crona, when I get hurt, you get hurt! So, get to writin'! Write in this, uh..."

Ragnarok halfheartedly read the engraving on the top of the small book's hardback cover. But once he finished reading, he sprouted further out of Crona's back to gawk at the text, his X-pupiled eyes wide and rapt despite the usual unreadability of his face.

"Diarrhea? Da fuck? They can call books that?"

"No, that's wrong, Ragnarok. I think it says, uhhhhh..." Crona had to strain themself to comprehend the spelling and recall the proper pronunciation. "Diary."

...

"Yeah. I knew that."

With that, Ragnarok melted into his state of slurry again and withdrew back into Crona, leaving them alone with the diary. But instead of doing as Ragnarok demanded, they continued to stare at it, silently and contemplatively.

"Ragnarok's right," they thought. "I can't keep staring at this. Maka bought this for me. She bought it for me. It's the first time anyone's given me a gift. I...I don't want her kindness to go to waste. And she said it'll help...but how?"

Their hand unconsciously drifted towards their chest. A simple, light touch was greeted with a prickling sting. Crona pursed their lips, downcast from both the sensation and the fresh memories that came along with it.

"They say it's been a month since the Kishin was defeated, yet it still feels like years have passed. It always feels like years have passed for me. I think being stuck in Medusa's punishment room all the time destroyed my ability to feel time. But still, it doesn't feel like anything's changed. In fact, some things have become worse. I don't know how to deal with any of it. I...I need something. Something that can help me deal with it, all of it. Something that can help me feel time again. Something that'll make it feel like someone's listening to me when Maka isn't there..."

Then, they saw it, text typed at the bottom: 'This diary belongs to:' But the rest was empty, an incomplete sentence. The space was solely occupied by a line that seemed to taunt him with its vacancy.

"Maybe...Maybe I can deal with this..."

They finally picked up the pen with a quivering but firm hand and lifted it toward the unfilled line. Its tip glimmered infinitesimally with a speck of ink as black as their blood.

This diary belongs to: Crona AnD rAGnAroK!

Entry #1
Date:

I'm Crona.

My blood is black.

I have a Weapon inside me. His name's Ragnarok.

I live in Death City, but I didn't always live there.

.

.

.

i dont want to write about that right now

My door opens outward, I guess.

Maka says I should write stuff to make me feel better. That's why she bought me this diary. She's so nice, and she knows a lot, so that's why I'm writing.

But I don't know if it's working. I'm writing this right now and I don't feel anything. I still can't deal with things.

I always need to feel better. And Maka says writing will make me feel better. But now I don't know if I can deal with writing in this diary all the time. It's too much work. I'm tired after all that's happened.

I'll stop and try again later. I

DAm iT CronA your SuCh A FuKin puSSy iZ ThAT ThE bEST you CAn riTE y Am i noT SurpriSED

FuK iT iLL Do iT mySELF

im rAGnAroK sorry AbouT ThE puSSy ThEyrE CronA obViouSLy WE WErE GonnA bE bADASES ToGEThEr ThEy WErE GonnA mAKE mE inTo A KiShin buT ThAT FLAT ChESTeD noiTALL biTCh GoT ALL nobLE AnD

thats it i changed my mind i dont think i can deal with this im so sorry bye

A/N: And that marks the end of this chapter! Not really a shining example for a first diary entry, am I right? Don't worry, not all of the diary entries are going to be this short. You can definitely expect more meat packed into the following chapters, for sure. Also, the prologue segment will be the only segment in the fic that's written in third-person, at least for now.

As for why the story is set in the anime continuity and not the manga continuity is because, well, Crona has an unambiguously happy ending in the anime. They are perhaps my favorite character in "Soul Eater". They are so adorable and relatable, and their fate in the manga really didn't suit my tastes because of it. I felt like they deserved an Earn Your Happy Ending trope, and the anime-exclusive ending, while imperfect, fits the bill for me in that regard. My love for the anime's version of Crona really solidified years ago after I read "Breaking Point" by Roving Otter, which I think is THE proverbial CroMa fic out there. I recommend reading it if you haven't already; I reread it recently, and its beauty and angst are still a gut-punch combo.

(Ironically, though, despite my recommendation, CroMa is only my second-favorite "Soul Eater" pairing. My true favorite, if you haven't guessed from the fic's summary, is SoMa.)

Anyway, as to where the fic itself came from, I've been in a bit of a slump from writer's block lately. I knew that I needed to get out of my comfort zone and try something new to remedy my little dilemma. After tapping back into my old love for "Soul Eater" with the help of some old YouTube videos (I'm now marathoning the anime as we speak), I decided that writing a "Soul Eater" fic would be a good bet. As for the diary format, I was inspired by another "Soul Eater" fic, "Soul's Diary" by Levi's Teacup. I thought that it would be a simple yet unique format that would get the gears in my brain moving. Throw a borderline-nonbinary character like Crona and their foul-mouthed partner Ragnarok into the mix, and I had the makings of a pretty interesting concept to tackle.

Well, hope you enjoyed the first chapter! TheCartoonFanatic01 is out. Watch out for the next chapter, or I'll take your soul!