The inside of the academy was just as crazy as the outside. There were skulls carved into the walls, candles lighting up the dark corners, and the hallways felt like a giant, spooky maze. I just kept my hands in my pockets and followed the signs pointing toward the library.
I eventually found the stairs and made my way up to the third floor. Pushing open the heavy wooden doors, I stepped in. It was huge. There were towering bookshelves stretching all the way to the ceiling, filled with thousands of old, dusty books. It was completely quiet, which was a nice change of pace after the courtyard fight outside.
I remembered what Kid told me and started walking down the main path, looking at the brass numbers pinned to the ends of the tall shelves.
"Aisle 8," I muttered to myself, turning down a row.
I pulled a few heavy books off the shelf to check. Most of them were just history books about old battles and Kishin. It wasn't really what I was looking for, so I put them back neatly and moved on to the next spot.
I walked deeper into the library until I finally spotted Aisle 42.
This section was a lot dustier. I ran my gloved finger along the spines of the books until something simple caught my eye. Near the middle shelf, there was a thick, plain brown book. It didn't have any faded pictures or weird symbols. Printed right on the front cover in bold, white letters was a single word:
EXCALIBUR.
"Well, that makes it easy," I said, pulling it off the shelf.
I opened it up and started flipping through the pages. It was literally just a book telling the tale of Excalibur. It went on and on about the holy sword, the heroes of the past, and the blinding light of its power. I skipped over all the dramatic storytelling and long-winded paragraphs, just skimming for the actual facts.
A few pages near the back, I finally hit what I was looking for. There was a clear description and a map pointing directly to where the sword was currently resting.
I smiled a little, shutting the brown cover with a solid thud.
"Found it," I muttered.
It was actually way simpler than I expected. I tucked the book under my arm. Now I just needed to track down Maka and Soul somewhere in this massive library so we could get going.
I walked out of the aisle with the brown book tucked under my arm. I spent a few minutes wandering around the massive library looking for Maka and Soul, but the place was like a maze. Since Maka said they would message me when they were done, I figured I would just take a walk and see the rest of the school.
I left the library and started walking down the hallways. The layout of this academy made zero sense. I just kept taking any stairs I found, going higher and higher up into the building.
Eventually, I reached the very top floor. The hallway up here was completely different from the rest of the school. Instead of regular doors and lockers, the path was lined with a long row of wooden guillotines acting like arches. I just shrugged and kept walking right through them. It was definitely a weird choice for a school hallway, but after seeing a drooling sun outside, I wasn't really phased by some spooky decorations.
At the end of the long path, the space suddenly opened up.
I blinked, stepping forward. It didn't even look like a room. There were no walls or ceiling, just a bright, clear blue sky with fluffy white clouds stretching out in every direction. The floor was a smooth, shiny platform, and right in the center of it stood a massive, golden-framed mirror.
Standing in front of the mirror was a very tall figure. He wore a ragged, pitch-black cloak that hid his body completely, and his face was covered by a cartoonish, goofy white skull mask. He also had massive, oversized white hands that looked like foam fingers.
It was Lord Death himself.
I stood there holding my book, watching as he patted his weirdly shaped skull mask. He must have heard my footsteps clicking against the floor, because he turned around and spotted me standing near the entrance.
He tilted his head, his giant white hands waving enthusiastically in the air.
"Hiya! Howdy, howdy, howdy!" Death greeted me in a cheerful, ridiculously high-pitched voice. He leaned forward a little bit, looking at my white suit and the leather mask covering my face. "Well, this is a surprise! I know all the students in my academy, but I've certainly never seen you around here before!"
"Hi," I said, stepping fully into the bright, cloud-filled room. I couldn't stop a small, genuine smile from forming under my mask. I was trying to keep it cool, but it was kind of hard not to fanboy just a little bit. "It's actually a huge honor to meet you. I'm Katsuya Akiya."
I mean, it was Lord Death. The literal Grim Reaper. Getting to see the actual ruler of Death City in person was objectively awesome.
Death clapped his giant, foam-like hands together, the sound echoing lightly across the shiny floor. "Oh! Well, isn't that nice! You're a very polite young man! It's wonderful to meet you, Katsuya!"
He leaned in slightly, the hollow black eyes of his skull mask looking over my outfit.
"Judging by that sharp white suit you're wearing, I have to ask... are you related to my current Death Scythe, Spirit Albarn? You two have a very similar fashion sense!"
I shook my head right away. "No, we're not related. I'm just a friend of Maka's. I'm actually just hanging out and waiting for her and Soul to finish looking something up in the library before we head out."
"Ah, Maka and Soul! Good kids, very good kids!" Death nodded, his cartoonish mask bobbing up and down enthusiastically. "Well, make sure you kids stay out of trouble!"
"We will," I nodded.
I stood there for a second, figuring it was probably a really smart move to stay on the literal god of death's good side while I was visiting his dimension. I remembered the interaction out in the courtyard and decided to bring it up.
"Oh, by the way," I added casually, pointing a thumb over my shoulder toward the way I came. "I actually just met your son, Death the Kid, outside a few minutes ago. He helped me find the right section in the library. He's a really polite guy."
Death froze.
The cheerful bouncing completely stopped. His giant white hands slowly lowered to his sides.
He tilted his head, the hollow eyes of his mask staring blankly at me. He raised one oversized hand and scratched the side of his skull in genuine, absolute confusion.
"My... son?" Death repeated, his high-pitched, goofy voice trailing off. "I'm sorry, Katsuya, but I have no idea what you mean by that. I only have a daughter."
I stared at him, completely confused.
"A daughter?" I repeated, blinking under my mask.
I thought back to the person I had just talked to in the courtyard. The perfectly tailored black suit, the flat chest, the polite but firm attitude, and the way she held herself. My brain had just automatically filled in the blanks based on what I remembered from the anime, completely ignoring the fact that the multiverse apparently liked to change things up.
"Oh, wow. My bad," I said, rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly. "I am really sorry about that. I completely messed that up. I just assumed Kid was a guy because of the sharp clothes and the whole aesthetic she has going on."
Death waved his giant white hands in the air, shaking his cartoonish skull mask from side to side.
"Oh, no worries, no worries at all!" Death laughed, his high-pitched voice echoing cheerfully across the shiny floor. "You'd be surprised how often I hear that! Kid is very particular about her fashion, and she absolutely insists on those tailored suits for the sake of her perfect symmetry! It causes mix-ups all the time!"
"Yeah, I can see how that happens," I chuckled, feeling a little less embarrassed about the mistake. It made sense. "I'll make sure to get it right next time I see her."
"You do that!" Death nodded enthusiastically. He pointed one of his massive, foam-like fingers toward the exit of the room. "Well, I won't keep you waiting any longer! You go on ahead and have fun with Maka and Soul! Have a wonderful day, Katsuya!"
"Thanks, you too," I smiled.
I gave the ruler of Death City a polite, respectful bow. I tucked the plain brown Excalibur book securely under my arm, turned around, and started walking back down the long hallway of wooden guillotines to go find my friends.
———
[Lord Death POV]
The echoing click of Katsuya's shoes faded down the long hallway of wooden guillotines. I watched the empty space where the boy had just stood, keeping one of my oversized, foam-like hands raised in a friendly wave.
Once his presence was entirely gone from the corridor, I slowly lowered my arm.
The cheerful, high-pitched energy I constantly projected evaporated in an instant. The bright blue sky and fluffy white clouds of the Death Room seemed to dim just a fraction, matching the sudden, ancient weight that settled heavily over my shoulders.
*Who was that? I thought, my posture straightening as I stared out at the empty archway.
When he first walked into the room, I sensed the wavelength immediately. It was an uncanny, impossible match to Maka Albarn's soul—a perfect mirror in frequency, yet completely different in its shape and texture. That alone was an anomaly that should have been impossible.
But that wasn't what had truly put me on edge.
Beneath that perfectly matched surface, buried deep within the boy's core, was something else. A presence. An entity so impossibly vast and dense that it felt as though it could rival my own existence—perhaps even surpass it. Standing near him, I had felt a strange, undeniable attraction to his soul, a deep, gravitational pull that I hadn't felt in centuries.
It felt incredibly nostalgic.
My mind drifted back through the centuries, long before the academy was built, back to the old days with Asura. Back when the world was different, and I wasn't alone in managing the fundamental balance of reality.
I thought of my good, old friend.
Life.
I had passed the rule of life down to him, trusting him to maintain the world's flourishing balance while I watched over the dead.
But...Asura had killed him, tearing the balance of the world apart and forcing me to take back the mantle of Life, bearing both absolute burdens ever since.
I stared at the spot where Katsuya had stood. Could it be? Was that boy a reincarnation? A fragment of that same divine, ancient spark of Life finally returning to this dimension?
Before my thoughts could dive any deeper into the painful memories of the past, the sound of perfectly synchronized, rhythmic footsteps echoed from the hallway.
I recognized that steady cadence instantly.
The ancient, heavy weight instantly vanished from my shoulders. The sky in the room immediately brightened back to its vibrant, cheerful hue. I turned around just as a girl in a perfectly tailored black suit, complete with three asymmetrical white stripes on the left side of her dark hair, stepped into the Death Room. Her posture was rigid, serious, and respectful.
"Father," Kid said, offering me a flawless, perfectly angled bow.
I threw both of my giant white hands into the air, tilting my cartoonish skull mask to the side with an exaggerated bounce.
"Hiya, Kiddo! Howdy, howdy, howdy!" I greeted, my voice pitching right back up to its usual, ridiculously cheerful tone. "What brings my lovely daughter up here today?!"
Kid stood up from her flawless, ninety-degree bow, her golden eyes serious and focused. She didn't even acknowledge my cheerful greeting, getting straight to the point.
"Father, I wish to inquire about a boy who is currently wandering the academy halls. He told me his name is Katsuya Akiya."
"Oh, Katsuya!" I laughed, waving my giant white hands. "Yes, yes! He was literally just here a moment ago! A very polite young man!"
Kid nodded, her expression remaining perfectly stoic. "I see. Is he a newly enrolled student? I was unaware we were accepting mid-semester transfers."
"Nope! I don't think so at all!" I replied, tilting my skull mask side to side. "He said he's just a friend of Maka and Soul's. He just kind of showed up to look at a book while he waits for them!"
Kid's perfectly symmetrical eyebrows furrowed. "He just... showed up? Father, an unregistered, unknown individual simply walked past the gates, climbed the stairs, and entered the heart of the DWMA, and you didn't take any official action? You didn't interrogate him or have him escorted out?"
I patted the side of my mask playfully. "Well, what was I supposed to do? He was very stylish! You can't just kick out a guest wearing such a sharp suit!"
Kid visibly twitched. Her calm, collected demeanor shattered in an instant.
"Stylish?!" Kid gasped, her hands flying up to grip the sides of her head. "Father, his attire is a symmetrical disaster! It's an absolute travesty! He refuses to even show his face evenly!"
I stopped waving my hands, leaning forward slightly as I looked at my daughter. A playful, teasing idea suddenly popped into my head. I brought one of my giant foam fingers up to where a chin would be on my mask, letting out a dramatic gasp.
"Oh ho? What's this?" I teased, my voice pitching up even higher in absolute delight. "Is my little Kiddo feeling the spark of young love?! This is the very first time you've ever talked this much about a boy! To be completely honest, I was starting to worry you'd be single forever with all your strict little rules!"
Kid completely froze. She dropped her hands from her hair, staring at me blankly for three seconds.
Then, she shook her head, completely dismissing the concept of romance without a second thought.
"Love? Don't be ridiculous, Father," Kid stated, her voice deadpan and deeply frustrated. "I am simply stating that I absolutely hate how his otherwise perfect, immaculate attire is completely ruined by that mask! The tailoring on his suit is flawless—the lapels, the stitching, the proportions—but that facial accessory makes it a 50/50 split of absolute garbage!"
She took a step forward, her hands curling into tight fists of pure, unadulterated stress.
"I looked closely at it!" Kid continued to ramble, her golden eyes wide with manic obsession. "I saw the metal clasps! The leather jaw mask and the eyepatch can easily be separated if they wanted to! If he just unclipped the eyepatch and wore the jaw mask by itself, his face covering would be a perfectly even, beautiful masterpiece! Why would someone deliberately choose to ruin such perfection?!"
I slowly lowered my giant white hands to my sides, my posture slumping forward slightly in sheer disappointment.
"Right..." I sighed, a massive sweatdrop practically forming on the side of my cartoonish mask. I completely regretted bringing it up. "Of course. It's always about the symmetry with you, Kiddo."
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[(Uhhh.. author note or something ig idk schools getting near the end so I might be publishing at a later time or hiatus for a bit but I'll say when I do before so not yet and...yeah)]
[(AHAHAHAH YOU HORNY BASTARDS THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A FEMALE DEATH BUT NO...But maybe?)]