Author notes: 2nd chapter is up! Whooo, hope that those reading or waiting for this part to come out didn't have a fit. Sorry. Also, I have a ton other stories I'm writing but won't be able to post them all up for a while, sorry again.

Well, with that settled, enjoy this next part.

Prologue 1: The Boy, a Scythe and his Meister (part 2)

Maka, Soul, and Touma ran down the hall as fast as they could, subsequently running into a few other students and teachers along the way. They were not allowed to freely walk into Lord Death's room, so they had to find the second best thing they could get their hands on.

They continued to run through hallways and down flights of stairs. The three, especially Touma, continued to run into the endless amount of students roaming the hallway.

"Gwaaa!" Kamijou cried. "Where did all these new students come from!?"

"They're all students who transferred here from the 'cultural exchange' agreement between the DWMA and Academy City." Maka answered. "It was small at first with only a few transferred students including you and about 15 others, but as the years passed more students showed up on an account that they could learn to increase their power levels."

"But isn't this a little TOO MANY PEOPLE!? How come they're not making a second building or som-"

As if by luck, he passed a bulletin with a posted notice saying:

-Attention: As of next week, all new transfer students are to report to the Auditorium of the new school building for mandatory class scheduling.

Touma just stood there, intently staring at the board with a blank expression.

Maka stopped and looked at the board. After reading it about 1 or 2 times, she turned and smiled at Touma. "You know, you have almost the worst timing for things. You really are misfortunate."

*Sigh*. He exhaled tiredly with his hands on his spiky hair and a defeated expression. "Y-yeah"

"HEY WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!"

Touma and Maka turned to find the source of the loud yell. They spotted Soul on the floor with a large man hanging over him. They both ran over.

"Oi Oi, what's going on?" Kamijou asked.

The large man glared over at Touma with a look of disdain. He then scoffed and bent down to pick up a few books and pieces of paper he dropped. "Excuse me, I must be going." He said angrily then sped off into the massive crowd of students.

Maka went to help Soul up with Kamijou continued to stare in the direction the man stormed off in.

"Touma." Maka called out.

"Y-yeah" He answered back.

"Maka…" Soul whispered so no one around could hear the ongoing conversation. "…you felt that too right?"

The girl nodded. "That guy's Soul wavelength was…abnormal, almost as if it's been tainted. I've never felt a Soul that distorted before, and to be able to feel it without my Soul perception…"

"Who was that guy anyway? The way he was dressed; he didn't look like a teacher." They both stared back into the crowd of students.

"Damn brats, getting in my way. This school is too packed with these annoying fucking brats. It's pissing me off. They don't have any initiative or ability to read the atmosphere; Always just talking and playing. All of them, they're all gonna become juvenile delinquents." This tall, fairly tone, man continued ranting to himself for extended amounts of time. "And those other kids I bumped into before; running into me without the decency to even apologize. Did he dye his hair white to make himself look cooler? And his clothes, what does he think, wearing a poorly chosen outfit for a school? The other boy too. Spiky hair like that is not natural. Do they all want to become delinquents?" His banter continued for about another 10 minutes.

He continued down many hallways and underground corridors, struggling to keep hold of the many diverse books and papers he was carrying. "Dammit, where they hell is this stinking room?" The man asked himself, still pissed off. He scrambled through the many papers with his left hand while carrying them with his right. He grabbed a sheet in the mass of papers labeled O.P.E.R.A.T.I.O.N:… The rest could not be seen.

"Damn it, where the fuck is this damn room!?" He yelled while running down a hallway that sort of resembled an underground jail. "I'm charged with running this stupid errand while everyone else is on standby. Infiltrating and spying? What is this, a James Bond movie?"

As the raging man was talking, he could hear the sound of footsteps coming from in front of him.

"Crap! Is that a teacher? Shit, I got to hide somewhere." The man scrambled and panicked looking for a place to hide before he got caught.

The footsteps were getting closer and closer each passing second.

The man gave up and started forcefully pushing his back against the wall, hoping to accomplish something. 'PLEASEEEEE, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please…please…please…PLEASE…SOMETHING!' His panicking and begs of help were so dire, it was almost funny. Then, as if the Gods were listening to his cries of help, out of nowhere…

….

….

….

….

Nothing happened. I guess they thought it was funny too.

'WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTT! ISN'T THIS WHERE THE PART WITH THE TRAPPED DOOR WOULD MIRACULOUSLY OPEN AND I WOULD FALL IN, LEADING ME TO THE PLACE I'VE BEEN SO DESPERATELY LOOKING FOR, THUS ME GETTING OUT OF HARM'S WAY, COMPLETING MY JOB AND COMING TO THE HAPPY ENDING I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR, ALBEIT WITH A FEW MINOR INJURIES!?' The inward panic among inward panics, given by this guy right here.

He could continue to hear the sounds of footsteps. Beads of sweat rolled down his face, his hands spazzed out, his eyes were shaking. All he could do was think of a dumb excuse as for why he was in this place. That was his best solution.

As the final moments arrived, he could hear the footsteps getting closer…and closer…and closer…until…

….

….

….

'Huh?'

The sounds of feet walking he heard a second ago have stopped. 'What?' Before he could say something, he heard someone speak.

"Oh man, I almost forgot the paperwork I need to return to the students tomorrow. I've been losing track of things recently."

The footsteps seemed to be fading away. They got farther and farther as the seconds passed. But before the man decided it was safe to move, he heard the voice from just now say…

"That's not the type of man I used to be."

That was the last thing he heard before the sound of footsteps completely disappeared from his range of hearing.

"I-is it safe?" He asked quietly to himself. He stayed quiet for a couple seconds to ensure that the coast was clear. "Ughh, finally." He exhaled in relief. "Ha, I almost got caught there for a se-"

As if by EXTREMELY bad timing, his body, still pushed again the wall, accidentally pushed into something and ACCIDENTALLY opened a hidden passageway, causing the man to fall on his back.

"Eh?" Was the only thing he could let out, other than a series of annoying grunts and yelps from falling down a long flight of stairs. The fact that they were all made of concrete didn't help in the slightest.

After about 30 or 40 sets of stairs, the man finally made it to the bottom. It would have been pitch black if it wasn't for the torches on the walls lighting up the really narrow passage.

"Ow-owowowowowow." That really hurt. He scratched the back of his head and straightened out his spine. "This school REALLY FUCKS ME OFF!" He exclaimed while picking up the many books and crumpled pieces of paper that fell along with him. With a moan, he turned around and proceeded to walk down the hallway leading to who-knows-where mumbling "…better be worth it."

After about 7 or 13 minutes of walking, the man came in contact with an unusually long steel door with Lord Death's signature mask imbedded directly in the center.

"…" He stared silently.

"…" It stared back.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Ggghhhh…"

"…"

"Gwhaaa! What is this thing!? This useless, crappy, crappy decoration?"

"…"

"Wait, calm yourself down a bit." The man slapped his face a bit to gather his thoughts. "I'm more intelligent than this entire school molded together! There's no way a little trivial problem like this can thwart someone as impressively intelligent and…genuinely handsome as me! Hahahaha!" He laughed loudly with his ego clearly showing and shining rather brightly. "Now, where to begin?"

About a long 20 minutes later

"O-okay, then how about these two go in here and then I twist this then…" The man was panicking rather hard. He was stuck solving some unknown puzzle to open the door that irked him so much.

"Haha. I'm sorry, but that's wrong."

"SHUT UP ALREADY STUPID DOOR!" He screamed at the mocking door. "Maybe if this goes here, then this can…"

"Haha. I'm sorry, but that's wrong."

"GWAAAA! I'M GETTING SICK OF YOU!" With all his fury, the man raised his leg and threw it down, launching a blast of sparkling orange light out of his left foot and towards the door, causing a massive explosion. Dust and smoke filled the air making it difficult to tell left from right.

*cough, cough* "Man, why didn't I think of doing that earlier? Would have saved me a shit load of time." The man silently proceeded into the room behind the now collapsed doorway. He failed to notice the minor flashing red lights coming from the eyes of the, now cracked, Death emblem once located on the door.

Inside the room

"So many screens. Are these all security cameras placed around the school? Hmpf, there's a lot less trust in this place then I thought. Well, that just works out better for me."

The man brought out the papers he's kept in his pockets for protection. One by one, he began ripping them apart and placing them back together, forming strange letters, words, and symbols.

"Good. This is working out better than I thought." He took out a hidden laptop hiding under a large flat panel controlling the screens. He connected the laptop to the main panel and turned it on. The laptop flashed bright blue and showed many open tabs, all of which were closed immediately.

"This kind of pathetic security is no match for my kind of intelligence." He stated victoriously. Many tabs opened and closed almost instantly as the man very skillfully moved his fingers to verify his hacking skill. Finally, a loading bar appeared on the screen computing all his final calculations.

*Download Complete*

"Finally, all of this struggling is over." He closed the laptop and disconnected it from the panel. "And it'll all be worth it when the DWMA falls." The man reached into his pocket and grabbed a walkies-talkie. "Yo, phase 1 is complete. You were right, it was easy to hack into."

"Hmpf, told you." The voice on the other end spoke. It was definitely a female from the sound of it. "Now hurry and get back. We need to start the next phase as soon as possible."

"Yes ma'am!" he hung up and put the walkies-talkie back into his pocket. He stood still briefly and sighed. "Fuck, I have to go back through the same path, don't I?" he looked as if he was about to cry. "It'll all be worth it right?" he walked with a forced smile and teary face.

Maka, Soul, and Touma's location *20 minutes ago

"Hey!" Kamijou called out. "How do we get to Lord Death's room anyway?"

"Huh, what do you mean?" Soul asked back.

"Huh, I thought we were going to Lord Death's room."

"Oh, no one's told you yet? You're not allowed into his place unless he invites you in. Same for when you're leaving. We thought you already knew."

"No, I've told you before Touma." Maka intervened.

"It was 2 years ago. I think a couple days after you arrived at this school, remember?"

"Ughh…"

*Flashback*

'Ugh, I couldn't get any sleep last night. It's just too hard finding comfort somewhere other than my room. I couldn't find anything to eat either. Index ate all the food I packed before I could hide it!' This spiky haired boy internally complained. 'And I couldn't find a place to buy anything. It's not like I could though. I don't have any American currency on me. *Sigh* But still, I hope Index is doing ok. She left to go back to England about a day before I was transferred here.' Kamijou smiled. 'I hope they're feeding her, she's like a black hole.' Memories of when Index snuck, found and even stole his food and snacks raced through his mind. The many, many, MANY times it's happened. 'Never mind that, she IS a black hole! But still, it'll be a bit…lonely?'

"Get all of that Kamijou?"

'…'

"KA-MI-JOU!?"

"Hu, huh, y-yeah, I got all of it. D-don't worry Miss Albarn, I got it."

The girl's expression was puzzled. She didn't know if what this boy was saying was true or not, but she decided to trust what he said and discard the matter.

"Hmmm…what have I missed informing you about? …Oh yeah! Remember Kamijou, if you need to get in contact with Lord Death, you…"

'Aaaahhh, I'm really sleepy. Should I air out the futon today? It's a pretty nice day. But with my luck, something's probably gonna get in the way. *Sigh* Damn my misfortune. Huh? Oh, she's still talking! CRAP, I've been too busy thinking about other things! What would happen if she was say-'

"Understood all of that?"

"Yup." He said with the best fake smile he could muster in this situation.

'Fukou Da!'

*Flashback end*

"…Aaaahhh?"

Soul let out a little snicker. "Sometimes, you know, you could be just as absent minded as Black Star."

"Eeegghhh?"

"Your one to talk Soul. I remember you never remembered that until half-way into the school year. When we were assigned our first mission, you got lost somewhere around the school." Now pissed off a bit, she continued to scold Soul. "Also, while running around the school, you ran into-"

"Wait, wait, wait, Maka! Stop, Stop! Don't say anything more, I'm still trying to forget that happened!" Soul's face nearly glowed pink at the remembrance of that embarrassing event. Even he got embarrassed at some points.

The three rounded a sharp corner and ran up a flight of stairs. Unexpectedly though, they almost ran into someone.

"Huh!?"

"Whoa!?"

"You kids, I was just going to look for you." The adult zombie male stated.

"Professor Sid? You were looking for us?" Maka asked.

"Yes. You've probably figured it out by now but Stein is missing."

'So he really is missing.' The two teen males thought simultaneously. 'But how?'

"Lord Death asked me to find you guys so he could ask a favor."

"Hmmm? Ok then. We'll head over to his room right now. Thank you."

The girl, in one swift motion, turned around and headed in the opposite direction she came from. The two boys followed her on instinct and trailed not too far behind.

"Well, I guess I should head off to the office. When I was alive, I was a very vigilant man. I can't let go of that." The zombie walked off down the hall.

Death's room *Present time

The three students found themselves standing near the middle of a strange room. It was a peculiar looking room with clouds and a bright blue sky. But, there were random windows in the background that seemed to disrupt the flow of the clouds. There were also several…many crosses struck into the ground that looked sort of like sand. Many guillotine like arcs decorated the path that led into the center of the room.

In the middle of the room was a medium sized stage with a table with Death's mask and an unusual mirror.

Standing on the stage was none other than the founder of the DWMA, Lord Death himself with his usual giddy, playful attitude.

"Yo-ho! How's it hanging?!" He asked supporting a rather large peace sign.

"Ummm, Lord Death?" The young meister asked "Didn't you call us for something important?"

"Aww, but you just got here." Weirdly, the reaper instantly set up a ready tea set with steaming water in a strange whistling kettle. "Come on, why don't you sit down and have some tea first."

"Umm…Lord Death…"

"I know, I know, this is a pretty serious issue."

'Ehh? I-Is he usually like this?' Touma thought surprised

"I apologize for calling you all down so suddenly like this. But, I need you three to investigate something for me."

"Huh, even me?" Kamijou asked pointing to himself.

Death nodded. "Yes, you included. In fact, I'm glad you came with these two. It saves the trouble of sending someone to get you."

"…"

"Now then, you three are aware of Professor Stein's absence, correct?"

The three students nodded in unison.

"Well, you don't need to worry about that. I sent him off ahead unexpectedly. He sadly wasn't able to tell anyone before his departure, but he is in no absolute danger. But where my issue lies is with your parts on this mission."

"What is it?" Soul asked.

"There is a spiritual item I want you to recover. It isn't another of Eibon's creations. In fact, it's not even anything I'm interested in."

"!" Maka was surprised. "It's not!? If I may ask, but if it's not important to you, why are you putting so much effort into finding it?"

"It's not me who wants this item, but rather the general superintendent who is interested."

"Aleister!?" Touma burst "Aleister Crowley!? What does he want with it?"

"I'm not sure. But we are in an agreement right now, and we both agreed to support the other for any necessary reasons."

"…" The spiky haired boy was silent.

"This is not a direct request from me, so if you do not want to…"

"No, I'll do it. I absolutely don't trust that guy, but whatever he's thinking of planning can't be good." The boy clenched his fists. "So for now, I'll go along with whatever he's planning."

"…Touma…" Maka said quietly after himself.

"Dude…" Soul added just as quietly.

"Huh? AHHH, D-Did I upset the mood of everything just now!? S-sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"Don't worry about it." The white haired boy answered in his normal calm tone. "We know you don't like talking about it and everyone has things they rather not talk about. It's cool."

"Wow Soul, that's a pretty mature answer coming from you." The girl said smirking.

"What can I say, a cool guy's got to say cool things."

"But he's right Kamijou. If you don't want to talk about something, don't force yourself to. We're your friends, we understand."

"Wait, I just said-"

"I understand. Thanks Maka."

"Huh, wait a minute?!" Soul asked annoyed. "Are you two just going to pretend I'm not here anymore?"

Both teens ceased what they were saying and turned to look at the white haired boy. Simultaneously, they muttered a simple…

"Yes."

"…you guys…" He said hanging his head in defeat.

The two teens laughed together. The heavy atmosphere lurking in the room a few moments ago, soon lightened up. In the background still standing in his spot, Lord Death looked on at the 3 teens sharing a friendly moment.

'Kamijou, I'm happy to see you smiling once again.' He thought to himself. 'I hope you'll be able to smile like that in the future. But I'm afraid I can't prevent what's coming to you in the future.' It wasn't visible, but under that strange mask, the guy was definitely smiling. 'Now then…'

"Now then, you three…"

Hearing the call of Death, the three students instantly turned and gave him their full attention.

"Will you take up this request from me?"

There was a brief pause before the three students all answered…

"YES!"

After school

Touma laid on the bed in his apartment's bedroom. The place wasn't significantly large, but it was decent enough for a 'normal' high school boy, such as himself, to live in comfortably. Luckily, it was also near the school, so he could probably get there faster, unless his usual bad luck decides to act up again.

"…" the boy was silently twirling a pencil in his hands. "This is really my life now, huh?" He asked himself. "It really is lonely here… *sigh* I miss Index."

"Does that mean Sana is just an annoying pet?" Touma turned to the source of the voice.

Standing next to his bed was a small white cat with a pink ribbon tied around its neck. It looked up at him with a saddened glare.

"N-No! I didn't mean it like that Sana! Forgive me."

"Well…" The cat jumped onto the bed next to the boy and sat down before transforming into a cute young girl no older than about 8. She had beautiful, long silver hair and bright silver eyes. She was dressed in what seemed to be something of what a stereotypical, Japanese Goddess would wear, which consisted of a shrine maiden's yukata with a white color and crystal blue trims around the neck and sleeves. Seriously, if it was pitch black outside, she would stand out like night and day.

She lied down next to the boy and wrapped her arms around his waist, clinging close as if searching for warmth. "…Ok, Sana forgives you." She said in a cute, soft voice. "Sana knows Touma doesn't mean bad. Touma took Sana in when Sana had nowhere to go."

"Yeah." He placed his hand on top of her head, which bore cat-like ears. "Don't worry, you'll never be forgotten by me."

A tiny blush appeared on her smiling face. "Yay."

"Anyway…" he sat up from his position; the white girl still clung onto him. "I'm supposed to be going on a mission soon. Do you want to come with? I wasn't told I could or couldn't bring help, so I'm guessing it's okay if I can."

"Ahh…a mission. But it's dangerous for Sana to go on important missions like that. Touma should…worry more about weak little girls like Sana."

"Don't give me that! You almost blew me up the first time we met! You know you're stronger than me!"

"Hehehe…"

*Sigh* "Anyway, do you want to come along?"

"Sana wants to go. Sana won't leave Touma to get into trouble again."

The boy smiled a bit. "Alright. I'll do my best."

"Yay."

"But that's another time. Right now, I really need to finish this homework before I forget!"

"…B-but Touma promised to play with Sana when Touma gets back from school."

"P-Please Sana-sama, can we save it for later?"

"Mmnnn…" The boy didn't hear a single answer. But the 'I won't let go until you play with me' super bear hold she was giving him was surely answer enough.

"S-S-Sana-sama, please stop! The unbelievable amount of force in your hold is really-"

…

The next thing he heard was the loud sound of a *crack* in a quiet room.

"FUKOU DAAAAA!"

Chapter End

A/N: Whoa, it's finally here! I apologize for taking so long with this, but, you know…stuff. School, (junior year) is really busy. Anyway, this is part 2 of the part 1st prologue. There will be 3 prologue chapters in all. I probably think you guys should know the next ones. Also, Touma (and maybe others) will be a bit more OOC than usual. It didn't appear now (I hope), but it will soon.

Well, that's all for now. Next part should be up before the end of the year or so. Keep an eye out.

~TheTrueMasterofTempest signing off!