Disclaimer: Soul Eater...doesn't belong to me. Sadly.

Torturous Consequences

Chapter Two - Before the Strike. Discover the Culprit?

The cold surrounded him in the dark room; no windows, and only one door that was locked tight. This was the treatment for anyone who would "dare to attack shinigami-sama", even if that person was his son. It was a timeout room, literally a place to "'cool off'". The air in the small secure room was chilly, which was on purpose. It was reliving, as well as calming, for some people.

Kid sat on the ground and blinked every other couple of seconds. His eyebrows were creased in thought, and despite the temperature of the room, sweat was beading on Kid's forehead. It seemed strange to him, that his father would accuse him of such an atrocious crime, that thought in turn, caused Kid to think about the other possibilities.

His father could have been mind-controlled...no, Lord Death was too strong for that. Perhaps Father saw...something completely opposite to what I did? A witch could have tricked him...Kid thought.

Yes, it was true that Kid did wander off after Liz and Patty were safely asleep in their tent, but that was only to admire the symmetry of the horrid place of the Soul Temple. Besides the iniquitous nature of the building, it was still built with exquisite symmetry, Kid couldn't help but visit it. But, he most certainly did not try to wake Asura. He knew that the Soul Temple was one of Asura's "palace's", but he didn't know a piece of the kishin's soul was there, but he didn't go inside.

Maybe...thought Kid...Maybe I was the one being controlled...? Unconsciously perhaps? No...a shinigami can sense and conceivably ward off the mind controlling. What had happened? Was Father seeing a different image than what was really happening?

Kid gripped his head and tried to think harder. It didn't make any sense to him, "Wait...Father wouldn't check the mirror after he knew I was done with a mission. He trusts me on that, and he rarely ever does that...did someone alert him...and was that someone spying on me? Maybe that person wants to get revenge on dad by breaking us apart..."

Kid bit his tongue and continued to think more about that idea inside his head. He leaned his back against the cool brick wall behind him, feeling comfort from the warmth building up in his body. Kid sighed and rolled up the white sleeves of his shirt; before he was allowed in the room, Stein had stripped him of his piceous jacket. Kid continued to ponder idea's over and over in his head, yet, every thought train ended with a dead end. No matter what he thought of, it would always confuse Kid to the greatest extent. Why would his Father accuse him of such an abysmal act?

It would be difficult to figure out what exactly was going on, but that wouldn't stop him.

Maka sat the rest of the day during her classes wondering what had happened between Lord Death and his son. Kid...revive...the kishin? She knew out of the bottom of her heart that Kid wouldn't dare to put his friends lives in danger for that; besides that, Kid and the Kishin were sworn enemies. There had to have been a mistake.

"Maka," whispered Soul.

Maka lifted her head and stared at the face of her partner, "Hm?"

"What do you think happened in the hallway earlier?" He asked.

Maka looked in front of her and shrugged, "I don't know, but it's been bothering me all day."

"I know," replied Soul with a silent chuckle. "I saw it in your expression."

Maka huffed and rolled her eyes. She looked back down at her book and pursed her lips.

Soul continued to watch his miester, waiting for her to start speaking again. Maka sighed.

"Soul...it just seems strange to me. Lord Death wouldn't accuse Kid of something like that out of the blue, but we both know Kid wouldn't even think of doing something like that. On both sides, it's confusing," Maka muttered. "honestly, I want to see what exactly is going on, if this means the rise of the Kishin...again...I want to be prepared."

Soul nodded in agreement. "Personally, I don't think that Kid would do that...nah, he's uncool in someways, but he's cool enough not to do that."

A smile itched at the edges of Maka's lips, and her eyes began to slowly move back and forth as she read her book while listening to a teacher speak. The class ended soon after Maka and Soul's quiet conversation, and that meant that the day of school at the DWMA was finished. As the scythe miester and her weapon were strolling through the hallway, four friends intercepted them.

"Oh, hey guys." Maka smiled and waved at her friends.

"Hey," Liz nodded. "oh, Stein said we could go and pick up Kid."

Black*Star chortled, "From what...his daycare? The poor baby had a wittle temper tantrum!"

Maka heaved an irritated sigh and smacked Black*Star on the head with her book, a vein popping on her forehead, "This is serious Black*Star."

Soul snorted, and then burst out laughing, "Day care...yeah...that's so uncool!"

It was less than two seconds before Soul was on the ground with Black*Star.

"Why'd you hit me...?" Soul whined.

"Because, you were being disrespectful," answered Maka.

"Heh," Tsubaki let out a nervous laugh. "should we go get Kid?"

The group nodded in unison, and weaved their way through the crowd of students excited to get home after the interesting school day.

At the room where Kid was, Stein and Spirit were standing in front of the door.

"We're letting him out now," Stein murmured dully. "but, since he's still a potential danger, we decided to allow you to keep an eye on him."

"Are you saying..." Black*Star and Soul looked at each other in the eye before saying in unison, "We're babysitting him?"

Whack! Whack!

Soul and Black*Star were on the ground for the second time that day, groaning in pain. Another sigh escaped the lips of Maka Albarn as she lifted her head to look at Stein, "Sure, I'll keep an eye on him."

Stein unlocked the door and coughed, "Kid."

Maka peered into the dark room. It was a tad bit odd that Lord Death would put Kid in this room...Maka's eyes rested on a small lump in the corner. Death the Kid looked up with his cadmium yellowed colored eyes. The son of Death stood up slowly and ambled out of the cold room. Kid didn't look great after he came out. His hair was sticking out in different places, almost as if he had been trying to pull it out of his head; Kid's white dress shirt was slightly disarranged, and the sleeves were sloppily rolled up to his elbow and beads of perspiration were shining vaguely on his forehead.

Kid smiled nervously as he unrolled his sleeves and straightened his clothes. He pushed down his hair, and took his black jacket from Stein who was holding it out for him. Kid nodded in thanks and sighed.

"Uh, hey Kid, we were going to go into the city for a bit..." Maka watched Kid cautiously. "...we were wondering if you wanted to join us?"

Kid glanced around and nodded, "Yes, I would enjoy that."

"Yay!" Patty clapped her hands. "Fun day!"

Kid mumbled something incoherent as the group exited the academy.

"So, Kid?" Liz cleared her voice. "How did your dad exactl-"

"No," interrupted Kid somewhat calmly. "I shall not be answering any of those questions until I have figured out the reason of my father's accusations."

"Oh...sorry."

"Lord Death," Marie straightened up.

"Hm?"

"I...was wondering why you...said that about Kid?"

Lord Death sighed, "It's what I saw."

"Yeah, sure," Spirit rolled his eyes. "you gotta lot of trust in your little boy, Lord Death."

"What are you meaning by that?" Lord Death's face glared under his mask, causing the actual mask to contort into an angered expression.

"I trust Maka enough that even if I saw it, I wouldn't believe it, much less accuse her of that," Spirit explained. "there are a lot of possibilities to why you saw your son doing what he did. You could have seen a delusion, or a witch with a grudge against you who knows body shape shifting. Did you even consider those options?"

"Of course I did..." Lord Death looked at the floor. "...and of course I don't want to believe that. But I have to keep my city safe, and my mirror shouldn't be able to be tricked like that."

"So," Stein lit a cigarette. "are you saying you actually saw Kid go into the temple and try to rise the kishin again? Seems to me that Death the Kid would only go there to look at the symmetry of the building. Besides that, I'm sure that your son didn't even know about the Kishin's soul piece in there, one more of the many secretes you keep from him and the school, Lord Death."

Silence hung in the air after Stein finished talking. No one spoke, because he had a good point.

"I saw what I saw."

"Who alerted you of that?" Azusa wondered.

Death hesitated, "The new teacher, Ren."

"Oh?" Azusa pushed her glasses up, causing light to cover her eyes for a brief second. "And you weren't suspicious or even a bit worried to the reason Ren was watching Kid?"

"Did we even do a background check on this guy?" Spirit pondered.

"Unfortunately, I don't know much about him. He didn't go to school at the DWMA, yet he is a miester with a weapon that stays at his house on the border of this city. I was told by a trusted friend that he had taught young children a thing or two about weapons and miesters, and supposedly...he was good."

"You have perfectly fine teachers already," Stein murmured. "why hire another? Could we just not...handle the students?"

"I needed some time off my hands to do some-"

"I really must interrupt you there," Azusa interjected. "you have great teachers already, who would step up to do a little more for you to do whatever it is you wanted done. Now, I think that hiring that new teacher was sloppy, you barely did a backup check on him, to make sure he wasn't involved with anything that would cause him to harm the students in any way. You haven't been on your game recently. You don't know if he's working with witches, or is a witch. That was a careless move."

The others in the Death Room nodded collectively.

Death sighed, "I do have a lot on my plate, I want to apologize for that right now."

"You can apologize after we figure out what "Ren" is doing at the school, and why he was watching Kid," Spirit replied sternly.

Yes, I know, this chapter was quite anti-climactic. You were expecting a fight?

Ha! Well, don't worry. Next chapter I swear some more action will come in.

Constructive Criticism is warmly welcomed!

Review - if ya want. ;)

~PoisionedNightshade~