Chapter Text
Coming back to Death City felt familiar and nostalgic, like coming back to my childhood home. It was the first place I had really felt at home after our family fell apart. I had so many good memories here, and bad ones too, though I wasn’t going to let them ruin it.
Of course when I first arrived everything was going to hell; the kishin had been released, and the school was at war with Arachnophobia. I had barely got there when I was shown to the N.O.T. classes, and I protected them while the rest of the school focused on taking out the kishin.
But that was a few months ago now.
It wasn’t exactly peaceful, and the leftover effects of the massive amounts of madness pouring into the world was still causing issues. But it was better, and Death City was returning to some semblance of normalcy.
I ended up sticking around to help with all the destruction around the city that the fight had caused. Doing so had meant that I hadn’t had a chance to see or catch up with anyone yet. Since most of the city was back to normal I hoped that would change soon. It also had me wondering what Shinigami-sama would have me do now. I had basically been a glorified body guard.
I mean, was there really any reason for me to stick around? What could I do around here without my meister? Boomer was still back in England, and from the sounds of it all the madness that was stirred up left things quite hectic over there. I didn’t see there being anything short of a crisis to get him to come back. And I didn’t really see Shinigami-sama having me teach, especially when they had far better teachers than me already.
Or at least I assumed they did; the only two I knew about were Marie and Sid. And while I didn’t know Sid particularly well, he seemed like he would have made a perfectly capable teacher. I supposed that I’d find out what Shinigami-sama wanted me to do soon enough anyway, considering I was heading to meet with him.
As I continued down the hallway of the school, I heard a young voice arguing with someone. “Don’t you have more important things to spend your time on? And don’t use the P.A. system to call me, that’s such an abuse of power. Not to mention embarrassing.”
“I’ll always make time for you Maka,” a more familiar voice swooned.
There was a groan from who I assumed was Maka. I peered around the corner of the hallway smirking. “Spirit?” The redheaded womanizer’s head perked up at the sound of his name. “You old dog, what have you been up to?”
“Poe darling!” he said, pulling me into a hug, and nearly sweeping me off my feet in the process. “Did you get shorter?” he asked, letting me go.
I huffed. “No, you just got tall and besides, Marie’s shorter than me.”
Letting me go, he turned back to Maka. “Poe, this is my darling daughter Maka.”
I turned to get a good look at her. “Ah of course, you’re the spitting image of Tamashi. Last time I saw you, you were still a stomach.”
She looked a little uncomfortable, but didn’t let it get to her. “So you’re a friend of my mama’s then? It’s nice to meet you, Miss Poe.”
“Well, we were classmates, spent more time with your dad actually.”
She squinted, side eye’d her dad, and looked back at me. “So you know he’d an unfaithful jerk then? And you're friendly with him…? Don’t tell me you fell for his ‘charms.’”
I burst out laughing. “She’s got you pegged Spirit!”
Spirit was sulking, which only fueled the laughter. “Maka why are you so mean to your papa?”
I wiped the tears that were forming in my eyes. “Me and Spirit? Merciful death no! That’s a good one.”
Maka let out a sigh. “Oh that’s a relief.”
“Bet you’re top of your class, knowing your mom.”
Though… while Tamashi could have been top of her class in our time, there was one person who had her beat by miles. But I shoved the thought out of my head — there was no need to worry about him. There was no way he was around a bunch of kids on a regular basis.
Spirit perked up at the comment. “That’s right! My Maka is just as brilliant as her momma, and I love them both so much.”
Man, Spirit had always been a bit over the top but apparently having a kid really turned that dial up to eleven.
Maka was having none of her father’s affections though, and promptly brought the book she was carrying down on his head. “I said quit it!” She glanced down the hallway, where a boy with white spiky hair was waiting. “I’ve got to get going. Nice meeting you Miss Poe,” she said, waving as she rushed down the hallway.
“She’s quite the firecracker, Spirit.”
He rubbed his head, watching as his daughter departed. “Yeah she’s already an amazing scythe meister.”
“She’s already so big, it really has been a long time since I visited hasn’t it?”
“Yeah, couldn’t be bothered to visit until the world was falling apart huh?” he said, elbowing me in the ribs.
“Yep, you know me, always showing up wherever there's trouble. Really can’t stay away from it honestly.”
“Anyway, when did you get back?”
“Dude, I’ve been here for months. I was taking care of the N.O.T. kids while you all dealt with the skeletons in Shinigami-sama’s closet.”
“What? And you didn’t even let me know you were back? How could you?” he said, clutching his chest dramatically. “I loved you, you know.”
“Mhmm, love you too. You overgrown drama queen.”
He dropped the theatrics and smiled. “Anyway it's good to see you. Your brother here too?”
I started walking down the hall, Spirit walking beside me. It felt like we were walking in our own ghostly footprints of the past. It was nostalgic, and warming.
“No it’s just me, he’s got Deathscythe duties to deal with over in England. Things are pretty hectic over there right now too.”
“Yeah things are a mess everywhere. The kishin’s wavelength woke up a bunch of nasty stuff. And pushed a lot of people who were on the edge, over it. So we also have an influx of kishin eggs on our hands.”
“I’m actually headed to the death room now to see what else I can do to help around here.”
“We can use any help we can get. Anyway, I’ll leave you to it, I’ve got some business to take care of. But we need to properly catch up. Maybe a night out?” he said with a cheesy grin.
Just as big a flirt as always I see, things really didn’t change much.
“You just want a wingman, admit it.”
“Maybe… but you know it’d be fun. Like old times.”
“I’ll think about it,” I said, but the smile on my face already told him I would.
He waved, and I made my way into the death room where Shinigami-sama was waiting.
“Hey, hey, how’s it going Poe?” he said from where he sat with a cup of tea.
I took a seat across from him. “Hello Shinigami-sama, you wanted to see me?”
“Yeah, yeah, things have been pretty hectic lately. And we could use an extra set of hands around the school. Did yah want to stick around and teach a class?” he asked, bobbing up and down, and tilting his head sideways.
“Teach a class? What class?”
“Well you and your brother’s fighting style means you're very familiar with fighting without a meister. I think our weapons students would benefit from that.”
“Yeah of course, I can do that.”
“It won't be till the next semester starts though, so you can just hang out till then yeah?” he said, giving me a peace sign with his oversized mittens.
“Yeah, just let me know when you need me.” A teacher huh? I could do that; it wasn’t something I had expected to be doing, but at least it gave me something to focus on instead of all the chaos.
Exiting the death room, I was a little startled to see a rather pallid looking man waiting there. His lips were pulled back, showing his teeth in what seemed to be a permanent grimace. All together he looked severely unwell.
“Hey,” he said.
I squinted at him. The tattoos, the dreads, he looked awfully familiar…
“Wait, Sid is that you? Good god man what happened to you? I’m sorry that’s rude. But what?”
He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. “When I was alive I was a decent looking man, I suppose my appearance is a bit more shocking these days.”
“When you were alive?” I repeated.
“Yeah, had an unfortunate run in with a witch a few years ago. Dr. Stein fixed me up.”
Stein.
Not a name I wanted to hear. I glanced down the halls as if saying his name would summon him.
Wait.
“Doctor? Is he even licensed?”
“Yeah, of course…”
He didn’t sound so sure, and I nodded. “Mhmm, bet it says Doctor of Science, on it too.”
“He’s a damn good Doctor, and I’m good as new. I'm the freshest corpse in nevada. So what’s it matter anyway?”
“Good as new?” I scoffed. “Sid, buddy, you might want to look into a settlement.”
