Mari (Soul Eater)

Part Twenty-One

A/N: Enjoy lovelies!!!

Mari woke up to Kidd lightly shaking her shoulder. "Mari... Time to get up."

Mari sat up quickly and her head rushed. She held it as a headach began to pound her temples. She looked over at Kidd, flinching a little. "Oww." She said.

He smiled and straightened. She looked him up and down, already in his clothes. She looked down at herself, in his clothing. "Uhm." She said and laughed. "Could you..."

Kidd held up a stack of clothing, a small masked-shaped thing on top. "What's this?" She asked, holding up the mask.

Kidd looked uncomfortable. "It's an Eat Mask." He said simply. Mari looked at him questioningly. He smiled a little. "It's if an academy student is though to have been infected with madness or... maybe commits an act against the rules, they have to an Eat Mask." He looked to the side.

Mari nodded, not minding for some reason. "Okay." She had remembered seeing a few people around the academy wearing masks that had looked similar. They had seamed odd to her. Not apart of the school almost. Once, in the first week she had been there, she had bumped into a small girl wearing an Eat Mask, and the little girl had looked up at her with glowing red eyes. Mari took the clothing and went into the bathroom. She changed into the clothing and slipped on the shoes. She brushed out her hair and tied them into pigtails. She walked out of the bathroom, holding the eat mask in her hand.

She looked at it as she held it up. It was black with white writing. It was simple leather with the big letters EAT across it. She tied it on at Kidd's nod and pulled her hair out of the strings. She looked in the mirror and flinched a little at her reflection. The mask didn't help the way her cheeks were sunken from blood loss and the bruises painting her arms and neck. She sighed and touched one bruise on her cheekbone, her hand brushing the soft leather of the mask.

"Okay." She said. She reached her arms up, noticing how much longer her hair had become. She looked down at the hem of her shirt and saw how it rode up when she moved her arms and pulled it down. She had seen the tattoos when her shirt came up. Everyone would be able to see them.

Kidd blushed. "I can grab you a different shirt if you want." He said.

Mari shook her head. "It's okay." She hated it, but to be honest, she had liked the way the red dye appeared on her now smooth skin. The skin around the tattoos was perfect, showing no scars. She had also noticed how much faster her bruises had healed. They were only pale red marks now. She grabbed Kidd's arm after putting on the black jacket he held out. "Let's go." She said.

They were walking to school with Liz and Patty when Mari noticed some people staring at her on the streets, holding their kids hands tighter, and walking faster. "Kidd?" she asked and he looked over at her. "Do people in death city know what the Eat Masks mean?"

Kidd nodded. "Yes. They do." He held her arm tighter as they saw a few teenaged boys in an ally, one lifting a stone with a look of hate on his face. "Come on." Kidd said, pulling Mari along and looking at Liz and Patty.

"Who was that?" Mari asked.

Kidd looked over at her. "It was an academy student."

Mari blinked. "But he looked sort of... evil."

Kidd nodded. "His name is Leo Deatsing. His family has been going to the academy for generations now, a long line of meisters."

Mari's eyes flickered back to look at the boy and their eyes met. He held the stone in one hand, fingering the rough surface. Mari's eyes widened as Leo pointed at her, anger streaking his face. But also another look of something else.