Before you start reading, no. You're not going to die in this chapter.

            A few days had passed, and I had gone back to school. I had started training with James everyday in the classes after lunch, determined to get good at fighting. At first, my motions were shaky, and I would loose my breath quickly due to my still healing ribs. Marie had used her healing wavelength on me, even her warm, gentle fingers sending panic through me, but my ribs were now almost healed.

My friends had come to the training rooms everyday after lunch with us, unless they had another class they had to go to or a mission, and would train too. Soul and Maka practiced resonating their souls, Kid would force Liz and Patti to practice posing symmetrically. Black Star and Tsubaki would usually be in the middle of all of the other students, accepting duels and initiating them.

I noticed that Mari would usually just sit close to where I was with James and give pointers. I wondered, for a moment, why she didn't try and have a partner? I'm sure that there would be plenty of people who would be willing, and wanting to be her meister. So I wondered, why?

"(Y/n)!" Mari said, and I jumped, almost dropping James. Mari sighed, smiling a bit. "The katana will be much more affective if you keep it in front of you." She said. I looked down at the four-foot blade I held with both of my hands. It was off to the side, and like Mari had been saying for the past few days, any smart, or even non-intelligent Keshin would take the opportunity to rake its claws, weapon, or what have you through my stomach and kill me.

I felt heat rise into my cheeks, not brought on from the training. Mari stood, walking to the side of the room and taking a training sword off of the wall, walked back to me. It looked like a katana, but looked like it was dulled on the end, obviously since it was a training sword.

"Hmm." James said, his voice sounding tinny through his weapon form. "Now we get something to hit." He said.

"I heard that." Mari said as she reached us, a smile on her face. She and James got along well enough, like the others, and I was happy that I had a partner that my friends liked.

Mari held her sword up with one hand, her body turned to the side slightly. She beckoned for me to swing my sword at her, and I hesitated. The razor-sharp edge of the blade could slice through someone's wrist without them feeling a thing until they had lost enough blood to be incoherent. She smiled a little, and nodded.

I swung the katana at her, and she brought the edge of her sword up to meet mine, and I swore that I saw a spark fly once. She moved her sword quickly up and around mine, taking a step back.

"Swing harder." She said. I looked at her, trying to tell her without words what my sword could do. Her eyes hardened a little, and she walked forward, slapping her sword into my leg so quick that my eyes couldn't follow. A sharp pain exploded for a second, and I brought my hand down to it, giving her a hurt expression.

"That's as much as it's going to hurt." She said, swinging her sword in a circle once as she stepped back. She looked me in the eyes, returning to her stance like before. "Now, hit me." She said.

I came at her again, annoyance at being slapped so hard like that in my chest. I swung my sword at her, and she blocked, and then she moved her sword up and jabbed me in the ribs, sending a little jolt of pain through me.

"Dead." She said, and we both took a step back. "Again." She said, and I wondered when she had learned to use a sword, especially since she was a weapon already. I brought my sword down towards her, and she blocked, and when she came up to hit me again, and I blocked her. She nodded, and then brought her sword up over her head, leaving herself wide open.

I took my chance and moved forward as fast as I could, jabbing my sword out towards her stomach. But I knew that she had set me up when her sword came down on mine, sending it flying to the side maybe ten feet. Her sword hit me, lightly, in the side of the neck, and she said, "Dead."

After maybe an hour of this, I had finally gotten the feeling of fighting with James. Mari had hit me with her dull training sword an innumerable amount of times, and I knew that I would have bruises all over my body. My body felt hot, and I thought that I might pass out, but I kept going.

Mari stood across from me, her eyes bright with excitement as I block each of her blows and she blocked mine. I was getting faster, even though I could feel my stamina draining away.

I saw Mari's blade fall to the side slightly as I hit it hard enough, and I stabbed toward her stomach. I heard her take in a breath slightly, and then nock my sword sloppily to the side. I was caught off guard, thinking that I had hit her, but apparently not. She hit my hand roughly with her sword to add to the few bruises that had formed form her doing this, and my sword fell at the spike of pain, this time the blow much harder.

I was disarmed and her sword flashed up, catching me harshly in the stomach. "Dead." She said, and then straitened, turning her back to me for a second. "I think that we should go home." She said, and I nodded, my breath heavy.

James transformed into his human form, and smiled at me. "You did really good today." He said, and patted me on the top of my head, hitting one or two of the bumps Mari had given me.

I noticed that Mari still had her back turned to James and I, her practice sword still in her hand. I tugged on James' shirt slightly, and he looked down at me, and then back to Mari. "Mari?" he asked, and she jumped a little. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She nodded, still not looking at us as the rest of our friends gathered back to us as everyone else in the training hall left. "I'm fine." She said, waving her free hand in the air a little. "Just a little tired." She said. She walked back to the wall and retuned her training sword, taking in a breath. She picked her jacket up and put it on as I looked back at my friends, a little confused.

She turned back to us, her jacket zipped, which she didn't do often, and smiled. "Let's go!" she said, walking to me. She patted my shoulder, and I smiled at her, wondering why I thought that something why something had been wrong. She laced her arm into mine, spinning me in a circle, and everyone laughed as she let go of me, and I stumbled a little, a tiny laugh coming from my throat.

I caught myself and straightened. I smiled at everyone, and they turned and started walking towards to door. I saw Soul going to the side, and then walking over to me slowly. I saw Black Star and Kid's eyes watching him slightly as he came over to me.

"Hey, (Y/n)." He said, smiling at me. His red eyes caught my gaze for a second, and I was stunned for a moment in their deep crimson color. I smiled at him, slightly, feeling my cheeks heat up.

Her put his hands in his pockets, looking off to the side for a moment. "I wanted to ask you something." He said. I looked up at him, my stomach doing flips in my belly. When I looked at his soul, it looked as if he was nervous too.

"I was wondering... if you wanted to go out sometime?" he said, looking off to the side. I could feel the blush on my cheeks grow deeper as his words sunk in. He scratched his head, and I saw the slight blush on his tanned cheeks. "Well, I mean, you don't have to..." he said.

I took his hand in mine, the rest of our friends out of the training room so it was just us, and pulled a pen from inside my jacket pocket. I knew that Mari had put it there, because it was a fancy black pen, and it was in an inner pocket. I turned his hand over to show his palm, and wrote one word.

'Yes.'

His face relaxed, like her had been worried, and he smiled at me. "Okay. I thought that I was going to have a heart attack..." he said, and then recovered himself. "Well, you know. In a cool way." He said.

I laughed a little, it sounding more normal than a few days ago, and he smiled at me. I let go of his hand, but he reached forward and caught it again for a second. He squeezed my fingers a little, and that's when I realized...

There had been no fear or anxiety that had run through me when I had touched him. It seemed that he had realized this as well, and he looked down at his hand holding my fingers in wonderment. He looked back up to me, and he smiled with his shark teeth. Of course he would be happy; the last time he'd touched me I had been sick.

I looked up at him, and then had a playful idea. I turned his hand over again, and wrote a few more words. 'We should keep it a secret.' I wrote, and then looked up at him.

He looked a little confused, and then he grinned, mischievously. "This could be fun." He said. I smiled, glad that he thought that it would be.

"Hey!" A voice said, and I looked over to the doorway, and Soul let go of my hand. I saw Patti's face, and she was grinning at us. "Hurry up! We're all waiting for you two slow pokes!" she said. She was so loud and chipper I could almost see the exclamation points in the air.

She turned and ran back down the hallway, and Soul smiled at me. "Let's go." He said. 

I hope all of you enjoyed the part~ 

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--Writer-Chan