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Description
The next morning, at Stein's Patchwork Lab, Yumeji, who was lying on the bed, had his book on his face same as always. It's been a few days since he first stayed here. Stein, on the other hand, knew that Yumeji was doing the same thing and didn't go to school, thus skipping classes and instead going on the search for the Phantom.

"Yumeji, it's been a week since you came here to stay. Are you sure you're not going to school today? You've been skipping classes while you're too busy doing your patrol search," said Stein. "Can't you go to school right now? You're getting way behind on classes."

Yumeji took a peek at Stein as he moved his book from his eyes.

"I'm not going. If you're gonna keep pestering on me, I won't move an inch. About five minutes or less, I'm going to do some patrol search for the Phantom," replied Yumeji, as he became irritated by Stein.

"Again?" implied Stein as he sighed.

"Yeah. So don't disturb me." Yumeji placed his book back on his eyes again.

Stein took out his cigarette from his mouth and began to twist his screw from his head.

"You know what's something I want to do since you came here to stay? Since you're here, I feel like I'm going to do some "bonding" with you." Stein sugested.

Suddenly, Yumeji became shocked as he shivered himself upon hearing the word "bonding".

"Actually, I'm going to get changed right now, so I'm pulling the curtain right now..."

However, just as Yumeji was about to get off from the bed, the restraints appeared out of nowhere, binding him, much to his surprise and shock.

"What the!"

"I made some adjustments on the bed while you were sleeping last night just in case if you are trying to escape from bonding with me." stated Stein.

"You gotta be kidding!" Yumeji struggled to get out, but to no avail.

"Nope. Now then, let's have a great time today." Stein smiled madly as he held something in his hands.

"No! Not that! Anything but that!" Yumeji shook his head and tried to get away from Stein, who came towards him. "No!!!"

Meanwhile, at Nagi and Yumeji's residence, Nagi sat on the bed with her back against her pillow while staring at the window. She became forlorn, wondering about Yumeji. She sighed as she dropped her head, looking at her lap.

"Yumeji-kun..."

Suddenly, a hand mirror on her desk began to glow and Nagi noticed that it was Shinigami-sama. She picked up her hand mirror and watched at the glowing reflection. After it faded, Shinigami-sama appeared before Nagi.

"Shinigami-sama," said Nagi.

"Why, hello, Nagi-chan. Are you feeling better?" asked Shinigami-sama. "I heard that you had a terrible fever yesterday."

"Yes, I'm okay right now."

"Nagi-chan, can you come to the Death Room? There's someone who would like to see you."

To Nagi's surprise, someone Shinigami-sama mentioned wanted to see her at the Death Room. Later, Nagi, in full uniform of her school, came to the Death Room and met up with Shinigami-sama. Suddenly, a gleeful voice appeared out of nowhere.

"Oh! I was glad to finally meet you in person, Nagi Yamato!"

In front of her, Nagi became surprised as she met a middle-aged man who appeared to be a frenchman. He had a short grayish ponytail with french mustache. He wore a black and white striped outfit of a frenchman including a black beret and a red scarf.

"Uh, who are you?" asked Nagi.

"Oh, excusez-moi! I almost forgot my manners! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Pierre and I'm the owner of the opera house in France," he bowed before Nagi and held her hand and kiss on the back of hers.

"Pierre? You mean you're my parents' client." she recognized the name from the man she met.

"That's right!" Pierre smiled. "Look at you. Your appearance takes after your mother."

"Ahem. Excuse me. Allow me to explain why I summoned you here, Nagi-chan." said Shinigami-sama. "This man Pierre came here in Shibusen to request you. He wanted you to perform at his opera house in France. So I'm giving you a mission of the same target."

Nagi began to realize the same target Shinigami-sama mentioned was actually the Phantom.

"You don't mean the Phantom?" implied Nagi.

"Yes, we believe that the Phantom isn't here in Death City. So we presumed that he returned back to Paris continuing to hunt more soul of the musicians."

"The Phantom was here?" Nagi implied.

"Yes, but he was hiding in the shadows."

Nagi never realized that the Phantom himself was here in Death City. She wondered about the new mission she was given.

"About this mission..."

"This mission is to make yourself as a bait for the Phantom while you'll be performing in France." Shinigami explained. "Of course, you can't do it alone and I couldn't contact Yumeji-kun for strange reasons. So we decided to leave two bodyguards to protect you."

As Shinigami-sama suggested, Akane and Clay arrived at the Death Room along with Sid.

"Sid-sensei. Akane-kun. Clay-kun." Nagi became surprised upon seeing them.

"Akane and Clay will protect you during the mission." Sid stated.

"Just leave it to us." Akane reassured.

"Nagi-chan, will you accept this mission?" Shinigami-sama asked.

Nagi gave a long moment to think about it and stared at Shinigami-sama with determination.

"I will accept it." Nagi answered.

"All right then, prepare your luggage and head to the airport for France."

"We'll accompany you along the way, Nagi-san." said Clay.

After accepting the mission, Nagi knew that she had to do it alone without Yumeji.

"I'm doing this mission without Yumeji-kun. I should have not accept this request. No, if I'm doing this for his sake, then I have to do this!" she thought as she was about to leave with Akane and Clay.

Later, after school, Soul and the others were all gathered outside of Shibusen.

"Nagi-chan and Yumeji-kun wasn't here in class." Maka said.

"I wonder what happened to those two." Tsubaki wondered.

"We should go to Stein-sensei's place." suggested Soul.

"Eh?" everyone became slightly confused when Soul suggested about going to Stein's lab.

"Why?" Maka asked.

"Well, that dog dude Inugami told me yesterday about where Yumeji is. He's staying at Stein-sensei's place for a few days."

"What? Yumeji's staying there?" Kid implied with a sudden surprise and yet realized. "Oh dear, I hope nothing happens to him at that place."

"What's wrong, Kid?" Liz asked.

"Nothing. Let's go there and see what Yumeji's doing." replied Kid.

Everyone agreed with Kid and they began to go to Stein's lab where Yumeji was staying at. They had arrived at the entrance of the lab.

"Comin' here makes me remembering that time." Black Star stated as he remembered about the remedial class with his partner along with Maka and Soul.

"Yeah," Soul agreed.

"Let's go in." Maka said.

Suddenly, before they were about to go in, a figure came out from the entrance much to their surprise. A gray-haired figure wore an outfit that was similar to Stein's including a lab coat and glasses. The screw was on the left side of the head and stitches as well.

"Stein-sensei?" implied Maka.

Maka along with the others except Kid stood surprised and yet dumbfounded upon seeing "Stein" in a younger version for strange reasons.

Kid sighed and said, "He did this to you, right?"

"Yeah..." he said as he began to take off his glasses and the screw, which appeared to be a headband prop, and then later took off the gray wig. Later, he wiped the stitches which appeared to be makeup. It turned out that the younger version of Stein was actually Yumeji.

"Eh?! Yumeji-kun???" Maka shocked.

"Uh, what's with the getup?" Liz became disturbed upon seeing Yumeji.

Patty laughed out loud upon seeing Yumeji wearing something weird.

"Hahaha! Yumeji-kun looks weird!!!" said Patty, laughing so hard.

"Yeah, he really looks weird." Black Star laughed also.

Seeing Black Star laughing, Yumeji went behind the latter and gave him an armlock.

"Black Star!" shocked Tsubaki.

"Don't even laugh like that. If you do..." Yumeji warned Black Star with a glare and then showed him a menancing look. "I'll dissect you."

"Ok! Ok! Don't scare me like that, would'ya!?" Black Star replied.

Yumeji then let go of Black Star from the armlock and returned back to his usual self.

"Anyway, the reason I'm like this is because of the "bonding" Stein was giving me." he explained.

"Bonding?" replied Maka.

"After losing his parents, Stein was the one who took him under his wing until Yumeji found a weapon as a partner." Kid explained.

Everyone became shocked when they found out that Stein was Yumeji's guardian.

"Stein-sensei was taking care of you before?" asked Maka.

"Yeah, the reason he looked after me when I was a kid was because he tried to save my parents, but he couldn't. That's why he took care of me. Well, I'm not good with getting along with him. I mean look what I'm wearing. I look weird."

"Well, I think it's not weird, Yumeji-kun." Tsubaki stated, reassuring him.

"Yeah, even though you're cosplaying our sensei," commented Black Star, as he tried to hold back his laughter.

"Don't push it." irritated Yumeji as he saw Black Star was trying not to laugh.

After a comedic commotion, Yumeji began to wonder why Maka and the others came here.

"Is there a reason for you guys to come to Stein-san's place?" he asked.

"Oh, we're worried about you, Yumeji-kun." answered Maka.

"Worried about me? Why?"

"Well, you didn't come to classes recently, so we came here to see what are you doing." explained Maka.

"But how did you know where I was?"

"Inugami-san told us about you staying at Stein-sensei's place."

"I see..." Yumeji became darkened after finding out that Inugami somehow told Maka and her friends.

"Yumeji, you need to come back to your classes at Shibusen. This isn't like you skipping classes for the past few days." Kid pleaded Yumeji with a stern look.

"I don't think I need to come back." replied Yumeji.

"Yumeji-kun, how can you say it like that?" asked Tsubaki after listening to Yumeji who didn't want to return back to his classes.

"That's none of your business."

"Can't you tell us why?" Kid asked, noticing the different look on Yumeji's face.

"No, I can't tell you. I don't want to talk about it..."

Soul began to realize that how Yumeji was like that just now was because of that incident. He began to talk to him, "Is it something that relates to Nagi?"

Yumeji became taken aback as he looked at Soul in shock.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I think the reason why you skipped classes is because you saw something that she got involved with."

To Yumeji's shock, he began to wonder how did Soul know about that.

"Who told you that?" he asked.

"Nagi." answered Soul.

Yumeji heard that Nagi somehow told Soul and then still became more darkened.

"She told me that you somehow kept a distance from her for a reason. Is that why you stayed here because you noticed something unbelievable?"

"I'm not gonna give an answer. Like I said, I don't want to talk about it," Yumeji replied. "Are you done talking with me? If so, you can leave now."

Soul became ticked off by Yumeji's attitude and went towards him, grabbing the collar and then punching him in the face, much to everyone's shock.

"Soul!" yelled Maka.

Yumeji, who landed on the ground after being punched, became shocked by Soul's reaction.

"What the hell was that for?! Why did you punch me?!"

Soul didn't give Yumeji an answer for punching him as he looked down on him.

"Yesterday, before Nagi told me everything what happened, she was crying." Soul mentioned about his conversation with Nagi.

Yumeji became taken aback as he heard that Nagi was crying yesterday.

"She was... crying?" he replied.

"You're her partner, aren't you? How long you gonna keep avoiding her like that? If I were you, I shouldn't make my own partner worry like that."

"Yumeji, you have to tell us what's going on between you and Nagi." said Kid.

Yumeji knew that making a distance from Nagi won't help and also knew that he was somehow making her worried.

"You were right, I shouldn't have done that. Making my own partner worried like that. I didn't know that Nagi was crying..."

"Yumeji-kun..." said Maka.

"All right. I'll tell you everything since Soul already knew about what happened between me and Nagi."

Yumeji told everyone about his reason for staying at Stein's place where he witnessed his own partner being proposed by the older boy he never met.

"What?! Nagi was proposed by an older boy you never met?!" Liz became shocked.

"Yeah..." Yumeji answered. "Back then, I was shocked and I didn't know what to do. So I ended up staying at Stein's place. Right now, I bet Nagi already accept his offer."

"No, you're wrong," Soul corrected Yumeji.

Yumeji heard Soul stating that it wasn't true that Nagi accepted the marriage proposal.

"What do you mean, Soul?"

"When I was passing by, I noticed Nagi wasn't feeling well," Soul explained.

"Nagi-chan wasn't feeling well? Did something happened to her?" asked Maka.

"It was only a fever. It was a good thing that I just found her when I was around."

"A fever? So that's why we didn't see Nagi-chan today." Tsubaki understood.

"Yeah, after Nagi woke up, she told me everything what happened. She didn't accept this Erik guy's offer for marriage." explained Soul.

"She didn't accept it? But why?" asked Yumeji.

"You should know already. She did this for you. She didn't want to leave you as her partner. You said that you promised her that you'll make her to be a Death Scythe, right?"

Yumeji became shocked as he forgot that he made Nagi a promise to her. He lowered his head and realized what he had done.

"I can't believe it. I can't believe I almost forgot that." said Yumeji. "I'm such... an idiot..."

"Yumeji-kun..." said Maka.

Yumeji got up from the ground and looked at everyone.

"I guess there's no point on running away. I need to apologize to her right now." Yumeji stated that he won't run away from Nagi and decided that he'll apologize to her.

"Good." Soul replied as he gave Yumeji a smile.

As they were about to leave, Yumeji felt a strange presence and stopped at his feet before they were about to head out.

"What's wrong, Yumeji-kun?" Maka asked, noticing Yumeji's look on his face.

"Hmm? Hey, guys. There's someone coming towards us." Liz called to everyone as they stared at the strange man clad a black cloak walking towards them.

"Huh? Who's that?" Black Star asked as he became slightly curiously and suspicious.

"Must... kill... Must... kill..." muttered the strange man.

Upon meeting the strange latter, Yumeji became suspicious and used his ability to look at the man's soul.

"That man's just a human but... His soul, it's not normal?" thought Yumeji as he became shocked upon looking at it. He tried to alert the others. "Guys! Something isn't right! His soul's not normal at all!"

"What?" Maka became shocked upon hearing Yumeji's words about the suspicious man.

Then, the cloaked man stared at Yumeji and began to recognize him.

"You... You're... Yumeji Musashi, right?" he asked as he stared at Yumeji deadly.

"What?" Yumeji didn't realize that the man they confonted knew him just by calling his full name.

"Must kill... Must kill..." The said man began to take something in his hand, revealing a dagger. "Must kill Yumeji Musashi!"

He lunged towards at his target which was Yumeji Musashi. Everyone shockly watched the man trying to kill Yumeji all the sudden. Yumeji shockly noticed and tried to evade that man's attack. However, after Yumeji's first dodge, the man continued trying to kill Yumeji, swinging his dagger at his target.

"Yumeji-kun!" Maka cried as she shockly watched Yumeji got attacked by that crazy man.

"We got to help him!" Kid suggested that Yumeji was in grave danger. "We need to subdue that crazy man without killing him!"

Everyone agreed with Kid as they're about to help Yumeji. Maka, Black Star, Death the Kid, got their weapons in hand and tried to stop Yumeji from attacking them. Black Star and Death the Kid cornered the crazy man while Maka and Soul protected Yumeji. However, the crazy man quickly took Black Star and Kid down.

"Black Star!" cried Tsubaki.

"Kid! Kid-kun!" cried the Thompson sisters.

"Hey, just what the hell is wrong with him?" Soul became confused after seeing the crazy man taking down Kid and Black Star.

After the man defeated the two, he then turned at Yumeji and Maka with a deadly look on his face.

"Yumeji-kun, stay back. We'll handle this," Maka told Yumeji as she prepared to fight their assumed enemy.

"But...!" Yumeji tried to refuse to sit back.

"That man's trying to kill you for no reason. If you fight him, who knows what's in store."

Yumeji knew that fighting the man who tried to kill him would make himself in danger.

"All right. But be careful, I have a feeling about that man's soul. His soul is being manilupated by unknown cause." He explained to Maka about the target's soul.

"I know." she replied as she was already aware about the victim's soul.

Maka prepared her fighting stance as she was about to fight her opponent.

"Soul..."

"I know. All we have to do is take him down, right?" Soul implied to make sure not to kill the human.

"Yeah. Let's go!"

Maka and Soul prepared to take the man down in order to protect Yumeji.

Description
The next morning, at Stein's Patchwork Lab, Yumeji, who was lying on the bed, had his book on his face same as always. It's been a few days since he first stayed here. Stein, on the other hand, knew that Yumeji was doing the same thing and didn't go to school, thus skipping classes and instead going on the search for the Phantom.

"Yumeji, it's been a week since you came here to stay. Are you sure you're not going to school today? You've been skipping classes while you're too busy doing your patrol search," said Stein. "Can't you go to school right now? You're getting way behind on classes."

Yumeji took a peek at Stein as he moved his book from his eyes.

"I'm not going. If you're gonna keep pestering on me, I won't move an inch. About five minutes or less, I'm going to do some patrol search for the Phantom," replied Yumeji, as he became irritated by Stein.

"Again?" implied Stein as he sighed.

"Yeah. So don't disturb me." Yumeji placed his book back on his eyes again.

Stein took out his cigarette from his mouth and began to twist his screw from his head.

"You know what's something I want to do since you came here to stay? Since you're here, I feel like I'm going to do some "bonding" with you." Stein sugested.

Suddenly, Yumeji became shocked as he shivered himself upon hearing the word "bonding".

"Actually, I'm going to get changed right now, so I'm pulling the curtain right now..."

However, just as Yumeji was about to get off from the bed, the restraints appeared out of nowhere, binding him, much to his surprise and shock.

"What the!"

"I made some adjustments on the bed while you were sleeping last night just in case if you are trying to escape from bonding with me." stated Stein.

"You gotta be kidding!" Yumeji struggled to get out, but to no avail.

"Nope. Now then, let's have a great time today." Stein smiled madly as he held something in his hands.

"No! Not that! Anything but that!" Yumeji shook his head and tried to get away from Stein, who came towards him. "No!!!"

Meanwhile, at Nagi and Yumeji's residence, Nagi sat on the bed with her back against her pillow while staring at the window. She became forlorn, wondering about Yumeji. She sighed as she dropped her head, looking at her lap.

"Yumeji-kun..."

Suddenly, a hand mirror on her desk began to glow and Nagi noticed that it was Shinigami-sama. She picked up her hand mirror and watched at the glowing reflection. After it faded, Shinigami-sama appeared before Nagi.

"Shinigami-sama," said Nagi.

"Why, hello, Nagi-chan. Are you feeling better?" asked Shinigami-sama. "I heard that you had a terrible fever yesterday."

"Yes, I'm okay right now."

"Nagi-chan, can you come to the Death Room? There's someone who would like to see you."

To Nagi's surprise, someone Shinigami-sama mentioned wanted to see her at the Death Room. Later, Nagi, in full uniform of her school, came to the Death Room and met up with Shinigami-sama. Suddenly, a gleeful voice appeared out of nowhere.

"Oh! I was glad to finally meet you in person, Nagi Yamato!"

In front of her, Nagi became surprised as she met a middle-aged man who appeared to be a frenchman. He had a short grayish ponytail with french mustache. He wore a black and white striped outfit of a frenchman including a black beret and a red scarf.

"Uh, who are you?" asked Nagi.

"Oh, excusez-moi! I almost forgot my manners! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Pierre and I'm the owner of the opera house in France," he bowed before Nagi and held her hand and kiss on the back of hers.

"Pierre? You mean you're my parents' client." she recognized the name from the man she met.

"That's right!" Pierre smiled. "Look at you. Your appearance takes after your mother."

"Ahem. Excuse me. Allow me to explain why I summoned you here, Nagi-chan." said Shinigami-sama. "This man Pierre came here in Shibusen to request you. He wanted you to perform at his opera house in France. So I'm giving you a mission of the same target."

Nagi began to realize the same target Shinigami-sama mentioned was actually the Phantom.

"You don't mean the Phantom?" implied Nagi.

"Yes, we believe that the Phantom isn't here in Death City. So we presumed that he returned back to Paris continuing to hunt more soul of the musicians."

"The Phantom was here?" Nagi implied.

"Yes, but he was hiding in the shadows."

Nagi never realized that the Phantom himself was here in Death City. She wondered about the new mission she was given.

"About this mission..."

"This mission is to make yourself as a bait for the Phantom while you'll be performing in France." Shinigami explained. "Of course, you can't do it alone and I couldn't contact Yumeji-kun for strange reasons. So we decided to leave two bodyguards to protect you."

As Shinigami-sama suggested, Akane and Clay arrived at the Death Room along with Sid.

"Sid-sensei. Akane-kun. Clay-kun." Nagi became surprised upon seeing them.

"Akane and Clay will protect you during the mission." Sid stated.

"Just leave it to us." Akane reassured.

"Nagi-chan, will you accept this mission?" Shinigami-sama asked.

Nagi gave a long moment to think about it and stared at Shinigami-sama with determination.

"I will accept it." Nagi answered.

"All right then, prepare your luggage and head to the airport for France."

"We'll accompany you along the way, Nagi-san." said Clay.

After accepting the mission, Nagi knew that she had to do it alone without Yumeji.

"I'm doing this mission without Yumeji-kun. I should have not accept this request. No, if I'm doing this for his sake, then I have to do this!" she thought as she was about to leave with Akane and Clay.

Later, after school, Soul and the others were all gathered outside of Shibusen.

"Nagi-chan and Yumeji-kun wasn't here in class." Maka said.

"I wonder what happened to those two." Tsubaki wondered.

"We should go to Stein-sensei's place." suggested Soul.

"Eh?" everyone became slightly confused when Soul suggested about going to Stein's lab.

"Why?" Maka asked.

"Well, that dog dude Inugami told me yesterday about where Yumeji is. He's staying at Stein-sensei's place for a few days."

"What? Yumeji's staying there?" Kid implied with a sudden surprise and yet realized. "Oh dear, I hope nothing happens to him at that place."

"What's wrong, Kid?" Liz asked.

"Nothing. Let's go there and see what Yumeji's doing." replied Kid.

Everyone agreed with Kid and they began to go to Stein's lab where Yumeji was staying at. They had arrived at the entrance of the lab.

"Comin' here makes me remembering that time." Black Star stated as he remembered about the remedial class with his partner along with Maka and Soul.

"Yeah," Soul agreed.

"Let's go in." Maka said.

Suddenly, before they were about to go in, a figure came out from the entrance much to their surprise. A gray-haired figure wore an outfit that was similar to Stein's including a lab coat and glasses. The screw was on the left side of the head and stitches as well.

"Stein-sensei?" implied Maka.

Maka along with the others except Kid stood surprised and yet dumbfounded upon seeing "Stein" in a younger version for strange reasons.

Kid sighed and said, "He did this to you, right?"

"Yeah..." he said as he began to take off his glasses and the screw, which appeared to be a headband prop, and then later took off the gray wig. Later, he wiped the stitches which appeared to be makeup. It turned out that the younger version of Stein was actually Yumeji.

"Eh?! Yumeji-kun???" Maka shocked.

"Uh, what's with the getup?" Liz became disturbed upon seeing Yumeji.

Patty laughed out loud upon seeing Yumeji wearing something weird.

"Hahaha! Yumeji-kun looks weird!!!" said Patty, laughing so hard.

"Yeah, he really looks weird." Black Star laughed also.

Seeing Black Star laughing, Yumeji went behind the latter and gave him an armlock.

"Black Star!" shocked Tsubaki.

"Don't even laugh like that. If you do..." Yumeji warned Black Star with a glare and then showed him a menancing look. "I'll dissect you."

"Ok! Ok! Don't scare me like that, would'ya!?" Black Star replied.

Yumeji then let go of Black Star from the armlock and returned back to his usual self.

"Anyway, the reason I'm like this is because of the "bonding" Stein was giving me." he explained.

"Bonding?" replied Maka.

"After losing his parents, Stein was the one who took him under his wing until Yumeji found a weapon as a partner." Kid explained.

Everyone became shocked when they found out that Stein was Yumeji's guardian.

"Stein-sensei was taking care of you before?" asked Maka.

"Yeah, the reason he looked after me when I was a kid was because he tried to save my parents, but he couldn't. That's why he took care of me. Well, I'm not good with getting along with him. I mean look what I'm wearing. I look weird."

"Well, I think it's not weird, Yumeji-kun." Tsubaki stated, reassuring him.

"Yeah, even though you're cosplaying our sensei," commented Black Star, as he tried to hold back his laughter.

"Don't push it." irritated Yumeji as he saw Black Star was trying not to laugh.

After a comedic commotion, Yumeji began to wonder why Maka and the others came here.

"Is there a reason for you guys to come to Stein-san's place?" he asked.

"Oh, we're worried about you, Yumeji-kun." answered Maka.

"Worried about me? Why?"

"Well, you didn't come to classes recently, so we came here to see what are you doing." explained Maka.

"But how did you know where I was?"

"Inugami-san told us about you staying at Stein-sensei's place."

"I see..." Yumeji became darkened after finding out that Inugami somehow told Maka and her friends.

"Yumeji, you need to come back to your classes at Shibusen. This isn't like you skipping classes for the past few days." Kid pleaded Yumeji with a stern look.

"I don't think I need to come back." replied Yumeji.

"Yumeji-kun, how can you say it like that?" asked Tsubaki after listening to Yumeji who didn't want to return back to his classes.

"That's none of your business."

"Can't you tell us why?" Kid asked, noticing the different look on Yumeji's face.

"No, I can't tell you. I don't want to talk about it..."

Soul began to realize that how Yumeji was like that just now was because of that incident. He began to talk to him, "Is it something that relates to Nagi?"

Yumeji became taken aback as he looked at Soul in shock.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I think the reason why you skipped classes is because you saw something that she got involved with."

To Yumeji's shock, he began to wonder how did Soul know about that.

"Who told you that?" he asked.

"Nagi." answered Soul.

Yumeji heard that Nagi somehow told Soul and then still became more darkened.

"She told me that you somehow kept a distance from her for a reason. Is that why you stayed here because you noticed something unbelievable?"

"I'm not gonna give an answer. Like I said, I don't want to talk about it," Yumeji replied. "Are you done talking with me? If so, you can leave now."

Soul became ticked off by Yumeji's attitude and went towards him, grabbing the collar and then punching him in the face, much to everyone's shock.

"Soul!" yelled Maka.

Yumeji, who landed on the ground after being punched, became shocked by Soul's reaction.

"What the hell was that for?! Why did you punch me?!"

Soul didn't give Yumeji an answer for punching him as he looked down on him.

"Yesterday, before Nagi told me everything what happened, she was crying." Soul mentioned about his conversation with Nagi.

Yumeji became taken aback as he heard that Nagi was crying yesterday.

"She was... crying?" he replied.

"You're her partner, aren't you? How long you gonna keep avoiding her like that? If I were you, I shouldn't make my own partner worry like that."

"Yumeji, you have to tell us what's going on between you and Nagi." said Kid.

Yumeji knew that making a distance from Nagi won't help and also knew that he was somehow making her worried.

"You were right, I shouldn't have done that. Making my own partner worried like that. I didn't know that Nagi was crying..."

"Yumeji-kun..." said Maka.

"All right. I'll tell you everything since Soul already knew about what happened between me and Nagi."

Yumeji told everyone about his reason for staying at Stein's place where he witnessed his own partner being proposed by the older boy he never met.

"What?! Nagi was proposed by an older boy you never met?!" Liz became shocked.

"Yeah..." Yumeji answered. "Back then, I was shocked and I didn't know what to do. So I ended up staying at Stein's place. Right now, I bet Nagi already accept his offer."

"No, you're wrong," Soul corrected Yumeji.

Yumeji heard Soul stating that it wasn't true that Nagi accepted the marriage proposal.

"What do you mean, Soul?"

"When I was passing by, I noticed Nagi wasn't feeling well," Soul explained.

"Nagi-chan wasn't feeling well? Did something happened to her?" asked Maka.

"It was only a fever. It was a good thing that I just found her when I was around."

"A fever? So that's why we didn't see Nagi-chan today." Tsubaki understood.

"Yeah, after Nagi woke up, she told me everything what happened. She didn't accept this Erik guy's offer for marriage." explained Soul.

"She didn't accept it? But why?" asked Yumeji.

"You should know already. She did this for you. She didn't want to leave you as her partner. You said that you promised her that you'll make her to be a Death Scythe, right?"

Yumeji became shocked as he forgot that he made Nagi a promise to her. He lowered his head and realized what he had done.

"I can't believe it. I can't believe I almost forgot that." said Yumeji. "I'm such... an idiot..."

"Yumeji-kun..." said Maka.

Yumeji got up from the ground and looked at everyone.

"I guess there's no point on running away. I need to apologize to her right now." Yumeji stated that he won't run away from Nagi and decided that he'll apologize to her.

"Good." Soul replied as he gave Yumeji a smile.

As they were about to leave, Yumeji felt a strange presence and stopped at his feet before they were about to head out.

"What's wrong, Yumeji-kun?" Maka asked, noticing Yumeji's look on his face.

"Hmm? Hey, guys. There's someone coming towards us." Liz called to everyone as they stared at the strange man clad a black cloak walking towards them.

"Huh? Who's that?" Black Star asked as he became slightly curiously and suspicious.

"Must... kill... Must... kill..." muttered the strange man.

Upon meeting the strange latter, Yumeji became suspicious and used his ability to look at the man's soul.

"That man's just a human but... His soul, it's not normal?" thought Yumeji as he became shocked upon looking at it. He tried to alert the others. "Guys! Something isn't right! His soul's not normal at all!"

"What?" Maka became shocked upon hearing Yumeji's words about the suspicious man.

Then, the cloaked man stared at Yumeji and began to recognize him.

"You... You're... Yumeji Musashi, right?" he asked as he stared at Yumeji deadly.

"What?" Yumeji didn't realize that the man they confonted knew him just by calling his full name.

"Must kill... Must kill..." The said man began to take something in his hand, revealing a dagger. "Must kill Yumeji Musashi!"

He lunged towards at his target which was Yumeji Musashi. Everyone shockly watched the man trying to kill Yumeji all the sudden. Yumeji shockly noticed and tried to evade that man's attack. However, after Yumeji's first dodge, the man continued trying to kill Yumeji, swinging his dagger at his target.

"Yumeji-kun!" Maka cried as she shockly watched Yumeji got attacked by that crazy man.

"We got to help him!" Kid suggested that Yumeji was in grave danger. "We need to subdue that crazy man without killing him!"

Everyone agreed with Kid as they're about to help Yumeji. Maka, Black Star, Death the Kid, got their weapons in hand and tried to stop Yumeji from attacking them. Black Star and Death the Kid cornered the crazy man while Maka and Soul protected Yumeji. However, the crazy man quickly took Black Star and Kid down.

"Black Star!" cried Tsubaki.

"Kid! Kid-kun!" cried the Thompson sisters.

"Hey, just what the hell is wrong with him?" Soul became confused after seeing the crazy man taking down Kid and Black Star.

After the man defeated the two, he then turned at Yumeji and Maka with a deadly look on his face.

"Yumeji-kun, stay back. We'll handle this," Maka told Yumeji as she prepared to fight their assumed enemy.

"But...!" Yumeji tried to refuse to sit back.

"That man's trying to kill you for no reason. If you fight him, who knows what's in store."

Yumeji knew that fighting the man who tried to kill him would make himself in danger.

"All right. But be careful, I have a feeling about that man's soul. His soul is being manilupated by unknown cause." He explained to Maka about the target's soul.

"I know." she replied as she was already aware about the victim's soul.

Maka prepared her fighting stance as she was about to fight her opponent.

"Soul..."

"I know. All we have to do is take him down, right?" Soul implied to make sure not to kill the human.

"Yeah. Let's go!"

Maka and Soul prepared to take the man down in order to protect Yumeji.