Equestria's Kishin

Maka stepped into the headmaster’s office with a serious expression on her face.  Her black coat trailed behind her, and her red plaid skirt ruffled as she stepped. Her dirty blonde hair was bound tightly into ponytails on the sides of her head, and hung down on her shoulders. Soul followed closely behind her, slouching slightly, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his yellow and black hoodie. His messy white hair was all over the place, and a white headband with his name on it was bound around his forehead. Maka spoke. “Lord Death, you called for us?”

“Hey hey hey! Wazzup Maka? How ya doin’ Soul? How is your soul collecting coming along?”

“It’s coming along pretty well, Sir. Soul will become a Death Scythe in no time!” Maka’s green eyes glistened as her and her weapon partner exchanged grins.

“That’s excellent to hear! You’re just like your mother, Maka!” Maka blushed slightly at the thought of being like her mother. Although she hadn’t seen her mother in a long time, she still looked up to her, and the idea of being like her made her feel proud. Her mother did turn her father into a Death Scythe, after all.

“So, uh, why did you call for Soul and me, Lord Death?”

“Ah, yes. I have some good news, and some bad news. About the Kishin.”

Maka and Soul froze for a moment. Recently, the Kishin, an evil soul that spread madness throughout the world, had escaped from its prison under the Death Weapon Meister Academy. Lord Death had tied himself to Death City last time he battled the Kishin, and he had sealed it away under the school. But now, even though the Kishin had escaped, Lord Death couldn’t leave. This of course, was a huge problem, and Lord Death had previously alerted all the students as well as Death Scythes around the globe.

“What about it, Sir?”

“Well, let’s see, the good news is that it has left our world as we know it. We cannot locate any of its madness wavelenghts anymore.”

“That’s excellent to hear!”

Soul spoke up. “Wait a minute, if it left our world, what world did it go to?”

Lord Death’s voice took on a lower tone, and became more serious. “You see, that’s the bad news. It gained enough power to transport itself in time and space, and it has traveled to another universe that we have never seen before. I do not know what the name of this place is, nor do I know what powers it may possess. We have never traveled to another world before.” Maka and Soul both looked very confused.

“Traveled to another universe? Another world?” How is that even possible!? And what are Soul and I supposed to do about it?” Maka’s head started flowing with questions.

Soul spoke again. “Hold on, so if the Kishin traveled to another world, what do you expect us to do? Build some sort of magical portal thingy?”

“Calm down, both of you. I have been consulting with the staff about this issue.” At that moment, another figure entered the office. The light bounced off of his round glasses, concealing his eyes. Although he appeared fairly young, he had gray, stringy hair that hung in his face and over his ears. A long white lab coat was draped over his shoulders, and it accented his height and leanness. There were stitches all over his clothing and skin, as if something had torn him apart and he had been sewn back together. “Ah, Dr. Stein, come in!” Lord Death spoke cheerily. “What brings you here?”

The professor spoke with a low and eerie voice. ”Lord Death,” he uttered quietly. “It’s finished.”

Lord Death returned to the same serious tone he had undertaken a few minutes ago when he was talking about the Kishin. “Good,” he replied. “Soul, Maka, follow me.” The two students obediently followed their headmaster through many winding hallways, and it seemed the maze of the school would never end. Finally, however, Dr. Stein and Lord Death halted at a black door with a sign marked “Do Not Enter—School Administration Only.”

Stein pulled out a small copper key from his lab coat pocket and inserted it into the keyhole in the doorknob.  The door creaked as it opened slowly, and it was very dark in the room that it revealed. Dr. Stein turned to the wall on the left side and flipped a light switch, and a dim bulb that hung from the ceiling flickered, then lit up. The two students saw a doorframe on the other side of the room. They silently continued to follow Dr. Stein as he led them towards the frame, when they discovered it wasn’t at all a simple doorframe, but an intricate machine that took the form of a rectangle.

“Professor Stein,” Maka quietly inquired, “what is that thing?”

“This, my friend, is a portal.”

“No way,” muttered Soul, “that’s impossible. These kinds of thing only exist in stories and sci-fi movies and stuff.”

“I’m afraid you’re wrong about that, Soul,” piped in Lord Death quietly, “this is very real, thanks to the incredible intellect of your teacher, Stein, here.”

“But, how exactly does this portal work? Is it even safe? Can you come back from the other side of wherever it takes you?” Maka began her nervous questioning again.

Dr. Stein began to explain. “Well, essentially, this machine has the ability to harness the madness wavelengths of the Kishin from the other universe it has traveled to. Using the madness, we can create a power that the Kishin possesses, the power to rip open space, and appear in a separate dimension. I have not tested it myself, and although I have sent objects through the portal, I have no way yet of knowing if they can return. However, I can guarantee that I am still able to track these objects, meaning that they are still in one piece. Using this data, I can reasonably conclude that it’s probably safe enough for human travel.”

“But professor,” Soul responded, “if you’re using Kishin wavelengths to harness the power to travel through space, wouldn’t the portal have some madness effect on the traveler?”

“Indeed, Soul. That is why it is important that the machine only be operated when necessary. For a brief amount of time, the portal can be opened without having any effect on the user. If one were to linger in the space between dimensions, the Kishin’s madness would most definitely affect them. “

“What about coming back? I’m pretty sure the people on the other side of this portal won’t have thought of building the exact same machine to travel back here. If someone traveled to that other world, they’d have no way of returning,” Soul replied with a concerned tone of voice.

“You are correct. It is highly unlikely that the residents in this alternate universe have developed the same methods of travel that we have. Like I mentioned earlier, I have no way of knowing whether traveling back to our dimension is possible yet. This is why I have organized my data of building this machine. It serves as a sort of blueprint, so anyone who travels there has a way to develop their means of return.”

“How do we know this portal will transport the user between these two dimensions only? I’d hate to end up stuck somewhere in the middle of a random universe I know nothing about.” There was a hint of doubt in Soul’s voice.

“Since the machine uses the Kishin wavelengths to power up, it can only find places that the Kishin is in or has been in. It would be impossible for the portal to spit you out in the middle of nowhere if there are no madness wavelengths to energize the machine.”

“Just one more question, Lord Death,” Maka piped in, “I still don’t understand why you called Soul and me to show us this.”

“I called you here because,” Lord Death paused mid-sentence, then continued,”I want you to find the Kishin.”