Death Scythe stopped the car in front of Stein's, got out with Marie and got her bag from the trunk. "I'm not sure if it's locked or not, but I'm pretty good a picking locks if you need it."

"No worries, I've got a key." Marie held up a small key chain. "Well, thanks for the lift, I'll be stopping by about the guy training. Later." She said and cheerily ran up to the door and tried the knob. Death Scythe got back in the car and drove off muttering "you say it's better letting it be and you give her a key to your house… That makes so much senses."

As he drove off Marie unlocked the door and stepped in to find it different and strange. The main entry way was clean and the windows were open in the two rooms to the sides letting in the hot Nevada sun. "Weird, it looks happy." She closed the door and slipped off her heels on the mat and hung her keys on one of a bunch of hooks above the mat. She made her way down to the room and noticed a new handle.

Opening the door she was surprised to look in and see an entirely different room, and surprisingly, in a good way. Instead of the normal grey and occasional steel that matched the rest of the house, Stein had put in hard work and repainted the room a light blue, put carpeting in, and had repaired both the bed and dresser. Marie looked at the sheets on the bed. "Even silk sheets… Wonder why he'd do this for me?" She said turning to the window; she noticed quickly that there was a small bowl of petunias.

"Are you little guys thirsty?" Marie asked fondly of the plant and went to the side door and opened it to a completely remodeled bathroom. "Maybe he's trying to sell the house…" She set the small plant into the sink and gave it a little water and went to check out the rest of the house. Marie quickly found that besides the living room, everything else was still a messy old laboratory.

"Weird." She said and turned around to see Stein's bedroom door. She turned to see out the hall and saw no one in the long passage and walked over to the door and turned the knob. Marie carefully stepped in and flipped a switch to find the room was tiny and disturbing. The walls didn't show at all, covered by random clippings and notes connected by different covered strings. All over the floor were newspapers journals and the occasional empty cigarette pack. "I shouldn't have come in here."

Marie quickly turned around and saw a small photograph above the door and looked up to see it was taken way back in the school's history. "Me, Kami, Yumi, Death Scythe, Stein, Nygus and Sid when Yumi became a death scythe… I'm surprised he still has that." Marie flipped the switch and closed the door.

_______________________________________________________________

"Sempai, Norman Hartwell is the only candidate running for mayor." Stein said rushing up with a page open in the newspaper. "Do you know how bad this is for us?"

"Is that the kid in your grade that declared a vendetta against us?" Death Scythe took the paper and skimmed it. "'Hartwell is running under the policy that perfection is key and that organization is what Death City needs. He proposes this by introducing neighborhood codes and regulating that all houses fall under them or pay substantial fines.' Not that bad, a little bit prick-ish."

"He's also running under the slogan 'no more crack pots.' This has to do especially with us. He used to call me crack pot constantly." Stein pointed out quickly. "It's a conspiracy. He's going to get me by implementing laws and such and try to make me follow them."

"Why don't you try to kill him again?" Death Scythe tossed the paper back at Stein and looked up.

"Not a bad idea. I did like kicking him off that cliff senior year." Stein said and sat down. Stein shook out of it. "Listen, he's going to get us, I may not have anybody, but you have Kami and Maka, he'll get them too. It's a vendetta, a blood feud."

"Kami is staying at Yumi's, she's safe, and Maka's all the way out in God knows where with Soul." Death Scythe said grabbing a leftover plate of nachos out of the fridge. He stuck them in the microwave and walked past Stein noticing something on the cover. "Wait a minute…"

Death Scythe flipped the front page and smiled. "Vivian's coming back to DC tomorrow. You remember Viv, as much as I hit on her, she followed you around."

"Oh, I saw that, but that's not important. What is, however, is that Norm…" Death Scythe slapped a hand over his mouth.

He held up the paper with a glamour shot on it. "This is Vivian Leandros, the hottest person ever to come out of Greece. Miss Death City for five years and professional supermodel at fifteen. The only girl to have double Ds before she graduated and she had the hugest crush on you in the world because you're all dark and mysterious." Death Scythe said, "Do you realize how fast you could get with her?!"

"That doesn't seem that important as this guy who's declared a vendetta on us. Now he's going to try something before the election to get our names ruined, I know he is." Stein said. "He's been planning this for years, that's got to be it. He came back to be mayor to… to do something to us."

"Stop it with the conspiracy theory. I'd rather you start going on about Area 51 or zombies, do you know why, they exist."

"So does this threat."

"Vivian Leandros… She likes to wear a bikini top and short shorts around." Death Scythe said getting distracted by the article.

"Kaaaamiiii." Stein said slowly and Death Scythe dropped the paper and started professing his love to his ex-wife.