That morning Kid woke up, tired. He got ready for the day and walked out to DWMA with Liz and Patty like any other day.

"Patty, what's wrong?" Kid asked, noticing how off she seemed that morning. She wasn't as smiley, and she wasn't laughing. He hadn't talked to the girls yesterday.

"No reason." she answered, trying to be happy in front of her meister.

"It doesn't seem that way." he pressed on.

"Come on, Kiddo. When you're upset, you don't always tell." Patty giggled "Do you think I'm sad? You're funny, Kid!"

"Give it up, Patty." Liz placed a hand on her younger sister's shoulder. "It doesn't matter if he knows."

"Knows what?" Kid raised an eyebrow. "What are you keeping, Patty?"

"Blackstar was being a meany yesterday." Patty answered, waving her arms as she spoke. "He was calling you weak and stuff and I didn't want to hear that! I told him how strong you are, but he was being so rude! He was talking like he only cares about himself! And to think..."

"Huh? Seriously?" Kid sighed as they walked up the super long steps to get to DWMA. "He's being a jerk? I don't mind that he's insulting me because... that's Blackstar for ya'. Thanks for telling him otherwise, but was he being rude to you?"

"Yeah."

"I'll talk to him about that. He better not treat you badly. If he does, tell me. What did you do about it?"

"I punched him." Patricia frowned. "He's gonna apologize. Cool guys say sorry."

"Sounds a little like Soul with the whole 'cool' thing, Patty." Kid grinned.

"Soul's a cool cat! You're a cool kitty!"

The three laughed and entered the school building.

Kid had walked passed the death room, tempted to go talk to his father. Something inside him told him not to, to keep walking in order to get over yesterday. He wanted to be stronger in this situation. He had broken down. Breaking down in a time of need is not the proper thing to do when you're a god. The proper thing would be to stay strong. Be brave. Remain calm. Carry on. Holding everything in until what comes out as anger in public turns to depression when alone is not something a god does. Kid didn't even know how his father was taking things, but he chose to ignore that factor and try to enjoy his day.

All of them entered their classroom. Maka and Soul sat alone, talking to one another. It was a nice day today. Blackstar and Tsubaki chatted with each other by one of the windows at the top of the many rows of seats. When Patty saw Blackstar, she grabbed Liz's hand and sat down next to Maka and Soul.

Kid was planning on talking to Blackstar, and he decided to do it after class. He quickly left the room, walking out into the hallway when he bumped into a girl with blue eyes and long black hair and they fell on the ground.

"Sorry." He helped the girl back up. "I haven't seen you before, what's your name?"

"I'm..." the black haired girl blushed and ran into the classroom, saying quickly "My name is Amber, I'm here with Soul."

"What was that all about?" Kid asked himself. He drank water out from a drinking fountain and knew he would be late for class in a few minutes. When he got up from the fountain, he ran into another girl, only this one he knew.

"Oh... I Kid." Crona backed away from him. She rubbed one of her arms and asked "How have you been?"

"I've been well." Kid smiled at the pink haired girl and laughed "And how about you?" Did you enjoy spending time with Maka?"

"I always do." Crona was so much better that it surprised Kid. She smiled in a lively manner and giggled "I was going to hang out with her today, so I better go."

"Have a nice day."

Crona went into the classroom and Kid decided to take another drink of water. When he leaned out of the drinking fountain, he glanced around to make sure no girl was there for him to bump into. He walked back into the classroom and sat himself next to Liz.

Lord Death called Maka and Soul into the death room. The two came in and stood in front of Lord Death. A tall girl stood next to their god.

Amber followed the meister and weapon into the room and held Soul's wrist, whispering in his ear "Who's that?"

Maka heard and grabbed her wrist, whispering into Amber's ear with an almost scary voice "We're going to find out, are we not?"

The three stood still. Lord Death asked Amber how she was and Amber said she was great and enjoying her time and work.

"Maka, Soul, Amber, I'm sure you're wondering who this is." Lord Death sang, clearly talking about the girl standing next to him. "Her name is Akiri Izumi. She's seventeen, so she should be able to help. Maka, you're Japanese, so you two should get along."

Akiri Izumi didn't look that Japanese. She had brown hair that ended just below her shoulders and hazel eyes. One good defining feature that made her look the slightest bit Asian was her epicanthal fold.

The epicanthal fold, or epicanthic fold is common among central Asians, south Africans, and also people with down syndrome. It's the upper eyelid skin covering the inner corner of the eye.

Aside from that, she didn't look very Asian. She had lightly tan skin which seemed to have a yellow tint to it, which could also be an Asian trait. She wore a tight green T-shirt and blue jean shorts. She wore knee-high green boots that laced from toe to top. She was quite skinny and wore a sheath around her waist with a machete inside. Like Soul had when introduced to Amber, he looked at the girl's average breasts.

"It doesn't work that way, Lord Death." Maka smiled at Akiri. "Hello. My name is Maka Albarn."

Akiri smiled at Maka without showing her teeth. She said "Hello, Maka." she pronounced her L's as R's. Was this girl a native? She sounded Japanese...

"I'm Soul Eater." Soul grinned with a very toothy grin. "But call me Soul."

"Soul Eater." Akiri bowed to the white haired weapon, the L's as R's. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"My name is Amber." Amber spoke up quietly. "You can call me Amber, or Lucy. Lucy is my last name."

"Lucy." Akiri repeated. Amber giggled. She was always called Amber, but she asked to be called Lucy because she wanted to hear more of that foreign pronunciation.

"So, how is Akiri going to help?" Maka asked, staring up at Lord Death.

"Well, I'm sending you four back out to the original mess where you found the Dunkleosteus thing. I've got things all planned out with the roles each of you will be playing in this mission. Back at the wreck, I've asked a special graduate from DWMA to set up some scuba gear for you. Kiddies, you'll be going under water."

"So, who plays what roles?" Soul asked.

"Well, where does it start?... Oh yes! Well, you'll all be doing many things under water."

Lord Death explained everything and the kids went off to class, Amber talking to Soul and Akiri chatting with Maka.

Lord Death then called in Blackstar and Tsubaki, with another 'special' friend waiting for them.

"Who's that?" Blackstar asked the minute he saw a tall girl standing by Lord Death.

"This is a new friend for you to make." the god answered. "This is Keira Q. Johnson, she's fifteen and she's here to help."

Tsubaki and Blackstar observed the mysterious girl.

Keira had short dark brown hair and brown eyes. She was tan and wore tight black clothes. Average breast size, (observation made by the one and only Blackstar), and wore black tennis shoes.

Judging by the expression on her face, she wasn't too friendly. She stared into Tsubaki's eyes, making Tsubaki fidget around a little in her spot. Keira practically wore a grimace. You could see that her jaw was not relaxed. The way she fixed her eyes on one object (a wild Tsubaki!) and furrowed her eyebrows. The black clothes she wore glued to her skin. She had a machete by her side in a sheath (that's the second machete today! What's up with these girls?!) and that in itself was frightening. Her hands were barely able to tuck into her pockets and she had nearly perfect posture.

"Hello." Tsubaki laughed nervously, introducing herself. "I'm Tsubaki."

"And I'm Blackstar!" Blackstar shouted. To Tsubaki's relief, Keira was now focused on Blackstar with those judgmental eyes of hers.

"My name is Keira Q. Johnson." Although repeating her full name was unnecessary, she still did it. She spoke with a harsh tone, low, and even. She looked away from the blue haired ninja and looked back at Tsubaki, this time with less judgment and almost a sort of sweetness in her eyes. She barely smiled when she said "You can call me Q if you want. Q, or Keira. Would you shut up?!" Keira snapped at Blackstar, making him stop shouting.

"So, what's the mission Mr. D?" Blackstar turned to Lord Death. The god in front of him ignored the name Blackstar called him, at least this time, and answered his question. "You three will be going to California to investigate the new split of land. Keira will help guide you. She's fond of the area and says she found certain evidence that should help in this investigation."

"I found bones." Keira explained with her smooth, serious voice. "It looked like nothing I had seen before, but it was too close to the bubbling lava that I couldn't reach it. You should be able to, being a meister, Blackstar. There was some other stuff too, all the bones I found were by the lava though. I didn't get to explore the watery sections in California. I didn't get that far, so I decided to buy a train ticket and come down to Death City. I don't believe Lord Death or his son are responsible for this, that's impossible."

"Not impossible.." Tsubaki added. "But it is unlikely that Lord Death would do anything to hurt anyone who doesn't deserve to be punished."

"So it's all settled?" Lord Death asked the kids. "You'll be headed down to California tomorrow, so enjoy yourselves tonight."

"I rented a hotel room with my mother." Keira said. "It's just my mom and I. Our house was burned down by lava since it was in the path of the break."

"I hope everything goes well for you." Tsubaki said with her kindness and concern for the new girl.

"Don't hope." Keira grinned at Tsubaki. "It's downhill for now, and if we have blind hope, we'll get nowhere. We need to be logical and strong if we want anything done." her regular unfriendly look returned. "Right now, I'm your guide. I don't want to get too close to any of you just in case-"

"In case what?" Blackstar asked. For the most part, he wasn't paying attention.

"I don't want to make any new friends because it's most certain that if things continue the way they are, someone I care about will die."

"It's not like you won't die." Blackstar laughed "And I doubt that such a big guy like me will die-"

Keira sighed at Blackstar. Inside she was thinking What an annoying idiot! But outside she didn't show much of anything. Unlike Amber, who wasn't one to take charge or judge people much (although she wasn't a fan of Blackstar, especially after seeing the way he treated Patty.) she wasn't afraid to get close to people, and she wasn't that serious either. Even Akiri wasn't worried about making friends in the case that one would die.

Keira was serious, and she wasn't going to fool around. She judged people all the time in a harsh manner, although rarely ever told the actual person how she felt. She's not a very friendly person and naturally gets along with very few people. She was a fighter, she was strong, she was quiet, she is deadly. Could she even be kind?

The three left and Keira followed Blackstar and Tsubaki into their classroom. As always, Keira was silent and furrowed her eyebrows at people while she observed them.

Lord Death had called in Ox, Kim, and others to leave a few days and help people suffering from the quakes. Lastly, he called in his son and the girls with slight hesitation.

Kid really didn't want to see his father that day, but he left with Liz and Patty. Once they entered the death room, he wasn't surprised that his father greeted them with his goofy voice.

"What's up?" Liz asked nonchalantly as they stood looking up to Lord Death.

"Nothing much." Lord Death sang. "I've got a mission for you."

"A mission?!" Kid was shocked by the idea considering how the public hated the reapers at the current moment. "Are you-"

"I want you three to go investigate the east end of the new break, in Virginia."

"Didn't the recent quake slice Nevada?" Liz asked.

"Yeah!" Patty giggled. "Mr. Nevada got a haircut! A little off the edges but that's all! We felt it bad! Some houses fell!" She smiled wide and laughed hysterically "It went through Virginia, Kentucky, The bottom of Illinois, through Missouri, chipped Kansas, sliced Nebraska, broke Wyoming's bottom, decapitated Utah, and it shaved Nevada and ripped through California!"

"How do you know, Patty?!" Liz and Kid asked simultaneously, surprised that Patty would know this.

The goofy blonde answered "The internet!"

"Virginia's on the other side of the USA." Kid sighed "I guess we'll be fine. You just want us to explore the thing?"

"See if you can find anything off, anything at all. You can leave in three days."

"Alright." Liz looked at Kid, seeing how calm he appeared despite the trouble he had been through the other day with his father. He seemed... happy. "We'll go in a few days. Anything else we need to know?"

"You can travel as far west as you like along the break, but beware the people around you, Kid. You don't know how they'll react. Liz, Patty, stay safe. Being Kid's weapons means they may suspect you girls as well."

"Got it!" Liz said.

"Yes!" Patty giggled.

"Fine by me." Kid sighed, hopeful that something would turn up to get people off their case. "Girls, let's head back to class."

They left the death room. Lord Death was smiling behind his mask, enjoying the happy looks. Inside he was worried, but no one could see that today. He wouldn't let them. He's just a father trying to do what he can. Would things look up? For now perhaps. But sooner or later things would turn as they have been doing. He watched his son closely, loved him dearly, and didn't want to let him go. He didn't initially want to send him off. He felt the mission was for the best, an effort to distract his son. Was this a good idea? Who knows, what we do know is that something is going to happen. We are simply unaware of what that something is.