Stein nearly runs into Maka as they round the same corner of the Academy headed in opposite directions. She jumps backwards, stumbles and almost falls, and he stops dead and rocks back on his heels. For a moment they stare at each other blankly; Maka is breathing hard like she's been running, and her recovering weapon is nowhere to be seen. Stein tips his head into the light without thinking, hiding behind reflective lenses, and the years of practicing normal conversation take over his throat without conscious thought.

"Oh. Hey Maka."

"Professor Stein!" She is still startled, still coming down from the flush of panic from their near collision, but her eyes have refocused on whatever she was thinking of originally. She is just as easy to read as Spirit is, emotions painted all across her face like a tapestry. The resemblance makes Stein smile without thinking. "There's a witch in the city! I felt the wavelength from my apartment, we have to stop her!"

"Yes," he agrees. "Two, actually."

"We have to find them before they escape!" she demands, her hands fisting at her sides. She looks ridiculous, like a kitten about to pick a fight with a lion, but the determination in her eyes is impressive in spite of its unreasonable aggression. Stein's mind flickers backwards, for once not offering images of Spirit but this time of the current Academy students, Maka and Soul and Black*Star and Tsubaki, and his own words stripped of the resonance of his head, sounding like a stranger as he remembers them from a distance: "I may have underestimated those kids."

"Come on," he says instead of telling her to go home, to stay safe where Spirit would want her. "We should hurry."

He leads the way, jogging instead of running in consideration of her shorter stride, but she paces him as if her determination is enough to make up for any quantity of physical exhaustion. Of course she is running towards the witches' wavelengths, not away from them, so she is already deliberately crushing past the fear of the last time she saw a witch. Possibly her determination can affect more than the obvious.

Impressive, Stein's head notes at a distance. Very impressive.

They make good time through the city, between Stein's long strides and Maka's stoic, churning run, but one of the two witch wavelengths flickers out before they arrive, and as they come in sight of the alley itself the other veers off in the other direction.

There is still one wavelength left, though. Human, nonthreatening, but one of those souls disappeared before they arrived, and the second witch fled before she could possibly have heard Stein and Maka's approach.

Human… Stein's hand flexes in his pocket, trying to find traction on something that isn't there rather than the screw in his head, and the evidence aligns into an explanation. Or Soul Protected.

He slows as they turn down the alley, as narrow as an Academy corridor and papered over with torn posters for long-ago concerts and charity events. Maka's faster footsteps patter behind him and in front of him...ah. Yes. Medusa.

"Are you alright, Doctor Medusa?" Maka is genuinely concerned, her assumptions grounded too firmly to even be questioned under the circumstances. And she didn't see the Protected soul wavelength hovering in the sky in Italy.

Stein's fingers shift, dig into his palm like they is generating the rapid-fire logic in his head in lieu of the screw's jumbled rearrangement. Maka present. No weapons. Do not engage.

"We detected two witches in this area and came as quickly as we could," he offers. Strict truth is easier than lying, especially when it suits his purposes as well as the latter.

"Yes," Medusa says without turning. Her voice skips high, just for a breath. Stein is sure Maka doesn't hear the inflection, wouldn't catch it himself if he weren't listening for a break. "I sensed them too and came here to investigate myself."

Bad story. She's not ready to back up her presence. Why would a school nurse come out to investigate witches with no back up? And how did she sense them? Is she claiming to have Soul Perception too?

"I wonder if one of them could have been the witch that was there when Soul was injured!" Maka thinks aloud. She truly has no suspicions at all, although her circling attention to her partner is charming. Stein can understand the need for revenge, although he hasn't ever turned his own on anyone but himself.

"That is a possibility."

Liar. The word is too short to be sure, but it doesn't sound like Stein's inner voice anymore, has the high pitch of Spirit instead, and Stein responds to back it up as quickly as if Spirit were actually there and speaking.

"No, I don't think it's the same one." Maka turns to look at him, eyes wide with surprise. Medusa doesn't turn at all. He doesn't know what expression she is making, but the lack of reaction is just as telling as a grimace. She lacks subtlety. "For one thing, that witch had the Demon Sword and its meister along with her, and even if she were here I doubt we would have sensed her at all." He doesn't need to go on, but the understanding is flooding into his brain and he seems to be adopting some of Spirit's recklessness from sheer sustained proximity in the City and this is amusing in the way that his first fights were, before he discovered how to be burdened by everything else. He can remember how to smile, a tiny curve that Maka won't notice and Medusa will barely see. "I have a feeling this one is too cunning to release her Protect in the middle of Death City without reason. One thing we do know is this witch has an interest in weapons and meisters, so I wouldn't be surprised if she were in the area, observing the students here. But I have no doubt that she would want to do it quietly."

Maka is gazing at him with that particularly rapt expression upon receiving new knowledge that is all her own, with nothing of either parent in it. She looks like he reading back the chapter to a fascinating novel, hanging on his every word like he is remaking the world into his perception just by talking. It's heady to have someone gazing at him like he is responsible, like he is an adult, but the Spirit in Stein's head is whimpering at the ramifications and Stein has to agree that he is not a particularly good role model for anyone, including and especially himself.

"Yes, I suppose it's even possible that she has managed to infiltrate the Academy itself." Almost too much, too close to an accusation. Medusa doesn't want to fight or both he and Maka would be defending their lives, but too close to the mark and he may change her mind anyway. Retreat. Stein angles his head towards Medusa, curves his mouth in an approximation of a smile. "But that would be tricky even for a powerful witch." Again. "Whatever the case, it's a relief that you weren't hurt by these witches, Doctor Medusa. We would be in some serious trouble if something happened to our only school nurse."

The emphasis is slight. Maka shouldn't notice it without any suspicion to heighten her attention, but Medusa's eyes are sharp on Stein's own lab coat and the implications it carries. She isn't quite glaring at him over Maka's head, but her chin is down and her eyes are taking in all of him. Stein's not worried, not yet. She won't attack here and she's not going to find his weakness that easily, not when he's spent years cultivating a cover for it. If he can fool Spirit while Resonating, with the weapon in his head and his heart stuttering in his chest, he can fool her.

"Thanks, but I'm fine." Almost too sharp, so edged Maka could notice something. Then the young meister speaks and Stein realizes that she is entirely lost to the scenario's details.

"But still...if I…" Her head is hanging, her voice soft and fading out as she forgets her audience. "Ever see that sword and its meister again…"

She goes fully quiet. Her shoulders slump forward under her pink sweater, stripping years off her age so she just looks like a little girl instead of the determined meister Stein knows her to be. He doesn't have to read her soul wavelength to know what she's thinking. He recognizes the look of a meister panicked for her weapon.

He also recognizes the approaching soul wavelength, but doesn't say anything. It'll be better if Soul does his own talking.

"Maka!" The weapon comes up the alley, running faster than Maka managed. It speaks to his full recovery, at least physically. "Are you alright, Maka?" He is as worried as the meister, concern rippling out into his words and his motions. He keeps coming, although his pace slows as he sees Maka at least on her feet. "You shouldn't take off on your own, it's too dangerous."

"I'm fine, Soul." It is almost angry, but Maka is less good at covering her emotions with aggression than Stein was as a student, and the almost-tears underneath are audible to Stein. He's not sure if Soul hears them too or is just used to his meister, but either way the weapon doesn't appear particularly fazed.

Maka raises her head to stare at Soul. The weapon looks perplexed, hums a question, but doesn't pull away, even when she reaches to press her hand over his heart.

Stein's fingers clench into fists, his vision shifts to daylit memories, and for a minute Maka and Soul are overlaid with silver hair and red, shifting features and a different setting.

"You have to tell me what's going on," Soul says, voice gentle, and that's not the voice that Stein expected but it shifts in his head towards his guilt-laced nostalgia. You have to tell me what's going on, Spirit's voice echoes off his head, reverberating with unfamiliar tonalities and words Spirit has never said himself. You stoic scythe-meisters, I swear.

Maka turns to look at Stein and Soul follows her gaze, as if she has said something to explain her behavior. Stein admires the weapon for his dedication, even without any sort of reasonable explanation for his meister's behavior, for his willingness to follow wherever she leads.

"Alright, Professor Stein."

He doesn't know exactly what she is going to say, but he knows enough of it that it colors his voice with pleasure when he answers, going through the motions of not-knowing. "Yes?"

She steps forward, aggressive with her decision, face fixed in the same determination from the Academy. It looks less foolish this time. "I know. What I'm lacking now." He doesn't answer and she goes on. "You told me to figure it out and I have."

Whatever else he may do, whether the hope of regaining Spirit sparkling in his blood turns into anything or not, no matter what else he may go on to destroy or who else he ends up hurting, this is a success. His glasses reflect to cover the genuine light in his eyes this time, his smile goes soft with sincerity. "Very good." At last. Maka's finally found the courage to fight her fear. She and Soul may make a partnership yet. That in his voice, the next in Spirit's. And she won't make the mistakes you did.

Maka's eyes are steady, colored with determination so strong it is nearly violent, looking like she is ready to walk through walls to do whatever he asks of her. That is good. It might be enough.

"In that case, I'd like you and Soul to come to my office tomorrow for a special lesson."

She won't like it. Spirit.

She doesn't have to. Him. As long as it works.