Death the kid and Maka stood in the library scanning books for any mention of the Corrado Clan. They had run into each other and had decided to work together, so far they had found nothing.

"Yeesh how hard is it to find info on this thing, If Black Star knew about it it shouldn't take this much research." Maka sighed as she put yet another reference book onto the nada pile.

"It is rather surprising that we haven't found anything, so far we have looked through books on clans and books on the name Corrado and all we have found is the name of some obscure actor." Kid flipped through yet another book scanning each page thoroughly.

Maka closed a book and got up, walking over to one of the libraries computers she took a seat and booted it up. Kid stopped what he was doing and walked over, standing behind her.

"Well if the books aren't working lets see what the internet has to say." She quickly pulled up a search engine and typed in 'Corrado Clan' after a moment the search results were displayed. '12 results found'. Maka scrolled down scanning the descriptions under each link. "Carmine Corrado, thats that actor we found. The Cadent Clan, a family of bakers. Hey a wikipedia page!"

She clicked on the link and the page popped up, Maka's excitement died and buried itself. Only one paragraph of text:

"The Corrado Clan is a Professional group. Not much is known about them except that they seem to have a uniform and are rather large. There is the possibility that other clans may know about them however none have ever made their knowledge public."

"Why do they even bother making a page if they have no real information." Kid said exasperated by their lack of findings.

"All it did was get my hopes up. Hey have you asked your dad? He hired them so he must know."

"I tried but he just ran me in circles, I also tried talking to Black star but he just challenged me to another fight. Even tsubaki didn't answer, just saying that we should ask Izel and Paige if we want answers."

"Well why don't we? I mean I started looking in books because I prefer professional observations rather than bias facts. But if there are no books might as well get it from the horses mouth." Maka said as she began to logout of the computer.

Kid mentally squirmed, for some reason he didn't really want to ask them in person. He was still trying to identify the feeling he had. Not being able to understand his own thoughts and feelings made him feel unbalanced, and being unbalanced drove him crazy.

The bell saved them from an awkward silence and they both headed to class meeting up with their weapons and the others.

Neither of the girls were in their first class, Both the girls were in their second class and Izel and Paige each made a solo appearance in the 3rd and 4th. Finally the bell rang for lunch, Maka, Kid, Black Star and their partners headed to the courtyard as they searched for a spot to sit they spotted Izel and Paige walking off towards the woods training fields.

After a moment of consulting they all headed after them. They caught up to see the girls beginning their lunches. Kid was a bit disappointed, he had somewhat hoped they were going to practice, he was rather interested in seeing their fighting skills.

"Hey you two!" Maka called waving at them and giving a big smile "Mind if we join you?"

"Not at all." Paige replied while Izel simply gave a nod.

The group sat down and began to eat, the silence wasn't quite as awkward as the last time they had eaten together. Surprisingly despite their bluntness and lack of engagement the two girls didn't seem hostile or actively unwelcoming, simply neutral.

Maka observed the relations between Black Star and the girls for a moment, after feeling no hostility she began to gear up for her question. "So, What is the Corrado Clan?" She braced herself for a cold silence or for anger, from the girls or Black Star she wasn't sure.

Instead all that happened was that Black Star looked at the girls expectantly. They looked up, "A mercenary clan." Izel answered.

Alright so that gave a few reasons for the apparent hostility from black star towards the name. Possibly they were enemies of the star clan, or maybe they were allies. Either might have bugged Black Star.

Black Star raised an eyebrow at the response "Is that all you're going to say? I think there's a lot more to it than that."

...

"Then why don't you explain it?" Patti said looking at Black Star. "You seem to know an awful lot about them."

"Fine I will." Black Star said not passing up the chance to blow hot air. Both Maka and Kid kinda wished he would have done this the first time.

"The Corrado clan are more than a family of mercs, in fact they are more army than family. Each member is raised from birth as high class mercenaries and start completing contracts as soon as they are taught the basics. They keep working until the day they can't, from what i've heard what happens next isn't particularly pleasant."

Black Stars voice held particular disdain that added more to his words. Despite the brief description they could tell the practices of the clan were not pleasant and possibly not even very moral.

"The main thing that makes them infamous is that they don't care what kind of work they do."

Alright so there went morals in general. So that left only two things: Was Black Star's description accurate, and if so why did Lord Death hire these two girls.

Black Star looked over to Izel and Paige. "Am I wrong?"

Izel looked him straight in the eyes. "Not at all."

The tension in the silence seemed tangible as the others tried to decide how they felt about his new information.

Soul decided to break the silence and change the subject slightly. "So if you're trained Mercenaries how strong are you? I'm guessing pretty strong since you only have to participate in the lecture and not the fighting part of class."

"Depends on what you consider strong." Paige said.

"Could you beat up Black Star?" Patty asked, seeming in awe of the unconfirmed fact.

Izel and Paige gave the blue haired assassin a look over before answering. "Definitely."

There was no pride or arrogance in Izel's tone, she said the word as someone would state a step in a recipe. However Black Star's reaction was far from calm.

"Are you kidding me? I don't care if you're from the Corrado clan, how would you a scrawny girl hope to compare to me, Black Star! I am the one who will surpass god!" Black Star exploded, his ego and competitiveness locking on to Izel despite the fact that Paige had also agreed. Izel simply raised an eyebrow.

"Ha I bet you couldn't beat me if I had one hand tied up!" Paige and Izel looked at him like he was an idiot for even thinking of that idea.

"I believe you are younger than us and so I doubt you have as much training as us. Besides seeing as the Star clan perished a while ago I believe you were trained here, meaning you didn't have as intense of training." Izel once again stated the facts, and once again it set off Black Star.

"That makes no difference! If you think you're so strong then why don't we test it. I CHALLENGE YOU TO A FIGHT!" Black Star ranted now standing, his finger pointed in Izel's face.

The group groaned at Black Stars obnoxiousness, however they all were both worried for both parties safety and interested in seeing how this would end.

Izel stood up and looked him directly in the eyes. "I accept."

Authors Note

So first off I want to say that Kid's feeling is not love.

I would love feedback on my story and characterization, also if I gave a description of the clan to early. More will come later but I am trying not to give you a lecture on the group I created.

I hope you are enjoying reading this :)