A/N: Sorry for the wait, darlings! What can I say, I live and stuff, so I can't write all the time. But YOU lot! You all put this fanfic on alerts and whatnot, but only three different people reviewed! I am, no kidding, about to throw a hissy fit. Review! Or I shall inflict upon you cliffhangers, I swear it! Anyway, enjoy, or I'll find you. And there is no such thing as a pygmy dolphin, I asked my mom and she knows everything.

-Love, Maya

Chapter 5

Stein looked up suddenly from the pygmy dolphin tied to the top of his desk, scalpels poised over its vulnerable belly. "Oh, yeah. Kid, Eris, Liz, and Patty, you're wanted in the Death Room."

Soul glanced up from his iPod, with which he had been distracting Maka at her request, and raised his eyebrows at Stein.

Eris, who was letting Liz give her a manicure, stared blankly at her father. "Dad, we've been in class for two hours. Why didn't you say something earlier?"

He looked at her as if it should be obvious. "I wanted my kid in my class."

Soul calmly leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk, gazing at his teacher with something resembling admiration. "You are absolutely batshit." Stein gave him a sickly grin and adjusted his screw.

"That is very unprofessional behavior, Professor Stein," Maka scolded, finally looking up.

Stein met her eyes and inched his scalpel toward the struggling dolphin.

The blonde squeaked and looked at the iPod again, grabbing Soul's arm for his attention. "So, what song is this again?"

He grinned sharkily at her. "'Dolphins.'" (1)

MAKA-CHOP!

Liz finished with Eris's nails and stood. "We should get going; we're pretty late."

Patty clapped her hands, giggling for some reason. "Ooh, is this your first mission, Eris?" she squealed, jumping up on the desk while the class looked on calmly.

Eris rose with Kid, blowing on her nails. "Well, it's my first one directly from Lord Death."

Her father waved a scalpel at her as they passed him to leave. "Careful out there; you can't die before you see your new room!"

The redhead waved her hand dismissively and turned into the hallway. Kid laid a hand on her shoulder and whispered, "Wrong, way."

She did a 180, blushing furiously. "Well, I don't know!" she huffed defensively. "I'm new here, damn it!"

Kid gave her a smug smile and started toward the Death Room. She hurried after him, his weapons snickering the whole time.

When they reached the entrance to the Death Room, Eris stared up at the door with some confusion. "Any reason why it's so big?"

Kid shrugged. "Hey, your dad is weird too." The other meister looked like she might have protested, but she didn't really have a leg to stand on.

Patty calmly kicked the door open. "Let's go!"

"Patty, if you dented that door asymmetrically…" Kid threatened, rushing to scrutinize the boot print. Eris gave Liz a pitying look, to which the pistol responded with a long-suffering sigh. The two linked arms and continued ahead without the crazies.

"So, how'd you end up with Kid, anyway?" the meister asked.

Liz made an Excalibur-face. "He was on our turf, we were high, so we decided to mug him."

Eris gazed blankly at the taller girl, awaiting elaboration. When there was none, she remarked, "So, just… mug a grim reaper, like you do?"

Liz smiled grimly at the distance. "Exactly like you do."

The ginger nodded and looked forward, trying not to understand.

"So, what brings you to Nevada?"

Eris glanced up, then away again. "There was a terrible battle in Venice, so Dad insisted I come home. Not that I put up much of a fight."

The brunette nodded and asked, "You left your weapon partner?"

"I lost him in the battle," she replied sadly, earning an arm-pat of sympathy from Liz, "so I was pretty dazed when Dad said to come home. I don't think I agreed to, but I looked up and I was in an airport stateside."

"I'm sorry," the weapon almost whispered.

"Not your fault." Eris gave her a sad smile, then looked up at the guillotine-toris. "How many of these things are there?" she asked, clearly changing the subject.

Liz obliged and answered, "88, I think."

"Of course, there are 88," Kid put in, catching up to the girls. "88 is a beautiful, perfect number."

His weapon caught Eris's mismatched eyes and rolled her own blue ones. The redhead giggled as they approached the platform where Lord Death himself—er—stood.

"Heya, hiya, hello!" chirped the Grim Reaper.

"Hello, Father," Kid said.

"Hi, Lord Death!" said the Thompsons.

Death leaned over a bit, apparently looking at Eris, who had clasped her hands behind her back nervously. "You must be Eris, Stein's daughter," he said. "Nice to meet you!" He sprouted a giant hand for shaking.

The girl looked at it, wondering how she was to shake such a hand, finally electing to wrap her much-smaller hand around one square finger and shake that timidly. "Nice to meet you too, Lord Death."

"Hee-hee!" He straightened and addressed the group, "Okay, now that everyone's acquainted, I have an assignment for you all, in Milan."

"Ooh, shopping," Liz all but squealed, grabbing Eris's arm. "I can shop with someone other than Patty, who breaks the store, and Kid, who randomly gets—er—upset!"

Eris smiled weakly at her, then went back to anxiously eyeing Lord Death. Had he heard about Dante…?

"Enriqueta Martí (2) is causing problems in downtown Milan," he explained in his weirdly chipper voice, "but she's oddly strong—just this side of pre-kishin—which is strange because she started down the path of the Kishin fairly recently."

"Any idea as to why?" Kid asked.

"Hmm?" Death cocked his head at his son. "Hmm."

"Dad, we could use all the information you have on this."

He tilted his head the other way, then nodded (probably). "Enriqueta Martí seems to be mostly interested in the souls of children."

"That doesn't explain why she got so powerful so quickly," Eris said.

The Grim Reaper shifted uneasily. "Well, we think she may have the support of Arachnophobia. There have been sightings of their… newer operatives."

Kid could feel Eris stiffening beside him. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, then turned to look at her carefully. Her face was pale, making her asymmetrical freckles stand out more than usual, her hands tightly fisted at her sides, her spine and shoulders rigid, and a cold sweat had broken out on her forehead. He reached out and brushed his fingers against her arm. "You okay?" he asked softly.

She twitched and jerked her head up to meet his concerned gaze, her mismatched eyes wide and cornered. Then she shook her head and looked away, a strained smile on her face. "Yeah, fine," she lied obviously, shakily.

"It's your weapon, isn't it?" Lord Death said gently, not really asking.

Eris flinched and stared up at him, stricken. "I-"

"It's not your fault," the Grim Reaper soothed. "I know it wasn't your fault; you had nothing to do with it."

She stared at the floor, her eyes brimming with tears. "Didn't I?" she whispered.

Kid looked to the Thompsons for clarification. When Patty only shrugged, Liz cleared her throat and said with a worried glance at Eris, "She lost her weapon in a battle. I guess that battle was with Arachnophobia." Lord Death gazed heavily at the ginger meister, who wouldn't look up from the floor.

"Oh, dear," Kid sighed, watching Eris as well. He carefully, awkwardly put a comforting arm around her shoulders as the tears began to fall.

"I ask this mission of you, Eris," Death said, unusually somber, "because you have been all over Europe. You lived in Milan for a time, right?"

She nodded hesitantly and looked up at him. "Uh-um… will… w-will they have, um…?" She trailed off helplessly, her voice hoarse with tears and distress.

Lord Death only shook his head regretfully. "We have no way of knowing."

Eris nodded in resigned understanding, leaning against Kid as her tears came faster. He watched the exchange between the girl he held and his father with suspicion; he was obviously not getting the whole story. Squeezing Eris a little tighter, he thought, What is going on?

A/N: So kind of a cliffy. I can do much worse, don't push me! Also, I love you all, and thanks for reading.

(1) Dolphins: a song from the movie Bedazzled, with Elizabeth Hurley as Satan. It's a song about how adorable and sweet dolphins are. Actually, cross a dolphin, and he will get his friends and they will fuck you up 0.0 All animals are like that. Anywho...

(2)Enriqueta Martí: a Spanish serial killer, specializing in children and child prostitution. Pretty awful. Found her on Wikipedia, trying to keep up with the Soul Eater thing of using the names of actual criminals for target pre-kishins.