"Explain to me what happened." said Lord Death, once Akira was taken to the Dispensary. Liz, Patty, Spirit, and Lord Death were in the Death Room, the girls each clutching a mug of steaming hot tea at Death's insistence.

"Well there was this really bright light, and this woman came out of nowhere-" Patty started,

"-But before that Akira said that everything was a lot brighter than it should be or something-" Liz interrupted,

"-And then he yelled at us to call you so I was in weapon form and Liz got to a window and called you." Patty continued.

"And what happened after you called me?" Death asked, looking uncharacteristically grim.

"When I got back Akira had the woman wrapped in chain and was doing that thing Proffesor Stein does, I shot her in the head twice," said Liz, " then everything got darker and a bunch of black spikes shot out from the alleyway through Akira's chain, which explains the arm injury, and the woman. Then she glowed and it kind of made the spikes disappear but then a knife got thrown into her throat by someone in the alley and only her soul was left."

"Did you see the person who threw the knife and created the spikes?"

"Yeah, some girl, looked a bit older than Maka, in a violet cloak and metal boots. I didn't see much of her face. She ran when she saw you and I didn't get to say anything to her."

"Interesting. Well, you girls had better get to class, I believe I have some calls to make. Spirit, you'll be substituting for Stein's class today."

"Alright."

"Lord Death?" Patty asked before the sisters left the room.

"Hm?"

"Is Akira gonna be okay?"

"I'm sure that everything with be just fine!"

"Alright so Professor Stein is out today due to a medical emergency in the Dispensary so I'll be here in his place today. Any idea on what he was going to be covering today?" Spirit asked, coming in late with Liz and Patty.

"We were going to talk about chain resonance." Jacqueline said.

"Okay, well, there's a section on that in the book you guys have right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay well get into groups, read and talk about it until I'm back. I'm going to go ask Stein what else he was planning for you."

The Thompsons joined up with BlackStar, Tsubaki, Maka and Soul when they sat down.

"Did something happen?" Soul asked, while Maka looked in the index for the page on Chain Resonance. "Where's Akira?"

"Something happened on our way here." said Liz, and they all looked at her and Patty.

"Some woman attacked us, well, Akira. He got hurt."

"Is she going to be okay?" Tsubaki asked.

"We don't know yet. Stein hasn't said anything."

"Who attacked them?" asked Soul, flipping to the page number Maka showed him.

"Some lady, who knows what she was though." Patty muttered."Her soul looked like that one time I accidently put milk into Liz's water glass because it was next to mine. It didn't even glow."

"Well that's not human," said Maka, "We should probably read the chapter before my dad gets back and talk about this later."

"The voice of reason speaks again." Soul joked, and Maka elbowed him slightly.

"I think we just need to get through class before we talk about this. Now who wants to read first?"

"Hey Mira, is Stein still busy?" Spirit asked, standing in the doorway of the Dispensary.

"I'm just sewing up the entrance wound now, I'll be done in a minute!" Stein called. Mira shrugged at Spirit and turned back to her paperwork. After a few minutes Stein came out from behind the white curtain.

"Is the kid alright?" Spirit asked.

"Probably, I've done all that can be done. As long as the stitches hold, Akira should be fine. Some of the intestinal wounds were already starting to heal once I got to the point of stitching, seems like the demon's body has itself covered for the most part. What do you think I should do with the knife?" The last part was directed to Mira.

"Wash it, first of all, who knows what's in that blood. Maybe the kid will take it as a souvenir."

"Yeah, they can put it on a wall with other things that have almost killed them." Stein joked.

"I don't think I can put an entire set of stairs on my bedroom wall Professor." a groggy sounding voice said from behind the curtains. The three adults spun around.

"How the hell are you awake?!" Stein demanded.

"My brain thought I should be conscious for my hours of suffering."

"Well you need rest, so get back to sleep."

"k."

"So what exactly is it you were planning to do for class today?" Spirit asked, "Unless your ready to do class yourself since your done operating."

"I'm sure I can handle things on my own, Stein, you should go teach your class." Mira said, "after you've filled out the sections of the patient report that you didn't yell at me from the other room."

"I'll only be a few minutes, you may as well just stay here. It won't hurt them to be left unsupervised a little bit longer."

When Stein got back to the classroom, Spirit went back to the Death Room to see if he was needed anywhere else.

"Stein finished the operation, so he took over the class. Good thing we got Akira here like, 20 minutes before school even started."

"Yes, that one likes to be early." Lord Death responded, holding a piece of cracked yellow parchment. "Say, could you go out to the market and get me everything on this list please? I need to contact my wife and I'm out of ingredients for the trans-realm communication spell we use."

"Yeah, sure, why do you need to call your wife? Is it about what happened?" Spirit asked. He had gotten these things about ten years ago, in bulk. They normally only did this on their wedding anniversary, but it was fall now, not spring.

"Yes. I think her battles may have overflowed into my territory this time, so it would be best to ask her if anything has been going on."

"Okay, I'll be off then."

"Do be careful, who knows what else is in the city this morning."