Newspapers all over the world speak of the birth of a new Shinigami, even on those countries where matters such as meisters, weapons, witches, and kishins are disregarded as tales to tell the kids to scare them into behaving. The media have done their job, though, so weapons and meisters all over the world who hadn't stayed after the old Shinigami's memorial arrive back in town; Death City is dressed in bright colours and decorations - perfectly symmetrical, of course - for the enthronement of the new Lord Death.

Said new Lord Death is, of course, freaking out.

"Have you checked the banners?" he frenetically asks Liz, who looks extremely bored as she wraps his new black cloak in place.

"Everything's fine, Kid."

"You better not freak out in front of everyone, Kiddo!" Patti cheerfully says before her expression darkens dangerously. "Or I'll friggin' kill ya."

Kid whimpers.

Everything goes according to plan, of course. The roads around the DWMA are filled to the brim with people hoping to see their new ruler and god; the decorations seem to pass Kid's scrutiny; Spirit only has to try and pass on the mask to the new Shinigami four times until Kid deems it to be put on straight enough - or rather, Black*Star screams at him to get it over with and Kid decides to comply in fear of the festival being wrecked by the egotistical ninja.

Maaba and her right-hand witch are granted places in the podium next to the death god, which incites some discussion between the spectators, but not nearly as much as it had been expected. Then, it's time for Soul to go up.

Maka squeezes his hand before he goes. "Good luck."

He's playing for everyone to hear, and it's wonderful.

Maka lets a happy smile play on her lips as she bounces up the steps to join him; she's terribly proud of her weapon and she doubts even the gods would be able to keep her away from him right now.

"They aren't even listening," he half-complains when she takes her place next to him, sitting on the giant stairs they walk up almost every day. "Aren't you going to enjoy yourself?"

"I like it here," she smiles. "It's better by your side. Now you can even play without me here, eh?"

Her weapon pinks a little, unsuccessfully trying to hide it by scoffing and turning his face away from her. She's embarrassed him. How absolutely cute. "Shut up! I'll be fine."

They've grown so much - the conversation they are having is the very proof of that. On the early days, he's only talk enough to say 'cool' things; she sure is glad he's past that phase.

Soul Eater Evans, huh? I can get used to that.

Her train of thought screeches and halts, and imaginary-Maka watches as it goes up in flames when her weapon's lips form that perfect smirk of his as he says, "Even this music is something we made together, isn't it?"

She bolts up from her seat, face on fire, and there's not a single moment in the evening when his words leave her mind.

"Hey," she says as he twirls the pen nimbly with his fingers. "I don't think these are the files we were supposed to work on."

The pen slips. They've been working on this for three days already, and he'll be damned if they have to start all over again. "What? What do you mean? It looks all in order to me."

Maka nods. "It looked that way to me, too, but this one looks different." She slides the page towards him. "Here, take a look."

She's right, it does look odd, as well as much older than the files they have been working on; it's yellowed with age and mistreatment, and with a frayed edge, as if it had been torn from a book. The page is covered in glyphs, half of of them with a rather obvious meaning due to their picture-like design, and the rest with symbols much like those they had encountered when dealing with Eibon's is a rather detailed drawing of a firebird in the center, runes for power and strenght surrounding it.

Maka chews on her lip thoughtfully. "It's probably another of Eibon's artifacts - a powerful one, too, according to the inscriptions."

"That's definitely not good," Soul frowns. "If this falls into the wrong hands, no one can tell what kind of havoc they'd create."

"Especially now that we're finally at peace with the witches," she adds. "We should look into this. There's no telling if there are more ripped pages out there, anyone could find them."

"What do you want to do, then?"

"We should probably tell Kid."

Stein looks as unsettling as ever when he opens the door and lets Soul and Maka inside. Maka had mused over whether the news of his upcoming parenthood would change him since he would now have a pregnant lover, and later, a baby to take care of - and that's bound to change most people, mad doctor or not; Soul had laughed in her face.

Maka gives the older meister a quick hug, though, and he and Soul exchange curt nods as they make their way to the living room, where Marie awaits them.

"Hi," the friendly weapon greets as soon as they walk in, offering a wide, warm smile that comforts their souls. "How have the two of you been? Not up to much trouble, I hope."

The pair shares a quick look, grinning. "For once, we actually haven't," Maka replies, laughing. "But that'll probably change soon enough, you know how these things are."

"I sure do!" chirps Marie as she tries to get up. Stein sends her a look before she can, though, and she sits back down, pouting. "But that doesn't mean that I can't hope for the best. Stein, be a dear and fetch us those cookies."

Maka shoots a smug 'I told you so' look at her weapon.

"Marie has been worrying too much," says Stein, casting her a disapproving look, though not without some fondness. She smiles brightly in return. "She's even been trying to get back and help work on the repairs. I've told her time and time again that she can't do heavy physical work for her sake and the baby's, but she won't listen."

"I just feel bad not doing anything while everyone works so hard," the blonde woman confesses, sounding almost guilty. "And it's not it would do any damage at this stage, anyway, but Stein insists on treating it like some sort of delicate experiment even at this point. Would the two of you like some tea?"

Maka gracefully accepts, taking a moment before she speaks again. "Actually, we'd like to ask Professor Stein about something - we aren't sure on who to go to about this since it's a rather delicate matter."

"Oh?" the older meister raises a grey eyebrow, the eyes behind his lenses glinting interestedly. "What is it about, then?"

"What do you know about Eibon's artifacts?" Maka bursts out, flushing as she realizes that she probably came off as far too eager for the information.

Stein gives her a look as he strokes his chin thoughtfully, looking extremely out of place in the midst of the fluffy pillows Marie had recently placed on the worn sofa in hopes of making it look 'homey'. Soul expects the entire place to be redecorated by the next time they stop by. "Not much more than Lord Death revealed to you all, I fear. My memory isn't what it was, but maybe if I have some specifics I can see if I can remember something, maybe research a bit-"

"You won't find anything," Soul says, ignoring Maka's glare at his interruption. "Not in anything accessible to the general public or Death Scythes, at least. We already checked."

"Interesting," the scientist mutters to himself, and Marie looks lost in thought. "You should probably ask Kid about the records in his father's office, then. Meanwhile, I'll see what I can do, regardless. Do you have the files on you?"

"Yes," says Maka, already shuffling through her bag. "They're only copies, though - we figured it wouldn't be a good idea for the originals to leave their place."

"You probably did well," says Marie, nodding to two of them. "If they remained hidden for this long, it was most likely for a good reason."

"We didn't think of that," Maka admits sheepishly. "It was mostly because last time we got in trouble for checking out things without authorization."

Soul snorts. "More like you got in trouble- I didn't do anything wrong."

Maka elbows him; he elbows her back, though his elbows are nowhere near as effective as her bony, skinny ones that just seem to go through his ribs. Marie hides an amused smile at their antics, but sobers up quickly enough. "Just promise me you won't get into too much trouble."

"We won't," they chorus, even though they can't make any real promises about it. Risk and danger are part of their job description, after all.

Then, Maka squeals as she spots a thick catalogue full of embroidery and baby photos on the cover. "Is that for the baby?!"

Soul and Stein share a rare moment of camaderie as the conversation quickly degenerates into baby talk.

"I see," Kid says, stroking his chin thoughtfully over the mask he has taken to wearing since the coronation ceremony. Soul can't even begin to think of how awkward and suffocating it must be, being stuck all day long with what was probably the grittiest, chalkiest mask in existence, made of bone older than the birth of some civilizations - and then his respect for the deceased Lord Death increases even more at the thought of what it must have been like to wear the damned thing every single day in order not to terrorize his students.

"We thought we should let you know," says Maka, dropping the arm with which she had handed the file to the new Shinigami. "It's the kind of thing we shouldn't underestimate, after all."

From the eye holes on the mask, they see Kid's eyebrows furrow. "You did well. Even with the new treaty with the witches, there is always some need to be prepared for such things. This kind of artifact cannot fall into the wrong hands, after all."

"Yes." Maka nods. "We thought as much. Good intentions or not, we should always be ready to act."

Kid nods as well. "I'll trust this matter to you two, then."

"Sure thing," Maka chirps brightly. "Do you think there might be something in your father's files?"

"Probably," the new Lord Death answers slowly. "Though I haven't properly sorted through those yet, and there are quite a few which are harmful to mortal eyes. I'll see what I can do, but I have a meeting with Mabaa in a few minutes and-"

"Yo, Kiddo!" comes Patti's gleeful voice from the end of the hall. "Time to go!"

"Wait, I have to-"

"No time for that," Liz intervenes sharply. "There's been a major fuck-up somewhere, and apparently we've left the Council waiting for nearly two hours."

Kid goes pale. "What?"

Patti giggles. "You're in troubleeee~"

"Exactly what you heard," Liz snarls, pushing him along. "I'd get around to firing some people if I were you, but later!"

"But, Kid-"

"We'll talk about this later, yes?" they hear Kid shout from the end of the hall. "Just see what you can find until then!"

"Sure!" Maka shouts back, as Soul looks on. "Let's go, Soul!"

"You're all nuts," he sighs, and lets her take his hand as she leads the way.

She gives him the most innocent look she can muster. Soul isn't fooled.

"Makaaaa," he groans. "No."

"Yes," she says, a grin spreading on her face. "Come on, Soul. Don't be so uncool."

He groans again. It's a low blow, attacking his coolness. "You know, when I first partnered with you, I thought for sure you were a stickler for the rules."

She makes a grab for his hand. "Well, then you've probably learned by now that first impressions aren't always right. Now come ooooon."

Soul lets her drag him, if only because he can't bring himself to tear his hand away. They're going to get in trouble. This isn't something to be taken lightly; the Shinigami's private business is not the kind of thing you just mess with, and Maka knows it.

"This isn't going to end well," he warns her, even though he's also sneakily checking if there's anyone around.

"Pshhh, it'll be fine."

"Says you," he grumbles. "Did you forget that they discovered that you were checking out books from the restricted section? Because I didn't."

She waves him off. "It's not like you had to serve detention. Plus, we're not leaving behind any clues."

"Riiight," he drawls. "It's not like we're the only people here, and the only people who they'll blame."

It makes her falter for a second, but she's too curious. Soul wants to make a witty remark about how curiosity killed the cat, but then remembers that if he does, he won't be able to use it on Blair later - which would be far more appropriate. "They won't even check, they've got plenty more important things to worry about right now. And it's not like we're going to keep it, plus we're technically doing this under Kid's orders and everything - though they don't know that. I just want to know why they're being so secretive. It'll be just like a spy novel!"

They move along the corridor on their tiptoes. Soul is fully aware of how stupid they look, but he's pretty much morally obligated to go along with his meister's silliness. "You're still reading those?"

She flushes prettily. "They're interesting! At least I read."

"I read," Soul refutes.

"Comic books don't count," she snottily says. "And I'm pretty sure you only read those because of all the heroines with back-breaking breasts."

It's his turn to blush. "No, I don't." Soul has the morbid urge to bring the Book of Eibon into the conversation just to prove his point, though he's pretty sure he'll die of embarrassment if his meister ever makes the connection between his form from the Lust chapter and herself. So what if he's gained an appreciation for small breasts? It doesn't mean that it's because of her (yes, it totally does, but he refuses to admit it even to himself, especially now that they maintain that background resonance almost constantly).

She brushes him off. "Let's just go," she says, and does her best sneaky walk towards the locked room. "I need your fingers here."

Soul does a double-take. "You need my f- Ooooh, right." He tries not to think of all the different ways she could have meant that exact same assortment of words.

Maka bristles. "Just unlock the thing!"

He takes his sweet time to do so, just to show her that he's not pleased with this as she shifts nervously behind him. He takes great care not to damage the lock, even if he nearly slips a few times when her knees lean against his back.

"Hurry up!" she hisses.

"I'm trying!"

"Then try harder!"

Soul contains the urge to snap at her to do it herself just as the door unlocks. He makes a very poor imitation of the hacker in nearly all blockbuster movies. "We're in."

The dust assaults their noses as soon as they walk in; it takes quite a few sneezes and their sleeves in front of their mouths before they manage to breathe normally. The office is gigantic, dark, containing towering shelves stacked with endless books and files Soul reckons no one would be able to read within a century. He can't picture the late Shinigami sitting in the old desk, golden inlays mostly flaked off, filling out paperwork and searching all the material for vital information; the old Death God didn't seem like the scholarly type at all.

Soul watches as Maka works hard to contain giddy squeals at the sight of so much reading material - most of it probably dangerous, forbidden, or detrimental to human eyes - and it almost pains his soul to stop her from attacking the dusty shelves.

"We're here for a reason," he whispers, and Maka's eyes lose the excited glint as she nods somberly.

It's too soon after the old Shinigami's death for them to lose the reverent whisper in their voices; Soul doesn't think it will ever actually happen. There is something about the memory of the benevolent Death God that invokes respect and fear. His presence seems to be everywhere in his office.

"We should start for looking for things that seem relevant," Maka whispers back, taking his hand and leading him towards the mahogany secretary desk in the middle of the room. Her hand is cool and silky in his, a heavy contrast with the rough, cracking leather spine of the book she hands him.

They settle on the floor, knees touching as they browse over the books' contents, and it's a long time before they move in search of more. They avoid anything that looks potentially menacing, using Maka's Soul Perception to figure out if any of them has an evil, dark soul trapped inside (he wouldn't put it past the old Shinigami; his innocent exterior had fooled them for a while, but now they knew better). There is one particular book with a golden exterior and red letters that draws Maka in; Soul pushes her away from it as it starts smoking when her fingers reach for it.

Half of the books they can get their hands are in a myriad of languages which Soul is pretty sure haven't been used for millennia; Maka takes pleasure in chopping him when he makes a pun about how fitting it is for a Death God to use dead languages no one else can understand. It's useless for them to try and decipher the glyphs that decorate the pages in all kinds of ink, some of which Soul is pretty damn sure is actually blood. Some of them have covers far too much like human skin for comfort. He represses a shiver at the thought.

Either way, there are some pretty gory books in the Shinigami's collection, written in blood and skin or not. He covers his meister's eyes as she wiggles frustratedly against his hold because those are definitely some illustrations she doesn't need to see.

It takes a long time until they finally start to find bits of relevant information - here and there, they find a few symbols that they vaguely recognize from the file they had originally found; a passage alluding to the most powerful artifacts in Death's collection; a paragraph there about all kinds of treasures hidden and locked down for safety. The light is low, filtered through the cluster of dark, thorny roses growing outside the window in shades of purple and black, and Soul fears that Maka will make them spend all night in the old Shinigami's office when a shout resounds in his ears.

He winces. "Ow, Maka! What the fuck?"

"I found the thing!" she says excitedly, not looking at all like the sleepy mess she had been not one minute ago. "Soul, I found it!"

He shuffles closer to her, close enough that her back is leaning against his chest. He only realizes that he'd been cold when her warmth takes over his skin.

"Show me," he says, and his voice is raspy and low from hours of not talking. He clears his throat when she settles further into him, the book over her folded legs so he can see it as well from over her shoulder. Her voice quivers as she speaks; it's faint, nearly indiscernible, but he feels it on the tremor of her throat as his ear rests against her silky neck.

"It's not much," she confesses, and he tries to ignore how the soft tips of her pigtails tickle his face. "But it's more than we've found so far."

He can't be bothered to read the damn thing, though they've spent hours searching for it; instead, he closes his eyes and relishes on being so close to his meister. "Does it say something about where it is?"

His meister shivers underneath him as his breath grazes over her skin; he tries not to feel too satisfied about it. "Kind of. There's a riddle of sorts in here; it might tell us what we need to know."

"Can you solve it?"

"Maybe," she whispers. "But it'll take a few days, and some research."

He groans. Maka snickers at his pained expression, and he buries his face further into her neck, taking in her soft scent.

There are gentle fingers threading through his hair, petting it softly. "But, for now, let's just go home."