Chapter 3

"William darling, don't worry so much! Little Stephy is going to be just fine!" Grell said, attempting to reassure the older brother who was currently in his office, doing paperwork on overtime.

The elder Spears sibling did not display any outward signs of stress, but inside he was extremely anxious. Today was the last day for reaping assignments. Stephanie and her partner, a young man whom he didn't know too much about, had been sent to evaluate the life of one of their targets, the last test before becoming a full-fledged shinigami.

When he thought back to his own assignment with Grell, he couldn't help but worry for her. Back in the day, when the redheaded reaper and himself had only been trainees, he knew how much they argued and fought, almost compromising their mission. He could only hope that his sister would be able to make a well thought out judgment and pass.

He sighed and continued to work on meaningless reports, just to pass the time and take his mind off of her.

"Sutcliff, you know you don't have to stay here, your workday ended about an hour ago," said William, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Grell looked sympathetically at his friend, "Well…" he said, nervously pushing his fingers together, "I'm worried about her too! Let me stay here and help you Will! Pleeeeaase!"

Will looked up from his papers and nodded, "If that's what you wish, be my guest, just do a thorough job," he said with a blank expression.

Grell smiled and nodded, before grabbing a stack of reports to look over.

Stephanie wiped a few specks of blood off of her face with a black gloved hand, admiring the work before her.

Her partner, Henry Robertson smiled down at her and gave her a hand to help her up. She accepted and stood up, while Henry recorded the details and time of the death.

They both stood over their mark, a man in his forties that had abandoned his children when they were young, and abused his wife. He had acquired quite a large gambling debt, and had a horrible drinking problem. Their case had been ridiculously easy, and it wasn't hard to see that the man had next to nothing to contribute to society. In other words, it was his time to die, and he was leaving behind a fairly worthless life.

Henry and Stephanie had taken the allotted amount of time to make their judgment, but both had been in constant agreement as to where their case was heading.

"Well Spears, it looks like we've completed our job," Henry said giving the girl a smile. "I still can't believe your brother is the William T. Spears. Honestly, the guy kind of scares me."

Stephanie laughed and readjusted the plain frames of her training glasses, "Yeah, he tends to do that. He better watch his back though, because now he'll have another Spears to contend with," she said, smirking.

As she observed her partner, she had to breathe a sigh of relief at how lucky she had been throughout their training process. From the beginning, the two had been partnered up randomly, and had become quick friends. Many training partners butted heads due to their desire to be the best and get an edge over their fellow trainees. Stephanie and Henry made a great team and worked together in everything they did. Henry made up for Stephanie's weak practical, written test scores, while she dominated in the physical and combative aspects of the training. They both used their strengths to their advantage and helped the other when they needed it. Stephanie had remembered Grell telling her a few of his and William's own horror stories throughout her training period, which made her laugh. She may not yet be as skilled a shinigami as her brother, but she was sure that she had a better training record than him, which made her smile.

"It's been a pleasure training with you Steph," said William, offering her a hand to shake, which she accepted.

"Likewise Henry, now let's go home."

"Robertson, Spears!" came the voice of their instructor and the two walked forward confidently.

"Pass," came the simple one-word reply of the older shinigami who handed them their graduation degrees, and a copy of the rules and handbook.

"You two should report immediately to schedule a fitting for your new glasses and put in requests for your new death scythe as you can no longer use the training blades," the instructor drawled on, bored. "If you have any questions please report to a superior, have a nice day, and congratulations," his tone of voice contradicting the words that he spoke.

Stephanie and Henry could barely contain their excitement, but kept stoic looks on their faces, nodding after they were dismissed.

It wasn't until after they exited the office that they gave each other a sentimental hug and high five.

"We did it! Thank god that's over, now the real job begins!" said Henry enthusiastically.

"Hey, what do you say we head over to get our new glasses? I can't wait to get rid of these dull, boring ones," Stephanie joked, making a disgusted face at the trainee glasses.

"Uh… actually I was going to meet up with a friend of mine, Ronald Knox. He's going to sign up for the next training session and I told him I'd let him know when I passed. He's kind of like a younger brother to me. Sorry Steph," he said shrugging his shoulders and smiling nervously.

"Oh, no problem!" Stephanie said, still excited to begin her new job and get the official shinigami accessories. "I should probably let my brother know too, I'm sure he's been worried," she laughed.

"I'll see you around Steph, maybe we'll be partnered together again," said Henry, giving her a friendly wave.

"Sure, Henry! Tell your friend Ronald I said hi!" she said before he turned around giving her a laugh.

"Yeah right! Once he knows you're a girl, and a shinigami, he'll never leave you alone!"

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that!"