I walked down the street, wearing an overcoat and a bowling hat, looking like a man who just got off of work late in Britain. If I were a normal human, though, I would've been in severe danger, an infamous serial killer lurking in the shadows not five feet behind me, the perfect picture of an unfortunate man in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But, I wasn't a normal human. And the wrong place at the wrong time was where I had been striving to be for nearly a month.

"You should've took another street, buddy." The killer said, lunging forward, mouth open.

I dodged the serial killer's attack, sliding across the cobblestones. It was dark, rainy, and the moon was grinding its teeth until it bled.

"Your soul is an afreet egg. I'm here to take it." I said, throwing my jacket and hat off, then drawing Kylie.

"The Riley and his little sister Kylie?" The killer asked.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"I know about you." The killer snickered. "I bet you have no idea what Eruka did to you."

"What are you talking about?" Kylie shouted, her reflection showing in the Claymore.

"When she kissed you, guess what she had on her tongue." The killer said, when, suddenly, several tadpole bombs landed around him, and he went up in a giant mushroom cloud. I shielded my face from the blast with my forearms, but Eruka tossed a tadpole bomb in front of me. The bomb exploded and I flew back, slamming into a store's glass window.

I groaned as I crawled out of it. Eruka was flying slightly above the ground, swinging her feet.

"Hey Riley. Long time no see." Eruka said. She was...different, to say the least. She looked older, and seemed much more like Medusa.

"What was he talking about?" I demanded, feeling an unnatural rage bubbling up inside of me.

"Yeah, what was he talking about?" Kylie asked.

"I learned something from Medusa, as unlikely as it sounds." Eruka said, playing with her long hair. She'd stopped wearing that weird hat that I always thought of as like that hat in those Harry Potter books, and that, if I were to put it on my head, it'd say some crap like 'Gryffindor!,' or 'you don't get to go to this school.'

"What did you learn?" I asked.

"The abilities of using black-blood." Eruka said.

"What does that mean? What is black blood?" I asked.

"What Ragnarok is made of, to a degree." Eruka said. "And, when I kissed you when you were in a coma, I had black-blood on my tongue. The black-blood has slowly been working through your system for several months now. Do you feel that anger inside of you? Do you feel the power in that anger?"

"Shut up!" I shouted, and immediately started shaking. Eruka was chanting something, and I felt a burning in my right arm. I dropped Kylie because of the pain.

"What's going on!" Kylie shouted, changing into human form and standing up.

I leaned down, taking a knife out of my boot: the encounter with Medusa taught me that having a spare knife was a good idea. My right arm went numb, so I used my left hand to hold the knife, my right arm dangling uselessly. I ran at Eruka and sliced at her, but she was a better fighter than I thought, jumping off of the broomstick and landing several feet away.

I charged, slicing at her so fast the air whistled as my blade missed. Eruka was able to dodge every single attack I tried, and then was able to kick me in the face, sending me sprawling on the ground. Eruka put her foot on my back to keep me from standing.

"You still think I'm Medusa's lackey, don't you?" Eruka asked.

I growled, reaching for my knife. I almost reached it when her heavy boot smashed my hand. I heard a crack, and screamed in pain, drawing my hand back as soon as Eruka lifted her boot. Kylie charged at Eruka, her arm a blade, but Eruka tossed a bomb at her and she flew back, shouting in pain.

"Kylie!" I shouted, trying to crawl towards her. But, once again, Eruka put her boot on my back, but with more force this time.

Eruka laughed, and began walking towards Kylie, when, out of nowhere, a figure clad in a black coat flew out of the air and sliced at Eruka, cutting her side open.

"Back the hell away." Maka growled, twirling Soul.

Damn my girlfriend was hot when she did that. Suddenly, Stein and Ms. Marie flew out of the darkness, Ms. Marie landing beside me and Stein landing beside Kylie.

Eruka frowned at the increased Shibusen presence. She looked at the afreet egg, and said "That's Riley's. Nobody else touch it." Then, she tossed down a bomb and a giant smoke cloud covered both her and Maka. When the smoke cleared, Eruka was gone and Maka was frowning. When Maka and Soul realized that Eruka had disappeared, Soul transformed back into his human form and ran to Kylie, while Maka ran to me.

"What happened?" Ms. Marie asked, looking at my injuries. "Stein, he has a small cut above his eyebrow, but not much else. Why are you cradling your hand like that?"

"Eruka broke my hand." I said. The way I felt, all of my adrenaline was running through my veins, and I couldn't even feel the broken bones. "This was going to be a routine mission, to get an afreet egg. But then, the killer was gonna say something about something Eruka did to me, and Eruka came out of nowhere and-ow!"

"Sorry." Ms. Marie said. She was looking my hand over, and immediately saw what bones were broken. "Stein, his left hand is broken. Is your right okay?"

"Yeah. That's weird." I said, flexing my hand. "When Eruka was around, my arm stopped working."

"What? Why?" Ms. Marie asked.

"There's black-blood inside of me." I said. "Is Kylie okay?"

"No major wounds." Stein said, helping Kylie over to me. "A few bruises and a cut or two, but nothing like your wounds."

Suddenly, my adrenaline ran out and I fell asleep