I could bore you with my excuses as to why it's taken so long for this chapter to come out, but that's not why you're here. You're here because you want to read the next chapter. So, without further ado…

"… and that's not even starting on Black Star." Kid's eyes seemed to flash, the vivid yellow darkening to gold as he shook his head in disgust. "How could someone like have even been allowed into the academy? He's disruptive, he's loud and chaotic, he can't even manage to work well enough with his partner to get one kishin soul and yet my father treats him like he's one of his best students! He, he should be on some sort of probationary stay or he should have been kicked out when it became apparent that he was just going to be a waste of effort."

"Black Star?" Rebecca frowned when she heard that name and bit her lower lip softly as she paged back through her notes. It wasn't the first time the young reaper had mentioned that name and she knew that something important had happened involving the other teen. Nodding while listening to Kid's ranting – because, undignified or not, that was what he was doing – she quickly scanned what she had scribbled down several sessions ago. Black Star, Black Star…

"He was one of the students that was given the remedial lesson assignment of fighting Dr. Stein." She blinked and looked up from the notes. Kid's only response was a curt nod and a slight curl of his lower lip and if Rebecca didn't know any better, if she hadn't been familiar with the reaper, she would have thought he was sneering. "It seems like the academy is taking steps to address his, um, academic difficulties then."

"That's not addressing anything," he snapped. "That's throwing a group of children to fight against a mad man without giving them any of the information they would need, not the mention the ridiculous affair with Professor Sid."

It was their sixth session together and things have been moving forward. Slowly and shakily, but Rebecca could notice small shifts in Kid's behavior. He had managed to stick with the therapy for one, and stay at the academy for another, though he seemed to be unable to find anything but negative things to say about both the students and teachers and the assignments. It was getting almost exhausting to listen to and had long since become overly repetitive: Black Star was full of himself, Tsubaki was too quiet, Soul was a slacker, Maka couldn't get her nose out of a book, the classes were too easy and too complicated all at once…

It was good that he was getting it out, she knew that, but the never ending list of negativity was almost worrying. For the life of her Rebecca couldn't figure out why the young reaper was forcing himself through a process he clearly loathed and hated. If attending the academy was causing this level of stress then certainly there were better ways for him to learn. That didn't even seem to be a concern for Kid, something he kept on trying to make abundantly clear – he already knew everything, he was a reaper, what did they expect to be able to teach him? Maybe for the social interaction? Except everyone that came within five feet of the teen was wrong in some way.

I wonder what he actually thinks about me, she thought idly as she chewed on the end of her pen. I'm probably too nosy for asking all the questions that I do.

"Kid," Rebecca said slowly, pen tapping against the paper. "What exactly were you expecting to find when you started at the academy?"

"I… I don't know. Students that actually listened to their teachers and teachers that made sense and gave lectures that didn't revolve around the best ways to dissect living creatures?" She nodded some at that.

Fair enough expectations. Her mouth twitched into a smile as she looked up at the irate teen. "Yeah, but it's a school run by your father. His eccentricities are more than well known… why wouldn't you have expected to find the same sort of behavior at an institution that he had designed himself?"

Kid paused at that and she watched as he grit his teeth and stared down at the floor. His hands were in front of him, one holding the other, and the fingers of his right hand slowly started to twist his left, pulling and pinching at the skin. "I…" He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. "I… fully expected my Father's… eccentricities-" He grimaced as he said that, making it obvious that it wasn't the word he wanted. "-To be… a basis of student's academic career."

"So then, if you were expecting it, why-?"

"Because it doesn't make any sense!" Kid's eyes snapped open, too wide and too bright, and he leaned forward, elbows resting against his knees. "Because I don't…" And then he faltered, brow knotting first in confusion and then in shame. "… I don't understand. I don't understand what he's thinking or why he thinks that this would be the best way for anyone to learn."

"Well it's more than under-"

"And I don't understand why he would put the students in such dangerous situations," the reaper said, words coming out in a rush as he cut Rebecca off. "Of course the academy isn't going to be safe, it's a place to learn how to fight kishin eggs, but there's a difference between preparation and gross negligence. Professor Stein is a dangerous person and yet he's left in charge of children. He nearly killed Black Star and if he hadn't been interrupted I'm sure Stein would have… gutted Maka in front of Soul. It wasn't a game or a test to him, it was a fight that he was taking too far."

"You weren't there Kid," she tried to gently remind him. "You can't know for sure what would or wouldn't have happened."

"No, I can't," he said, practically snapping the words at her. "But neither can Father. He's not all knowing and all seeing, once he puts something into play he can't just wave a hand and have it magically stop or, or make it better! He's leaving himself at the whims of others, and…"

Rebecca frowned as she watched Kid try to brokenly explain himself. There was a torrent of emotion that was just waiting to burst forth but the teen was still trying to remain calm and composed.

"… Stein killed Sid. He murdered him and turned him into a zombie and my father did nothing to him except make him a teacher at the academy. My father rewards murderers and psychopaths with jobs and benefits."

"Kid," Rebecca said, sounding more than a little uneasy. She had known when she had taken the job that some of what she was going to hear wouldn't be pleasant, and the confidentiality wavers Lord Death had made her sign ensured that she would stay quiet, but this was starting to push what she was comfortable with. Lord Death was a figure that near everyone in the town in the town looked up to; it wasn't possible that he was doing the things that Kid was claiming. "I, I'm sure that there's part of the situation that you're just not aware of yet. Have you talked to your father about this?"

"He would just laugh and brush my concerns off and tell me that there was nothing to worry about," the teen said, tone almost bitter. At that Rebecca relaxed, breathing out a small sigh of relief as she smiled at the reaper.

"Then how can you say things like this if you haven't even bothered to-"

"Sid was Black Star's father." Kid immediately shook his head. "He raised him when he was brought here to the academy. I… looked at his personal file, I wanted to know more about him, and I saw that." She could still hear the anger and frustration in his tone but now it was hidden under a layer of confusion. "My father's idea of punishment was to have him go and fight his recently deceased father."

He was staring at her, obviously waiting for her to say how that was some sort of misunderstanding and there must have been a good reason that they just didn't get for Lord Death to do so, but Rebecca couldn't bring herself to say those words. Her own mind was scrambling for any possible justification for those actions but there was nothing. "Maybe," she said softly, looking down at her paper. "Maybe Lord Death…" Didn't know? Wasn't thinking?

"... Maybe, for Black Star, that was the best way to work through the loss of his father figure," Rebecca said gently. "I don't disagree that the act sounds horrible but from the way you've described him I doubt Black Star suffered any by doing this. It's something that I don't understand and you might not understand but maybe Lord Death did. I'm sure he was just doing what was best."

"Yes," Kid said after a long pause. "I'm sure that's all he ever does. Just what's… best."

"You could always ask him," Rebecca reminded him. "And he might not be brushing your concerns off purposefully. He's your father. No parent wants to think of their child as being adult enough to talk seriously with. You just to let him know that this is something important to you."

Their next session was cancelled, though Kid had contacted her in advance to let her know. It had something to do with an attack or an injury or an assignment – the therapist really didn't understand everything he was trying to say but she doubted that the specifics were important. All that really mattered was that he was taking the time out to inform her that he wouldn't be there and that he would reschedule as soon as things started to calm down at the academy.

Rebecca felt fairly certain that he was telling the truth and that he would return.

"The Uncanny Sword was Tsubaki's brother."

Rebecca paused in her writing and glanced up at the reaper. It had been several weeks since their last session but she could still remember their topic of discussion vividly. She always tried not to take patient's problems home with her – it always caused nothing but more worry and sleepless nights – but that had been something the therapist hadn't been able to shake. To think that Lord Death, the founder of the city, could be so cruel as to force a child to fight their own father…

"Did you ask him why?"

"Not exactly." He glanced to the side. "It was just something Stein said. Something about… this being something that she needed to do." Kid sighed. "But Liz said she could never fight Patti. She said she couldn't even think about living without her."

"Different people deal with situations differently. And Liz and Patti are closer than Tsubaki was with her brother. Maybe you should try asking her," Rebecca said after a short pause. "You would probably learn more that way too."

"Maybe. Maybe it's just something that I would need a family to understand." The teen narrowed his eyes at that. "But I don't have one, not really. So I never will."

Rebecca wanted to point out that he did, he had even said so himself, but she doubted it would have mattered much to the reaper.