Dissection SOS (Science Of Scars)

Chapter 1: Late Night Experiments

Stein pushed aside the loopy cords of Spirit's intestines, enjoying the warmth that only came from the touch of another person's body. As usual, the guts were the warmest part. Stein pulled some muscles to test their elasticity. Giggling like a little girl on Christmas, he poked at Spirit's spinal cord. He watched interestedly at the way the partially dismembered Spirit thrashed.

"Unconscious reactions…" he turned on his Soul Perception and he watched Spirit's soul mimic his body. It brought to mind a particularly aggravating fast upbeat pop song students had taken to blasting from their phones. Spirit's soul was somehow doing a rather apt dance for the song, flaring out in pain at all the right times. He even kept it up when Stein started stroking his spinal column off the beat. Spirit didn't used to be so good at dancing, in body or soul. Maybe Stein's experiments were paying off. If he'd been this flexible a few years ago, Kami might have stuck around, Stein mentally joked.

Crrrick. The pleasurable feeling of the screw mixing around the gray matter between his ears took the evil smirk off his face. He'd congratulated himself on managing not to dissect the aforementioned students by giving Spirit a type of coffee Marie had sent Stein as a birthday present. Spirit had known this, so he accepted the drink. Spirit never considered the possibility that Stein might have, added a little, well, tasty addition to it. Sucked for him.

Coming out of his reverie, Stein muttered, "Hmm, to turn living flesh into sentient metal…" Figuring out how weapons were able to transform was proving harder than he'd thought. Maybe there was something special in the protein making up weapons' DNA? It would be an interesting theory to test. He'd just have to have Spirit over for a dinner of raw meat (full of protein) and a cup of Miss Marie's lovely coffee.

Stein sewed Spirit up again after taking a blood sample from his life-sized living Death Scythe doll. Snickering, he labeled the test tube and put it in the next opening in Spirit's latest crate of blood samples, that, naturally, he knew nothing about. Stein intended to keep it that way.

On an afterthought, Stein took a dropper full of concentrated alcohol and dripped some down his former partner's throat. No one would bother disputing Stein's story of Spirit having returned after a few too many glasses and passed out at his Sempai's place. If Spirit somehow developed the presence of mind (unlikely, Stein thought) to ask around at Chupacabra, they would only recall being too drunk to remember well enough.

It really was too bad for Spirit that Stein was careful, and knew how to hide his tracks. Shinigami-sama was the only one who ever discovered any of Stein's secret experiments. Unfortunately for the residents of Death City, Lord Death was supporting him on this project Stein thought happily. If he slipped in an extra live specimen or two that might or might not be for this experiment, Shinigami-sama never called him out on it.

"Die Die Kill Kill" the mirror from Stein's office sang. Stein stepped out of his first laboratory (the only one that wasn't secret. The others all had special hidden entrances) and into the office. The mirror above his desk glowed and Shinigami-sama twirled into view. Stein dropped into his chair and twisted his screw. His chair shot towards the desk. Crrrick. Twisting his screw, Stein spoke to the bouncing masked Death God in the mirror.

"Calling this late, would you care for a drink?" Stein asked, smiling creepily.

"Even I wouldn't dare," was the dry response.

"That's a shame. Well, Shinigami-sama, the research is going well,"

"In other words, you're using Spirit again. Does he know it?"

Crrrick. "No, and I'd appreciate you not telling him. Especially about the coffee…"

An eyebrow was raised, "Let me guess. You don't want me to tell him because 'it would greatly delay the results of the experiment' right?"

Stein smirked, "You're as perceptive as ever, I see," Stein knew Shinigami-sama understood that Stein enjoyed using Spirit in his experiments, usually as 'the control' in most of them. Shinigami-sama also knew Stein would make up any legitimate-sounding response if it would let him keep experimenting on Spirit.

From his sigh, Stein could tell Shinigami-sama was rolling his eyes. He shook his head at Stein, saying, "Just put him back together again. I may need him soon, with all the chaos going on!"

"Don't I always?" Stein replied glibly.

After another sigh/eyeroll the Death God said, "The real reason I called you was because your, ah, lesson plan for tomorrow arrived,"

"Ah, perfect," Stein said, drawing out the last word like a cat. His smile became genuine. Genuinely creepy, that is.

"Stein, those poor animals are endangered-"

"All the more reason to study them while they're still around-"

"Then at least limit how many you dissect per week!"

Stein grinned. Shinigami-sama sweat dropped.

"Well, we'll talk about this later. Good night," Shinigami-sama muttered uncomfortably and the mirror faded back into its normal reflective image.

"Tomorrow, eh? Stupid kids." Stein muttered as he maneuvered his chair along the pathways he'd made for his chair in his house. It really was late. Stein was just beginning to feel tired as his chair moved up ramp (that served as stairs in Stein's house, partially for security, partially for his chair).

Maybe his lesson plan could include a few extracurricular lessons that would give him opportunities to experi-ahem, preform life-saving operations on the students. There were ways and ways of doing that. The chair hit a huge anatomy textbook on the floor next to his bed, catapulting him onto his bed. Stein sighed happily. Thank goodness for Newton's laws. Though, it's not like I'd want to live to enjoy them without my beloved dissection projects, Stein thought as he drifted off to sleep.