Ronald began heading back to his dorm, but quickly decided he was too agitated. He was disgusted with himself, but with nowhere else to go, he headed to the office. It was a crime to go to work on the weekend, but maybe a bit of paperwork would at least bore him to sleep.

It didn't work. He worked until early in the morning. Strangely enough, he never stopped to take a break. Working allowed him not to think about the newly made reapers or Bentley or Alan or Eric.

He didn't even realize how long he had been working until Grell showed up. "What are you doing here on a Sunday?" he asked, throwing down his bright red office bag.

Ronald looked up and found his head spinning. He had been awake for far too long. "I could ask you the same thing."

Grell smirked. "As Will says, Death does not stop for weekends. Once you become a full reaper, you'll learn to forget the normal five-day week schedule."

Ronald broke a pencil in his hand. Grell frowned at him quizzically. "Rough night?" he asked.

"Couldn't get any sleep," Ronald said.

Grell looked over Ronald's shoulder at the work he had been doing. "You've got a fair amount done here. Tell you what, I'll go hand these in to Will, you take a nap or something."

"Oh, no, Grell, I got it," Ronald said starting to get up, when Grell pushed him back down and took the papers from him.

"Rest. You're not getting out of practical training this afternoon, so you'd better be well rested for it." Grell left with Ronald's paperwork. Not really thinking he'd fall asleep, Ronald put his head on his desk.

The next thing he knew, someone was shaking him awake. "Ronald?"

"Mmm Maria." Ronald said as he picked himself off of his desk.

"Sorry, wrong girl." Grell told him.

Ronald rubbed his eyes and looked down on his desk. It took a minute to realize that for the first time since he had come to this office, his desk was cleared. Grell began speaking again. "Will was really impressed with that paperwork you did last night."

Ronald looked up again. Grell smiled and nodded to tell him it was the truth. "Well, I'm sure he'll find something I did wrong."

Grell shook his head at the younger man. "C'mon, let's go. You up for some practical training?"

Ronald shrugged. He still didn't feel like going home, so he said, "might as well."

He knew the moment he began training he was not on top of his game. He was letting Grell take too many shots. "You seem distracted today." Grell said calmly as he thrust the practice scythe into Ronald's gut.

"Mhmm." Ronald said, refusing to elaborate, but aimed his own scythe at Grells head. The red-head dodged easily.

Grell gave a small smile. "Eric Slingby told me you had an interesting night."

Ronald slipped and dropped his scythe. Grell smirked again and paused, allowing him to pick it back up. "I see I touched nerve."

Ronald tried to charge the elder reaper, when he realized Grell wasn't paying attention to him. Ronald followed his gaze and noticed Will watching him once again. He hadn't come to the training room since Ronald's first round with Grell. And naturally, he had to come when Ronald was possibly doing his worst.

"So, Will," Grell flocked to the dark-haired reaper's side, "how's the newbie doin'?"

Ronald did not look into his mentor's eyes. Mr. Spears hadn't spoken to him once in his entire time training unless he was criticizing him.

Mr. Spears gave a half frown. "You've certainly improved Mr. Knox. You just don't seem to be very…interested."

Ronald frowned at him in turn. "Interested?"

"You seem bored, Mr. Knox. You have the capability, but you're not putting it forward because you don't seem properly motivated." Ronald sulked for a moment. Here came the lecturing again. He braced his ears for the speech of how lazy and incompetent he was.

But the speech never came. Instead, Mr. Spears turned to Grell. "Sutcliff, Go summon your real death scythe."

"My—But, Will, I'll kill him!" Will gave him a look that clearly told him to just do it. Grell rolled his eyes and held out his hand. A giant saw materialized in his hand with a rotating chain. The handle was bright red.

"Whoa!" Ronald said, forgetting that his superiors were right in front of him, "What is that?"

"Just my death scythe!" Grell said, forgetting his caution and admiring his weapon. "Here, look." With a flick of the switch, the blades began rotating with a loud humm. Ronald felt his eyes widen beyond what he thought was possible. It-It was just so cool!

"Yes," Mr. Spears said, "And Mr. Sutcliffe will be using this now when he fights you."

The blood drained from his face instantly. Ronald's admiration turned to pure terror. Images of himself wielding such a scythe became images of his guts spilling out at the end of this thing. Grell himself seemed mildly concerned.

"Calm down, you're not going to die." Mr. Spears said, reading Ronald's expression, "You don't really expect me to only arm you with that thing, do you?"

Ronald frowned. Now Mr. Spears was really confusing him. He could have sworn that for a moment Mr. Spears gave a smirk, but it was gone as he turned and walked to a door in the training room. Ronald and Grell followed, curious as to what he was doing. From his pockets, Will pulled out a set of keys and opened the door.

Ronald looked over his shoulder and almost fainted. Inside was a number of weapons of all different shapes and sizes. Blades jutted out from every side, shiny and new. None were of particularly high quality as they were all training scythes, but—It was beautiful.

"Pick one." Mr. Spears told him. Ronald would have been less surprised if he had told him he was crowned King of England. With slight hesitation, Ronald stepped inside the storage room, looking around like a kid in a candy shop. There were trimmers like Will's, saws like Grell's and Eric's, and some which he couldn't even guess what they were.

Then he saw one, the weirdest one of the lot. At first, he didn't think it had blades at all, but then he noticed the spinning edges on the bottom. It also had wheels, four of them, and a handle almost as tall as he was. He wasn't sure why, but it was really, really "Awesome."

"That one?" Grell said, eyeing the strange machine, "How on earth do you even fight with that?"

Mr. Spears adjusted his glasses. "It will probably take some experimentation. Why don't you try it out?" Carefully, Ronald tested the weight of the thing by switching it from hand to hand. He twisted one of his wrists to make the entire machine spin in the air. Then he saw a cord at the base and gave it an experimental tug.

All of a sudden, it roared to life, the blades at the end twirling menacingly. Ronald could not help but smile at the thing. Looking up at his superiors, he gave Mr. Spears a small nod, and walked out, ready to face Grell once again.

He started with just blocking Grell's attacks. Due to his new scythe's size it was much more capable of protecting him. He found small wrist movements were all that he needed to completely change the angle of the scythe, making it easier to block. Each time Grell's chainsaw came into contact with the handle, sparks flew off the metal.

There were some close calls, but so far, as long as he was playing defense, Grell couldn't touch him. Ronald smiled as he decided to switch to offense. As Grell aimed a powerful hit at him, he raised his scythe to intercept his head, and finally stop the red-head.

That was the plan, anyhow. He didn't expect that Grell would feint, duck under the scythe, and point the weapon so it was only a centimeter or two away from Ronald's neck.

Immediately, Ronald froze, not daring himself to move. Grell stopped the spinning blade, but it was still very, very close. A moment longer, and Grell stepped away, removing his saw. With a smile, he turned to face Mr. Spears.

Mr. Spears still wasn't smiling, but he gave Ronald a slight nod. "Better. From now on, you will train with this scythe."

Ronald tried to frown, but couldn't keep it on his face. "But sir—won't I have to use a training scythe for my exam?"

Will adjusted his glasses again, "It's a simple matter. I'll simply arrange for an exception."

Ronald smiled at his mentor. "Thank you Mr. Spears, sir."

"Awwww, Will~!" Grell twirled, giving up on trying to glomp his boss, "You're so sweet, giving our child a present!"

Ronald was surprised that he was so used to these sort of antics from Grell, he didn't even flinch at the fact Grell had just referred to him as his child, and even gave a small smile at the glare Will gave his colleague.

"Mr. Knox," Will said, "if you're done here, I would ask that you put that scythe away and accompany me to my office. We have a few things to discuss about your activities last night."