Dr. Franken Stein

Franken Stein (フランケン・シュタイン) Dr. Franken Stein is the man that changes Sid into a zombie, and Marie Mjolnir's first love. He is based on the central characters from Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, an amalgamation of the mad scientist and Frankenstein's monster itself. He was Death Scythe's first partner (Maka's mother was the second). He was the most powerful meister to ever graduate from Shibusen. He has a bolt going through his head, which he turns so his thoughts would be on the matter at hand and stitches all over his body and clothes. Stein is such a strong fighter that he can take down Black Star while still seated in his chair. Stein sees everything in the world, including himself, as an experiment or specimen. He even experimented on Death Scythe when he was sleeping during the five years they worked together. A running joke is that whenever Stein goes and sits on a rolling chair, he leaves rolling backwards and falls in the exit. His understanding of soul wavelengths gives him a huge advantage against other users since he can change his own to match the other's wavelength and thereby nullify or disrupt the soul wavelength of the meister and weapon. This comes from his high spiritual flexibility and by observing his opponent beforehand. He is a genius at utilizing his soul wavelength, and even without a weapon, can channel it through is body and release it as a powerful current. He has a strange hobby of wanting to dissect anything he thinks is interesting, and once as part of a lesson tried to have his class dissect an endangered animal claiming that it would be bad if he did not find out anything from it before it became extinct. As the kishin begins to revive, Stein mentions that the kishin's wavelength brings out the insanity in everyone. He himself notices that his own insanity is already beginning to break loose, and that it could possibly take control of Stein's conscience. Shinigami notices this as well, and has Death Scythe watch Stein closely. As Marie's soul wavelength is supposed to have a calming effect on the soul, she is assigned as Stein's new weapon. Stein's insanity grows yet worse when Medusa, who had taken control of Rachel by then, manipulates Crona into slipping one of her own snakes into Marie's coffee to catalyze the effect of the mania. Stein slowly, but surely, begins to lose the fight against his insanity. Stein is later implicated as the murderer of a fellow Shibusen colleague but Death Scythe, Nygus and Sid, who believe that Stein is innocent, allow him to escape with Marie to find the real culprit.