@Silverblade:
Sid and Nygus, as important as they might be to the Shibusen structure, were never meant to be the strongest, Tezca's situation was obvious from the start, and as it turns out to be Noah wasn't even a human. So Stein and Marie it is?
This. Firstly, Nygus is not a Death Scythe by any means, and though Sid is a 3-star Meister, he's not on the level of a Death Scythe Partner, even though he has used Azusa a few times.
Speaking of that, have we seen Azusa's partner? I'm pretty sure it was said that Justin was the only solo Death Scythe, hence, why he's gone crazy. Spirit has Shinigami (though Spirit's not as effective as the others, since his Meister can't leave Shibusen), Marie has Stein (far and away the most effective pair), Tezca has Enrique, And the Russian Guy has his partner. Who does Azusa have as her actual Meister? Also, we still don't know the SW Asia Deathscythe or the African one…
Lastly, this chapter makes a plot point make no sense. The town where Giriko had Arachne hidden in a golem was in Prague, right? I know Justin was the Europe Death Scythe before he went nuts, but this chapter states that there's an entirely separate Shibusen in Europe with its own Deathscythes. What were the EuroScythes doing during the whole BabaYaga's Castle arc?