Speed. That was the key. He needed to pick up more speed if he was ever to succeed in this dangerous mission. His feet moved so fast and so lightly over the ground that he was barely even touching it.

Some distance away there was a loud and masculine sounding scream of horror and pain, and Death the Kid skidded to a halt on the loose dirt road.

"Shit!" he swore quietly. "It found another?"

Following the road proving too time-consuming, Kid opted instead for a short cut through the tightly packed trees which surrounded the roughly cut track. He began to regret it soon afterwards: the sound of twigs and undergrowth under his rapidly moving feet was nothing short of deafening.

"Kid, why can't we just fly over the trees?" asked Liz from under the firm grip of his fingers.

"Don't you know anything?" asked Kid. "Or did you just not listen to the briefing?"

In the mental world of her weapon form, Liz nervously twirled her hair around a finger.

"Sorry, Kid," said Patty, "I think Liz has gone bye-bye."

"This is supposed to be a stealth mission," Kid explained. "As far as I know, soaring through the sky on a flying skateboard is the absolute opposite of stealth. We have to sneak up on this creature and take it out before it knows what's going on!"

"I don't see why we have to chase that thing!" Liz moaned. "Were you even looking properly, or was I the only one who noticed that even its CLAWS had claws?"

"I certainly did," Kid replied. "Four claws on one arm and only three on the other? That monster should be destroyed for the mere crime of being so incomprehensibly hideous."

He stopped talking abruptly and froze when he emerged from the trees onto another dirt road, faced with his quarry's latest victim.

It was a man, probably in his mid-to-late twenties, lying barely conscious on his stomach. His blonde hair, which was once probably slicked back, was now spread untidily over the ground, and his deep blue eyes were flickering around uncontrollably. All of this most likely had something to do with the four tremendous gashes which had been carved into his back, shredding his otherwise immaculate deep green uniform which indicated a military rank of some kind.

Kid knelt down beside him and gently touched the wounds.

"They're not very deep," he commented, and to the man he said "Don't worry, you're going to be fine. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?"

He had to ask: this was central Europe after all. Who knows what language (or possibly languages) this man spoke?

But he nodded, albeit fearfully. He understood English.

"Take this," said Kid, and he placed a small skull under the man's motionless hand. "It's a locator. Hold onto it and DWMA medics will find you within the hour. Again, you're going to be fine."

There was another scream – this one considerably shriller than the last – and it came from within the trees on the other side of the road. Without missing a beat Kid sprang to his feet and into the forest.

"As I was saying," he continued as he ran, "all I know is that there's a person who has been collecting human souls and if they get even one more, they'll awaken into a kishin. They're too far gone to even be considered anywhere near human anymore, so Father couldn't risk sending a student. It had to be me. I'm the only one strong enough."

He ran onwards towards the source of the scream.

As time passed and more distance was covered, the trees began to grow dense and dark. Silence became ever more prevalent as the trio drew close to the parts of the forest where even the wildlife dared not venture. Kid tightened his grip on the two guns he held, taking great care not to lose his grip even the slightest lest one of them become lost to the blackness.

Patty cooed appreciatively.

"Sis, look!" she cried.

"Look at what?" asked Liz. "There's nothing to look at. It's too dark!"

"Exactly!" Patty stated happily. "It's so dark I can't even see Kid's hand anymore!"

Liz moaned fearfully.

"I don't like this," she said. "It's the middle of the day, so why does it have to be so dark? That monster could be hiding right behind us and we'd never even know until it bit our heads off!"

From somewhere ahead there came another shrill scream, this one considerably closer and louder than the last.

"I don't think so," Kid replied.

Rather than continuing along the forest floor, the young reaper opted instead for jumping into the trees and leaping from branch to branch, taking a quieter and more incognito route through the canopy.

'I should have done it like this earlier,' he chided himself. 'Back when the trees first began to get dense. What kind of idiot can't even pursue a potential kishin properly?'

And then, all of a sudden, he saw it.

It had somehow still retained a somewhat human appearance. Its pale skinned, feminine-looking face seemed horribly out of place on the unbalanced mass of black grime and torn greenery, presumably gathered from the forest floor. Its mouth was pulled back in a nightmarish grin, showing far more gum than razor-sharp tooth, and its ruby-coloured eyes were gleaming with malice.

It loomed over its latest victim, who was curled in a foetal position in its shadow with blood pouring from massive wounds in his or her left arm.

And the monster was raising a claw to finish the job.

"Liz, Patty, you know what we have to do," Kid murmured to his two partners.

It took a moment for the two to catch on, but when they did they were deeply disturbed.

"Are you crazy?!" Liz demanded. "We're still not sure how powerful that is yet! You could kill yourself, do you want that?!"

"I don't care what you say, Liz, I WANT to do it!" cried Patty.

"I don't!"

"Scaredy cat!"

"Girls, quit bickering!" Kid commanded. "If we don't do it, this section of the forest is going to become an abattoir. Or do you want that monster down there to become a kishin?"

After a few seconds of thinking…

"Nope!"

"I guess not."

"Then it's settled," said Kid.

He closed his eyes and concentrated.

"Execution Mode."

Sensing the wavelengths of his partners was the easy part of a successful resonance. Even a meister with virtually no sixth sense (for example, that overly loud and obnoxious blue-haired student that Kid had often observed while overseeing student missions with his father) could execute the simple task with no difficulty if they were trying.

The difficult part was aligning the wavelengths so that they were in perfect synch. Even the slightest distraction, the smallest concentration-breaking event, could break the resonance apart and increase the exertion needed for the next attempt.

Fortunately, being a Grim Reaper tends to put most problems on hold, if not hang up completely and write an angry letter the phone company demanding to know why that call was allowed through in the first place.

Unless you're still in the body of a teenager, of course.

Kid could feel the intense power coursing through his whole body, manifesting mainly on his arms, but took care not to notice too much should they throw his focus. He felt metal creeping up his arms, locking around the two limbs in the form of massive, bazooka-like cannons so heavy that surely no ordinary human would be able to lift them.

He also took note of three thin black spikes, connected by what appeared to be crackling purple lightning, but Kid knew that it was actually his soul wavelength, charging before being passed down into Liz and Patty.

When the transformation was complete, the young reaper jumped out of the tree and landed between the monster and its prospective victim, squatting with his arms resting at either side.

"Resonance stable," Liz reported. "Black needle soul wavelength charging complete. Feedback in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…"

"Ready to fire!" Patty declared.

So Kid raised the cannons and pointed them straight into the monster's face.

"Death Cannon," he whispered, savouring the almost poetic manner in which the words rolled off his tongue.

He pulled the triggers.

His father had warned him that his Soul Resonance round would be far more powerful than his normal attacks, and boy was he correct about that. The blast from the twin cannons was enough to blast Kid back several inches across the grimy forest floor and the concurrent explosion of energy practically erased the monster from existence and blasted a gigantic hole in the canopy, allowing sunlight to stream down upon the scene.

All that was left was a floating red orb about the size of a baseball which looked as though a flame was burning on its top. Kid picked it up by this little tail and examined it critically.

'Only one,' he thought. 'Shame: it's quite a good one. I'll have to take it in konso until further notice.'

"Collect," he muttered, and to the naked eye it would appear that the soul was sucked into his arm. It was of course far more complex than that, but the details of a reaper's soul collection are far too intricate for human minds to comprehend.

From several feet behind Kid there was a high pitched scream of agony:

"HELP MEEE!"

The young reaper removed his weapons from their temporary storage (i.e. tucked into his trousers) so that they could retake human form, and together they helped the ex-victim into a sitting position.

The first thing that struck Kid about the boy was his age. From the voice he had expected a child, or perhaps even a woman, but this was a young man who was barely out of his teens, or perhaps still in them judging by the roundness of his face. He was dressed in a blue suit not unlike a military uniform, his left sleeve shredded to blood-soaked scraps where the kishin had struck him.

His hair was a light shade of reddish brown, with a single large curl protruding from the left side which caused Kid's fists to clench in rage. He would have made an attempt to remove it right there and then were it not for the fact that this person was clearly in extreme agony and traumatised to the core. Kid's conscience temporarily overrode his concern for symmetry.

Temporarily.

"Help me," the stranger blubbered wretchedly, "please, help me…"

"We can," Liz said while Kid was placing his hands on the young man's shoulders to stop him from shaking so much. "Just calm down; everything's gonna be okay-"

"No! No it's not! Please! Help me!"

"Will you please stop crying so much?" Kid commanded ineffectively whilst wondering what kind of accent that was. "You have no idea how much of a mess you're making of yourself!"

"Please! GERMANY!"

His scream echoed eerily around the trees. Kid wouldn't have been surprised if the moon could hear this man with all the noise he was making.

"Sis?"

"Yes, Patty?"

"Why did he just yell Germany?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know?"

The more he stared at the offending curl, the thinner Kid's patience was worn.

"Pull yourself together!" he demanded, gripping the stranger's shoulders a little more tightly than was necessary. "Do you have a name?"

"Y-Yes…" the stranger replied with a sniff.

A few moments passed in which the only sound was the young man trying desperately to catch his breath.

"Well?" Kid egged on. "What is it?"

"F-Fe-Feliciano," the man replied nervously. "Feliciano Vargas."

"Feliciano," the reaper repeated. "That's an Italian name, isn't it?"

"S-Si," said Feliciano, who still sounded somewhat frightened. "B-But people just mostly c-call me Italy."

'Italy?' Kid thought. 'Why would someone have the same name as a country? At least now I know where that accent's from, but…'

"Well, Italy," he said, suddenly sounding cold, "there's something about you which has been bothering me from the moment I laid eyes on you."

His weapon partners eyed him curiously.

"This."

Without any further hesitation, the young reaper reached up and seized the offending curl, setting off a somewhat confusing reaction in the young man whose name apparently the same as a boot-shaped country.

His whole body froze and started to ever-so-faintly shiver, almost as though he were undergoing some kind of electric shock. His eyes, which up to this point had been tightly closed (either in fear or pain), popped wide open, revealing them to be golden brown in colour. His face flushed deep red in embarrassment, and Kid began to sense that maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

So he let go, and nothing happened for about ten seconds.

Kid stood up.

"I-I'm sorry," he stammered awkwardly. "Had I known that your hair was so sensitive, I would've- I mean, you see-"

"PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!"

Italy was suddenly on his knees, clutching a white flag with his left hand and supporting his injured arm with his right. He waved the flag wildly as though swatting away some invisible flies.

"Please don't hurt me!" he repeated, crying resumed. "I promise I'll be a good prisoner! I'll tell you everything I know! I'll tell you everything I DON'T know! I won't be any trouble, just please, don't hurt me!"

Kid stared in stunned bemusement.

"…What?" he whispered hoarsely after a short while.

"Do you want to know Germany's secret plans for invading England?" Italy wailed, still waving the flag. "What about invading America? I can tell you! I-"

BANG.

It was strange that only after the gunshot and the terrified young man's unconscious fall to the ground did the young reaper notice the elder of his two partners, standing straight up and holding her younger sister in weapon form, the barrel aimed right at Italy's head.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Kid demanded.

"Kid, are you blind or just stupid?" asked Liz as her sister transformed and started looting. "This guy's obviously crazy, so let's just take his money and get out of here!"

"How many times do I have to TELL you?" Kid shouted. "You're not the Brooklyn Demons anymore! You're MY partners and it's a weapon's duty to do as their meister tells them!"

"Eh, it's no good anyway," said Patty. She straightened up and handed a small sheet of paper, stolen from Italy's pocket, to her sister while saying, "All I could find was this. Dumbass hasn't even got a packet of smokes on 'im."

Liz curiously unfolded the piece of paper and read the writing on it.

"What?" she asked. "I don't get it."

She handed the chit to Kid, perhaps in the hopes that he could make some sense of it.

"'To whoever has taken Italy prisoner this time'," he read aloud, "'please ensure that he has pretty girls to talk to and plenty of pasta to eat. Don't restrain his arms and legs while he is talking or he might die'. What?" He turned the paper over, but there was nothing on the other side, so he folded it up and put it in his pocket for future reference.

"What the hell have I gotten myself into?" he wondered aloud.


There it is: the first chapter of The Hetalian Job. Like it says in the description, this is Soul Eater. There will be violence, swearing and blood. However, SE is a shonen, so it's not enough for a M rating. Also, the rest of the chapters will be longer than this one.

Reviews are welcome, so feel free! Here's a rose to encourage you a little more: -{-