The grinning moon watched over the city below. Darkness had fallen, street lamps emitted an orange glow onto the cobble streets. Down these streets, walked a lone hooded man. He was wielding a blood-soaked knife, his crazed eyes emitted a faint red glow as he looked forwards, smiling just like the moon. A feminine voice echoed throughout the streets. "David the Chopper!" He turned around and saw two girls standing underneath the lamp behind him. It was meister Sakura Tohsaka and her weapon partner Rider. The source of the voice, Sakura, pointed to him. "You've been preying on innocent human souls! In the name of Lord Death, I will defeat you here!"

In response, David merely made an animal-like snarl and readied his knife. Seeing this, Sakura knew he wouldn't back down, for he had lost nearly all his humanity. She narrowed her eyes. "Rider, you know what to do." Her partner said nothing, but merely nodded before going into weapon form. In Sakura's hands, were now two nail-like daggers with long chains attached to them.

Sakura threw her left dagger, the chain's loop on her wrist. The murderer was narrowly able to deflect the flying nail, before charging forwards. His knife and her right dagger clashed, making a metallic clang. He swung the short blade frantically, only for it to be blocked each time. He got frustrated, and attempted to thrust it into Sakura's heart as a final move. This proved fatal, for the purple-haired girl simply swung down, knocking the blade from the madman's grip. By the time this happened, the fight was practically finished. She had him right where he needed to be. She kicked off the ground to distance herself and called back the dagger she'd thrown. The sound of chains was heard, before the dagger pierced his heart. His body disintegrated, until all that was left was the crimson orb that was his soul.

Rider went back into human form and went to retrieve the kishin egg. After grabbing it from the air, she proceeded to eat it. Swallowing it whole, she let out a sigh. Sakura puffed with pride. "Ah, yet another soul taken! We've been doing well, haven't we?" Rider turned and gave her a smile. "Yes, I must admit we've recently improved." "Let's see…" She scratched her head. "How many souls do we have, again?" "Hold on,"

Rider took a notebook and pen out of her pocket. Sakura ran up to peer over her shoulders. Their height different made this difficult; even standing on her toes she could barely see over. Rider narrowed her eyes as she tried to decipher the roman numerals on the paper. "Let's see, adding another one…" She muttered, as she drew in a dash. "That means we should be at…" She glanced behind her. "25" "25?! So, we're a quarter of the way to making you a death scythe!" "Yes, I believe so." "Oh, this is so exciting! Hey, maybe we should celebrate! It is a Friday, after all." "Well, 25 isn't actually that impressive but…" She couldn't help but smile at her partner's enthusiasm. In any case, she was curious as to what kind of celebration they would have. "what do you propose?" "There's this new recipe I've been dying to try! I've been saving it since it's difficult to make, and this is the perfect excuse!" "You mean that Chinese dish you found online?" "Yes, I'll be sure to buy the ingredients tomorrow morning so we can have it for dinner!" "Well then, I'll look forward to eating it." The team left the scene, making small talk as they returned to their apartment.

The following Monday, the team was making their way to the mission bulletin board at the school. On the way, they bumped into some familiar faces: Maka and Soul, the team they'd recently become acquainted with. "Oh, hey" Soul greeted with a raised hand. "Been a few days, how've you two been?" Sakura responded, "Well, we've been doing pretty good. We're up to 25 souls as of now." Maka smiled, "Hey, not too bad." "Yeah, not as good as your number, though. Have you captured that witch soul yet?" "Uh..." Maka shifted her gaze off to the side to avoid eye contact. "not yet, we're working on it though..." Sakura tilted her head in curiosity. "Really? I could've sworn I heard something about you fighting a witch." "Well, we did but..." Finally Soul just gave an honest answer. "We screwed up and we're back to 0 again." "Really? What happened?" They both sighed whilst hanging their heads in shame. Soul then gave a vague answer, "I really don't want to talk about it, but let's just say you should never get witches and cats confused." Sakura, not sure to react to such an odd statement, just chuckled nervously.

After a brief pause, Rider adjusted her glasses. "Well" She said. "we'd best get to the bulletin, before all the good missions are taken." Sakura nodded. "Yes, sorry if we're being rude but we really should get going." She bowed politely. "It was nice talking to you!"

They observed the various missions on the board. They didn't see too many that jumped out, until Rider took notice of one towards the top. "This one describes a weapon and meister team eating human souls in Death City." "Are they former students?" "It doesn't say anything about that, but apparently the team consists of a young girl and a 'monster'. I must say that I am intrigued as to what sort of creature this monster is. Should we take this mission?" "I don't see why not. The board is pretty sparse today, anyway."

With their mission decided, the two waited until night fell to begin their search. Rider rode her white motorcycle (which she'd affectionately named "Pegasus") around town, as Sakura kept an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. The paper said that one of them was a "monster" so she figured they wouldn't be hard to spot. As they passed the graveyard, she told Rider to stop. "What is it?" "I think I saw somebody moving…" "Someone in a graveyard at night? How unusual..." "We should investigate, it might be what we're looking for."

Rider parked the vehicle on the curb, and the team made their way past the iron gates. The place was entirely silent, save for the choir of crickets. They both looked around cautiously, wondering if what Sakura had seen was truly the target in question. Just as she was beginning to doubt herself, she heard something unusual: singing. It was faint initially, but soon she was able to make out words. "I think that the waves will devour~"

As the voice grew closer, she turned to face its source. "Both boat and man, by and by…and that, with her dulcet-voiced power," She saw a young girl in a purple winter coat. In her hand, was a massive axe-sword. The weapon was almost as big as the one wielding it. Despite this, she was not only lifting it off the ground, but was carelessly swinging it around. She stopped walking, as she sang the last verse of her song. "was done by the Lorelei~"

The singing stranger looked curiously at the girls before her. "Oh, who is this? Is it another…no. Your soul is uncorrupted it seems." She giggled. "Ah, how rude of me. I almost forgot about introductions." Her weapon turned into "human" form, but what came out hardly appeared as such. He was a towering giant, the girl next to him hardly reached up to his knees. He stood there still and silent, like a stone statue. "A young girl and a monster," Sakura thought. "this must be them."

The girl curtsied. "Guten tag. My name is Illyasviel von Einzbern. But if that's too long, you can just call me Illya. Happy to meet your acquaintance." She gestured to the towering figure beside her. "This is my weapon, Heracles. I apologize for his silence, he isn't much of a talker I'm afraid." Sakura regained her composure. "Uhm…my name is Sakura Tohsaka. I'm a meister from the DWMA. This is Rider, my weapon partner."

Rider leaned down to whisper in her partner's ear. "There's no doubt that this is them. Can you see their souls?" Sakura whispered back. "Yes, hold on." She used soul perception and immediately she could tell something wasn't right. "Illya's soul is strange, something about it seems…off. I can't put my finger on it, but it's almost like her wavelength is artificial." "What about her weapon?" "He…" She paused. "What is it?" "Heracles's soul is…it's full of rage and bloodshed. It's like nothing I've seen before."

"Ignoring your rude whispering," Illya interrupted, an offended look on her face. "something has caught my attention. You say that you're from the DWMA?" "Yes…" "I have been informed about your kind. My maids told me to test out my new weapon on other people, but they said attacking someone from the DWMA was forbidden. That's no fun though, and I must admit I'd like to see how well you do against my weapon. Yes…" She laughed, "Let's kill them, Heracles!". Her voice was so cheerful, like a child about to play a game.

Heracles grunted, before morphing back into an axe-sword. Seeing that a fight was imminent, Sakura exclaimed. "Rider, daggers!" Not 5 seconds after Rider went into weapon form, Illya swung her axe-sword. Sakura managed to dodge the blade, but just barely. Having narrowly avoided the attack, she tried to retaliate. Before she could, the girl swung the blade again, smashing it into a tombstone. Sakura jumped back, trying to make more distance between them. "I'm surprised," Rider observed, somehow managing to keep her cool. "even though her weapon is so big, she moves very quickly." Illya ran towards the team, forcing Sakura to keep falling back. "She's not leaving much of an opening." Sakura thought. "I can't win like this, I have to think of something!" She ran possible options through her head, all the while flying from the earth-shattering swings.

The great stone guillotine smashed into the tree, and Sakura dodged by a hairs-breadth. Illya's assault was halted. In the collision, Heracles had gotten lodged into the trunk. "Wai-hey!" The girl cried. "Heracles, how could you get stuck like that?!" In response, her weapon made a guttural groaning. "Don't blame the trees, this is completely your fault!"

This setback was minor, but it was enough for Sakura to get more distance between her and her target. "Sakura," Rider said. "she is too strong, we must use soul resonance." Sakura furrowed her eyebrows. "We haven't mastered that just yet but…I don't know what else we can do." "We've practiced this; I have confidence that we will succeed." The purple-haired girl lowered her head. She released a sigh, mentally preparing herself for the gamble she was about to make. "Rider, are you ready?" "Yes."

They shouted in unison. "Let's go, Soul Resonance!" Their souls began to resonate like the notes of a song, and a sanguine glow emitted from their bodies. The two were connected before, but now they were becoming more synced than ever. Finally getting Heracles free, Illya looked curiously at what was transpiring before her. "Oh, Sella told me about this…" She giggled and raised her weapon. "Now I get to see what these students can really do! What an exciting day!" The daggers began to glow with a pale light. Sakura leaped forwards with a speed never seen in her before, launching towards Illya like a white comet. The sound of metal clashing on metal echoed throughout the graveyard.

Heracles let out a loud roar, as Illya used him to defend against the hurtling flurry of daggers. The sheer force of the attack had knocked her back a little, but she stood firm. The crimson-eyed girl cried and swung with great force. Sakura was knocked back, the momentum of her attack sending her flying. She rolled on the ground, finally stopping near a tombstone.

Illya walked towards her collapsed foe. Before she could get any closer, Rider went back into human form and shielded Sakura's body. She glared at the girl before them, her intense gaze shining through her glasses. "I will not allow you to come any closer!" Illya looked at them with disappointment in her eyes. "Is this really all Death has? I thought for sure he would have more to throw at me than this…" Rider gritted her teeth, trying to hold back her anger. Illya sighed. "This isn't worth my time." She looked off to the distance. "I guess I'll just head home early tonight." Her gaze returned to the girls in front of her. "Well, it was fun anyway. Even if it was only brief…" With those final words, she walked off and soon faded into the dark streets.

The threat now gone, Rider returned her attention to her meister. "Sakura, are you alright?" She slowly rose to her feet, her hand on her head. "I'm fine" She muttered, a bit of tension in her voice. "You seem hurt…did you hit your head?" "No, it's nothing. I just hit my head a little." "Let me see…" Rider leaned in and checked the spot that had been hit. "The bruise is minor, but we should still bandage it up just be safe."

The two began walking back to their parked bike. "I knew we'd mess up…" Sakura muttered. "What do you mean?" "The Soul Resonance. I knew we hadn't gotten it right yet, but I did it anyway. And now because of my mistake, that Illya girl is still out there feasting on souls." "I do not think it is that simple. We were fighting a strong opponent, and this is still our first semester. There wasn't much we could do here." Rider patted her on the head. "You've become more optimistic recently, you shouldn't get yourself down now." Sakura returned her gesture with a soft smile. "Thank you, Rider."

They silently got back onto the motorcycle, then drove off. There was a silence between them for a few moments. Finally, Sakura broke the silence. "You were right." She said, holding tightly to her driver. "I've promised that I'm going to make you a death scythe. I won't let a defeat like this hold me back." Rider smiled. "It makes me happy to hear you say that. Yes, even if we fail many times, we can't give up." A twinkle of determination returned to Sakura's eyes, as they rode under the grinning moon.