A work that I decided to start while rereading DGM from the beginning. This is post Soul Eater and early DGM. Enjoy.

That had gone horribly.

For what had started as a normal day for Maka and Soul, this was unexpected. They had lost a fight against a witch and were now paying that price. There was an explosion and now they were somewhere that wasn't where they were before.

"Soul?", Maka asked. "Are you alright?"

"Don't worry about me, Maka. I'm alright.", answered her scythe, alive and well.

"I couldn't see you through all this smoke, I had to-"

"...use your soul perception to find me" finished Soul.

"Soul, there's something wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"There's another soul nearby, but there's something wrong with it. It's almost like it's being drained, attacked, and pleading for help. We need to go, Soul" explained Maka. "Now!"

Soul turned into a scythe and grabbed hold of him and began running towards this soul that she hadn't seen before.

"There's innocence that needs to be collected not too far from base, and you're the only one available, so we're sending you, Kanda!" said Komui cheerfully.

Kanda glared at him, turned around, and went on his merry way.

Maka didn't know what she was looking at.

She saw a human soul, but that which held it inside was not human. It was as if that soul were not supposed to be there. As if it were ripped from it's body and placed in this strange clown-looking creature that most definitely was not human.

Then this clown had begun to laugh.

"Don'tcha think you're a bit too young to be handling a weapon like that?" it asked as it begun to smile maniacally, showing all of its absurdly sharp teeth.

"Soul, he's coming. The thing itself has no soul but there's a soul stuck inside that doesn't belong there. Destroying this clown will likely free the soul inside. Ready, Soul?" asked Maka?

"Always", replied Soul.

Maka waited for the clown to rush forward, which it did with amazing speed. She blocked the hit with the blade and countered, shifting her feet and slashing diagonally at the beast, made contact.

A small tear had been made on the creature's shoulder.

Soul and Maka had thought the same thing at the same time.

"Soul Resonance!"

Soul's transformation into the Demon Hunter form that he took had been instant.

Maka took a step back from the clown that had been staring in curiosity, unmoving during the resonance.

She slashed downward, unleashing a shockwave that was tearing the ground below apart as it began it's movement towards her opponent.

The creature hadn't dodged but ran straight forward at the shockwave. It hadn't felt any innocence, this was just another blast of energy. It grabbed at the the shockwave and held it there, pushing against it with all its might.

The effort was in vain.

The clown's hands shattered and the shockwave sailed through the clown's body, which was split in half.

Maka activated her soul perception to see what had happened to the soul. The result wasn't what had been predicted.

"We were too late. It appears the soul within had become corrupted while we were fighting.", Maka told Soul.

"Do you think the corrupted soul is safe to eat? It's essentially a kishin egg right?", asked Soul.

"It's about the same as one" replied Maka. "Go for it."

Soul ate it, and commented that the taste was strange.

"Strange how?", asked Maka.

"It was stale and dry" responded Soul.

"Soul, what's that box over there?"

"What box?"

Maka ignored the question and walked towards it, picking it up.

Then she heard a voice that wasn't Soul's.

"Hand that over", it said in a bored tone.

Maka looked in the direction of the voice.

She saw an angry looking male about her age but with longer hair and just a little taller wielding a more than dangerous looking sword.

Maka stared blankly at him while gripping Soul tighter and pocketing the box. She also happened to ask the wrong question.

"Why should I?", asked Maka.

Kanda went from a distance off to right in front of them, sword pointed in their direction.

"Because it's either I get the box, or your life and the box.", he responded aggressively.

Maka glanced at his soul and was impressed. The soul itself was pure, but massive. Only a little smaller than Stein's.

The blade began to come down, and Maka pushed it to the side and followed up with an attack of her own.

Maka tried a Figure 6 just like she had tried against Free a long time ago, but Kanda blocked and jumped backwards, creating distance between himself and Maka.

"First Illusion- Netherworld Insects!"

A swarm of creatures began their short trip to Maka, but didn't last long.

"Witch Hunter!"

Maka launched a blue wave at her opponent that she, literally and figuratively, had put her soul into. She wanted this fight to end, now.

Kanda had stopped for a second.

"Innocence?" Kanda thought to himself.

Kanda sidestepped the wave to Maka's frustration and put his hand on it as it passed by. It felt very similar to Innocence in nature, reacted similarly to his own Innocence, but anyone who had spent a long enough time around it could tell the difference.

"What was that?", asked Kanda. This had triggered a strange sort of curiosity.

"I'll answer that once I know what is inside this box" responded Maka.

"You're in no position to make demands. This fight is mine." answered Kanda.

"Kishin Hunter!"

Kanda watched as the blade on the scythe changed shape, size, and color. This whole situation, this girl's abilities, it was strange.

"You're going to explain or I'm going to force it out of you." said Kanda, beginning to lose his patience.

"Oh, is that supposed to scare us?" said the scythe.

Kanda was lost. Very lost.

There was an awkward silence as Kanda tried to decipher what exactly it was that was going on.

Kanda was giving the scythe a confused stare and Maka was giving Kanda a similar look.

Neither of them interrupted the silence. Rather, it was a swarm. But, of what?

Maka used her soul perception to see what was nearby. She counted. There were about a dozen souls that were in the same state as the one in the clown: they were being eaten away by those strange machines they were stored in as if it were a parasite to the soul, slowly becoming corrupted.

The they slowly came into view, Kanda recognized them as Level 1 Akuma.

"If you had just given me the box we could have both left this place before the Earl sent in more Akuma to retrieve the Innocence." Kanda said in an annoyed tone.

"Those things are called Akuma?" asked Maka.

Whatever response Kanda would've given was interrupted by a large bullet that narrowly missed Maka's eye.

"Can you fight?", asked Kanda. "I'm not going to save you if you if you're too weak to defend yourself."

"Please", said Maka, "if you need any help just say something. My name is Maka, and this here" she said nodding to her scythe, "is Soul".

"Yo." Soul said.

"I'm Kanda, and when we finish here you're coming with me."

Both turned towards their opponents.

"This is going to take a while." thought Maka to herself, tilting her head to one side to avoid a bullet and smacking another one out of the air with the blade of her Kishin Hunter.

Thus ends chapter one. Tell me what you think :).