A/N: Heya, guys! Okay, so after a little thinking, I decided to put the draft or "sneak peek" up as a real story. No if and buts, I'm going to write this thing until it's finished, there's no going back. I'm really happy that people liked the drafty-thingy I posted in my one-shot collection Sweet Dreams, so those people are actually the reason that I've decided to go through with this. I suck at summaries and titles, so you guys will just have to endure those parts...

As a disclaimer, I do not own the characters or names depicted in this story. Anything that seems familiar with the Anime, Manga, or various other films and/or books is not mine either. I only claim ownership to the plot and some of the places described.


Chapter One

It was during one of the hottest summers of Maka Albarn's life that she took one of the most risky and difficult tasks she'd ever faced so far in her career.

A man called Kilik came to her and asked for her help. He had seen a murder on Tenth Street, but didn't want to get involved with the police. Thus, as the murder rates went higher in Death City, Maka decided to search for the killer and bring the citizens and the relatives of the murdered people justice by giving the perpetrator what he deserved. Though justice was her main objective, money was also a great force, driving her forward and towards new discoveries about the person she was trying to capture.

And it was during one of her searches during the evening that Maka started getting some real information about the person she was chasing...

-*- (until I figure out any other way, this will do)

She was onto something. The trail was fresh, and she knew she was close to catching the creature she was after. A little longer, and it would be over. She would receive her money, and the horrendous killings would end. If the person she was targeting was the right one.
She saw it. A dark shadow that sprung into an alley. She sped up and readied her gun, before almost throwing herself into the alley. To her shock, it was empty. It was a dead end, yet the shadow that she'd seen was gone.

"I lost him."

"Copy that."

She put her walkie-talkie back in the lining of her pants, then sighed and put her gun back in it's holster. She was about to turn around, when something flashed dangerously under her chin.

"Looking for something, Mrs. Detective?"

She froze. This voice and feeling was forever going to be etched into her mind. She felt her hands tremble as the cold blade of the steel above her chest stroke gently against her throat.

"It's..." She swallowed and leaned against the figure behind her to get further away from the blade.

"It's Miss, mind you," she whispered, fighting the limp of fear in her throat.

"Please repeat that, it's seems my hearing is rather bad tonight."

"It's... Miss Detective. I'm not married."

Shit, her voice was starting to get shaky. If luck was on her side, he wouldn't catch that fact and use it against her. What was she thinking? This guy had everything against her. He could slit her throat, and her voice shaking wouldn't have anything to do with it. At least she had two things covered now: The suspect was a male, and he had or was a weapon. Wait, she had three things covered: the suspect smelled of something sweet, oddly enough.

"Miss Detective, what might you be doing out on such a dangerous evening?" the male whispered into her ear, close enough for her to feel his breath. It was warm, but it still gave her chills, as if she was cold.

"S-Searching for someone," she answered, her voice cracking at the last word.

"For who? A man, maybe?" She could almost feel his smirk. It disgusted her.

"For me, perhaps?"

"Yes. I was searching for you," she answered quickly and swallowed.

"Why? I'm just a normal guy that happened to come across a woman with a decapitated head in an alley."

"You're... Going to kill me?"

A small laugh rose in her ear, then a pair of soft lips trailed a soft kiss along her jaw. She caught a small glimpse of blond, white or maybe gray in the corner of her eye. Light hair, huh? As afraid as she was, the kisses sent shivers down her spine, and she fought the gasps for air that she so desperately wanted to take.

"No, I won't kill you. Calm down, princess, I won't hurt you. You're interesting, so I'll leave it like this. I'm looking forward to this cat-and-mouse chase, miss Detective," the man whispered, smiling playfully and wickedly.

"But to make things a bit more interesting..." He forced her to turn around. The upper half of his face was masked and his body and most of his hair was clothed in a dark red cloak.

"I'm going to force a kiss on you." She widened her eyes in shock as he pushed her against the wall and leaned in closer. His nose touched hers, and she started to shiver with adrenalin and some kind of excitement she quite couldn't grasp the meaning of.

"Be prepared, miss Detective," he whispered. Before she managed to fight him, his lips clashed onto hers and forced her to stay still. This is my chance, she chanted in her mind. Reaching for her gun, she felt herself slowly giving in to him. What was wrong with her? This was a criminal serial killer, a person that would turn into a Kishin because of devouring too many human souls. She couldn't let herself be moved by this... thing that devoured her mouth with a kiss. If she wasn't careful, he might devour all of her. But Geez, why did this criminal have to be so darn good at kissing?

Her hand flashed. Two shots firing. Empty shots. Looking up, she saw the shadow of his cape disappear to the top of a roof. Superhuman powers were supposedly one of his traits.

"I think I found some valuable information about our killer – and possibly a suspect. Returning to station."

"Received. Oh, and there's a message from someone that wants to meet you."

"Don't tell me..."

"No, you're in luck. You seem to have an admirer, Detective M. Albarn."

"Heh, I don't really need one. They're so troublesome."

"Ahaha, I guess you're right. But he seemed like a well-mannered person, so I don't think you have anything to fear."

Maka ignored the nervous tone at the other end while her assistant laughed.

"That doesn't really matter," Maka sighed and took a right turn down a empty path.

"Anyway, I'm there in five minutes. I could use a cup of tea, if it's not too much trouble."

"Oh, that's fine, I'll make some for us right away. See you in five."

"'K, thanks. Bye."

Maka sped up her pace a little. She wasn't scared or anything, but she'd rather not bump into someone right now – she was still a little shaky from the happening before. She suddenly realized something. Stopping and putting up a disgusted face, she touched her lips with her fingertips. Her lips had been stolen by a suspect for murdering and eating human souls, and in such an obvious mocking way, too. It wasn't her first kiss. Her first kiss was something she had given voluntarily to her first love - a love she had yet to get over. She wanted to scream or hit something, preferably the shit-knot that had kissed her, but she contained herself. There were people here, after all, and probably people in the surrounding houses that were sleeping soundly.
It wasn't late – only 10 pm – but it was really dark outside because of the season. It was late Autumn, and the sun went to sleep much earlier now. It was rather cold, too. Maka sped up once again.

"Ah, boss, right on time!"

Maka stepped into her tidy office and was greeted by her assistant Tsugumi Harudori – a Weapon and professional Detective assistant. This particular girl was very cheerful, and seemed to enjoy Maka's company a lot. Maka had also noticed that Tsugumi would sometimes mimic her hairstyles and clothing styles, but she had yet to ask her about the reason for this. Today was one of these kinds of days where Tsugumi was wearing her hair very similar to how Maka had worn it a few days ago.

"Here's your tea, just like you usually have it," Tsugumi said cheerily while placing the cup on the desk.

"So, you found out some things about a possible suspect?"

Maka nodded and sipped her tea lightly.

"I think I bumped into him in an alley."

Tsugumi rushed over to her laptop, then came scooting back to Maka's office. She placed herself neatly in the customer's chair on the other side of Maka's desk, wrote down a few sentences, then looked up at Maka. Tsugumi's eyes were glittering with participation.

"He was wearing a red cape and a mask. And he smelled of some sort of sweet scent, kind of like strawberries."

Tsugumi hammered loose on her computer tablet.

"Wait, strawberries? How do you know that?"

Maka almost coughed up her tea, but managed to force it down. Leaving out the part about him kissing her would probably be for the best.

"Er... The scent was really strong, you could smell it from afar," she quickly answered, then filled her mouth with more tea to avoid having to say any more.

"Anything else?"

"Light hair, I believe. It was a young man, not old, and he is possibly a weapon, just like yourself."

"Ok..." Tsugumi said while tapping in the last sentences on her computer.

"Sorry, I've got some things to check up right now. I'll leave this here," Tsugumi said, nodding towards the teapot on a tray on top of Maka's desk.

"Thank you," Maka answered lightly, giving the younger female a soft smile. Tsugumi blushed slightly, got up from the chair, then went to her own office at the other end of the apartment.

"T-then, excuse me!" Agitation was evident in her voice as she closed herself inside her office.

Maka sat still for a while, stared at her desk, where things were placed neatly and in an order that made it easy for her to find things, while trying to pull strings of information together.

If the murderer was a male in his twenties, like she suspected, it would be a lot easier to find out who he was. Also, if her suspicion on the murderer being a Weapon was right as well, it would be even easier. She would just have to visit Shibusen and search through their archives to find the person that best fit the description. Then, she'd have the murderer and all his information, black on white paper. But it was sort of odd how easy this sounded. You'd think a murderer of this caliber would hide himself better.

"Um, Maka-chan?"

Maka stopped her inward ranting and looked up at a very nervous Tsugumi.

"The person I was talking about earlier, your "admirer"? It seems that he wishes to meet you - it seems like he might be in need of our services, at least that is what I made of our conversation. You might have heard about him: Yamada Tenshi," Tsugumi said. Maka now noticed that the nervousness in Tsugumi wasn't an unpleasant one. Rather, Tsugumi was hoping that Maka would accept the guest. Sure, Maka had heard about Tenshi before. Quite the pianist and musician. One of his pieces was actually on her favourite play-list right now.

"Yes, I've heard of him," Maka answered, smiling enthusiastically.

"Actually, I would be honoured if I could meet him. I've always admired his music."

Tsugumi squealed, then blushed and giggled.

"Sorry, it's just that I've heard so much about him. And he's supposed to be really handsome as well."

"I don't know about that," Maka replied, still smiling. She had never seen a picture of Tenshi, so she wouldn't know.

"But if he wants to visit us, he is free to do so. You have his number, right?"

Tsugumi nodded quickly, making her black hair jump up and down on her head.

"Then you should give him a call. Ask him if Friday is alright – we don't have any customers that day - not yet, at least."

"Okay, I'll give him a call tomorrow," Tsugumi mumbled, and returned to her office, leaving the doors open this time.

I guess I'd better call Shibusen Academy and ask if I could search their archive, Maka resolved in her head, then reached for the phone and dialed the number.

"Whizzup?" That was Shinigami-sama alright.

"Hello, this is Maka Albarn speaking."

"Ah~, Maka-kun. How unexpected and extremely pleasant to get a call from you."

"I'm sorry if I'm bothering you in your work, Shinigami-sama."

It was good to hear that voice again, she'd missed it quite a lot these past years after graduating from Shibusen.

"Not at all, Maka-kun. What can I do for you?"

"Actually, there is a favor I need to ask of you. Would you consider it if I asked you to search through certain files in your archive over students?"

"I'm not sure if that is legal."

"It probably isn't, but if I want to get to the bottom of this murder case going on in Death City, it is a necessity that I find possible suspects. Right now, the description we have is a male in his twenties. He should be a Weapon."

"I see... Maka-kun, you do realize that the material in those archives can be sensitive and personal? Thus, you would be trespassing on someone's privacy." Shinigami-sama sounded worried now. Maka nodded, even though he wasn't there to see it.

"I know. I promise that whatever information I find will be hidden unless one of the students are, in fact, the murderer."

"Then I suppose I could give you some access. And you will be accompanied by the Archive Wielder, Thom, during the whole time you are down there."

"Thank you, Shinigami-sama. I am indebted to you, sir."

Somehow, she managed to keep a straight face through the rest of the conversation. When they finally hung up, she sighed in relief and smiled triumphantly.

Yes! Thursday afternoon, I'll be granted access to the needed files! Go Maka!

"Tsugumi-chan! Do you think you'll be fine alone Thursday afternoon? I've got some important business to take care of," Maka said loudly, and Tsugumi gave her the 'OK' sign over her paperwork. That girl was busy informing the higher-ups about the information. A smile of acknowledgment and pride for her 'kouhai' grew on Maka's lips.

She rose up and walked over to one of the bookshelves on the east wall of her office. A collection of books she loved caught her interest: Sherlock Holmes. Since she'd done most of this weeks paperwork already, Maka decided to read a little. She picked the book closest to her, then went over to the chair in the corner – it was placed in front of the window facing the small department garden that came with Maka and Tsugumi's office. They didn't have any need for it, but it was refreshing to be able to go outside during hot summers and rest a bit on the stone bench in the shade of the young oak tree. Maka was already looking forward to that time of the year.

She sat down in the chair, looked outside for a moment, then opened the book and settled her mind on the words, characters and events in the book. Clever lines of thoughts, excellent plot and twists, witty characters and, all in all, a fine piece of literature. The purity of the words in the book pulled Maka right in and held her captive. It wasn't until Tsugumi came in that Maka realized how long she'd been sitting there. It was already 00.38 AM.

"I'd best be heading home now, Maka-chan."

"Got it. I'll be heading home soon as well. Did you lock the window in your office and the restroom?"

"Yes. Are you sure you'll be fine alone? After what happened at that time..."

Maka froze and rewound the scene from two years ago in her head, before shaking her head and coughing.

"I'm over that now, I'll be fine. You can go ahead and go home," she answered in a flat tone. Tsugumi's face turned a little whiter. Bowing, then leaving quickly, Tsugumi mumbled something about 'sorry', but Maka didn't take note of it. It wasn't important anymore, that incident.
Maka waited until Tsugumi had closed the door before looking out the window. The leaves were going to cover the grass completely soon. Maybe she should use her free time next morning to rake and make the garden look nicer?

Sighing, she rose up and went to put the book back in place. She'd better get a move on as well, or she'd have trouble with waking up the next morning.


That's the end of chapter one! Did you like it? I tried my best to change some things and not make it look too drafty, but I'm too tired to do many more changes for now... I'm actually very happy with the way it came out in the end. And sorry if it's too short or too long or anything, I try to keep it as simple and neat as possible, so you guys won't get bored with me quickly.

And one other thing; I'm trying really hard to make Maka seem independent and clever - am I doing alright? I can clearly see her in my head, but I don't know if I'm describing things so that you can see her the same way...

Am I ranting?