After defeating the Kishin, things started to calm down in Death City. There were less missions available and it seemed as though things were going fairly well for the team consisting of Maka, Black Star, and Death The Kid. They went on urgent missions as needed and tended to less important matters on the side. Things were going great and life was good.
"Ma-Maka…I don't know how much longer I can go on…"
Soul moaned from the living room. Maka rolled her eyes at the snowy-haired boy sprawled across the couch.
"You're the one who refused to pick up some groceries while I was out with Tsubaki. If you would have gotten off your lazy butt we would have some dinner tonight."
Soul pouted and puckered his lips like a baby at the wall. He couldn't deny it or even think up a comeback because it was the truth.
"How about we go out then, huh? My treat!"
Soul grinned at Maka and questionably lifted his eyebrow. Maka gave him sullen, irritated look, but couldn't hold it for very long. Before cracking a smile, she scoffed and shrugged her shoulders then nodded her head in agreement. Soul's grin turned into an ear-to-ear smile. He leaped up from the couch with a newfound energy. In what seemed like only a split second he grabbed Maka's wrist and was out the door.
"Soul! I'm in my pajama pants!"
Maka tugged at her overcoat trying to hide the pastel pink pants with smiling animated pieces of sushi scattered about it.
"Ah, don't worry about it. We aren't going anywhere fancy."
Maka pouted and rolled her eyes. As Soul dragged her along the sidewalk she looked up at the dark sky and flickering lampposts. The clouds looked like large purple tufts of cotton candy. She didn't even notice the bubble of drool beginning to form on her lip. Just in that moment, a mosquito flew directly into Maka's peripheral vision, startling her half to death. She stumbled, then rapidly blinked and rubbed her wrist across her mouth, transferring her drool bubble to the sleeve of her overcoat. She gave a disgusted look at her sleeve cuff and shoved her hand in her pocked, trying not to think about it. By the time her daydreaming was over they had arrived at a street-side ramen stand that she had never seen before.
"Is this place new?"
She questioned.
"Yeah, I heard some of our classmates talking about it yesterday. I thought we should give it a try."
Maka didn't seem to protest so he dragged her inside and plopped her onto a stool. A large hairy man turned from his frying pan to see the two youngsters. He grinned, revealing a set of jagged yellowing teeth. Although Maka's facial expression must have portrayed that she was terrified, she uneasily grinned back. The man shoved a menu in each of their faces and returned his focus to the frying fan. Once Maka was sure the man was paying no attention to her, she leaned over to Soul and said,
"What the hell Soul! This place is a dump! Look at the guy!"
She shot an unsteady eye towards the large man and cringed.
"Never judge a book by its cover, right Maka?"
Soul gave her a look of pleasure at his cunning words. She sighed, remembering when she told Soul those exact words. To please Soul, she drew back from him and hunched over in her seat, looking the menu over carefully. After a couple minutes, Soul and Maka decided to split a large ramen bowl. The hairy chef clapped his hands together and grinned. Rapidly, he chopped, mixed, and boiled things at an incredible speed. In only 3 minutes, their ramen was served. Both Maka and Soul looked satisfied and drooled over the steaming bowl.
"Well, dig in!"
Soul exclaimed. They both started shoveling the ramen into their mouths like it was a gift from God. After a minute or two, they both slowed down, drowsily eating the ramen like they HAD to empty the bowl. Maka turned to Soul, ramen still hanging out of her mouth, and blinked at him slowly. Soul blinked back at her.
"H-Hey Maka. *hiccup* Do you feel kinda f-funny..?"
Maka nodded and her eyes rolled back in her head, then her face slapped down into the bowl of ramen. Soul stared at his partner as her head rested in to bowl and began to laugh uncontrollably before his eyes rolled back and his neck gave out. The hairy man's eyes narrowed and an evil smile formed on his face. He grabbed the meister and her partner and dragged them over the counter.
"Finally. I finally have the demon boy and his weapon-human hybrid of a meister!"
He cackled and rubbed his hands together. Slinging the two dazed partners over his soulder, he proceeded towards the back room of his ramen stand. In that dark room, two chairs sat. The chairs were wired with all sorts of electrical doo-hickies that looked lethal. He sat Soul and Maka down and looked at them questionably.
"Now, who should I use first, the demon boy, or this interesting girl? I doubt she even knows that she's a weapon!"
He laughed at the ignorance that he believed Maka possessed.
"I suppose I'll save the fun stuff for last."
He shrugged and reached for Soul. When he grabbed the boy's wrist a sense of fear struck him. Was this the boy's soul he could sense? Was it that powerful? He released Soul's wrist, letting it drop to the ground. He backed away from the boy in horror.
"No, surely a boy this weak couldn't have such a strong soul."
He glared at the boy then fixed his eyes onto Maka.
"Fine then, I'll start with the girl!"
He seemed more satisfied that he had worked his way around this strange phenomenon. Upon grabbing Maka's wrist a shock volted through his body, causeing him to instantly release her.
"Gahh! What is going on!"
He furiously stamped the ground with his foot. Looking at his now charred hand, he shook it, as if it was helping cool it off. Can an unconscious soul really do that? He gave up trying to figure out what was going on and whipped out his cell phone. He fumbled with the phone for a couple minutes, having trouble typing due to his large fingers but finally succeeded in dialing a number. He lifted the phone to his ear and waited impatiently.
"Nakitama speaking."
A rough, but formal sounding voice answered the phone. The hairy man got nervous and replied,
"Uh, yeah hello Nakitama. Um it's Waru. I need your help again…"
He trailed off, waiting for Nakitama to reply.
"Uh, hello?"
Waru began to sweat.
"I'll be there in 10 minutes. This better be a good one or we are going to have some serious issues."
Waru sighed in relief.
"Oh, don't worry master. You won't be disappointed with me this time I rea-"
The phone clicked on the other end, followed by buzzing. Waru stared blankly at the wall in disappointment before closing the flip phone and shoving it in his pocket.
"Well, kiddos, looks like you are gonna have to deal with the big guys now. You better be worth our time or I'm going to take a beating.."
The man stepped back and seated himself, waiting for Nakitama and his crew to arrive. If these kids that he picked up were the real deal, something BIG was about to happen.