"HELLO, ITALY! This is one cool country, huh?"

I looked back at Maka as we're driving through on my motorbike.

"So, whaddaya say? Are you getting hungry, Maka? I think it's about time for some all-you-can-eat pasta. You know what they say, when in Rome eat lots of past-..."

She smacks me on the head with her book and yells, "We didn't come here to be tourists and to stuff our faces! Do you get that, Soul? No, we're in Italy for an extra-curricular lesson, okay?"

"Yeah, I do know that, Maka. You didn't have to scrabble my freakin' brains. So, this guy we're after, he likes to lay low until night, right?"

"Nice try, but we're not sight-seeing right now. We have to gather more information about the city."

"Ugggh. Fine. "

I continued to drive around until I found a good place to park my bike. I got off and held out my hand for Maka. When she noticed it she turned a light shade of pink and gave me her's. I pulled her down and smiled when her feet were on the ground. She looked confused, but quickly shook her head and focused on the task ahead of us.

"Let's see... Where can we go to find some information?", she asked as we continued through the city on foot.

Suddenly, I bumped into a tall man wearing light brown jeans and a grey hoodie. On his head he wore his red baseball cap backwards and his face had a beard made of tiny, scruffy hairs. I looked at him and said I was sorry when he grabbed me by the collar of my jacket and pulled me to his face.

"Problem?", I said coolly.

"You bet there is. I got a problem with any punk who runs into me like that. Who do you think you're messing with? Maybe you'd like me to show you, huh?"

"If you spoke more and spit less, maybe I'd be able to understand you."

Two more guys appeared beside him as he continued holding me up by my collar.

"What did small-fry say?", the guy on his left wearing a green short-sleeved shirt and grey pants said.

"Heh, no problem. If you don't understand, we'll explain it to you.", the guy on his right said ad he cracked his knuckles.

In the middle of his last sentence another guy appeared behind the first guy. When he finshed his sentence a group of guys gathered around to join them.

The guy holding on to me started to talk again and said, "do you know who controls this town? The Mobarazzi, that's who. And don't you forget it."

"Yeah, I couldn't care less about that if I tried.", I replied back to him.

Finally joining the conversation, Maka told me to stop messing around because we had work we needed to do.

"Yeah, fine by me."

She looked at me one last time before she walked off leaving me alone to handle my problem. After a few seconds had gone by, I caught up to her leaving the Mobarazzi beaten in the street behind me.

(")^( " )^(")

"Found him. Finally.", Maka said a she spotted our target below us.

I had transformed into a scythe earlier so that we when found him we could be ready to battle. The black and red on my blade matched the shape of my teeth and was sharp enough to cut through whatever necessary. An eye laid on the connected part between blade and handle allowing me to see. He turned and noticed Maka standing behind him. She ran forward and jumped off the roof we were on just as he leaped toward her. When she met him in the air she quickly swung me cutting into him until there was nothing left but his soul. She landed on the roof in front of us and I quickly transformed back into a human.

I grabbed the soul as she said, " That's the last one we collect on this trip, right?"

I replied that it was and told her that the soul would taste better than all-you-can-eat pasta. I tilted my head back and opened my mouth dropping the soul into it. I chewed on it for a few seconds before swallowing it then exhaled slowly.

"I was wondering... do souls taste good? You seem to like 'em."

I looked at my partner and nodded telling her they're delicious.

"They don't really have a particular flavor. It's just they way they feel going down. The texture."

I walked over to her and held out my hand once again. She smiled and reached out to take it, but something stopped her. I looked at her and narrowed my eyebrows in confusion. Realizing I didn't understand, she turned and pointed at what had gotten her attention. A few blocks away there stood a tall castle building with a giant bell hanging from it.

"I seem to remember someone telling me we didn't come here to sight-see. Oh, wait. That was you."

"It's not that," she began closing her eyes, " it's something else. I sense something. A group of souls all wound up together over there."

She focused harder before continuing, "There all in that building over there. I sense the souls of a Weapon and Meister. And then there are fifty or sixty human souls surrounding them. It looks like the guys who stopped you earlier."

I put my face close to her's to see her better in the dark. Impressive, I thought as I watched her concentrate on the building. I moved closer to where we were almost touching and continued to watch her. Wow, she's... actually kind of pretty in the moonlight. What am I thinking? Especially about Maka. As she opened her eyes to see me in her face and staring at her, she began blushing and quickly looked away.

"Soul?"

"Yeah, Maka?"

"We need to go over there. It's our duty, as students from the academy, to stop that Meister from collecting their souls. If they collect them then they might have enough to turn into a kishin."

"Come on. Let's just forget about them. It's Saturday night after all, for all we know they could just have a fever or something."

"No, Soul. It's not the time to be joking right now. If we ignore it and something bad happens, it'll be too late. "

"Okay, okay. You win. We'll check it out."

(")^( " )^(")

We pulled up to the building Maka had pointed out earlier and stared at it for a few seconds. I got off my motorbike and held out my hand for her, but she jumped off instead and ran to the door. I looked up to see the bell ringing high above us. I do love gothic architecture. This is one cool building, I thought as I followed behind her. Suddenly the bell stopped ringing and Maka grew very tense.

"Maka, what's wrong?"

"All the humans souls that were inside have disappeared."

I watched as she placed her hand on the door in front of her. I didn't completely know what was going on, but I knew my Meister had sensed something in this building. Suddenly the door opened inward and a giant breeze came flooding out. We walked in to find a kid around our age standing in the middle of the room with his back to us. At the sound of our entrance he turned around and mutter something I couldn't make out. His light pink hair was short with a few long strands reaching down to his shoulders. He was wearing a long black cloak that buttoned from top to bottom with white cuffs. He stood in front of us and stared with his light grey eyes as he waited for us.

"Maka, didn't you say he had a Weapon with him? He's just standing there all by himself."

"I'm reading the souls of a Meister and a Weapon. And both of them are standing directly in front of us. That means that the Weapon must be inside of his body."

"You can't be serious."

"SOUL! Transform!"

I quickly reached out my hand catching her's just before changing into a scythe. She grabbed me with both hands and turned me sideways to hold me in front of her. I could tell she was prepared for a fight, but I knew she didn't fully understand what was standing before her.

"Maka, are you telling me there's a Weapon inside that dude?"

"Not for long. It's coming out."

Suddenly the kid in front of us let out a cry of pain. His hands moved to hold his head as he bent down embracing himself for what came next. As the pain grew stronger, he bent slightly backwards and began to yell. A giant black and white figure burst through his back and grew high above him. When the figure had completely appeared, we saw that a giant white "x" formed to make his face. In the middle of the "x", two round eyes could be seen with smaller "x's" for pupils. We watched as the giant figure began to squish the kid's head in between his fists. When he couldn't take it anymore, the kid began screaming that he had had enough.

"Stop it, Ragnarok!"

"Now, now. Calm down, Crona. You're so scary when you're stressed like this.", the figure said mockingly.

I watched as the two began to bicker until Maka, unable to take anymore, decided to cut in.

"You should know that the hunting of human souls is forbidden. I haven't seen you around the academy, so you can't be students."

"Academy?", Crona asked in reply.

"Meisters and their Weapons are not allowed to collect humans souls for any reason. We hunt only the souls the souls that have become kishin eggs."

She raised me above her head preparing for an attack. The giant figure, named Ragnarok dissolved into a black smoke above Crona's head. Crona reached into it and pulled out a hilt as the smoke turned into a black and white blade. With the blade in his hand, he raced forward to make the first move.

"He's going to strike from below.", I said and Maka moved me to block it.

The sword slid into me sending Crona slightly forward before he took a step away. When he was at a good range, Maka yelled for him to stop and then back-handed him across the face. She rushed forward pushing me into the ground before pole-vaulting to land on top of him. Her knees dug into his face as she pulled me above her once more before slashing into his arm. Black blood began dripping from his wound and landed on the floor beside him. Maka's expression became surprised as the sight of the blood. Crona leaned into her whispering that his blood was black before she took a step away from him.

"I think his blood is a weapon in itself. I was able to cut through his skin, but his blood hardened causing your blood to stop completely when I hit his blood vessels."

"So, how do you plan on defeating him then, Maka?", I asked taking in what she had said.

"I'm not really sure what I can do. None of our attacks will work on him."

We watched Crona as he lifted his sword preparing for another strike.

"Ragnarok. Screaming Resonance."

A mouth formed on the blade of his sword and began screaming causing the room to shake around us. When he knew we were distracted, he raced forward to strike. Maka noticed and blocked him with my blade. His blade cut into my shoulder causing me to yell out in agony.

"SOUL!", she yelled as she kicked him across the room, "Are you okay?"

"Don't worry about me. I'm your Weapon and it is my duty to protect you, Maka."

Her face showed sadness, but she knew she had to fight and shook it away. She looked down at me and smiled weakly before holding me out in front of her. It's okay, Maka. I will protect you. Suddenly Crona's blade began to scream as he rushed forward. Maka began to block each strike until her back was pressed against the door. She looked back trying hard to use her body weight to open it, but it wouldn't budge. She watched as Crona lifted his blade high above his head and knew she had nowhere to run.

"The door only opens one way. It opens inward.", Crona said as he began to attack her with his sword.

"MAKA! Block him now!", I yelled out in fear.

"I can't, if I do you'll die!", she yelled back almost crying.

At the last second I jumped in front of her, transforming back into a human. The blade cut through me leaving a deep diagonal gash starting from my left shoulder and ending at my right hip. Blood gushed out around me as I began sliding to the floor. Before I collapsed, Maka caught me in her arms and held me close to her. I looked up at her and smiled weakly reaching my hand out to hold her cheek. She placed her hand on top of mine as tears began to fall from her emerald eyes.

"Maka...", I whispered.

I welcomed the darkness that I knew would come to take me. The pain was excruciating, but soon, I knew it would come to an end. I could feel an overwhelming sense of tiredness as my body began to slump in her arms and my eyes began to feel heavy. Losing the strength I had to keep them open, I gave in allowing them to close; taking in her image one last time before she was gone.