Hello everyone,

I sincerely apologize for making you wait so long. Life has been really busy. I hope you will continue to read and enjoy.

I don't own Soul Eater or any of the characters.


Soul darted though throngs of people in a bustling market square. He followed the tails of his partners' long black coat as she weaved through the masses. Maka occasionally slipped her hand into pockets as she passed, relieving some people of their money. Although Soul had been practising for the past three weeks since he joined the Academy, he was still not very good at it. Maka still far out striped him, but she literally grew up learning how to do this stuff. Maka stopped and nodded towards a well dressed fat man that reeked of money. He was smoking a cigar and using a cane to support his substantial weight as he strolled down the road.

"Go lift his wallet and bring it to me. He is the mark for this mission."

Soul swallowed. "Doesn't that mean that he has at least three guards?"

"His guards are just inside the shop at the moment. If you do it right, you should be gone before he even realizes anything is wrong." she smiled encouragingly at him.

The red eyed teen nodded, taking a deep breath before heading forward. He jogged toward the man from behind. Just a few steps from the man, Soul "accidentally" tripped and sent himself tumbling into him. His hand was out of the mans pocket before the man registered that he been bumped into. It was a pick-pocketing technique that was used mainly for beginners. The pressure of his fall covered the the feeling of his hand in the pocket. Soul apologized profusely, bowing as he stuck the wallet in his own pocket. The man was greatly upset and took at swing with his cane. Soul easily dodged it and ran away, in the opposite direction of Maka. Making sure nobody was watching him, he doubled back to meet up with the girl.

"Nicely done Soul. The guy still has no idea."

"What a bozo." Soul laughed. "So what do we have to do now? Take pictures of him?"

"Pretty much. This guy is involved with a smaller gang that sells drugs. He is pretty much their patron. We could get rid of the gang members themselves, but he would just recruit new, desperate kids. If we take him out, they cease to exist."

"So why do we have to take pictures of this creep? Why can't we just take him out and be done with it?"

"To every appearance he is above board. The police are a bit skeptical of him, but have no evidence to arrest him. And the public hold him in fairly good regard. We would only look bad if we killed him without a cause. So, we need to take incriminating pictures of him so the police will finally have proof."

"Oh, I see."

"Really Soul. You need to start paying more attention in the briefing meetings. Some of these jobs require preparation."she said somewhat exasperatedly.

"Yeah, Yeah."

Soul had been with the Academy for three weeks now. He had been on a handful of missions so far. All non-combat types, just really simple jobs like the current one. As much as he understood why they were given easy missions, he was itching to get his feet wet, so to speak. The types of missions that he heard Black*Star, Maka, and Kid reminiscing about. None of them were allowed to go on cool missions anymore because of their partners lack of experience. Liz and Patty were proving themselves to be rather brutal in their combat skills allowing the trio to take on more difficult operations. Living on the streets for years had honed their skills and made them down right scary when they wanted to be. He had once seen the sweet and innocent Patty put on the scariest face and whip Kid into shape during one of his neurotic episodes. It was quite frightening. He did not want to cross those two girls. His mind drifted to his other two friends Black*Star and Tsubaki. The blue haired teen was loud, obnoxious, more than a little self-centred, and had quickly become Soul's best friend. For as many flaws as the guy had, Black*Star was, undoubtedly, cool. He never pretended to be something he wasn't, he put his all into everything he did, and he never apologized for anything. Soul greatly admired those qualities in his friend and almost wished that he had more of them. The white haired teen wasn't especially close with his best friends partner, but he did like her. She seemed perfect for Black*Star. She was the mountain compared to his gale. The one who supported him no matter what. She didn't say a lot, but it seemed like her words were always perfect; they were exactly what was needed. He admired the girl too, she was so calm and mature. All seven teens had become friends over the short time they had know each other.

He snapped back to the present when Maka suddenly stopped in her tracks, making him run into the back of her. She glared at him and pressed her finger to her lips. They were at the entrance to an alley. She pointed to an escape ladder leading to the roof of the building to their right. As silently as they could, they ascended and lay on the edge of the building peering into the dark alley below. The cold hard gravel on the roof poked into Souls ribs. It was not a comfortable place to lay down; the smell of stale cigarettes permeated everything. After a few minutes, the leader of one of the smaller gangs slipped into the alley. Maka snapped a few pictures. The faint sound of the shutter broke the silence that enveloped the pair, but wasn't enough to gain the attention of the man below them.

Maka studied the man as he paced back and forth. He was quite young looking for a gang leader, maybe early-mid 20's. His face was hardened by years of living in hard situations, never really feeling safe. He had probably lived on the streets his whole life. His old and battered clothes hung loosely on his slender frame. The man paced the alley impatiently for a few more minutes before another figure appeared. The large man that Soul had run into earlier sauntered into the darkness. His cigar smoke gently curled above his head and dissipated. The younger man lurched toward the newcomer.

"What the fuck man! Where are the drugs you promised? You said that you would have them to us three days ago!"

The older man swung and squarely struck the younger guy with his cane sending him reeling backward.

"Don't take that tone with me, boy. Things have been difficult to transfer."

The young man was standing in front of the fat man again, this time a little less aggressively, but his hands were still trembling.

"Remember I said that I have to to this carefully because I can't be caught. Everything ceases if I am suspected." He finally noticed the younger mans trembling hands. "Besides, why are you so eager to get it. Only the addicts should be that antsy. Didn't I tell you not to get hooked?" he drawled and caught the poor street man with a stone-cold stare, as if daring him to lie.

"Uh.. Well.. I wanted to try it once to see what it was like..." he managed to stammer out.

The business man slowly brought his cane back up and rested on the others chest. To his credit, the gang leader didn't move a step. Suddenly, with vicious force, the businessman shoved, sending the leader to the ground in a graceless heap. His arms and legs spread wide trying to register what happened.

"Why do I keep you around if you can't even follow the simplest of orders?" He asked calmly as he slowly drew a gun from his clothes. He took a step forward and aimed the barrel right between the mans eyes. The younger man slowly shifted his focus from the barrel of the gun, inches from his face, to his bosses face. The look of terror on his face was heart wrenching, but the boss remained impassive, almost calm. Soul almost felt bad for the guy. It's not like the young man deserved it. His life had led him to this situation, but he surely couldn't be that bad of a person. Realistically, if Soul hadn't gone right to the DWMA, he could have been the one in that ally in a few years time. That thought chilled him to the core. He tried to shake it away and concentrated back on the scene.

"Follow my directions next time, or I won't be so nice." the gun was uncocked with a loud click and returned to its hiding spot, undetectable. From another pocket, he grabbed a large old-fashioned key and tossed it at the ground by the gang leaders feet. The leader scrambled to his hands and knees to pick it up.

"Tha-Thank you boss. I will do better next time." his voice trembled audibly.

"Hah!" it was a cold, humourless bark. "You disgust me. Get out of here." his voice dripped with venom, making the poor lad freeze in place staring blankly at the large man towering above him. The large man turned away and slowly walked toward the entrance and disappeared around the corner.

Turning back to the remaining man in the ally, they saw him slowly, shakily, bring himself to his feet and walk the other way out of the ally.

Soul turned to Maka, "We got what we needed right? The mission is now over?"

Maka had a perplexed look on her face, as if trying to work out a difficult math equation. "Well, we did what was asked of us, technically that's all we have been assigned to do. However, there really wasn't anything too illegal in any of the photographs. Mr. Thatch was more careful than we had anticipated. We would have to follow the gang leader to whatever he unlocks, and if that is the drugs, then there is an evidence trail that leads to Thatch."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Lets go after that guy to see what he unlocks."

"Well... we're not supposed to do anything after this. This is all we've been cleared to do. It might be very dangerous, we haven't scoped out the area or done any planning. It might even be an ambush for all we know." Maka turned to Soul, the dilemma still evident on her face. On one hand, they didn't collect any hard evidence and this whole operation was practically useless. But on the other hand, they really didn't know what waited for them if they followed that guy. As professor Stein always told them, it's best to have a plan and know the layout, not just rush in blindly. But surely sometimes it would be unavoidable, right?

She lay there looking at Soul for a little longer, watching his blank face stare back at her

while she mulled over the right decision to make. Finally he broke the silence.

"Well, let's go. What are you waiting for?" His red eyes searched her face for a good answer.

"Well..."

"Maka, this is what I was talking about when I said you need to be more flexible and more open to change. Not everything needs a plan and not every situation has time to make one."

She knew he was right of course. It was difficult for her to admit; she was good at plans. Less people got hurt if you had a good plan and stuck to it. She knew that well enough from watching Black*Star throw himself head first into trouble. But Soul was right. Sometimes there was just no time. She took a deep breath and nodded at her partner.

"You're right. The whole mission is a bust if we don't connect Thatch to the drugs. But be careful and follow my directions."

Souls face broke into a lopsided grin; his pointed teeth gleaming. "Alright."

They quickly descended the ladder and crept down the alley in the direction the gang leader had gone. It brought them to another back road. Maka peeked around the corner in both directions, but the leader was out of sight. There were a few other alleys leading off of this road and it would take too much time to check them all. She motioned for Soul to be silent and closed her eyes. She had always been a good listener. It hadn't always been useful in the past, but it was certainly was now. It was kind of hard for her to explain how she did it, but she listened in one direction, then in the other. To the left she heard faint foot-steps. They were the only sound she heard, so it had to be the gang leader. She pointed left, nodded at her partner, and quietly ran down the road. At the entrance to the second ally on the right of the road, the foot-steps got louder. She turned down and just saw a figure turn right at the other end. They caught up quickly after that. Their quarry was quickly walking, but in his drug with-drawled state, it was easy for the two young, fit teens to keep up with him. He wasn't even checking to see if he was being followed or not. Still, Maka knew this area of town well and played it safe. She led them down alternate alleys that met up with their target. They even had time for her to snap a few more pics along the way. After several minutes they came to the docks.

It was starting to become late afternoon and the sun was beginning to set. There was a thick mist that came off the water and enveloped the whole area. It shrouded everything and made it difficult to see. It also greatly muffled any sound. This was a double edged sword. On one hand, it made hiding easier and safer; but on the other hand, they would have to get much closer if they wanted to take clear pictures. Maka thought about the best plan while watching their target.

The thin man walked down a wide open area toward the side of a warehouse. He seemed headed toward some locked crates against the side of the building. Maka looked around and saw some large reels of fishing net at the end of the warehouse close to the crates. She lead Soul around the building behind the reels, avoiding the large open area where they were sure to be spotted.

She brought the camera out again and looked through. It was perfect. She snapped several pictures of the man walking up to the crates, kneeling to unlock them and taking out a package. She tried zooming in to make out the package, but it was no use. They were too far away and it was too misty.

With shaky hands, the man opened one of the packages, took out a pinch of the small, rock-like drug and placed it under his tongue. The teens could clearly see the relief flood through his body. His face went slack, his shoulders relaxed and his hands stopped shaking.

That's a very fast acting drug. Thought Maka. No sooner had it touched his tongue than it started having an effect. With such a small dose none-the-less. It must be incredibly powerful.

After a moment, the leader closed up the bag. He took a small sack out of his pocket and started removing more bags of drugs from the crate and putting them in the sack. A few moments later he locked the crate and was walking down the street. He looked like he could have been carrying groceries.

After waiting a moment to make sure he wasn't coming back, Soul and Maka came out from their hiding place. Maka motioned for Soul to pick the lock while she stood guard. There was a satisfying click just moments after Soul had knelt to examine the lock. Maka turned around impressed.

"You are getting really good at that." she whispered. "That isn't a standard lock either."

Soul had a smug look on his face and answered with "That's what cool guys do."

Maka refrained from rolling her eyes and opened the crate. There were still many bags of drugs. Maka took the final incriminating photos and closed the lid. Soul did the lock back up and the pair disappeared into the misty alley.


Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave a review. Ill try to get the next chapter up soon.

-Tanima