The Music of Our Hearts: Chapter 5:

"Hm..." Maka held a finger to her lip as she thought, looking over the mission board. "It should be something easy... Good for new partners..." She murmured.

Soul nodded in agreement, looking over the board that was covered in messaged that had been pinned up. A fair number of them had a sash on them, reading; "Working on." These missions were of course, already taken. Some were as simple as, get rid of troublesome members of the Mafia without killing them, to high contamination of Kishin eggs.

Kishin eggs were of course, the souls of those who could potentially become a Kishin, the demon like being created from the consumption of human souls. Weapons such as Soul, fed off Kishin eggs to become stronger however if he were to eat a human soul, then he would soon become like the monstrous beings.

Maka pointed at one of the plaques. "This one? It's easy ranking and seems simple enough. We just have to get rid of a pack of wolves that's been terrorising a village." She said, "They have Kishin potential." She added.

Soul nodded, looking at the sign. "Sounds good."

One week earlier:

Maka and Soul stood in front of Lord Death in Death Room, hearing out what he had to say to them. He had just called them from their home room class to have a word about their progression over the past two weeks of their time at Shibusen.

"So," He started, clapping his oversized hands together, "I've called you up here because I wanted to remind you that you haven't actually successfully turned Soul into a scythe yet." He said, "I think that the best course of action would be for you to do a hands on mission and try to...'Learn on the job' as it were..."

Maka nodded, seeming to understand the tactic that he was proposing however Soul was dubious, "Learn on the job? What if we get killed?" He asked, not fully sure if he was capable to do such a thing and further risk his own life, as well as Maka's.

Lord Death appeared to be thinking, tapping his mask with a finger to further justify that, "Mm... I could send someone to assist you. They're also new students however their progression in strength has been... swift and they show potential."

"Only potential?" Soul asked, frowning. "What happens if they're worse than us?"

"Well, they have mastered basic weapon transformation the only problem being... The Meister is a bit of a... loose cannon. But, I'm sure Maka-chan won't find it too difficult to maintain when she has to deal with Spirit-kun on a near daily basis.

"As long as he isn't a pervert like Papa..." She muttered in reply to that.

Maka removed the plaque of the mission that they chose, "This one is the one." She said, starting to walk to get it registered.

Soul nodded, begging to walk with her, hands behind his head. "Hey, who do you think our partner's gonna be?" He asked as they walked down the corridor, stopping at a window in the wall with a rather pudgy lady who registered them.

Maka looked up in thought, trying to be optomistic, "To be honest, I don't know... Someone who is new... and potentially strong..." She shook her head, giving up on that. "I don't know. I try to be familiar with my classmates but..."

Soul shrugged, not too bothered by the lack of outcome. "Oh well, guess we'll find out, huh?"

After the two were registered and had everything set up, they exited the school, walking out to the main courtyard that was situated at the top of the grand staircase. The brightness from the sunlight was almost blinding for a brief moment after spending so long inside, and only two dark figures were all that could be seen in that moment.

"That must be them..." Maka said, squinting with a hand over her eyes as she tried to adjust to the bright light, trying to discern the shapes.

"Yahoo!" The shorter of the two figures called out at the top of his voice, "This view never gets old!" He laughed loudly, hands on his hips in a triumphant sort of manner as the two figures looked over the city. "But of course, it will never be as great as I am!"

The tall girl beside him nodded, holding her hands neatly in front of her, "Yeah..." She seemed a little awkward about his claims but just seemed to go with it rather than burst his bubble.

Maka walked over, Soul following at a more leisurely pace, taking his time. "Hello, are you...?" She looked at a piece of paper that she produced from her pocket, "Black.. Star... and Tsubaki?"

The two turned to them, the girl smiling sweetly and the boy grinning ear to ear, estactic that she knew his name.

"Yes, I'm Tsubaki." The girl said with a slight, respectful bow. Her long black hair was tied back in a long, thin ponytail that went to the back of her knees. "And this is-" She started however the boy cut her off.

"The great, Black Star!" He shouted as dramatically as one could ever achieve. His blue hair was spiked in a variety of angles, making jagged shapes. "You want my autograph of course?" He grinned and laughed as if he told the world's funniest joke.

"Uh... no." Maka said, furrowing her brows. Maybe this guy is worse than Papa...

Tsubaki frowned slightly,"These are our training partner's silly..." She murmured quietly as if for fear she'd upset him, or anyone else.

"Oh yeah!" He laughed as if he had forgotten this detail leaving Maka and Soul to stare with dumbfounded expressions as he continued to laugh.

"Great..."