The girl was seriously weird.

Soul snuck a look at her solemnly walking beside him, hair pulled up into the same stupid pigtails and the same uniform with the long black coat pulled over it.

Oh God. She was going to dress like that every day, wasn't she?

Retracing their steps back from their apartment to Shibusen was a lot faster than their earlier journey along the same path, and Maka, despite her initial failings at map-reading, turned out to know her way around Death City quite well. Occasionally, she would wave at a passer-by on the street, or stop for a quick 'hello' with a cheerfully grinning citizen.

She'd spent a lot of her childhood hanging around Death City and Shibusen, she had told him the night before after being accosted by the waiter at the hamburger joint they'd eaten at, due to mother being a Death Scythe meister. She'd known most of the teachers at the school since she was young, and was friends with many of the shopkeepers and workers.

While she had prattled on about her life, Soul couldn't help noticing that, while she was more than happy to talk about her mother (and he did mean more than happy), she avoided the subject of her father altogether. Oh well. Who was he to pry?

Unfortunately, it seemed Maka did not share this same ethos. Their dinner had revealed that her favorite things to do included reading, studying and trying her hardest to interrogate Soul about things about which he did not want to talk, namely his music and his family.

He'd had his doubts in the beginning, but now everything was clear to him. This girl was a total nightmare, and their partnership was never going to work. The end of the one-month trial period couldn't come soon enough.

As they climbed the steps to the school, Maka seemed to notice Soul watching her, because she smiled nervously and started talking quickly. 'The school was actually designed by Lord Death, did you know? He has quite … eccentric tastes. Have you ever met him? No, I suppose not. I thought it was weird that he didn't come and great the new students, he's normally quite personable but I guess –'

'YAHOOO!'

Soul nearly shat himself as a blue-haired boy appeared seemingly out of nowhere, grinning manically, standing far too close to Soul's face for comfort.

'How does it feel to be in the presence of the MIGHTY BLACK STAR on his soon-to-be-legendary FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL?' said the boy, grabbing both of Soul's shoulders.

'Uh …' Soul replied eloquently, heart still thumping.

'Don't worry! It's normal for plebes to feel ashamed of themselves in comparison to me! You will learn to live with it!' Who the hell was this little shithead?

'Hey Black Star!' Soul turned to find his new meister beaming at the little shithead. 'Found a weapon yet?'

'Of course! While it's hard for a mere weapon to match up to my level of brilliance, I've finally found someone who almost contains the same amount of awesome as me!' Black Star gestured wildly behind him, and Soul was surprised to discover that a tall girl was standing there silently, a small smile on her lips. 'This is Tsubaki!'

'Nice to meet you,' said the girl, bowing slightly. She was absolutely beautiful, and looked quite a bit older than the other kids Soul had seen in their year level, with large, dark blue eyes and black hair that fell to her waist. How had a dumb kid like that managed to land such a hottie? There was no justice in the world.

'Isn't she great? She can turn into a chain-scythe and a smoke bomb and a body double and a shruiken!' Tsubaki continued to smile politely, seeming not to mind that she was being advertised as though she were a car. The blue-haired kid grinned competitively and looked Soul up and down. 'What about your weapon, Maka? What can he do?'

'This is Soul Eater,' said Maka, leaning forwards, hands on hips, 'he can play piano and turn into a … a …' she blanched and her eyes widened as she stopped in mid sentence, staring embarrassedly at Soul. Ah. She didn't know what his weapon form was. He guessed he hadn't actually told her yet. How uncool.

'I'm a scythe,' he growled, transforming his arm into a blade with a flash of blue light, just for effect.

'Oh no.' To Soul's surprise, Maka turned an even paler shade of white and looked even more horrified. Black Star burst out laughing.

'What? What's so funny?' Asked Soul defensively, retracting his blade self-consciously. He couldn't compete with the tall, beautiful girl and her different weapon forms, he knew that, but there was nothing too terrible about his weapon… was there?

Neither of the meisters was listening to him.

'Shut up!' Maka was a tomato red as she yelled at Black Star, who was practically rolling around on the ground laughing. 'It's not like that!'

'Oh man, oh man,' said Black Star, wiping tears from his eyes, 'I mean, I knew you had daddy issues, but I didn't think they went this far.'

'I said shut up! I didn't even choose him!'

'Daddy issues, daddy issues!'

A loud tolling sounded in the distance.

'I think that's the bell,' said Tsubaki in a quiet voice.

Maka rushed forwards with her head down, cheeks still luminescent. Black Star half-ran half-danced next to her, laughing and taunting. Tsubaki trotted just behind her meister and Soul, despite resenting it with all his heart, was forced to follow behind Maka, seeing as she knew where to go – he hadn't looked over his timetable or map yet.

When they reached a high-ceilinged classroom with rows upon rows of benches, Soul noticed that Maka was trying very hard to avoid his eye as he sat next to her. Did she know something he didn't? She seemed like she was a total bookworm, so maybe she could tell that he was a weak weapon or something. Maybe scythes were considered shitty weapons, he wouldn't know, he grew up in a family revolving around music for Christ's sake! Friggin' hell, and he'd just thought he'd finally found something he could excel in …

'Everyone, sit down and welcome to your first day here at Shibusen.' A tall, muscular black man whom Soul had seen the day before talking to the woman in bandages that Maka seemed to know was standing at the base of the classroom. 'My name is Mr. Sid. From this day forth, you will all be assigned the difficult but necessary task of vanquishing the corrupted souls who roam this Earth, threatening the lives of innocent humans. You must be dedicated and determined, because it will not be an easy task, and you will acquire many scars and injuries along the way. Those who do not think they can handle the brutal life of a Weapon or Meister under Lord Death's control are advised to leave now, because …' Blah blah blah blah blah. Whatever. Soul had read it all in the brochure.

He turned to look at Maka. She was sitting straight-backed next to him, looking alert and trying to absorb all the crap the dude at the front of the room was spouting, although the fact that her cheeks were still bright red gave away her embarrassment and anger. The cause of that embarrassment and anger was sitting on her other side. Black Star was whispering 'Daddy issues, daddy issues,' in a never-ending stream into her ear, a huge, goofy grin on his face.

'One thing which must always be remembered is that the size and shape is not important, but the soul. Souls and soul-wavelengths are crucial to being able to use a Weapon and pairs must form strong partnerships in order to survive and successfully carry out their duties …' Was that guy still rabbiting on?

Maka's mouth was being pressed into a smaller and smaller line and her nostrils were flaring wildly. Black Star had not abated. Soul watched with interest as his Meister gave up on all pretence of listening to the teacher and turned towards Black Star hissing, 'I do not have an Electra Complex.'

Black Star gleefully whispered back 'I don't even know what that means, but that just proves I'm right!'

'What!' Maka leaned in closer 'That doesn't even make sense!'

'Yes it does! I'm always right! You have daddy issues!'

'You are so de -!'

'Well, it looks like Ms Maka Albarn has just volunteered herself for a little demonstration! Come up to the front, please.'

Maka gave a small gasp as she turned around to see the rest of the class staring at her. Soul smiled to himself – this was karma for her yelling at him yesterday out of the blue and being less than impressed with his weapon form.

'Your Weapon should come up too.'

Not cool.

'So, Maka, who is this?' Asked the teacher.

It was really starting to bug Soul how everyone was talking about him as though he weren't there, instead deferring to a girl who hadn't even known his weapon form until ten minutes earlier.

'This is Soul Eater.'

'And what is his weapon form?'

Maka paused for a moment before answering. 'He's a scythe.'

The teacher did a double take. 'A scythe?'

'Yes,' replied Maka through gritted teeth, 'a scythe.'

Sid bent down to her level and said, in a voice which he obviously thought wouldn't travel to the rest of the class, 'Maka, you do know that your father –'

'Yes, of course I do!'

She was blushing harder than ever.

'Well, ok then. I'd like you two to demonstrate what I was just talking about -– synchronizing soul-wavelengths. You both need to face each other,' they did so grudgingly 'take each others' hands,' they did so even more grudgingly 'close your eyes and breathe deeply.'

How embarrassing. A whole classroom full of strangers was watching him holding hands with a chick that appeared to hate him for no reason whatsoever.

'Now, you should each focus on the other. What do you know about this person? What are they like? You need to search for their soul, you need to connect with it, with them.'

Um, ok.

What did he know about Maka? Not a hell of a lot, seeing as they hadn't even known each other for twenty-four hours yet. She liked to read, he guessed, seemed to have a short fuse, idolized her mom and evidently has some issues with her dad, which was somehow connected with him.

Not a lot to work with.

This was stupid. This whole thing was stupid. This whole school was stupid and uncool. What the hell was he doing here? He didn't know the first thing about finding someone else's soul-wavelength, whatever that even was.

'Meisters are only able to wield Weapons if their soul-wavelengths are aligned, which is why this exercise is so important. Some people have naturally incompatible wavelengths, meaning that they'll never be able to wield one another. Visualizing a similar or same image sometimes helps wavelength alignment, or experiencing similar emotions, reliving the same memories. It must always be remembered that just because two people may have different personalities, this doesn't mean that they can't align wavelengths.'

Great. He was never going to be able to do this. He just knew that he wouldn't be able to align with anyone, meaning that he couldn't function as a Weapon, meaning that he should just pack his bags and toddle off home, to face the indifference of his parents, to see his brother smile pityingly and say –

Wait a second. What was that?

Far in the outer edges of his consciousness, Soul felt a small flicker of uncertainty and fear that didn't belong to him. Cautiously, he probed it in his mind and found that it flitted just out of grasp, teasing him. Like a far off streetlight surrounded by fog, if he concentrated on it too hard its light would dull and seem to shrink, so he concentrated around it. Now he could see its light more clearly, feel it, without actually knowing exactly what it looked like.

A small, sharp intake of breath and a slight tightening of the hands that covered his own told him that Maka had felt something too. Scrunching up his eyes even harder, trying to block out the faint buzz of covert conversation being held by students, Soul focused on the small ball of feelings that were not his own, and found that it was morphing into something brighter, something just out of range, a happier emotion.

It was frustrating him, he wanted to just reach out and grab whatever it was that danced on the fringes of his mind, but something told him that if he did that, he would lose the feeling altogether. Instead, he relaxed into himself and, as cliché and uncool as it sounded, he opened his mind. To his joy, he found the flicker growing brighter and steadier, until he could almost feel its warmth inside his skin. It was no longer composed of fear, but of elation and relief, mirroring his own emotions. His body felt calm and comfortable, as though it belonged.

'Congratulations,' said Mr. Sid, 'you've successfully aligned both your soul-wavelengths. I am very impressed.'

Opening his eyes slowly, so as not to accidently lose the alignment, Soul found Maka staring back at him in amazement. He could feel her soul buzzing with glee, growing larger and taking his soul with it, amplifying his own happiness at finally, finally, discovering something he was very good at.

'Man,' he heard Black Star call from the benches 'those are some daddy issues.'