A lot's happened in the past few weeks. Me owning Soul Eater is not one of those things.

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4th Night

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"Did you hear?"

"Yeah, that guy's in the infirmary right now."

"They say he's got stab wounds all over his body!"

"That's what I heard too, and he's the second one this week! Good thing Ms. Medusa and Dr. Stein are so good at patching people up."

"So both of these incidents happened on the same mission?"

"Uh-huh. Apparently this guy's one tough cookie!"

"Must be a lot tougher than they thought. What do they call him again?"

"The Leatherman"

These were the whispers that floated through the halls of Shibusen that day. It was through these halls that Soul and Maka walked as they headed toward the mission board. There, they found Sid and Dr. Stein mulling over the same mission they had been intent on taking.

"It seems we've underestimated this one," Stein commented.

"This leather-guy's a crafty little bugger, I'll give him that. I think maybe I should handle him instead of the students. I'll bet Mira would be happy to come back to help."

"Yes," the doctor agreed with a nod, "Perhaps if one of the students had had a better developed soul perception they'd have faired better."

"Which is why we'd like to take a shot at it," came a feminine voice from behind them. The two turned to see Maka and her weapon looking up at them expectantly.

"Ah, Maka," Stein greeted, "How are your hands fairing?"

"Good as new!" the young technician replied. As a demonstration, Soul transformed and she lightly twirled the scythe in her hands.

"Be that as it may, I'm not so sure about giving you guys this assignment," Sid told them, "I always hated seeing students get hurt. That's the kinda guy I was."

"You've faced two very difficult opponents in a row already," Stein added, "And both had less than optimal results. Are you sure you want to try a third so soon?"

Maka winced slightly. Though she'd mostly gotten over it, the memory of their fight with Chrona was still very fresh, and the battle with Free in London hadn't quite gone the way she'd have liked either. Fortunately, her partner stepped up to the plate.

"Third time's the charm, right?" Soul quipped as he reverted to his human form.

"You'll also be the third pair we've sent against him," Stein warned, "He hasn't managed to kill any of them yet. Let us hope that the third time isn't his charm."

The evening found the two of them in a typical American suburb. It was a quiet, well-lit place with houses lining the streets as far as the eye could see. It was the last place you'd expect to find a serial killer, but unfortunately this was where Mitchel Myers currently roamed the night. It was also a pretty decent place to hide out.

"Oi, Maka! Any idea where we should start looking for this guy?" Soul asked as they walked down the street.

"Not really, no," she told him, "I haven't been able to pick up his soul response yet, so we'll just have to keep looking."

Soul sighed lazily, "Guess we do this the old fashioned way, then."

Maka nodded, and their search began. Little did they know that they were already being hunted.

"So what's this guy's deal?" Soul asked after they walked for a while.

"Mitchel 'the Leatherman' Myers," she began, sounding as if she was going into a long lecture, "Apparently he was so hideously deformed at birth that his family abandoned him. Now he's totally obsessed with killing them all. The thing is, once he was through with his immediate family he moved on to progressively more distant relatives. It's to the point where he's killing people who've never even heard of him, not to mention anyone who tries to get in his way."

"He must've been a riot at family reunions," Soul joked.

Maka rolled her eyes and continued, "The worst part is what he does after killing his victims. Not only does he take their soul, but he also cuts off their face to wear as a mask!"

"Wow, you've gotta be pretty ugly for that to be an improvement!" Soul replied, entirely seriously this time.

The Meister nodded, "He's also proven to be very hard to kill. He always seems to know when someone's after him, and he tends to pop up right when you least-"

Before she could finish her sentence she felt the soul response she'd been looking for, and suddenly it was directly behind her!

"Soul, scythe!" she ordered. Fortunately he quickly took the hint, and Maka was able to block just as an oversized butcher's knife came down at her.

"How'd he sneak up on us?!" Soul shouted, "Hell, how does a guy like that sneak up on anyone? He's kinda hard to miss!"

Maka pushed away from the killer's weapon and backed off to study her opponent. Hard to miss was right! He was a tall man with wild hair wearing a gray jumpsuit. Strapped to him were knives of all shapes and sizes, including the one he was currently wielding, which was actually more like a broadsword shaped like a knife. The technician wasn't sure what was creepier, the bloody knives or the trademark mask he wore; the dried up face of his previous victim.

No, scratch that. His soul was by far the creepiest thing about him. It was fairly powerful, fed by the numerous innocent souls he'd already taken. Not as strong as Free's had been, but it wasn't the strength that gave her pause so much as the ghastly appearance. It looked to be composed of many ghostly, tormented faces, each silently screaming as they faded in and out of view at random intervals. This gave it a sort of ethereal appearance, as if the whole thing would just disappear at a moment's notice. Perhaps that had been why she couldn't sense him before.

There was no more time to think about that, though. Myers rushed at her with his weapon raised, intent on ending the fight quickly. Maka used her scythe to vault over the killer and swung the blade at him immediately upon landing. He quickly brought his own blade around to block the attack, and then drew another knife to slash viciously at her. Myers was far quicker than one might expect from someone his size, and the Meister was just barely able to move away in time to only suffer a minor scratch across her cheek. Maka was beginning to see how the other students had been taken down. This guy was strong, quick, agile, and deathly quiet; he hadn't yet made a single sound during the fight. The only reason she had been able to avoid his first surprise attack was due to the last minute triggering of her soul perception. She had to wonder if the others had even had time to get this far before being forced to retreat.

The technician spun her scythe wildly to parry the furious slashes of the Leatherman. This guy was getting just a bit too close for her liking, so when she saw an opening she leapt backwards and then hopped up the branches of the nearest tree. Finally, she jumped to a nearby roof, hoping to get a bit of a breather. Myers didn't plan on giving her that chance, and jumped straight up the tree after her. Fortunately the scythe tech had anticipated this, and as he leapt into the air she hooked him with her scythe and flung him across the rooftop and over the edge. There was a loud thud as he landed on the ground below, and Maka ran to the edge hoping to finish her mission. However, when she looked over the edge, she found no sign of her target.

"What? Where'd he go?" she cried as she jumped over the edge. Indeed, the man was gone, and once again she was unable to feel his soul. The only evidence that he'd ever been there was the bloodstained grass where he'd landed.

Soul partially transformed his upper body and shouted in irritation, "Get your ass back here you cowardly psycho! It's not cool to run off and hide in the middle of a fight y'know!"

Maka looked around warily, but she was fairly certain he would not attack just yet. He would wait until he felt the element of surprise was on his side, and then he'd try to ambush them again, just as he had before.

After a brief rest they set off again, hoping to find their target. They didn't have to wait long, though the way they found him was not the way they'd have liked. The two were passing by an old garage, walking back-to-back and trying to look in every direction at once hoping not to be surprised again. This proved to be a futile effort; by the time Maka sensed his presence it was too late. A hand shot out of a nearby window, and the girl cried out in pain as a knife stabbed into her shoulder.

Soul reacted to his partner's scream without even thinking about it. His hand became a razor-edged blade as he spun around, and before the madman could react the weapon had severed the offending arm.

"You alright, Maka?" Soul asked.

"I'll be fine," she growled as she pulled the knife from her shoulder. She grabbed some gauze from her coat and placed it over the wound to slow the bleeding. If there was one thing that the fight with Free had given her, it was the ability to work through pain. She held out her hand and asked, "Ready, Soul?"

"You got it!" he replied as he took her hand and transformed.

Maka got up and leapt through the already shattered window to find their target standing there looking dumbfounded at the stump of his right arm. It was apparent that he was unaccustomed to taking such severe damage during a fight, and was morbidly curious about the new sensation. Even now, though, he did not make a single sound to give voice to his predicament. The Leatherman got back to business once he noticed Maka charging him, and quickly pulled out his biggest knife (or sword - due to its size, Maka and Soul would later have a very pointed argument over which it was).

Having been right handed, the murderer immediately found himself at a disadvantage without the use of his dominant hand. Though still strong and quick, his swings were clumsy, and the scythe tech easily parried with her own weapon. After one particularly bad swing Maka found the opening she'd been waiting for.

"Here's soul number four!" she shouted as she cleaved the man neatly in two.

When the smoke had cleared she sighed contentedly. After the disaster with Chrona and their difficulties with Free, it was nice to have a decisive victory under their belts. The Meister relaxed for what seemed like the first time in weeks as she rubbed her still stinging shoulder.

"You sure your shoulder's gonna be okay?" Soul asked as he placed the wayward soul on his tongue and slurped it up.

She looked at her coat with disdain, "I'll be alright, but I'm getting a little tired of having to mend this coat after every mission."

Soul playfully poked his fingers through the hole, being careful to avoid her wound, "at this rate, your clothes'll be as patched up as Stein's!"

"Don't even joke about that!" Maka laughed as she smacked his hand away. Dr. Stein was an excellent teacher, but she had no intention of copying his fashion sense.

Author's Note: Sorry for the late update! You wouldn't believe all the shit that can go horribly wrong over the course of just two weeks. Fortunately things seem to be calming down a bit now, so hopefully I can get this back on schedule.