"I still can't believe you did this all by yourself." The dark haired girl stated and she and Maka did their best to sort through the jar of cash. Maka felt bad about dividing the left over money between Tsubaki and Crona, but what else was there to do? They both could use some extra cash, and it's not like they knew everyone else who had been robbed.
"He made it pretty easy." Maka replied, putting quarters into a pile of four.
"But what if he didn't? If you're going to do something like that at least take Liz or Patty with you." Tsubaki chided. Maka rolled her eyes silently wondering what it will take for everyone to realize that she is capable of handling herself, she was grateful that they cared so much but she wants nothing more than to prove that she is nothing for them to worry about.
"Hey what's this?" Tsubaki's voice pulled Maka out of her thoughts.
"What's what?" Maka asked, looking up at the other girl who was holding a piece of paper out for the blonde to inspect first. Maka took the paper from the woman's hand cautiously, as if it would explode at any given moment. Although that was fairly unlikely seeing as how it was just a poorly torn out piece of notebook paper. Her brows drew together as she tried to make words out of the scribbles that were made out of blue ink.
Don't be a hero. Demons aren't the only thing that can make an angel scream
"What does it say?" Tsubaki asked, making Maka jump.
"Nothing, just a phone number, probably fake." She replied, crumpling the note and shoving it into the pocked of her hoodie. Tsubaki eyed her for a moment before cracking a huge grin.
"Looks like someone likes you." Tsubaki basically sang out.
"Like I said, probably fake, when is Crona going to come pick up his half?" She tried, desperately wanting to change the subject. She had a feeling Tsubaki would overreact if she knew what was really written.
"Are you going to call him?" The tall woman pressed.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Weren't you just going on about me doing dangerous things? This guy mugged you for deaths sake!" Maka burst out, flinching at her own harshness immediately afterwards.
"You really do care about your own safety!" Tsubaki exclaimed, crushing Maka with a hug. Definitely not the reaction Maka was expecting. There was a soft knock on the door that signaled Tsubaki to let go of her. Dusting off her jeans, Maka went to answer the door. The walk across the apartment didn't take very long, it was small and cheap, but it was all she and Tsubaki could afford at the moment with their current jobs as waitresses at the local Death Cafe. Maka opened the door to a scrawny boy with lavender hair and grey eyes wearing a black dress.
"Hey Crona, come on in, we were waiting for you." Maka told him with a smile, allowing him to pass her before closing the door. Of all of their friends, Crona is the one who was in need of this money the most, he had ran away from home about a month ago at only sixteen, but it was for the best. His mother was abusive and made him do horrible things, when he left, he took nothing but a few dresses he had stolen from his mothers laundry. The witch didn't even buy him his own clothes, let alone feed him properly as anyone could clearly see. He was lucky that his land lord, Ragnarok, had taken such a liking to him, or else he might have ended up on the streets.
"Everything is in the bedroom. Are you going to stay long?" Maka asked the boy curiously.
"No sorry, Ragnarok said a scrawny little turd like me should get as much sleep as possible before going to school tomorrow." He replied shyly.
"Tell Ragnarok I said next time he's trying to be responsible, lose the insults." Maka told him as they enter the bedroom. The room had white walls, two beds on the opposite of each other and a desk in the middle that was cluttered with random papers. Tsubaki sat on the floor, shoving Crona's half of the money into a black box and holding it out to the boy.
"Thank you." He said, taking the box for her hand.
"You're very welcome." Tsubaki replied kindly.
"I'm going to make sure Crona makes it home alright, i'll be back later." Maka explained to the dark haired girl before putting her boots on.
"Be safe."
"We will." Maka replied, leaving the apartment with Crona not far behind. Luckily they were on the second floor so they didn't have to go down many stairs.
"Do you want to take the bus home? I'll pay." Maka asked, not wanting him to spend any of the money that he had just received. the boy nodded, signaling Maka to lead the way to the bus stop to make the bus scheduled for 9:00, They got on in a hurry, Maka paying the toll as Crona clutched her arm. They sat in the back of the bus to avoid too many people, keeping silent until they had reached their stop. She rushed Crona into his home with a small 'goodbye' before leaving. She had something else she wanted to do before going home and Crona's apartment was only a few blocks away from a certain albino who had a lot of explaining to do.
When she arrived at his door, she slammed her fist into it three times to make sure he heard it. Not long after, the door opened revealing a rather annoyed looking Soul.
"Can I help you?" He asked lamely.
"What is this supposed to mean?" She asked with narrowed eyes, taking the note from her pocket and shoving it into the boys face. She invited herself in ask he tried to recollect himself.
"I thought it was pretty obvious that it was a warning." He stated, shutting the door before following her into the living room.
"I know that, you idiot! What are you warning me about?"
"Why the hell should I tell you? So to can track them down and get yourself killed? BlackStar would kill me! Fuck the Thompsons will too! I'll probably earn a few broken bones for meeting you!" He slammed his head into his hands and groaning.
"What did you just say?" She asked with narrowed eyes. Souls face shifted from a look of nonchalance to oh shit faster than you could blink an eye.
"I didn't say anything." He replied, his expression changing to a bored look.
"Yes you did."
"Prove it." He shot back, earning a glare. She noticed that he was wearing a jacket and shoes.
"Where are you going?"
"Shopping." He replied with a shrug. Maka raised an eyebrow.
"All of the shops are closed." She stated.
"I know one that isn't."
"Okay, then i'll come with you." She told him, walking towards the door and waiting.
"What? No you aren't!"
"Yes I am, it's dangerous at night."
"As if you'd help at all!"
"Well, I took you down didn't I? Hurry up." She asked, turning to him with a smirk.
"That was just luck, you caught me off guard and you are not coming!" He shouted, running past Maka and out the door. Maka wasted no time going after him, she can see him about twenty feet ahead of her, he was rather slow so she could easily catch up, but that would be stupid, he would just take her everywhere but where he was really going. She will have to keep hidden and try to keep up, She was lucky enough that he decided against his motorcycle. Several twists and turns and ten minutes later Soul was bent over in the middle of a side walk catching his breath as Maka peaked out from behind a building. He took a final look around to make sure he wasn't being followed before he began to walk forward at a normal pace. Maka followed, being sure to stick close to a good hiding place at all times just in case he decided to turn around. He was leading them into the richer parts of Death City, the only people that could be seen were her, Soul, and a bunch of drunks that were standing in front of the Chupa Cabras. Maka silently prayed that she wouldn't see her father as she passed. When Soul finally stopped they were at Gallows Manor, he messed with the gates for a little bit before pulling out his phone.
"Yo Kid, let me in." He spoke into the phone. Not long after there was a creak echoing throughout the night as the large black gates opened.
"Huh, so this is where you were going." Maka stated, making Soul jump as she walked closer.
"What the hell, get out of here!" Soul shouted, Maka simply shook her head.
"Fuck, i'm so dead..." Soul groaned, swiping his hand through his hair. His phone rang in his pocket, forcing him to pull it out and answer. Maka could hear the other mans voice from where she was standing.
"Are you in yet?" The other man asked making Soul glance toward her nervously.
"No I ran into a little problem. You know that Maka chick BlackStar and the Thompsons are always yapping about?"
"What about her?"
"She's standing out here right now. Hey Maka, say 'hi' to the nice man." Soul told her, holding out the phone.
"Hi." She said, handing the phone back to Soul when she received no response.
"Bring her in." The man said, Soul hung up and motioned for her to follow him as he walked through the gates and into the mansion. When they got inside there was a man waiting for them, he had black hair with white stripes across one side and golden eyes, he wore a black suit with a skull neck tie.
"Everyone is down stairs if you would like to surprise them." The man stated.
"You're enjoying this aren't you?" Soul grumbled.
"I'll admit this will be fairly amusing, but mostly i'm happy to see Maka again, I always told them to bring you down here." The man said, sending a smile Maka's way.
"I'm sorry, but do I know you?" She asked, feeling kind of bad when the smile disappeared from is face.
"It was a long time ago, it's understandable that you don't remember and you were only around four at the time. Here this might help." He told her, walking off into another room. She looked to Soul in question but he just shrugged.
"Here it is!" echoed through the home before the man walked out holding a picture frame, he handed it to Maka. There was a little version of Maka wearing a yellow and pink dress and a young boy wearing black overalls with a white dress shirt underneath it. They were both looking at a book but the cover was covered up by the boy's hand in the background an older boy can be seen, head wrapped with scarves so only red eyes and the end of his hair could be seen. She remembered this, at least halfway, her father used to take her to work at city hall, so she got to play with Lord Death's sons.
"We used to be rather close before your mother took full custody. I see you kept the pigtails." Kid stated.
"I'm so sorry I forgot about you Kid." She said, still looking at the picture, Kid waved her off.
"If you're both done now, can we go down stairs?" Soul asked in annoyance.
"Yes, lets go." Kid said, walking down his hallway. At the very end of it there was a black door that Kid opened, revealing a set of stairs. At the bottom was a large space with a long, red couch sitting in the middle and a large television hanging on the wall in front of it. Sitting on the couch were three people she knew very well.
"We have a guest." Kid announced, causing all heads to turn in their direction. Maka watched as Liz and BlackStar's faces went from shocked to angry in a matter of seconds.
"As your god I demand to know what she's doing here?" BlackStar shouted. Kid pointed to Soul who looked slightly nervous about this situation. Liz sat there with her mouth agape as Patty waved at Maka excitedly.
"Well?" Kid asked, looking at Soul expectantly.
"Well it started off when I tried to mug her..." He started, cringing from the glares being shot his way.
"Then I beat him up." Maka added proudly, causing both BlackStar and Patty.
"I thought we told you to stop doing that if you wanted to continue your work here." Kid scolded, Soul waved him off, seeming to get over his initial nervousness.
"Don't worry, i'm done with it now. Promise." Soul said, going to sit on the couch.
"Anyway, she ended up following me here after I told her no." He finished.
"Well I personally think this is excellent, we are in need of more members after all, and I have a feeling Kami trained Maka for the chance that she would be recruited, after all both BlackStar and Soul still need partners." Kid stated, clasping his hands together.
"Well Maka did your mother teach you how to use any weapons?" Kid asked to further prove his point.
"She let me use an old scythe every once in a while. But that was just for something to do." She explained.
"It doesn't matter, she isn't joining." Liz told them.
"I don't know Liz, she might not be as big as the great me, but she was able to take out Soul."
"She caught me off guard!"
"Maka has the right to choose for herself, and father would be delighted to have another Albarn."
"Can someone please tell me what i'd be joining?" Maka shouted, grabbing everyone's attention.
"Correction, what you're not joining." Liz told her, glaring at Kid.
"Father has a program where a select few are able to truly do good, To truly take evil out of our city. I'm sure you notice how high the death rate is in this city?"
"It is literally named after it, so yeah." Maka replied.
"There are three gangs that are using this city as their own personal battle ground The Snakes, The Arachnids and The Kishins. They want to not only take each other but they also want to take everyone in this city out. Those who don't join them will be killed. It's our duty to take them down before that could happen."
"How?" She asked.
"We go on missions, just small ones like stopping deals and such. At least until we have the opportunity to take out the bosses." Kid explained.
"What's the catch?"
"Oh, I don't know, the possibility of death at any moment, having to kill people, you know that sort of thing. You wouldn't be interested." Liz told her.
"She wouldn't be killing people, she would be killing monsters with no morale. These guys have to much blood on their hands to be considered human." Soul stated.
"Does Tsubaki know about this?" Maka asked.
"I was going to ask her to be my partner here soon, since her family trained her with the katana." BlackStar explained.
"Please explain these partners?"
"We all have partners for safety reasons, you fight together. However the hardest part is living with them." Kid told her, ignoring the 'hey' from Liz.
"But I wouldn't have a partner..." Maka told them. Everyone went silent.
"I'll be your partner." Soul said, breaking the silence.
"But Soul I thought you didn't want a partner because of what happened to-" Kid started.
"It doesn't matter anymore. It would be better to ave a partner, it's too much work alone." Soul dismissed him with a wave of his hand.
"Alright, so since that's settled, what do you say Maka?" Soul asked, looking up at the girl from the couch.
"I'm in."
Hey guys, sorry it took so long to update. As some of you may have noticed I took down my other fic. Why? Because it quite honestly sucked, I have no idea where I was going with that one. But anyway if any of you are interested, I kind of want/need someone to look over my work before posting it, whether It be personal opinions or grammar issues, anything to make this fic or anything else I write better. Credit will definitely be given to those who help, so if you're interested you can PM me or ask me on tumbler, whatever you see fit.