I woke up in a dark strange place with aches all over my body. I moved slowly, trying to make my eyes adjust to the darkness as quickly as possible. The bed I woke up on had a lumpy mattress that felt like a slab of cement.

A long dark cloth slid off my shoulders as I sat up with one hand pressed to my forehead. I sighed, wondering how long I'd been out.

"Chrona? You're awake… Thank goodness…"

Maka stepped out of the shadows, a line of worry on her brow as she leaned down to give me a tight hug.

The two of us were in a dim prison cell. The only light came from the barred window on the back wall. A wet drop, probably mildew, leaked from the ceiling and hit the top of my head.

Maka pulled away and I ran a hand through my hair. I was glad that she was safe, but…

"Where's Soul?" I asked.

"He got away, don't worry." She folded her arms across her chest. "I don't know where he is right now, but I'm sure he's on his way to get this all straightened out."

I stood up to stretch my legs and rub my sore wrist. The long dark cloth had been her coat. She put it on, took a seat on the bed, and told me we'd been brought here about twenty minutes ago.

"You had a nasty bump on your forehead, but it looks like it's all healed now." She paused. "I got one of them, by the way. You?"

I nodded. "I got one, too."

"Then that means there's only two left."

We only had four targets to hunt down during this mission. We had decided to gather as much information about them as we could from the village square. It should have been a quick and easy day, like any other, but…

We hadn't expected them to attack the crowded square right then and there in broad daylight.

At first we didn't understand what was going on. It was noon and the place was packed and suddenly someone screamed. Then another and another, then the running started. Maka grabbed my arm and held onto it as I was pushed and shoved forward until the people in front of me stopped in their tracks and twisted around, hurrying the other way.

Maka pressed her head close to my ear. She spoke calmly. "They're spread out. North, south, east, and west. Take the one in front of us. Soul and I will take care of the one behind us."

He was already a scythe in her hands. His blade glinted in the sunlight as they turned in one smooth and swift motion. Within moments, they disappeared amongst the crowd.

I turned my palm face-up, watching as Ragnarok appeared there in his Demon Sword form. The villagers kept bumping into me as I trudged forward, my eyes searching for the monsters responsible for this chaos.

A large gap in the crowd lay ahead with a lone figure at its center. Most of the villagers who were giving the creature space were fleeing, but some were standing in place and staring with their eyes wide.

It looked ghost-like, but upon closer inspection it seemed more like a tall person wearing a gray bed sheet. Only it was hovering an inch off the ground with no feet visible.

At the moment it was looking between two frozen villagers, as if deciding which to victimize. It had a pair of black holes for eyes. When it lunged, it revealed a gnarled, sickly gray hand with sharp, black fingernails.

"No you don't!"

I rushed at it, my feet pounding against the cobblestone ground. Gripping Ragnarok in both hands, I took aim and pierced its back. Despite its hollow appearance, it felt solid.

It halted and the head slowly bent backwards. Its hand fell limp. The body disintegrated the moment I tugged Ragnarok out, leaving a blood-red soul in its place.

Ragnarok's tongue lashed out like a frog's, catching the soul and bringing it to his mouth for him to swallow whole.

A long, high-pitched screeching noise sounded in the distance. It was joined by another of the same noise, then several more. They seemed to be coming from everywhere. Then I recognized the sounds as whistles blowing.

Joining them was the rumbling of feet. To my right I could see a few men dressed in police uniforms, waving their arms and blowing their whistles. Behind me was a cluster of villagers screaming and running right at me.

I barely had time to blink before one of them crashed straight into me, knocking me down. Pain shot through my body as my head slammed against the pavement. The world spun and my vision blurred. My consciousness was slipping fast.

The last thing I remembered seeing was someone else who had also fallen. I remembered how twisted their face looked as they were trampled by the panicky stampede of civilians…

In the confusion, we must've been apprehended and taken down to the station but I was too worried to be angry at the village authorities' mistake. The last two targets were on the loose somewhere and until we were released there was nothing we could do about it. Our only hope was Soul. He would explain that we were students from Shibusen and then we'd be freed in no time.

Maka stood up from the bed and walked to the cell door that contained us like birds trapped in a cage. She grabbed onto the bars, standing close and sighing as she dropped her gaze to the floor.

I went to the window and looked out between its own set of iron bars. Green grass led to the edge of a forest and when I squinted, I could just barely make out what looked like the village square beyond the trees.

Maka's voice made my eyes snap away from the window. "He's here!"

She was looking into the depths of the hallway. "Soul just entered the station. I can sense him." Her brow furrowed in worry. "A lot of other souls are around him."

I could almost hear a dim buzz of chattering coming from the direction she was looking. My stomach sunk as I feared what would happen if Soul had failed and got thrown in here too. What then?

We bust outta here, genius.

I nearly gasped aloud. Ragnarok rarely responded to my thoughts. His plan turned over in my head, but in the end I disagreed with it. I told him a jailbreak was too rash, but in either case, Maka was the leader, so I was sure she'd figure something out.

The minutes passed with no changes. The chattering buzz was still there and our cell stayed quiet. Maka didn't move. I walked to the bed and sat down, gripping my hands together.

We waited. Then Maka's eyes widened. "He's coming."

There was the sound of a door creaking open and shutting softly. Footsteps followed and soon Soul appeared in front of our cell. He looked sort of frazzled, but otherwise unharmed.

Maka asked him why he was by himself. Shouldn't a guard be with him to let us out?

Soul sneered in disgust and told us how they were just starting to fill out the paperwork for our release. First he'd been hounded by the local press. Swarms of reporters wouldn't leave him alone. Then he spent his time explaining that we weren't with the attackers; we were sent by the academy to eliminate them.

"The mayor knew we were coming but everybody else obviously missed the memo. You'd think none of them ever saw a human Weapon before," he said. "Guess this village doesn't get much action. They're having a field day out there!"

Maka groaned.

I kept quiet, thinking back to what happened before I blacked out. I wondered if anyone had been killed or badly injured. Those two monsters were still out there somewhere. If we weren't let out soon…

Soul shuffled his feet. "I'm actually not supposed to be here with you guys, to tell the truth… I got fed up with waiting, so I snuck my way in to keep you company."

"At least now we know what's taking so long," said Maka.

The gloomy cell seemed less miserable with a friendly face on the other side of the bars. There was still an air of uneasiness, though, as we thought of the ghost-like fugitives.

My unspoken question of where they were now was answered a few minutes later by Maka. Her body went rigid as her eyes stretched, her face paling.

Her lips barely moved, but her words slid out audibly. "I sense them."

A chill shot up my back. I gripped the edge of the bed tightly, eyes glued to her.

Soul stood alert. "Where?"

She took a breath, blinked, and the color returned to her face. Slowly, she turned around and walked toward the window at the back of the cell.

Her hands gripped the bars. "Right where we first saw them."

"The village square?" I asked, standing up but not moving any closer to the window.

"Yes, but it's empty right now. They're just… prowling."

"We need to take them out, and fast," said Soul.

"I know." Maka took a step back, keeping one hand pressed flat against the wall. She studied it all: bars in the window, cracks in the wall, the pre-Kishin souls outside. She lowered her head and stood with her eyes closed. A long pause followed without her moving an inch. We waited in silence while she thought.

Knowing we didn't have much time, she reached a decision as soon as she could. She backed away from the wall, turned, and marched straight toward the cell door, toward Soul.

She stared at him determinedly, stretching her arm between the bars. Her palm was wide open like a flower in bloom.

It made sense to Soul, and in a moment he was a scythe in her clenched fist. He fitted easily between the bars.

"Wait," I said as I watched the two of them face the window. "Are you sure that's—?"

"We won't use our whole strength. We'll hold back just enough for a big hole, but you better stand back anyway."

I usually never questioned Maka during a mission, but I crept to the furthest corner reluctantly. I knew we had to eliminate the pre-Kishins fast, but breaking out of jail seemed a tad extreme. What if someone entered with our release forms just as we made our escape? Everyone would get suspicious of us all over again.

"Soul Resonance!"

The air filled with Maka and Soul's energy as they matched wavelengths. She faced the wall, posed for attack. His blade shone as it grew, taking the shape of their most used technique, the Witch Hunter.

She swung in an arc, putting mild force in her arms. One clean slash was all it took for part of the old wall to crumble to pieces. The window was gone, replaced by a neat hole with bars and debris piled on the floor.

Covering my nose and mouth to protect them from the settling dust, I followed her outside. She broke into a run the moment her feet found grass.

"Let's hurry and get the drop on them," she called to me. "They've separated in the square."

I matched her pace, dodging trees when I had to. Soon I saw the village square loom into view.

Maka increased her speed and I followed suit. Pointing straight ahead, she told me to keep going and take out the creature as soon as I saw it while she handled the other. After I nodded to show I understood, she turned left and ran deeper into the woods.

The trees grew scarce as I neared the village. Ragnarok waited in my hand, ready. I saw the pre-Kishin before it saw me, but I was barely a few steps out of the woods before it charged at me.

I didn't slow down. The distance between us shrunk greatly. It stretched out its thin gray hand when we were close to crashing.

At the last second, I dropped. Bent low, my body skidded past it and slid to a stop.

Still moving fast, the creature realized too late that it was charging toward nothing. It tried to halt, but by then I was already on my feet and standing behind it.

Before it could turn, I rammed Ragnarok into the back of its head.

It stood still, twitched, and evaporated. We collected the soul and I sighed, thankful that the square had been empty this time. I never wanted to fight in the middle of a crowd of civilians again.

I wasn't sure what part of the square Maka had run off to, so I decided to wait. She'd find me more easily than I'd find her.

I didn't have to wait long. She and Soul strode to me with triumphant expressions on their faces, having finished a job well done.

There was still the matter of the jail to deal with. None of us looked forward to going back even though we knew we had to. I also knew we'd have to fix up the cell we wrecked.

We trudged our way back. It was quiet until a sudden thought struck Maka.

"Hey, guys? If you don't mind, let's leave the whole getting-tossed-in-jail thing out of our report to Shinigami-sama, alright?"

"Wow, Maka," Soul said, flashing his teeth. "Lying about a mission? That's new for you."

"Leaving out unimportant details doesn't count as lying! Right, Chrona?" She looked at me with large bright eyes, nudging my shoulder with her own. "Right?"

I blushed at the gesture. "R-Right."

"Jailbirds," Soul muttered.

I didn't know what he meant by that, but it made Maka and I exchange smiles.