"Where's that coffee Table 1 ordered five minutes ago?"

"Comin' right up, sir!"

A girl with black hair tied into two pigtails staggered nervously while holding a steaming cup all the way to a table where a couple was sitting together, chatting happily. As soon as the coffee was delivered to the customer, who politely thanked the maid for her service, the girl quickly and confidently walked back behind the counter and went to talk to the café's owner.

"Seems like you're finally getting some confidence with that coffee, eh?" said the man with a fatherly smile at his employee.

"Yes, Master," replied the girl happily, "though I'm still a little nervous about spilling it…"

"That's the least of your worries once you can walk normally with it," answered the man, who was looking at another of his employees, who had long blond hair tied into a ponytail and was quickly scribbling her customer's orders into her notepad.

"Well, Anya seems to be better at this than me…" said the girl with a slight tone of admiration toward her coworker. The door opened up and hit a bell that was attached, signaling someone had arrived to Deathbucks Café. The girl, who was named Tsugumi, quickly dismissed herself from her boss by saying "I'll take this one!" and walked to the customer, reciting in a happy tone, "Welcome to Deathbucks Café! Table for how many?"

"Umm," the customer looked behind him and smiled nervously, making Tsugumi take a peek as well. Her jaw dropped.

"I-I'll get a friend to help me put a few tables together…" said the little girl.

"Yeah, that'd be nice," replied the newcomer with a wry grin.

The black-haired girl quickly ran to her boss and said, "Master, I think we need help with this one…"

Master looked at the girl and then at the entrance, which was slowly filling up with the new customer's company. "Oh, my Death…"

Back at Table 1, the sandy-haired girl looked up from her coffee and behind her partner and noticed the troupe that had entered the café and motioned her companion to do the same.

"Well, whaddaya know," said the girl's companion, whose red eyes widened when he saw the crowd. "Looks like the circus finally arrived."

"That's not funny, Soul," said the girl, who quickly adjusted her pigtails to make herself look better, which did not go unnoticed by her white-haired date.

"What, are you trying to impress the guy with the fur coat, the one with the trench coat, or the one with glasses?" asked Soul jokingly while he wiped a drop of drool that was escaping his mouth.

"None," lied the girl with a blush in her cheeks. She then stood up and quickly asked one of the maids to bring her the bill. "By the way, you're paying today."

"I know, Maka," answered the white-haired boy while rolling his red eyes. "We should hurry, though; Kid wanted you to give that lesson in literature with Marie today."

"WHAT?!" the girl named Maka let her jaw fall in surprise. "Why didn't you say so? We gotta go now!"

"I know," chuckled the boy, whose shark teeth glistened in the afternoon light that entered through the café's window, while he paid for the snack. The pair quickly walked out of Deathbuck's after helping some of the maids move some tables to accommodate the group and telling them to enjoy their meal. As soon as they exited, Maka looked at the nearest lamppost casually and noticed the figure of a sleeping dog and pointed it out to her partner.

"That's cute, Maka," replied the boy without even throwing the dog a glance. "Now let's go!"

"R-right!"

Neither of them noticed the light-blue dog had raised a head to look at them flee… and two more that looked at the troupe in Deathbuck's, which was happily chatting while awaiting their meal.

While the pair ran up the stairs that led to Death City's biggest landmark, DWMA, Soul decided to chat his partner up.

"So have you found any good mission yet?" he asked.

"Nope," replied the girl. "Black Star took the last one three days ago, and Ox and Kilik were gonna cooperate for another mission I had my eye on…"

"When's he returning?" asked the white-haired boy.

"I dunno… I hope it's soon…"

"What, are you worried about him?" teased the young man.

"Of course I'm worried, he's my friend!" replied the girl, offended. "Honestly, I'd expect you to be worried, too!"

"Nah," said Soul with a confident grin, "I know the Star-man can pull anything off now. I don't doubt him!"

"Aww, that's adorable," teased the girl in revenge.

"Shaddup," chuckled the boy.

The two finally finished going up the massive staircase and stopped for a second to catch their breath. Soul decided to keep talking.

"So which one were you staring at?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" replied Maka, slightly confused.

"Personally, I'd say you go for the one with the fur coat and the eye-patch," continued the red-eyed boy. "He looks WAY more normal than Glasses, Mohawk and Trench…"

"MAKA CHOP!"

Maka's green eyes flared in irritation, and her hand grabbed a book from out of nowhere and slammed it into her partner's face, sending poor Soul flying all the way down the stairs. Still feeling irked, the girl resumed her walk into the enormous skull-themed academy known as Shibusen. Inside, a young woman with long dirty-blond hair greeted her with a Coke in her hand.

"Hey, Maka," said she.

"Hey, Liz," replied the young Meister happily. "Where's Kid? I need to talk to him."

"He's in the old office as usual," answered Liz while rolling her dark blue eyes. "Seems he's trying to make the guillotines perfectly symmetrical again…"

"Thanks!" said Maka while starting to jog all the way to the Principal's office in the heart of DWMA. After about five minutes she finally reached her destination and knocked on the door.

"Come in," said a monotone voice while a tall man with dark grey hair and stitches on his face opened the door. When the man saw the visitor, his face warped into what was supposed to be a welcoming gesture but simply looked creepy due to the glare from the man's glasses. "Oh, hello Maka."

"Hey, Doctor Stein," replied the girl while a chill ran down her spine at the sight of the man's expression. "Is Kid in there?"

"Crying, as usual…" replied Franken Stein with an exasperated expression and a small shrug. "I guess you could help him…"

"I'll see what I can do…"

Stein led Maka to the Death Room, which was lined with tall guillotines that formed a hallway towards the center, where a raised circular platform with a giant mirror and a protesting young man were visible.

"I'm trash…" said Death the Kid with a cracked voice. "I'm worthless, disgusting trash… I bet my father would've done a much better job than I'm doing now…"

"Uhh… Kid?" said Maka apprehensively as she approached her friend. "You okay?"

"I heard a rumor that a powerful Meister was coming all the way here today, and I wanted to greet him fashionably in the office… but I can't even decorate it decently!" cried Kid while shaking his white-striped black hair.

"Awww, you don't have to decorate the place for me, Kiddo!" said another young man's voice behind the pair.

Maka turned to see her childhood friend Black Star smiling widely while holding his weapon partner's hand. The girl, who was blushing madly, waved shyly at her best friend.

"Black Star! Tsubaki! You're finally back!" greeted the sandy-haired girl happily at the sight of the blue-haired young man and the black-haired young woman. "What took you so long?"

"Ah, Tsubaki wanted to go to the amusement park and have fun with the Tower of Terror," said Black Star, whose tenor voice resounded loud and proud in the Death Room. "Still, we cleared the Purple Dragon gang completely! They won't be bothering us again! Am I right, Tsubaki?"

"Y-yes," said Tsubaki shyly. "By the way, what was that about a powerful Meister, Kid?"

"He was obviously talking about me," said the hot-head with a laugh. "There's no one more powerful than Stein and Me (with a capital M, 'cause I'm that awesome), and Stein's here, so that leaves me!" he said this while counting with his fingers quickly to make sure he didn't lose himself in his speech.

"Since when have you been acknowledging Stein…?" wondered Maka while a drop of sweat rolled down her forehead.

"Since I've been training him," replied the mad scientist while screwing the bolt in his head noisily. "I must admit, though, I never expected you to say that in front of your friends…"

"That's because you're the second strongest Meister to have graduated from here, besides me!" said Black Star while giving his mentor a thumbs-up.

"You really don't know who's graduated from here…" muttered Stein.

"A-anyways, Kid," Maka turned to the young Shinigami. "AT WHAT TIME IS MY LIT CLASS WITH MARIE?!"

"Oh, that?" said the golden-eyed boy. "In about half an hour, so go prepare!"

"R-right!" said the sandy-haired Meister while she ran out of the Death Room.

"Someone shut the kids up…" muttered the dark-skinned girl, annoyed. She and her light-skinned sister were sitting on a bench in front of Deathbuck's Café with the rest of their group, and two young boys that were part of it were talking the girls' ears off.

"Seriously, boys… SHUT UP!" roared a tall, powerfully-built man that was accompanying them, and the two boys immediately piped down at the sight of the man's glare.

"Thanks, Revenant…" said the light-skinned sister while rubbing her temple.

"No problem, Ivory," muttered the man named Revenant while lighting up a cigar, and one of the boys looked offended.

"Mister Revenant!" said the indignant boy while shaking his red dreadlocks. "If you need a fire, I could've provided it for you!"

"And I would've blown it off," interrupted the other boy while stroking his cyan hair. "Seriously, Agni, it's too hot for you to set anything on fire today…"

"Shut up, Rudra!" shouted the boy named Agni, and the pair would've started arguing again if another of the men hadn't intervened.

"Kids, don't start…" warned the man while adjusting his glasses. "You don't wanna get the Yamato Treatment, do you?"

"N-no, Mister Rebellion!" answered the twins in perfect unison.

"Good," said the man while looking at Shibusen in the distance. "I hope the boss hurries up…"

"Since when have you called him 'the boss'?" asked Revenant, curious.

"Goddammit," cursed Rebellion. "Friggin' Beowulf got me used to it…"

"S-sorry…" apologized the man named Beowulf, who was holding his fur coat in his left arm while moving his eye-patch a little to prevent it from sticking to his sweaty face.

"You do realize that's gross, right…?" commented Ivory with a disgusted face.

"Umm… the boss took the pooch and left to the academy…" muttered Beowulf before he and the rest of the troupe started towards the DWMA.

That's it for our first chapter~! we kinda were planning to do the old "no author comments until the end of the series" routine, but I thought that was kinda stupid so here I am~! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the cover (which Klaus did all by himself, I might add) umm... I think I'll leave it at that for now~~

So! Who was Kid talking about as the "Powerful Meister"? What were Black Star and Tsubaki really doing in that mission? (just kidding on that one XDDDDD) and how many people do you think are in the troupe?! find out the answers in the next chapter of Kishin May Cry! (and please don't kill us for our choice of title!)

~Humbert

Also, any questions/suggestions/critiques (whether "constructive" or not) are welcome!