YES. I know I'm so slow in my work. And to all still reading, forgive this terrible terrible writer and their transgressions against all readers...But HOORAY! I actually got this done and have started the next chapter. So please... Enjoy & Please read the AN: at the bottom as it is important.

Maka feels a chill run up her spine. The hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and if she didn't know any better she would have assumed she was being watched. The voice soothes her worries. 'It's alright. There's nothing to worry about…. You're imagining things.' Shaking her head and chalking up the unease to her feelings still being at odds with her conviction. She returns her attention to Patti as the younger blond spins around in her fifth animal onesie.

Meanwhile racing across slanted and scientifically impossible rooftops, a narcissistic bluenette is heading straight for Death City's Shopping District. Utilizing all his ninja skills to not only seek out his target, but to avoid his homicidal pursuers.

"CURSE YOU BLACK*STAR! If you are going to force me to chase you at least do so in a perfectly straight line through the city!"

Pursuer number one currently flying a few meters behind him wears an irritated expression whilst leaning forward on his board. Ready to beat the idiot into a perfectly symmetrical comma.

"Stop you fool! You will only make things worse!"

"Yeah right! Soul's already in the dog house! The only way I could make it worse is if I find out she really doesn't like him, which we all know she does!" Black*Star shouts snidely his trade mark wide grin in place as he dodges Kidd's attempt to grab him by his collar.

Pursuer number two is gripping his handle bars so hard he was pretty sure one of his arms would shift into scythe mode just to relieve the strain and angry energy. Soul is further behind his two friends seeing as he's forced to stay on the ground. Watching the young Shinigami make several useless grabs for their chaotic loudmouth he turns off the street he was on taking the more erratic side mazes so as to cut the ninja off before they are anywhere even close to the girls.

Black*Star back flips from one roof to another in order to avoid a tackle attempt by Kidd. His sixth, so the ninja was fairly sure he had to only avoid two more before the symmetry freak tries something else. Watching from the corner of his eyes the ninja kicks off as hard as he can without destroying the roof he steps on and makes a high jump to regain some of his lead and begins his run through the streets of the Shopping district.

Having made his way ahead the white haired scythe spots the ninja's jump. A screeching of tires melded with a low engine roar, the orange bike blasts down a steeply hilled street. Soaring through the air as it speeds over the precipice. The bluenette lands and was about to make a sharp turn mid pivot to avoid Kidd's seventh tackle when he is suddenly hit by a mass of over 800 pounds in chrome and angry Weapon fury.

The boisterous boy went flying before hitting a wall, effectively stopping his interference as he is rendered unconscious. Skidding to a stop Soul parks his bike checking it over for damages before making his way to ninja pile to the side. Kidd lands dispelling his board and checking himself over for imperfections before helping Soul restrain and drag the idiot over to the motorcycle.

"Well at least we were able to prevent him from causing more confusion on the matter." Kidd commented as they harness the ninja to the back of the bike.

"Yeah but thanks to him I didn't figure out what hell I'm supposed to do about Maka and the girls are going to get back at your place in almost an hour!" Shark teeth were set in a scowl as he loosens the bonds a bit so that Black*Star would be more or less dragged behind his motorcycle.

"We still have time to at least figure out what may have caused this turn in events. If the girls have had no luck in prying the truth from Maka you need to know what you've done so as to make a plan to mend things."

Sighing Soul nods his head before shifting gears to drive back to the Manor.

The girls remained oblivious of the cross town chase. Sadly Liz, Patti, and Tsubaki were also left in the dark about the thoughts circling a certain pigtailed meister. The shopping trip gave way to nothing, the female quartet returning to the manor with light wallets and heavy hearts.

"So… What do you think the guys got up to?" Liz questions, even if her shopping plan failed she had no intention of giving up. Neither the ninja or meister choose to answer, Patti thusly begins to ramble on about macho men and gangster tasks. The random litany interspersed with the occasional manic giraffe glee.

Noticing the twin guns' distraction, the ninja weapon subtly slows her pace. Lost in her own spinning world the meister instinctively matches her friend's strides. Tsubaki continues on like this till they are both a far enough distance from the other pair so as to not be over heard.

"Maka…" At the sound of her name a pair of clouded green eyes snap towards ones of kind indigo. The haze that had been encompassing the female meister's mind shifts. The distraction momentarily clearing the dark thoughts a small voice feds her.

"I'm sorry Tsubaki did you say something?" Maka replies, her eyes still fogged but her voice holding a saddened assurance. Putting on a strained smile the weapon decides that now probably wasn't the best time to try and get answers. Instead of questioning her best female friend Tsubaki moves onto an emotionally lighter topic.

"Do you think the registry will be of any help with locating the kishen or its target?"

"Hm…it's difficult to say. With the sheer number of people we'll have to check on it's unlikely we'll be able to quickly determine anything. The fact that we had this shopping trip and wasted most of today is probably going to come back and haunt us too…." Sighing Maka's eyes clear even more. She may have some emotions of her own to work out but she wasn't a master scythe wielder for no reason. Scenarios and plans to search and exterminate the kishen became the forefront of her thoughts the need to protect others nearly banishing all distractions. The little voice taking a back seat to the strain of imminent threat.

Nodding Tsubaki begins a discussion with the other girl on what they should likely do once at the manor to try and narrow the search or gain a better footing on their mysterious opponent.

Reaching Death Manor the four open the front door, only to be met with an unconscious Kidd, a maniacal Black*Star, and a demonic Soul. One of his arms was turned into a scythe blade, which looked even more menacing due to his apparent anger. Lunging after the bluenette, Soul hacks off a piece of what looked to be the remains of the once symmetric stair railing. Further observation shows cracked walls, diced columns, a symmetrically broken window, and what looked to be a lone crooked painting hanging right above the young frothing death god.

"Hey Liz wasn't that the painting Kiddo-kun spent all morning hanging?" Patti innocently asks while rocking back and forth on her heels. "Well that explains one mystery." Liz sighs, completely ignoring the rest of the chaos around them. Tsubaki struck speechless is stuck between trying to contain her meister, apologizing again for his antics, and simply trying to make sense of it all.

"I'm going to kill you Black*Star!"

"Muwahaha! As if a mortal could defeat the all mighty me!" Black*Star defying all sorts of physics spring launches off a table, knocking down a vase in the process, into wall only to jump again dodging a scythe swipe and begins to run along the ceiling. Soul running under him, as though waiting for the other to fall. None of males seem to have noticed their partners' return.

Maka can only sweat drop in exasperation. While she may still be having some love life issues the reminded need to protect Death City is keeping her mind mostly clear of convincing little voices. Now holding one of her trusty books at the ready she waits for the logic destroyer to open his big-mouth once more before decisively throwing it spine first into his face. The Flying Maka Chop seems to have fixed reality as the ninja falls to the floor, landing on Soul. Then silence.

Giggling Patti walks over to her meister and pokes him. Liz having seen the havoc to its end decides to go upstairs to put away her purchases. Maka collecting her book, steps around the idiot pile and into the living room where she presumes the registry is.

Groaning Soul regains his senses, his arm having shifted back once his face meet the floor. Tsubaki pulls off the once again unconscious bluenette sending Soul an apologetic smile. Even though she has no idea what Black*Star might have done she knows the fault lie with him.

Soul sits up, glancing around the room finally noticing their return and the apparent absence of his meister. He sighs. Letting himself fall onto his back, an arm crosses over his eyes.

Placing Black*Stars head on her lap Tsubaki regards the melancholy scythe. "You two really need to talk. Maka is focusing on the mission to distract herself right now, but I can tell she is feeling more than a bit confused."

Another sigh, "Yeah, but I'm not even sure what this is all about. Can't exactly do anything with nothing." Soul puts his arm on the floor, lying completely flat. He turns his head and eyes the room.

"That maybe, but if neither of you try whatever is going on with Maka won't be resolved." Tsubaki argues.

"Tsubaki-Chan is right! Maka is really really lost or confused or something….Sis's plan didn't work and we couldn't find out what's the what but we can all tell she is sometimes here sometimes somewhere and all over the place." Patti chimes in dragging the calming Kidd with her.

Surging up, Soul growls. "Why can't she just tell me what's going on with her! Why the hell does she have to be so difficult about everything, her big bookworm head always has to over think everything?"

"Oh yeah well why don't you just tell her how you feel then? Hu?" Liz voices. Leaning against what remains of the stair rail.

Turning away from everyone, Soul looks to the living room doors. "How can I? She can barely look at me…"

Once again standing as though he hadn't been anything less than perfect Kidd joins the conversation. "The question is why? Despite Black*Star's moronic distractions we should have come up with something as to why our friend is as she is. Yet it still alludes us."

"If you guys are done with whatever it was you were doing we need to look through this registry?" Maka strides back into the foyer. She doesn't bother to look up, eyes scanning the list in her hands quickly.

The topic is put on hold. Privy weapons and meisters all giving each other looks to note that while it may be at rest the shadow around their scythe pair hadn't been settled.

The evening goes on. Going over the listing proves fruitless as the staggering amount of children present in Death City both as normal residence and DWMA student are staggering. Deciding that going to check on all these people was impractical they all decided that doing a nightly patrol while checking on the most likely cases would be their best bet for on till more information was gained.

Half-way through strategizing some form of battle plan in case of an actual encounter Black*Star regained consciousness and proceeded to destroy the living room. To sooth his pride or simply because he hadn't agreed with the plans Tsubaki had caught him up with. Once again Maka brought out a heavy tome and Black*Star was knocked out for the umpteenth time that day.

"Since that idiot can't seem to sit still is it all right if Black*Star and you take tonight's patrol Tsubaki?" Maka asks.

Nodding her consent, Tsubaki slings her meister over her shoulder. "It's already pretty late so I'll start that patrol now, if we're going to be watching out for the whole city we may want some back-up though." With that parting input, the polite kunoichi bows a goodnight before disappearing in a flash of speed.

"She's right it is pretty late." Liz comment. Standing up and stretching she puts down a few of the registry's pages. "We should call it a night. Come on Patti."

"Kay!" Patti too stands, waving to Maka and Soul following her sibling out.

"On both counts. It may be wise to get some assistance from a few other teams I'll see if anyone is a liberty to take on a bit of patrolling tonight and ask them for assistance in the morning." Kidd says.

Putting down her own pages of the registry and the highlighter she had been using to note possible targets Maka sits in contemplation. Soul next to her locks eyes with Kidd. During the discussion Maka had seemed back to her normal self, but both boys knew better than to just believe it. Maka's eyes weren't full of the same courageous fire they usually had when anticipating a battle. Add in the fact she still wouldn't look Soul in the eye and it was obvious what was going on hadn't been resolved.

Shooting Soul a pointed look Kidd makes to leave, "I'm going to connect to the schools system, see who is not currently on mission amongst the EAT class students. You two are free to leave when you wish. Please be aware though that I will being going to bed myself at midnight exactly. Goodnight to you both. Soul. Maka."

Kidd shuts the living room door behind him.

Fill

Filler and cliffhanger. I'm awful, especially since I've been late way too much for ME to even forgive myself. So I hope it was at least interesting a bit. DONT KILL ME! Now the serious stuff. OKAY. So I finally figured myself out and have decided to fix my chapters. But as I said above I've already started writing the next chapter. So while I'm fixing the old chapters I will also be writing the new ones. And they will hopefully all be good enough for those reading. Classes are kicking my butt this year, but I've decided to take myself seriously as a writer so I'll try my best to do more writing and filling my old promises. I hope everyone can be patient with me and help me be a better stronger writer. So please Read and Review. (Advice, pro-tips, and constructive criticism much thankful) Hi Hello I Weird. See any still reading next chapter!

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