Teaming Up
I made some good ol' editing here to make the entire story's flow smoother and thus better to read. The timeline is still set between ch. 33 and ch. 34 from the manga, though. Enjoy!
Kirikou Rung was starting to get bored. Since Professor Stein called all of his class to the school's secondary campus and separated them in smaller groups around the place, just to leave them all alone without any further ado than a quick "I want you all to achieve a team soul resonance", he and his new teammates were just hanging around getting to know each other better… or that was the original idea, after all.
He and his partners were a little away of his group, lying down in a comfy place on the grass. While Pot of Fire and Pot of Thunder were soundly asleep beside him, he was currently analyzing his team members all over again. He knew them all by name, sure, but had never actually interacted with any of them other than the normal courtesy chit-chats here and there or when he had to work with one of them in group projects at school. They weren't complete strangers, but it was safe to assume that they weren't close friends of his either.
There was little genius Ox Ford, the self-proclaimed Lighting King Spear meister and his dry weapon partner Harvar D. Éclair. Both were studying quietly under the shadow of a tree to his right, seemingly not giving a damn about the world around them. It wasn't that the Pot meister didn't like them. Actually both were pretty chill dudes always willing to help and all, but they just weren't material to be Kirikou's super soul mate friends.
He turned his head left at the sound of soft giggling and spotted other two people immediately. Of course, on the other hand of being stuck with a pair of eggheads, the other part of his team was anything but better. He now had to deal with the school's biggest she-male money addict and Lamp meister Kim Diehl and her always-present-that's-almost-creepy partner Jacqueline O. Lantern Dupré.
Kirikou hasn't experienced the wrath of the petite pink-haired girl first-hand, but her old reputation as a bully and spoiled brat preceded her enough to make the African-American meister a little on edge with her. He wasn't one to let others stomp on him after all. And gal or not, if the girl decided to bare her fangs, Kirikou was sure as hell he was baring his too.
And his impression of her didn't improve after the pink-haired girl bluntly rejected the bald meisters's approach to start a friendly talk with her a while back ago, which in turn led them to the situation they were currently in. Everyone was just minding their own business and that started to tire Kirikou to no end. It was good to have his own space at first, but after a ten-minute of ignoring each party, Kirikou decided to set a stop on it. For the sake of his sanity.
The boy stood up from his comfortable place and went over the rest of his dear team. Kirikou walked over the other four and made his presence known clearing his throat. When he received the attention he needed, he nodded and said "C'mon you two," he signaled both meisters "I need to talk with you privately. Let's go somewhere else," and started walking away.
Kim and Ox looked at each other puzzled. They gazed at their respective partners who just nodded in approval with similar expressions in their faces as them, so the pair simply stood up went after the other meister.
When the Pot wielder was sure that they were out of the dangerous zone that was the hearing range of Kim and Ox's weapons, he stopped and turned over. Neither of them said something, as if expecting the others to start. It was a good thing that the short patience of the only girl grew thin and decided to start the conversation. "Well? Whaddaya' want? Be quick and say whatever you wanna say that you're wasting my time here."
Ox looked over at his love interest and sighed, feeling the need to apologize to the other boy. Kirikou, thankfully on his part, didn't take any offense on the rudeness of the pink-haired girl, but instead nodded at her and said "Yeah, yeah. That's exactly my point. What exactly are we doing here?"
"We're here because Profess-"
"Nah. Not that," the Pot meister waved the bald boy off. "I mean, here! In this moment! We're supposed to be achieving that whatever-it's-called thing, but all we have done since we were separated from the others has been slaking off. Not that I mind, but it's starting to get very lifeless here."
"Are you stating that I'm dull, punk?" Kim said defiantly.
"If the shoe fits…" replied Kirikou in the same tone.
"What did you say?"
"Guys, please! Stop!" Ox said as he stepped in the middle of the two hotheaded meisters. "This is neither the moment nor the place to fight. We have to cooperate together and-"
"And what if we don't want to cooperate, hm baldy?" said Kim, interrupting Ox's speech acidly.
As the genius boy was about to counter the Lamp meister with a smart guy answer, they were all silenced when a very distressed Maka Albarn went running towards their direction yelling "That idiot bastard!"
It was quite the sight. Seeing the mature and giddy Maka cry out of frustration while running away as fast as her legs could carry her, which was enough to raise a cloud of dust on her quake was a very unusual thing indeed. Let alone hear her swearing so loudly.
It was so strange that when the trio watched the crying girl furiously pass them without a second glance, it was a very confused Kirikou the one that managed to mumble a small "What happened? Why'd she split from her group?"
Only when Maka was out of sight was when the Lighting King regained his composure, signaled the way the Scythe meister took and simply said to Kim "You can follow her example. I'm sorry Kim, my dear, but I'm with Kirikou-san in this one. We have to start working. Now."
"Woah, now, hold your horses Mr. Wise Guy. Don't put words in mah mouth," Kirikou held both hands over his chest defensively. "I never said anything about working! Just that I'm getting bored, that's it, nothing more!"
"Heh, talking about complete slackers who can only score "fives" on their exams…"
That struck a very sensitive nerve on the African-American. "Why you bratty midg-!"
"I SAID STOP!" yelled impatiently Ox. When the other two looked over him, he continued. "Okay, I see we're not getting along as well as I would like, but we have to try! Professor Stein made us a team, we cannot just walk away!" he said looking pleadingly at Kim. The girl just pouted at the remark but said nothing of it.
When Ox saw that his words were starting to reach the surface of both his thick-headed teammates' skulls, he said "Instead of fighting, what do you say if we make a deal? Like a temporal truce of some sort."
That picked the interest of both kids. Ox smiled inwardly. He had decided to use the magic words to make sure there was going to be cooperation in the team from all three parties…at least for a while. His gut told him that that wasn't going to be the last fight he would have to intercede in, much for his dismay.
"I'm sorry…" mumbled the green-eyed girl some seconds afterwards. It wasn't as sincere as Ox would have liked, but nonetheless was enough for the Pot meister, who nodded and added a half-minded apology of his as well. The two looked over at the other boy expectantly.
Also, deep inside, the Spear meister knew that for all of his teammates to reach a complete understanding with one another there was a long way to come, but baby stepping towards said goal was a good start. He smiled and said "My fair lady, Kirikou-san, I offer you this..."
They returned from their small walk in the woods, and all three meister weren't expecting to see their respective partners playing with one another. It was good to know that at least half of their team didn't have to polish wrinkles between them; or so they thought after finding the Demon Lamp girl playing tag with the Pots, using the unperturbed Harvar (who kept reading in silence) as base.
That was a mild and cute surprise, the three thought.
"Hey," said the African-American boy, gaining the attention of the Demon Weapons.
"Hmm? Oh, hi, welcome back. Had fun?" answered Jacqueline, stopping on her tracks while the twins started chasing one another instead. Harvar (still under the tree with a book on hand) acknowledged the others with a simple gesture of his head.
Following the first third of their deal, Kim asked "So… what are we supposed to do here?"
"A team soul resonance, if I remember correctly," answered Jackie. She received a pair of confused stares from her meister and Kirikou, but she shrugged them off. She, too, didn't know how to do that.
"I remember reading about something like that… but I just can't remember… argh!" lamented the Spear wielder, glancing at the floor in defeat.
"A Team or Chain Resonance is when an unknown number of meisters and weapons resonance together to maximize and empower one another," read Harvar without moving an inch. The other members (but the Pots) looked at him in awe as he continued. "It is a far more difficult and complex technique of the normal Soul Resonance, where the more people take part in it, the powerful it gets… and the difficult to maintain rises too,"
"The Chain Resonance, to be successful, needs that all team members keep their souls on a balanced level. Besides, the kind of weapons used in the middle of the Chain Resonance also affects the percentage of probability. An example of this can be that a Team Resonance will be easier to obtain in a group with weapons of the same 'element' than in other group in which they aren't."
"When did… why the… how the hell did you knew we would be dealing with that specific type of resonance today?" questioned Jackie as she looked hard at Harvar and pointed at the book.
The boy in question shrugged as he tucked his book under his arm, stood up and dryly answered "I didn't. It was pure luck."
There was an awkward silence for some seconds between them all, surrounding both Demon Weapons. Thankfully it was broken when Ox said "Anyhow… I suppose we can try it doing it, hm?"
Kim waved one arm dismissively. "You bet we can."
The boy with cornrows smashed his knuckles together and said "Let's go that I'm getting fired up!"
After stating that, Kirikou, Ox and Kim (with weapons fully transformed on hands) gathered together in a triangular formation. They all closed their eyes and concentrated deeply, leaving their Soul Wavelengths expanding and mixing with the others.
The Spear mesiter felt a warm sensation that suddenly came all over him alongside a slight vibration that made his two pillars tremble a little. He recognized the feeling as his and Harvar's Soul Wavelengths blending together with his fair lady and her weapon's.
On the other side of the clearing the team stood in, Professor Frank Stein was watching his students from afar.
When he felt better from his most recent Madness attack, he had decided to go and check Maka and team's advances, but stopped on his tracks when he found these others kids in the middle of creating a successful Chain Resonance.
He noticed that, when the connection between Kim and Ox's souls was more-or-less balanced and strong enough to expand, it started to reach and pull at the Pot meisters's soul. There was a blinding flash filling the place for a split second.
After the light went out, the teacher was left half-smiling in satisfaction at the feeling of a shakily but strong Chain Resonance suddenly come to life.
At the end of the day, Kirikou was sitting at the edge of one of the tall walls that separated the school's secondary campus with the rest of Death City.
Since the surprising appearance of Professor Stein stating that they had "passed" some kind of test and proclaimed them as an official group before wandering off again; he and the others were now taking a break to chill together. Following the second third part of the deal, they now had the rest of the day free.
He heard the soft giggles from the twins and eyed his small weapons. The African-American boy smiled warmly and was glad to see that the two were busy playing with Kim and Ox's partners again.
Kim and Ox. That rang a bell on Kirikou's head.
"Hmm, and those two are…?" he asked himself while looking around the place for the other two meisters. He then spotted the green-eyed girl counting all of Ox's pocket money before tucking it under her blouse as she smiled contently. All the while the Lighting King watched sadly from afar with a small empty wallet on hands.
With that done, all the terms of their deal were finally done.
Yes, he thought to himself returning his gaze towards the sight of the now-orange Death City while the tired sun was setting slowly on the sky; it seemed like his new team was going to be a very interesting one.
Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater, their characters or locations; they're the properties of Atsushi Ohkubo. I just took them without permission for entertaining purposes.
Hello! :)
New story, yeah!
Um… I don't feel like describing people this time. Sorry, but I feel very lazy today. Oh well. If you're wondering why Kirikou took Ox and Kim away from Fire, Thunder, Harvar and Jacqueline, it was because he didn't want to get a pair of angry elemental-wielding Demon Weapon over his throat while he yelled at his meisters, if you know what I mean. ;)
I hope you all liked this chapter. Review or leave a constructive criticism of the chapter if you like, that helps and cheers me up.
Bis bald, alle!
Edith: So yeah, I decided to "dar una manita de gato (give a cat's paw)" as we would say in my country to the story. Basically I'm just improving its quality rewriting paragraphs, adding some more details and changing the dialogues a little bit. I was planning on doing something like this before, but I was very busy till now.
Well, up to the next chapter!
