"They say when you are missing someone that they are probably feeling the same, but I don't think it's possible for you to miss me as much as I'm missing you right now"
― Edna St. Vincent Millay
Those Bittersweet Memories (part 1)
Walking down the the long white corridor adorned with a couple of little red crosses and symmetrically scattered skulls, Maka Albarn made a sharp right and found herself in front of a white door labeled 13S.
She knocked lightly on the door and called out, "Hey Soul, I'm coming in okay?"
But before anyone could answer back and before she went in, she drew in a deep breath of air which smelled faintly of antiseptic, gently turned the clean, shiny door knob and prepared herself to make a grand entrance.
She pushed open the door and exclaimed in her peppiest voice, "Morning Soul! Are you feeling any better today?"
And for the millionth time since visiting Soul, there was no response as usual except for the rhythmic beeps of a lonely heart monitor.
Figures, thought Maka. Idiot, you know that he's been in a coma for nearly 9 months and you still talk to him as if he's awake! Of course he can't respond to you!
After standing dazed in the room for a couple of minutes, Maka was starting to feel the effects of the glaring white walls of the hospital ward. Head throbbing painfully, she searched the room for a chair to rest on. Usually, there would be a chair in the corner ready to be taken out and used, but this time there was only an empty space that filled the corner with darkness and gloom. Sighing, Maka ended up sitting on the floor with her knees tucked under her. As she placed her arm down on the Soul's hospital bed and rested her head on top, she slowly reached out her hand and gently grasped Soul's hand. It was as cold and lifeless as ever.
"It's all my fault." whispered Maka, her voice starting to quiver. "Soul, I'm the reason why you're like this!"
Maka waited for a response, but no one and nothing in the room would ever respond to her not as long as Soul was in a gripped her free hand so hard that it started to shake and nothing could stop the blurriness that invaded Maka's eyes as she started to reminisce about the horrible past and that long battle with Asura.
~~~ The Flashback ~~~
"Yes! We finally won that horrendously long battle with that creep Asura!" Maka exclaimed.
"THE ONLY REASON WE WON WAS BECAUSE OF ME! THE GREAT BLACKSTAR AND YOU ALL KNOW IT! DON'T BE SO JEALOUS AT MY GREATNESS MAKA!" shouted Blackstar arrogantly.
"Alright, I think we should start heading back. I think the rest are worried sick about us." said Tsubaki in her dainty voice.
"Yeah Maka! Come on, I want us to celebrate our victory with tons of delicious food that you always make!" said Soul, his mouth full of drool.
The cheerful Maka, who was covered in cuts and bruises, got up from the floor and started to run toward Tsubaki, Kid, and the others when a dark shadow loomed over her.
"Huh? What the? What is that?" Maka said as she shielded her eyes from the sun behind the dark figure that seemed to grow bigger and bigger.
"Maka move out of the way! It's...!" yelled a bewildered Kid, but his voice seemed to grow farther away until it vanished completely.
"Maka, you need to move. Don't just stand there and stare. Maka are you there?! If you are then MO-!" Soul yelled but his voice was cut short by something
Maka just stood there frozen before the figure that was hurdling itself towards her. Everything around her just vanished into pitch black darkness and any kind of noise seemed to be put on mute. Maka tried to move, but couldn't. She tried to breath and speak, but she failed to do a single thing at all. She was trembling all over and she knew what was paralyzing her. It was fear. She didn't want to face this dark figure even though she knew that she had just defeated Asura with her bravery. She was just too tired to do anything. The figure landed with a big thud and was just a couple of feet in front of Maka. The figure seemed to stand up for it grew taller and taller until it was towering a whole two feet over Maka. Then it seemed to Maka that ray of sunlight had escaped into her vision, just enough for Maka to realize that the dark figure was no stranger, but it was Asura.
"I-I don't g-get it." was all Maka managed to choke out with a trembling squeak that even surprised herself.
"What don't you get? The fact that you weren't able to defeat me with your so called 'bravery' or the fact that you let everyone you promised to protect down?" said Asura with a snicker. "Well, sometimes understanding things is great. Like a new move, I learned from your little star boy. What was it called...soul menace...or whatever. The only important thing is that I defeat you and eat your soul and ya… whatever… I'll be on my way. Now, if you don't move that much I can probably guess that your death will be quick and painful."
It all happened in a span of only a couple seconds. Asura pulled back his hands, which were already glowing from his soul wavelength, and started running towards Maka ready to thrust his hands into Maka's soul and get his first taste of a Grigori Soul. Asura's eyes were wide and crazy as always and was desperately hungry for Maka's soul. Asura was only a couple of inches away from Maka and had already had her soul pinpointed to eat when something shoved Maka out of the way. She was so dazed and so hollow that she didn't even try to stop her fall and ended up crashing to the ground. She landed on her back and ended up staring into the pitched dark sky ,which turned out to be the dome that Asura had recreated in the beginning of his second appearance. She regained her sense of hearing because all around her, Maka could hear a sound like electricity pulsing through an object, a grunt, the thud of a fallen body, and then everything went silent for a second.
"Oops, I guess I got the wrong person. Just disgusting, that soul tasted terrible. I think I'll just leave it as leftovers or just discard of it later. Where is that tasty soul?! Ohh, there it is," said Asura.
Maka could hear the shuffling of feet getting closer and closer to her when a shot rang out and resonated throughout the battle field and seemed to hit Asura for he stopped walking.
"Get away from Maka now," said Death the Kid with a stern voice. "If you don't I blast your freakin' head off."
"I see you're so protective of your little girlfriend," chuckled Asura.
"S-she not m-my girlfriend! She's umm...Blackstar's...yeah Blackstar's girlfriend…" said Kid in a flustered manner.
"HEY WAIT...WHAT? WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS! WHY WOULD I WANT TO DATE SUCH A WEAK GIRL! I KNOW YOU ALL WANT TO LISTEN ABOUT HOW GREAT I AM BUT BEFORE I CONTINUE LET ME DEFEAT THAT UGLY KISHIN THEN AND ONLY THEN WILL I HAVE SURPASS-" Blackstar was rudely interrupted by Asura.
"Well, I loved to stay and chat with you little kiddies and have a little taste of that delicious Grigori Soul, but I have to go now. You know I have a bunch of worthless souls to eat and probably some reviving to do to some witches so I can just eat their souls or probably have them work for me. Yeah, that sounds good. I would get a ton of help taking over the world with madness and collecting souls to eat. Yup. Well, I guess your friend here… Maka, was it… is quite lucky. She would've be dead by now and wouldn't even have a soul. But, I'll come back another time to eat her soul. Until then, you better clean up this mess you got here. Bye you little weaklings," said Asura as he rose a glowing hand and pointed at the ground.
BOOM! A red beam released from Asura's hand and struck the ground with so much power that when it hit the ground, the concrete ground shook like it was being struck by an earthquake and huge chunks of earth jumped into the air and started to emit concrete dust everywhere. The dust shrouded everyone's view and made it impossible to see one another. When the dust settled, the dark shield that Asura had created during the battle was gone and Asura was nowhere to be seen.
"You guys I think Asura got away!" exclaimed Patty.
"Oh, yeah totally he is totally here and right in front of your freakin face Patty!" said Liz with a sarcastic tone.
"Really, I don't see him maybe he's invisible!" exclaimed Patty dumbly as she started to punch into the empty air in front of her.
"You guys, it doesn't matter if Asura is here or not, we can take care of that later, but we really need to focus on Maka and Soul! Well, actually more on Soul because he is freakin bleeding all over the place! Blackstar come with me quickly! We need to check on Soul. Tsubaki, Liz, and Patty I want you three to go check on Maka," ordered Kid with a hint of unsteadiness in his voice.
Maka stared at the dark blue sky with her dazed eyes and could see stars twinkling in the distance. Maka could see, but she couldn't seem to hear anything. Then, Tsubaki's face popped in front her and she seemed to say something, but Maka couldn't hear a word she said. Tsubaki turned her head toward Liz and Patty who were now right next to Maka and they seemed to be talking to each other about something, but not a word would come out of their moving mouths. Then, Maka was able to hear something through the nothingness that seemed to invade her ears.
"...Soul...Soul...Soul…" was all that she was able to hear as Liz and Tsubaki were talking to each other and then the whole world seemed to come back
Maka regained all her senses back and suddenly sat up.
"Maka, you really should lie down. You were about to get killed by Asura! Are you hurt?" asked Tsubaki.
"Soul. I need to see Soul," murmured Maka.
"Whoa there lady, you need to hold your horses. You can barely stand up. What-" said Liz, but Maka had already stood up and was sprinting towards Soul.
"Soul! Soul!" exclaimed Maka in a shaky voice as she finally landed in front of Soul's lying body. "Oh my god! Soul…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~To be continued in Those Bittersweet Memories (part 2)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~