Tsubaki could only stare dumbly as she followed BlackStar and Angela back to their house. The entire meeting that day had been too much to handle. They weren't safe anymore. BlackStar and her had killed some terrible Kishins in the past, but none of them were of extremely high difficulty or importance. There were only two souls she worried about coming back to life.
Firstly, Masamune. She had killed him around two years ago, and had been looking forward to leaving him out of her life forever. It had disturbed her for months after- Masamune was dangerous, cruel and crazed with revenge, but it hurt her to see her brother die, even when it was under her terms. Tsubaki didn't think she would be able to see him come back, thirsty for revenge.
The second person bothered her more. Mifune. She and BlackStar fought him three times. They won, then he won, and then they killed him. Mifune was skilled, no doubt. And she didn't think he was actually evil either; Angela was proof of that. But Angela had only recently gotten over Mifune's 'disappearance', and seeing Mifune reincarnated and ready for bloodbath was not going to help anyone. Besides, Angela was more powerful than the seven(?) year old looked. Ever since Maka let it slip that Angela's soul was huge, Tsubaki had been keeping an eye on the little witch.
And if someone was targeting witches…
Erica was already dead, and she had been no weakling. Angela was a child who wasn't aware of her potential, and wasn't aware how to use it either. Facing whoever was targeting her, there were two outcomes. Angela would die, or she would live and realize her power. Both were situations no one wanted to face. What if Angela, like Free, turned?
That was something else Tsubaki worried about. Free loved Erika. He probably now blamed the DWMA for her death, and if he could avoid Azusa, Clay and Akane, she and BlackStar wouldn't have a chance in hell in finding him. But if Free found them, they were in for some serious trouble; Free couldn't die.
And Crona. If the moon itself was resurrecting old Kishins, with Asura on it, there was a very low chance of Crona not being aware of it or unaffected. Tsubaki wasn't particularly close to the pink haired meister, but she knew if anything happened to him, she and her friends would be devastated- Maka in particular.
She watched as BlackStar picket up Angela and began to talk to her with uncharacteristic gentleness, which melted her heart at the moment. Of course, BlackStar would be negatively impacted by whatever was going to happen. He would make sure that he would be in the thick of it, and with all the impulsive training he'd been doing lately…
But for now, Tsubaki could only worry. After all, it was what she did best nowadays.
.
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"Why didn't you tell us?" a soft, but hard voice sounded. Kid whirled around and switched on the lights, going into full panic mode. There on his bed, was Liz, looking very forlorn.
"What do you mean, Liz?" he decided to play dumb. After all, there was still lots that Liz didn't and shouldn't know about yet.
"You know what I mean," she said sharply. "Going on missions with me individually, Patty individually. And you went on missions with Soul. Soul? It's not like you guys are close anyway. How do you even manage to handle him?"
Kid didn't expect Liz to be the first one to ask exactly how he and Soul were able to manage together; she was smarter than he made her out to be. Kid knew he had to answer carefully.
"It's because I'm the Shinigami," he decided to lie. "I can match my wavelength with everyone- everyone's equal."
Her eyes narrowed. "Bull," she said. "Do you think I'm an idiot? I can sense how compatible wavelengths are. When you are with Patty and me, our wavelengths are the strongest. It dulls down when it's with just one of us, so it's sure as hell not going to be functional with just you and Soul."
Well, that didn't work.
"Liz, I-"
"You know what?" she said angrily, sliding off the bed. "You don't want to tell me, fine. Don't you dare lie to me though- I thought that after becoming Shinigami you wouldn't go all distant, but I was wrong. Go defeat Kishins with Soul and see if I care."
She stormed off, leaving Kid on his own, feeling terrible. It wasn't like that, he wanted to tell her. He was just compromised right now.
.
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Stein briefly looked up from his lab table. "Marie," he said.
"Mm?" she asked, not taking away her head from her hands.
"Why do you think Kid didn't tell us anything?" he asked.
"I don't know," she said tentatively. "But this whole situation- it's nuts. And-"
"We may have to face another war," he said. "You're pregnant."
"I am," she said. She was six months pregnant.
"You can't fight," he said firmly. She rolled her eyes, but Stein was right. No matter how much Marie wanted to be in the battle, and no matter how much of a valuable asset she would be to Kid's forces, their top priority was to keep the baby safe. Even it meant that the rest of the world would go to hell.
"Have you heard from Azusa yet?" Marie asked, already knowing the answer.
"No," he admitted. "Marie, you have to know that it's not necessarily a bad thing. They can't be too lax about sending random messages incase Free finds them first."
"I feel bad for him," Marie mused. "He really did love Erica."
Stein really didn't know how to respond to that, so he said:
"The last I heard, Akane was planning to recruit some EAT class students to join them. Says they'd be perfect."
"Huh. You mean some of the Spartoi?" Marie asked. It couldn't be though; it would have come up during the meeting with Kid.
"No, not them."
.
.
Akane Hoshi ushered the three girls into the car, and just as the door closed, Azusa zoomed away, weaving through alleys and probably breaking multiple traffic laws (which just went to show how stressed she was). Clay was right next to her, blonde hair disheveled and gripping the dashboard so tightly that his knuckled were pale and fingers were bruised.
"Good lord, Akane," a reproving blonde crossed her arms over her chest and glared. "You owe us an explanation. After only nine months in the EAT class, what could we possibly be required for?"
"Princess Anastasia," Akane quipped, an amused smile spreading across his face slowly. "Your presence here brings us complications. How does the Royal Family feel about you being here? After all, only Tatane and Harudori were requested. Really, we ought to send you right back."
That was a weak distraction and a blatant lie, which he knew. Anyone with half a brain could see that 'Princess Anastasia' was indeed required, and that this mission was of utmost importance. Akane was stressed, and wasn't willing to tell the truth yet. The blonde could see that, and zeroed in on him.
"Rubbish," she said, with all the grace, dignity and contempt of a queen dealing with disrespectful advisors. "You are fully aware that the three of us were personally requested, and that a year after our battle with Shaula Gorgon, I have distanced myself from the family. They no longer see me as an heir to the throne; my presence here is no more troublesome than that of my companions."
"I was teasing," he said, immediately backtracking, cursing his tiredness. "You are all required here; this is a mission of international security."
"Which is why you spent a good amount of time teasing," he thought he heard Azusa mutter, but her face was fixed on the road, impassive as ever.
"Look, we just want to help," the brunette with shoulder length hair said. "Tell us what's going on." Next to her was the third girl, who refused to look at anyone.
"Just stop," Clay spoke up. "I can now see why the Shinigami thought you'd be a good choice. Right now, after Asura's entrapment, we've got a crisis. Someone's targeting the witches and recently one was killed."
"Isn't that a good thing?" the brown haired one enquired.
"We allied with the witches, remember?" the blonde one quickly responded.
"Normally, a death of a witch wouldn't cause a crisis. However, two… people reacted to it violently, and now we have a rogue witch in a maximum security holding cell."
"And the other one?" the third girl asked.
"He escaped," Azusa said grimly. "Tsugumi Harudori, Meme Tatane, Anastasia Yngling, our job is to find the immortal werewolf 'Free' and track him down before he allies with any other Kishins or targets the DWMA once more."
.
.
"So now what?" Soul asked as he and his meister entered their house, after their remaining classes (Maka threatened to physically bind Soul to her if he even tried to ditch again. Even though Soul didn't mind Maka, he did NOT want to be next to her for the whole day, especially with the entire DWMA watching).
"Huh, Blaire's still gone," Maka remarked. Then, hearing what he said, "hm? Why'd you ask me?"
"You're the one with all the crazy plans here," he replied, not looking at her. "Honestly, after hearing all the weird stuff we were told today, I'm game for anything, even if it means going after Kid."
Maka frowned. "Are you sure about that?" she asked. "As a Death Scythe, you're obligated to follow his orders. Well, we all are since he's the Shinigami, but you have to especially; you report directly to him."
"Yeah, no," Soul walked into his room to change into his pajamas. "You heard him- Kid doesn't know what the heck he's doing. And besides, I'm Kid's friend; he won't do a thing to me."
"I wouldn't bet on that," Maka replied. Soul scoffed. "And I don't really think he's groping in the dark here. I have a feeling he knows more than he lets on."
"In what way?"
"He takes you on missions and your soul compatibility is terrible. Unless he deliberately wants to make things harder for himself, he's got some ulterior motive."
"Thing is, he isn't too bad at it," Soul said. He heard something crash from the next room, and winced, knowing that was the wrong thing to say. Even though he didn't know everything, he was aware that Maka had some insecurity about other people wielding him. The only reason he didn't bring it up, was because he would have to mention his fear of her using other weapons as well. That would be too painful.
"He's… good?" she said in a small voice, trying to act casual.
"I didn't say that," he joined her in front of the TV. Unlike him, she hadn't bothered to change her clothes. "It's just that he isn't as bad as BlackStar was when me and him tried to partner up."
Not entirely losing her worried expression, Maka giggled a little. "Mm, that was a disaster."
"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad," Soul tried to goad her out of her unconfident state. If she cried, he'd feel like the biggest jerk ever. She didn't often (to his relief), but it didn't make it any less bad when she did.
"You said so yourself," she laughed. "And how could it not be? You sliced his head open!"
Soul cringed. He honestly tried to forget about that part. Although he wasn't squeamish about exactly where he touches opponents when Maka was fighting, seeing BlackStar's skull had kind of traumatized him. Thankfully, BlackStar being BlackStar had healed up well and quickly, which relieved Tsubaki as well.
Huh. Tsubaki. Soul willed himself to stop thinking about their arguments and then said something really stupid. Even for his normal standards.
"It's weird," he said, making Maka look at him. "Kid has never trained with me; he always finds some excuse not to whenever I ask. So he honestly shouldn't be able to lift me in battle, which is strange, because he can."
He instantly regretted it, and had to muster up all him remaining courage to look at his companion on the sofa.
"So he's a natural?" Maka voice sounded strangled. She didn't look like she was about to cry, but there was this odd look in her eyes that Soul never wanted to see again. He understood where she was coming from, though. Even after he and Maka found out that they had compatible souls, it took them over a month of training before she was able to handle him properly.
"No! God no!" Soul said hurriedly, cursing his lack of foresight. "I'm saying it's not normal. Something is definitely up with our situation. Normally, every time a Shinigami has an intention of using the Death Scythe, they have to train with the weapon. Kid and I haven't done it at all, so he really shouldn't be able to pick me up in scythe form," grimacing about how wrong that sounded, Soul realized that he was probably making things worse. "Every time we've fought, it's been against revived Kishins under the concentrated moonlight. I think that's what's messing with our soul wavelengths."
Maka looked dubious. "Soul, I don't know about that," ignoring his confusion, she went on. "No one's ever done a study on the effect of the moon on souls and compatibility. I think this whole theory is too… out there," she looked at him desperately, pleading for him to understand. "Maybe Kid's just really good at what he does."
"Maka, I've told you that's NOT the case," Soul was rapidly losing patience. "We're partners, remember? Kid's got nothing on us."
She refused to answer. Soul didn't bother going on either, so the pair sat in a tension-heavy silence, none of them bothering to watch what was playing on the TV in front of them. Blaire's absence just intensified their awkwardness; she always acted as an icebreaker of sorts (sexually, much to Maka's chagrin), and despite her over the top nature, she really did make for a light atmosphere.
It suddenly hit Soul that this was the first time in ages that he and Maka were having a conversation, which wasn't punctuated with part truths, white lies or pure discomfort. He wished it could be under different circumstances other than debunking his wild theory or worrying about the fate of Death City, but this was a start. He was suddenly filled with pure determination, and positivity, which was so unlike him that it was almost scary.
"Well, if you won't believe me, then let me prove it to you," he said, jumping up. "We can-"
"Go to the area of concentrated moonlight and fight the revived Kishin ourselves!" Maka interrupted him, beaming. "I knew you weren't going to sit down and do nothing!"
Soul froze. This was not what he planned. "Wait- no- Maka that's not what I was going to say!" It was true; he'd originally planned to tell her that he would try and convince Kid to let Maka come along on their Kishin hunts later. As in not at seven in the evening, when one of them was in their striped pajamas.
Maka completely ignored him. "We'll go right now. I've memorized the map, and the site of Kishin revival is just outside Death City. It'll be super easy to get there, if we fly there."
Well, that ruled out Soul's argument of no transport. Although he was proud that they could fly (which was pretty darn cool), it really limited his excuses when he didn't want to go anywhere.
"Maka, we're completely unprepared. This is dangerous," he said, hoping that it would deter her.
"When has that ever stopped us?" she ran to the room to change.
"Kid's going to be mad when he finds out. Are you alright with going against the Shinigami?" he thought that would convince her for sure.
"Soul, we literally disobeyed the Shinigami like three times by not killing Crona," Maka poked her head out the door to give him a (familiar) withering look. "Forgive me if I'm not shaking in my boots."
"You don't wear boots," Soul muttered. She either didn't hear him, or chose to ignore that.
"I'm wearing pajamas?" he tried as a last resort. Maka sprinted from her room and grabbed her keys.
"I see no difference from how you regularly dress. Besides, you'll be in scythe form so it doesn't matter. Now are you coming or do I have to throw you out the window?"
Soul sighed and followed her. This was crazy.
.
.
It was safe to say that Maka's gung-ho spirit had mostly worn off after three minutes of flying through the dark, chilly night. What was she thinking? This was madness for her; she always followed orders, made plans and restrained Soul when he did something stupid. Although… she thought with a smirk, I guess the tables have turned recently.
Out-of-characterness aside, she was exposing herself and Soul to a lot of danger, perhaps even for nothing at all. The last time she had been stupid and foolhardy…
A flash of black metal. Someone screaming her name as she was on the floor, frozen, mind numb about the inevitable. White hair obscuring her vision. Blood. Blood. More blood. A splattering sound of red globules smacking the floor and her face. Coppery smells of death. Soul falling down next to her, a hair away from no return.
Maka pushed that out of her mind. With Stein-sensei's help, she and Soul had worked out their feelings about that, with extremely high risks. He was over it now. She was over it now.
"Hey, I think we're almost there," Soul's (slightly disgruntled) voice came from the scythe. "There's a bunch of light shining on that field over there"
"Nice," Maka said. "We'll be landing soon then," she was glad about that. Even though she loved flying with Soul, a scythe wasn't the most comfortable thing to sit on. She looked forward to getting off, even if it meant that she'd have to fight some random, resurrected Kishin after.
Ugh. Maka really hadn't thought this through. What if one of the more deadly Kishins were resurrected? Like Giriko, Arachne, or worse, Medusa? Would she and Soul even be able to fight them? She almost thought of telling Soul to forget the whole thing and turn around, be he spoke up before she could say anything.
"We're here," he said, touching the ground and she jumped off. "It's happening."
Right where there was the brightest moonlight, the ground bubbled, cracked and broke open to reveal a grotesque figure with enormous filthy claws emerging from the mud.
"Hello, Jack the Ripper," Maka smirked, glad that it was one of the easier Kishins they fought. "Don't look forward to being alive for too long."
Soul chortled a little and reverted back to scythe form in Maka's hand. It felt right this time, unlike what if felt with Kid (even though Kid wasn't too bad). It was him and Maka, just as how it was supposed to be.
Maka, on the other hand wasn't so certain. It felt good to wield Soul again, but something was severely off, but she wasn't able to pinpoint it. You're being ridiculous, she said, shaking her head. You just haven't worked together in a long time. Of course it's going to feel a bit odd.
Ignoring the sinking feeling in her mind, she jumped at the Kishin. Jack the Ripper was going down.
Fortunately for them, Jack was extremely slow, unused to being on land for long. Maka had a clear, opening immediately, right at the torso where it would be a sure kill.
"Nice! Hit 'im, Maka!" Soul shouted. She swing him at the Kishin with all her might, preparing for him to disintegrate, when-
The scythe passed through its chest, like it was made of air. Jack's leg connected with Maka's stomach, sending her a good few meters away, reeling in pain. Maka clutched onto Soul with dear life. What on Earth had happened?
"Soul! Did you see that?" She yelled, steadying herself up. "Is he a ghost?"
Soul was speechless. This had never happened with him and Kid before, and they had fought more powerful Kishins. What was going on?
"I don't think he's a ghost," Soul finally said. "He's been hitting us, and a ghost cant do that. But something is definitely wrong."
"No doubt," Maka decided to test her theory if the Kishin was actually a weird ghost after all, as Jack rambled towards her menacingly. She picked up a pebble and threw it at his leg, half expecting it to pass through like Soul did, but it only bounced off harmlessly. "I guess we'll have to take a crack at it again," she said, running for it at full speed again.
"We'll try Soul resonance," Soul said.
Unfortunately, Witch Hunter failed spectacularly as well. It harmlessly passed through Jack, and seemed to aggravate him further, which was why Maka and Soul were running away from it.
"Turn into a scythe again," Maka panted. "We haven't tried the Genie Hunter yet."
"Maka, we can't do it on command!" Soul protested, but turned into a scythe anyway. "Soul resonance!"
Just as they could feel their wavelengths combining, and Soul felt that it might work after all, Maka dropped him.
"What the heck!" he said while on the damp ground, but Maka wasn't listening. On her hands, where she had gripped the scythe, was burn marks.
"How did this happen?" she murmured, blowing on her hands in pain. "Soul, you're burning me again!"
"Oh no," it was happening once again. Fighting Jack the Ripper had somehow misaligned their wavelengths, and now Maka couldn't use Soul. However, something was really off. Unlike the last time when they were up against Free, the two hadn't had a fight recently, or experienced anything that would randomly change their compatibility. Was it the moonlight? Was Soul's theory correct?
"Hey," he said, feeling like the biggest jerk ever. "I know this is totally crazy, but we clearly can't get out of here quickly enough. You're going to have to fight with me anyway." He didn't like causing his meister pain, but he had to now, or they would be toast.
"I can try," her voice wavered. "But… I forgot my gloves at home. It's going to be a lot harder."
"Damn it," he transformed back into his regular human form. "Hang on."
Abandoning all logic, he threw a punch at Jack's stomach. The good news was that it connected. The bad news? It didn't seem to do much harm, and only aggravated the Kishin more.
Maka frowned. This was not a sustainable solution, but it could maybe buy them some time before she figured something out. As Soul dodged a blow from Jack, she wrapped her socks around her burnt hand and delivered another punch to the Kishin's face. It was certainly crude and unorthodox, but it was their only option other than running away. And Jack could definitely run faster than them.
She was a better hand-to-hand fighter than him due to her meister training and better knowledge of where to strike to cause the most damage, so she had a better impact on him. Unfortunately, even with her socks, it hurt her hand to hit it.
"Try transforming parts of your body to a scythe," she said, hoping with all her heart that it would work. "Maybe you can then cut through him?"
He didn't say anything, but cooperated anyway. Sadly, it didn't work out, and Soul ended up having to wrench his arm away from the Kishin's torso (which healed up immediately after his hand was free) as Maka was forced to distract it again. The entire situation would have been hilarious if they weren't terrified, exhausted and fighting for their lives.
Maka was beginning to think that she'd have to suck it up and use Soul after all, but a welcome distraction appeared. A blonde girl dropped from the sky and gave a resounding kick to Jack's head. As the Kishin went stumbling back, Death the Kid came into view.
"Kid- we-"
"Later, Maka," he snapped. "Soul, scythe form."
Having never seen Kid so angry with them before, Soul meekly obliged. Kid took him up with apparent ease (Maka whimpered), and charged at Jack the Ripper, just as it pushed Patty out of the way.
Maka nearly shouted out a warning that this Kishin was different, but before she could do that, Kid swung the scythe, cut off the Jack's arm, and then separated its head from its body. Immediately, it disintegrated, but unlike all the previous times where Maka fought Kishins, there was no telltale red soul for anyone to eat.
How had Kid killed it so easily? Was Maka really losing her touch at the one thing she considered herself good at? Blinking back tears, she tried to put on a steely face as Kid began to menacingly walk towards her.
"What were you two thinking?" he asked, in barely held back rage. "Do you have any idea how dangerous it is, facing these Kishins with having so little information about them?"
Anger flared up in Maka, and before she could rationalize anything, she yelled back. "And whose fault is it that we don't know anything?"
"SHUT UP!" Patty yelled. "Both of you, really!"
The two meisters were stunned into silence. Soul tried to sink into the ground and not be noticed, but alas, his wishes weren't fulfilled, as Kid rounded on him.
"Maka, I can understand, but you? You're a death scythe, and you weren't supposed to go poking around after the meeting! I told you specifically not to!"
"He did?" Maka asked, confused. After a small explanation, she got that Kid had held back Soul after the meeting and told him not to take Maka anywhere. Why? Well, they sort of knew now.
"What happened to you hands, Maka?" Patty asked suddenly, catching sight of them and effectively interrupting Kid lecturing Soul. Maka looked down to, only to be met with a gory sight. Along with being burnt, there were various bloody and dirty cuts adorning the surface. She resolved to never forget her gloves again- how did people fight without them?
"The same thing that happened over a year ago with us, BlackStar and Tsubaki when we were fighting Free on the bridge. I can't wield Soul anymore without getting burnt."
"Impossible," Patty looked deathly serious for the first time Maka knew. "You guys haven't been through anything that would affect your wavelengths."
"Yes, what have you done?" Kid asked, curiosity overcoming him at last. That, and he had an idea about what could have happened, which he desperately hoped wasn't true.
"When Soul and I tried to attack the Kishin for the first time, we couldn't do any damage how much we tried. Witch Hunter failed, and when we tried Genie Hunter…"
Kid groaned; it was just as he feared.
"There is something else that you all need to know," he said quietly, interrupted Patty attempting to bandage Maka. "There's a reason I've been using different death scythes who I have low compatibility with, and using Liz and Patty separately. It wasn't just because I wasn't prepared to reveal the truth. Patty, do you remember the time when we took down the first Kishin with Liz? The minor one?"
"Oh yeah," the blonde girl said. "It was going fine, until you decided to stop using me and finish the whole thing off with only Liz."
"There was a reason for that," Kid said. Patty (and Liz) had been upset with that move, and he was only able to play it off by telling him that he would have better aim with only one gun and then distracting Patty with something else later. "When we all fought together, I could feel our soul wavelengths clashing. It was definitely got to do with the moon, and maybe the fact that we were fighting a revived Kishin."
"Knew it," Soul muttered. Maka stepped on his foot to shut him up. The only upside of her injury (to him) was that she couldn't Maka Chop him at the moment.
"My theory is that if an official weapon-meister partner or group, like Maka and Soul try to fight a revived Kishin under the concentrated moonlight, then the light begins to interfere with how their soul wavelengths try to 'intersect' with each other. The thing is, I don't know if it's permanent."
Oh no," Maka threw aside the bandages. "Soul, transform. Now."
"I don't think it's a good idea-"
"NOW."
He did, but as soon as the scythe handle touched her hands, she gasped and dropped him. There were fresh burns on her hands.
"This doesn't mean it's permanent," Kid tried to convince her (and himself). "Maka, give it time."
"How long is this going to last?" both meister and weapon had identical looks of horror on their faces.
"We'll try something out," Soul said, "like that weird therapy Stein gave us the first time."
"Well, we better try something," Maka said, clenching her fists and shaking. "I'm not going to stay like this forever."
.
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How'd you like it?
So Maka and Soul have problems! I promise, I'll reveal what that incident was in the later part of the story. And Liz won't stay mad forever. And Chrona will definitely play a major part in this story. I promise that.
The bit with the Soul Eater NOT characters was the hardest to write, and I'm still not entirely sure about it. I really want to make them a part of the story, since Clay and Akane seem interesting, and a team of two meisters and one weapon has so much potential. They might be a bit OOC, as it has been around three years since the NOT events in the prequel took place, and the characters have no doubt gone through some character development.
As for the ships, I've decided that there'll be some romance, but it won't be the major part of this story. I don't know which ones though- there's already Stein x Marie, but I was thinking of Soul x Maka and Kim x Jackie as well, and maybe something happening between the NOT characters. Although they aren't really in the NOT class anymore. Hehe.
Anyway, review to let me know what you think. As I said earlier, unless you haven't signed in, I'll reply to reviews.
Thank you to all those wonderful people who reviewed, favorited and followed. It means a lot to me!
-SpiderLover :D