Switching Souls
Hey everyone! Sorry for the longer wait. Like I said, I've been traveling, and I also had a problem with uploading this the first time (I literally had to go in and delete a bunch of coding), but I'm trying to get these out as soon as I can. Thank you to everyone who wrote reviews, followed, or favorited this story. You all mean the world to me. :) Also, to answer Omfg's question, their voices are the same as the body they're in. However, their internal voices, like when they think and whatnot, are in the voice of the soul. I know that this can get pretty confusing, so you can imagine it however you want, but this is the way I picture it. :) Again, thank you guys for reading, and I hope you like Chapter Four!
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters nor the story of Soul Eater. The only thing that belongs to me is this story.
"WHAT?!" everyone besides Maka and Soul collectively exclaimed. They had forgotten about the witch they were fighting in all of the chaos from them switching bodies.
"DON'T WORRY!" Black*Star proclaimed, jumping on a rock, raising his arm, and pointing his finger at the ceiling, "THE MIGHTY BLACK*STAR WILL FIND AND DEFEAT THIS WITCH!"
"Like that?" Liz interjected, doubtfully, indicating his current state.
Black*Star looked down at himself. "Just because I'm in another body, doesn't mean I can't fight," he crossed his arms and grinned, "Plus, this is the body of a god. Let's see what it's got. Tsubaki!" He thrust his hand to the side.
"Right!" Tsubaki called out, transforming into a gun. Being a member of the Nakatsukasa Clan, Tsubaki was able to transform into multiple weapons, allowing her to take on Liz's gun form with ease.
"Well, this is different," Black*Star stated, turning the gun in his hand.
"You're planning on using only one gun?!" protested Kid. "Where's the symmetry?!" He shot a look at Crona who was trembling a little in Patty's body.
"I-I'm sorry!" stammered Crona, "I don't really know how to change into a gun or even how to deal with being one." Crona looked down, expecting to be reprimanded, as had happened during the meister's entire life, "Ragnarok was usually the one who took care of his transformation."
"It's okay," Maka gently assured Crona, "No one is expecting you to do anything of the sort. Right, Kid?" She shot a look in the Shinigami's direction.
"Of course not," Kid begrudgingly conceded with a sigh, still unhappy at the lack of symmetry in the way Black*Star was holding Tsubaki. However, he understood the need to consider Crona's feelings as well, and he would also rather avoid being subjected to an infamous Maka-Chop, because they hurt worse in his opinion than most of the damage he took in battle. He looked back at the way Black*Star was clumsily holding Tsubaki. "Do you even know how to handle a gun properly?" he inquired, a bit frustrated.
"NOPE!" Black*Star answered with a grin, "But I see you do it all the time, so how hard can it be?!" He proceeded to point Tsubaki at a rock and carelessly pull the trigger, resulting in a blast that knocked him off of the rock he was standing on and landing him flat on his face, completely missing what he was aiming for. Instead, the blast hit the wall next to it, creating another hole and causing Kid to break down and crawl over to it.
"Why must you break every beautiful thing within your sight?" Kid whimpered, kneeling in front of the hole as Patty was heard cackling in the background.
"THE MIGHTY BLACK*STAR DOESN'T BREAK THINGS," he arrogantly bellowed, picking himself up off of the ground," HE ONLY COMES ACROSS OBJECTS THAT CAN'T HANDLE THE AWESOME BIGNESS OF HIS POWER!" He flexed his muscles while everyone just looked on in wordless dubiousness.
Ignoring Black*Star, Soul addressed the rest of his friends, "Listen, if we find this witch, we're gonna have to fight her. Do you guys think we can fight like this?" He motioned to his new, smaller frame and then to everyone else's bodies.
"Of course. We don't have a choice," declared Maka. She got a determined look in her red eyes. "You're just going to have to wield me," she stated. I remember reading about weapon transformation in school, Maka thought to herself as her body started glowing and she felt an unfamiliar power surge through her. All I've got to do is focus my energy… Soul's face flashed before her eyes, followed a second later by his form as a scythe, as she transformed-
-only her left leg into a blade. Everyone just stared at her while her face slowly started to turn red (which Patty found hilarious, beginning to laugh again, causing Ragnarok to become even more infuriated with his new meister) and she stammered, "Um, that was supposed to happen! I'm just testing out his powers. Uh…" She closed her eyes and focused her energy. She could feel tingles running through her body. She felt herself change shape and opened her eyes to find-
-her right arm had transformed into a scythe blade while the rest of her body remained unchanged. She tried again and made no progress. Why can't I do this? She asked herself angrily. Why is it such a challenge for me?! Soul makes it look effortless. It's not like it's about strength or power, so I should be able to do it too!
Frustrated, Maka tried to kick a pebble, but forgot that one of her legs was a blade and lost balance. She fell flat on her back, earning more laughs from Patty and a sigh of "so not cool" from Soul. She clenched her fists in anger. She wasn't angry at Soul or Patty; she was angry at herself. How can I expect to be a great meister like my mom if I can't even understand what it's like to be a weapon? She felt a presence in front of her and looked up. Soul had walked over and stood before her. He bent down and held his hand out which she took after a moment's hesitation. He pulled her back onto her feet, and by this point, her arm and leg had returned to normal.
"So much for what I do being easy, huh?" Soul remarked with a smirk. Maka looked away feistily, but after a couple seconds, dropped her head in embarrassment.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that," she apologized. Maka then looked up and made eye contact with Soul, her red eyes meeting his clear, green ones, "I'm also sorry that it took switching bodies for me to realize that."
"WHAT A SECOND. YOU GUYS SWITCHED BODIES TOO?!" Black*Star exclaimed, his eyes widening.
"You just realized that now…" Liz muttered, exasperated.
Choosing to ignore Black*Star's comment (Because how could he ever mix us up?!), Maka continued,"Even if I can't fully transform into a scythe, I can still fight!" She changed her arm into a blade which came to her easier this time. "Now, are you guys going to fight alongside me?!"
"THE MIGHTY BLACK*STAR NEVER REFUSES A FIGHT!" Black*Star loudly announced, clenching his fist.
"We'll do whatever it takes to protect our friends," Tsubaki agreed.
"You know I'm always ready to kick some ass," Soul grinned, flashing his teeth.
"I-I'll try my best in this body!" Crona vowed.
"Hehehe, this'll be fun!" Patty clapped her hands, looking forward to being able to fight in Crona's body.
"Working with this blonde idiot will be a nightmare, but I'll do it," Ragnarok grunted, "But don't think that I'm doing this for you! I'm only doing it, because I don't want to share a body with this obnoxious bimbo for any longer than I have to."
"Well, I'm in," Liz smirked and then remembered the kind of magic the witch used, "but I really hope we don't have to fight any more bats." A chill ran through her body and she blearily shook her head and looked over at Kid who still sat by the blast site. "What about you, Kid? You ready to take on a witch together?"
Kid looked up and met her eyes before making eye contact with Maka. "I refuse," he plainly stated.
"WHAT?!" everyone burst out.
"But why?" Maka asked.
"I refuse to wield Liz without Patty," Kid replied, crossing his arms. "There is no symmetry otherwise, and I refuse to wield a weapon without symmetry."
Confused, Maka asked, "But if you're being attacked, then wouldn't you definitely have to-"
"No," stated Kid, "If I am going to fight without symmetrical weapons, then I am going to fight without any weapons."
"But-" started Maka.
"If I may reiterate both Black*Star's and your words from earlier," Kid interrupted, the corner of his mouth turning up the slightest bit and power emanating from him, "I may be in another body, but I am still perfectly capable of fighting on my own."
Maka was silent for a moment and then nodded her head and simply said, "Okay."
"WELL, THEN LET'S FIND THIS WITCH AND KICK HER BUTT! WE'LL SHOW HER THAT SHE MESSED WITH THE WRONG TEAM!" Black*Star yelled.
That's right, Maka smiled to herself. We are a team now.
They searched the cave for hours, but they still could not locate the witch. Maka was growing increasingly frustrated with the entire situation and everyone was running on edge.
"Maybe we should just go back," Liz suggested, "I've had enough of this cave." She jumped and then shivered as she heard a bat cry in the distance.
"We can't turn back now! We haven't found the witch yet," insisted Maka.
"Maybe Liz is right," Tsubaki admitted. Upon Maka's protest, she responded, "I want to find this witch and switch back as much as you do, but look at us," she motioned to everyone's exhausted state, "We're worn out from fighting earlier and searching through this cave, and honestly, I doubt we're going to find her right now. Even if we did, I'm not sure we would be able to win a fight against her in our current state." Seeing Maka's distressed look, she quickly added, "Not to say we won't find her. I was just thinking that it might be better to regroup for now and look again when we've regained our strength."
"Tsubaki is right," Kid broke in, "Earlier, we only found her because she wanted us to. If she is hiding now, she is going to stay hidden until she wishes to make a reappearance. She didn't seem like the type to cast a spell like this out of necessity. It must have been for fun or some other ulterior motive we don't know about which means she would want to see the results of her spell. We have just got to be ready for her when that happens."
Maka let out a deep sigh and agreed, "You're right. I just hate that we're stuck like this for now." I feel helpless. I want to do something so bad, but there's nothing I can do. She looked over at Soul who seemed to understand how she was feeling.
"Come on. What's so bad about being me?" Soul teased her, trying to lighten the mood. "You should be honored that you get to be the ultra-cool Soul Eater for a little while longer."
"Who are you, Black*Star?" Maka retorted with a short laugh, referring to his use of third person and his arrogant attitude. Ignoring Black*Star's shout of offense, she continued, "And you should be glad that your GPA gets to be over a 1.7 for a day."
"Hey! My grades aren't that bad!" Soul protested, reaching up to rub at his hair and seeming surprised when he felt the pigtails. Maka just gave him a look and he continued, "Well, maybe I don't' have a perfect 4.0 like you, but…at least I'm not second in our class to Ox." He knew that was a sore spot for Maka, since her mom had been at the top of her class, but at that moment he really didn't care. Soul and Maka continued to argue all the way back to their home, having been left alone so everyone else could escape from their constant bickering as soon as humanly possible.
When they got to the front door of their apartment, a light bulb went off in Soul's head. Maka was about to turn the door handle to go inside when Soul suddenly stopped talking. He put his hand on top of hers, stopping her, and spun her around. She looked at him, startled. He took a slow step forward and she took a small step back, her back hitting the door. Since she was in his body, Maka was staring down at Soul, instead of looking up at him like she was used to. Soul may have had the smaller figure, but he was carrying an intensity in him that was so different from his usual cool attitude, it was making her nervous. His proximity with her was also unnerving, but with the door behind her and Soul directly in front of her, she didn't have very much room to move away. He had a serious, focused look in his eyes which didn't happen very often outside of battle. Is this what I look like to other people? Maka thought to herself. He put his hands on her shoulders, jolting Maka into the present, and leaned forward, his green eyes meeting her red ones.
"You know," Soul began softly, "there's something I never noticed before." He got on his tiptoes and brought his face closer to hers, maintaining eye-contact the entire time. He stopped when his face was about an inch from hers and stayed there for a moment, studying her. Maka could feel her cheeks burning, but she felt as if she couldn't look away, as if looking away would break whatever spell she felt like she was currently under. Suddenly, Soul looked satisfied, gave a little nod, and abruptly pulled away, leaving Maka cold from the lack of heat in the space that his body occupied only a moment before. Maka just stared at him, as he put his arms behind his head, gave a cheeky grin, and simply stated, "My eyes are really cool-looking up close."
And there you have Chapter Four! :) Ending on a SoMa note, because I figured it was about time I added a little bit of that in there. X3 I hope you guys liked it and that you continue to read and review! Hopefully, Chapter Five will be coming out soon, so stay tuned!