Chapter Nine
"No matter how dark the night sky is.
as long as you're there.
YES
I can walk for sure."
- Going 2 my way, Tommy Heavenly6
The only thing Soul had been looking forward to on this mission was to get at some English food. He hadn't had much of it since moving to Death City, and old habits died hard. Presently, Soul just wanted to go home - that is, back to Death City, since according to his birth records, he WAS home.
(Privately, he wondered if he was the only one who didn't consider his country of origin home any more. He rarely heard any of the other students talk about where they came from, but that didn't mean they didn't think about it. He had to wonder if there were people who missed the places they grew up as much as he always missed Death City on missions.)
The werewolf swung an enormous ball of ice. Maka dodged, but it swung around and hit her.
"Maka!"
Maka tumbled to the ground beside him, covered in dirt and bruises. It hurt to look at.
"Soul... turn into a scythe," She propped herself up, wincing.
He could see the scorch marks on her gloves. If he transformed, it would hurt her, "But right now we can't even-"
"Hurry!"
'What do I do?' Soul panicked. A weapon's duty was to protect their Meister and to follow their orders. His weapon form hurt her, but they didn't have any other options... Clenching his teeth, he transformed and landed in her hands.
She gave a tiny whimper when steam and the smell of burning cloth and skin rose from her hands. Even though their wavelengths were scrambled, Soul could still tell it really hurt.
"Your hands..."
She ignored him, trying to muffle her pained gasps. And then she swung him at the werewolf, earning herself a bunch to the face and being flung into the bridge's fence.
And then they were arguing, and then Tsubaki yelled at them both for the first time in Soul's memory.
Their wavelengths aligned. Maka's soul shifted. He didn't see so much as feel something in her soul shift, colour and shape changing. He couldn't tell if it was sound or feeling, but he pictured wings.
He told the demon to lead. He said he'd stop whatever the demon had in mind.
Well, he did. But not before nearly consuming Maka's soul.
The next few moments were a blur. He was thrown aside and his Meister had tackled the werewolf off the bridge. He didn't even remember moving. He only remembered himself yelling her name and thinking desperately that this COULDN'T happen and the next thing he knew he was clinging to the side of the bridge with one hand clasped around her ankle. And then she was crying out as the werewolves claws dug into her side and scraped against her ribs. He wanted to do something, to tear the bastard to pieces, but the werewolf was heavy and if he so much as moved he would risk dropping Maka and he would never do that. Ever.
And then once again he was in the Black Room, and the demon was there to mock him and shove him out the door.
He'd finally done it. He'd maintained control over the demon and the black blood for the entire time they resonated. He was too tired to enjoy his success fully. It had taken a lot out of him... But he was sure he would appreciate it after a night of sleep.
"Well, that was good," Stein said. "You could do better, though."
"Eh?" Maka blinked at him. "But Soul managed to keep control!"
"But you both have the potential to resonate a lot higher," Stein took off his glasses and cleaned them on his jacket sleeve. "Even before the special training prior to the incident in London, your standard resonance rate was a lot higher. This is barely enough to summon a witch hunter."
"What? But I couldn't resonate any higher..." Soul scowled.
"You're blocking it. Probably subconsciously. Because you're missing something. At any rate, you're cleared for standard missions."
Maka made a noise of understanding that Soul didn't share. He felt supremely irritated. "Missing something? Missing what?"
"Figure it out," and with that, Stein shepherded him out the door and slammed it shut behind them. Soul kicked it.
"Soul..."
Soul took a deep breath, "I'm just annoyed. I finally thought I was going to be able to handle it..."
He suddenly remembered when Maka had run out on them in the middle of the party shortly before they went on the mission to London. "Maka, before the training, you said you'd 'figured out what you were missing' is that the same thing?"
"Hmm... probably," Maka said thoughtfully.
"What?"
"I don't think it'll work if I tell you," Maka said sheepishly. "It's not like something you memorize. Soul Resonance is a lot more abstract than that. Language isn't really designed to deal with things like this."
Soul vaguely remembered upon entering Shibusen one of the teachers vaguely explaining Soul Resonance. It had been mostly similes and metaphors that he couldn't quite understand. He'd been annoyed, until he'd resonated with Maka and understood that you simply couldn't describe it accurately.
Soul grimaced, "I hate philosophy."
"Well," Maka grinned. "If I can figure it out, I'm sure a 'cool guy' like you can!"
'I hope you're right...'
A/N: ... I like making Soul angst more? Gah, I'm tired. I just wanted to post again before I went to sleep. Not happy with how it turned out. (BTW my art blog has illustrations from this. There's a link on my deviantart page, which is linked to by my profile. I might actually put the link to my art bog on my profile later but I'm too tired right now.)
