Whispers
Chapter 10
A Witch Wavelength
She was floating in nothingness.
It was warm, like a cozy favorite blanket, the kind of feeling someone endears after a long time deployed in a foreign country. It was Crona's gentle soul, his sweet yet troubled wavelength, fearful of her touch, shuddering at her presence. Like the first time they met.
And just like the first time, she held his soul into her arms, protecting it against her chest, like an invaluable treasure. Everything traveled through her mind, the memories, the feelings, like a train at full speed crashing into her very soul. It had taken patience and effort to match his wavelength, it eluded her, almost trying to avoid her, but that just couldn't happen. Their souls matched, like puzzles, they craved for each other. Like her resonance with Soul, which would give her the utmost feeling of courage, trust and confidence, Crona's resonance gave her… warmth, happiness, a sensation of being… whole.
There, in the coast of his subconscious, Maka's face was greeted with the cool breeze of sea, the warmth of the sun inside Crona's soul… but he wasn't there. The sun above her rose with a snicker, and not a full blown out laugh like usual. It was better than the first time she had been there, in a desert with a dying sun and no water. Now, the sun wasn't dying, but lacked its usual laugh… and it was windy, almost as if a tropical storm was soon to unravel in the coast, agitating the sea.
"Hi there" A soft voice made her jump on her spot, looking back just to stare at her own shadow… which quickly took form of what seemed the shadow of a small child.
"Crona?" She asked, staring at the little shadow with apparently messy hair, and a big pair of eyes looking at her with an empty stare.
"Not quite" The shadow tilted its head, staring at her idly. "It's been so long since your last time here, can I ask you some questions?"
"Uhm… sure, I think" Maka fidgeted, feeling like… she was seeing a hidden representation of Crona, or at least some part of him. But why would Crona use a shadow to talk to her?... was he afraid of her?
"He's not ready" The little shadow said, almost as if it could see through her thoughts. "When he's ready, you'll meet him here, but not now…"
"Why?" The blonde meister asked.
"Let me ask you some questions first, is that ok?" The shadow stared at her, its blank eyes making Maka feel faintly self-conscious. "Why are you here?"
"To help Crona" Maka said without a doubt, her green eyes showing an energetic light of resolution. The shadow just stared back.
"Why you want to help him?"
"Because he's my friend" She stated, frowning a bit, as if the question had been way too dumb for her to actually being answered.
"Do you do this with all your friends?"
Maka blinked, opened her mouth to answer… but no words left her lips. Shutting up, the blonde stared at the little shadow and the sand around it. The harsh wind ruffled her hair.
"No… just him"
"Why?"
Now that was a good question, and for a moment she thought she had the answer. Now she wasn't quite sure. Why was she doing all this? Certainly she had went through hell to help many of her friends, but with Crona… she would allow all hell break lose and the world to be damned, before abandoning him. She had proven that before, and she was proving it again, right there, in Crona's subconscious, deep inside his very soul.
It was not as if Crona couldn't take care of himself, he was everything but helpless, so why? Why would she so vehemently try to make sure he was alright? Over and over? It was because she cared? She cared about Kid, Liz, even Black Star, she cared a damn lot about Soul, and yet… it was different.
It wasn't worry, it wasn't care, it was something else…
"Because… it's Crona" She answered, simply, and truthfully. The shadow stood there, quietly, staring blankly for a couple of seconds.
"You always like to know more, you are always so eager for knowledge… but how much is enough? How much would be ok to know before being too much? How much of Crona you want to see?"
"Everything" Maka answered, without doubt in her voice, with temper and resolve in her eyes. "All of it, always."
The shadow stood in its place, its empty resemblance of eyes staring at her, unwavering.
"Before you came, he threw all his memories and secrets into the ocean, you'll need to search for them, deep inside his soul" The little shadow said before vanishing, leaving nothing but Maka's shadow behind.
He did what?... why? Why would he insist on keep hiding from her? Didn't he know there was nothing that could scare her from him? She knew him, like the palm of her own hand… didn't she? She wasn't so sure now… and what she was looking for was submerged deep into the ocean. He wanted to see her fight for it, for his secrets, for what he was hiding from her.
So, without a trace of doubt in her, with her fist tightly closed, she dived into the ocean of Crona's secrets. Swimming into the cold sea waves that struggled against her, pushing her into the shore, trying to stop her, her determination had never been bigger.
"Let me in…" she thought, knowing their minds were already merged, that Crona was listening to her, and yet he still fidgeted with the idea of letting her know what he was hiding from her. What troubled him? what was the reason behind so much hurt inside of him, so much doubt, why he had blocked her from his soul from the start. With a frown in her face, she tried to increase her wavelength, feeling how her Grigori soul fluttered its wings, matching Crona's.
Slowly, the waves around her diminished, the ocean water increasing its temperature to a pleasant warmth. She was now welcome. Deep in the water, like bubbles slowly floating to surface, Maka could see memories…
What happened during Crona's travel in Shibusen's orders. How unstable he became after she had been gone from his life. Ragnarok's transformation into a Death Scythe. The South America incident… Crona's witchform transformation.
So much things she didn't know, it was overwhelming. And yet, even as she tried with all of her might to see everything, Crona still blocked memories… some of them were muted, she could only see the scene with no sound, not knowing what was being said. Crona talking with Professor Stein, with her father about something, it looked important…
Why Crona didn't want her to know?
Other memories were odd… like trying to see a damaged record. She could see the memory but couldn't feel Crona's wavelength about that memory. In other memories, like the ones related with Medusa, Maka had been able to feel his fear, his pain, his desolation, and in others like the memories with little Victor, with his friends, the memory was overcharged with happiness, warmth and calm.
Many of the memories that were muted involved her. She could see the memory of Crona, when she had told him she was dating Soul. Why would he mute that memory? She looked at that scene with a sour taste in her mouth. For some reason, she didn't like it. It could be because she had been waiting another reaction from him, some reaction that even now she didn't know… what else could she expect? Something, anything but that anguished look he had that day.
A memory without sound, without feeling, that vanished in the blink of an eye.
Then, the memory of Crona's transformation. The uttermost feel of horror, desolation, pain and… betrayal. Again, he had been used, again he had been seen as a weapon, nothing but a thing that could be used and discarded. The memories of being unwanted, of loneliness, of… nothingness. Was this the event that destroyed everything they had achieved together? Was this the cause of his unstable wavelength? No… no it wasn't, it looked more like the outcome. The problem was deeper into that sea of secrets that was Crona's soul.
She couldn't search any further, the sea tides pushed her to the surface, her time was up.
"Where are you going?" Maka asked, staring at Soul that was combing his hair in front of the mirror.
"There's gonna be a scythe hangout tonight, can't miss it" The weapon said with a smirk, fixing the neck of his jacket before taking a look to his whole outfit. With a nod, he glanced at his meister "How do I look?"
Maka was lying down in bed, wearing a comfortable big shirt and lose shorts, holding a book in her hands that she had been reading for some time.
"You know this is our first day off in quite some time, right?" Maka warned with a frown in her face, ignoring Soul's question about fashion. They had frequent day offs, but the ones where both of them could be free together were not so common. She had hoped to spend the day with him…
"Ughh… I know, I know, but…" Soul said, well aware of what was bothering her. "I know you want to spend your free day reading and what not, but I need to get out. Really, wouldn't you like to come? I'll invite you the drinks"
"You well know I don't drink" She exhaled in disdain, shaking her head in disbelief. Really, leave to Soul the "sulking in the house is not cool" theme to him.
"Well you know I can't miss this dinner, it was an invitation for all scythes in the region" The albino sighed, looking how Maka dug her face deeper into the book she was reading. She was angry, he could see that from a mile, but she just was missing the point.
Soul frowned, his mouth distorted into a pout. For a moment he looked back into the mirror, his red eyes staring at his own reflection, sorting his options. With a grin, the scythe jumped into bed next to her, taking the book out of her hands.
"Soul!"
"Ey ey! Listen, I have an idea" Soul said with his trademark grin, lying next to her. "I'll go for a couple of hours, you know, just to let the guys know I'm involved, then I'll come back and go get some movies from the video store. We can watch them when I return… hell, I'll bring popcorn! How does that sound?"
Maka stared at him for a moment, her green eyes just looking at the shiny red orbes of her lover. She just couldn't stay mad at him for something he couldn't control. That wouldn't be cool. Slowly, Soul's grin provoked her own, smiling for him.
"Alright… I feel like seeing a horror movie" She said, her spirits lifting up.
"Hell yeah! It won't take me long" the albino jumped right on top of Maka, pinning her down to the bed before stealing a quick yet deep kiss from her lips. The blonde meister giggled, hugging him for the short moment he stood above her. Breaking the kiss, the albino got back on his feet and winked her farewell, leaving the dormitory.
Maka stared at the door where her weapon partner had walked out, and kept on staring at it until she heard the roar of a motorbike. And there he go, away into his own business, leaving her alone.
As the night settled in the sky, leaving the apartment in darkness, Maka glanced at the window. The black moon stood tall in the sky, like an ominous memory of the battle she had participated in no so long ago. She remembered how desperate the situation was, how… no matter how much they attacked the Kishin, he would keep on going, madness digging into everybody's brains. If it hadn't been for Crona, with the genius idea of caging Asura in a black blooded prison, she probably wouldn't be there, relaxing in the bed she shared with her now husband, Soul.
Crona…
She sighed. She hadn't heard about him in a while. Remembering him used to be a nice feeling, like a warm comfortable memory that would make her smile no matter how stressful the situation would be. His correspondence, much like the letters she would often receive from her momma, always brightened her days. Usually she would receive letters every week, often more than a couple, but he had been silent for more than a month already.
It had to be work, right? He was in a mission, probably he had lost track of time, or was too busy to write. Her sweet Crona wouldn't deliberately stop writing her. That was nonsense.
Leaving her book aside, Maka reached down the bed, taking out a small box where she kept all of his letters. She had a box filled with her momma's letters, and now she had one with Crona's. She liked saving them all, so she could read them whenever she wanted. Did Crona know how funny he was when writing a letter sometimes? It was as if she could actually imagine him talking to her, instead of just reading some words in paper. The swordsman had a talent for writing, either poetry or pretty much anything, she should write him someday about that, who knows? He could be one day a famous writer!
She took out one of her favorite letters. It was about the day he went out with Liz and Patty, searching for a birthday present for Kid. She knew that letter from memory, and how at the end Crona spent a full week making a perfectly symmetric Number 8 sculpture with clay, decorated with hand-colored monochromatic symmetric skulls.
Maka's eyes stared at the spidery handwriting of the swordsman meister, her green eyes dancing between the words, making her sigh with longing. She missed her friend. Usually, back in Death City, when Soul needed to go out in independent missions, Maka would stay at Shibusen with her friends… with Crona. She could stay at home reading, just the way she liked, with Crona lying next to her, reading along or some book entirely different. Sometimes he would just sit near her, with the headphones Soul had given him as birthday present, choosing songs he liked and hearing them over and over again.
Even more than his talking, his cute stuttering, the fidgeting of his hands or his nervous shuddering, she missed his silence. That comfortable, familiar, warm silence between them, making each other company, with the song of their soul resonance as background, that peaceful humming between their wavelengths, perfectly comfortable with each other.
Sometimes she wonders, if she had been a weapon instead of a meister… she certainly would have chosen Crona as her meister. How would that have turned? Of course, not adding the idea of being inside his body like Ragnarok but… a more conventional Meister/Scythe relationship. Living together, going into missions, being able to soothe his fears easily, just like before…
She just missed her friend.
Without noticing, Maka slowly drifted into sleep, with Crona's letter between her hands, the longing aching in her heart.
Soul arrived later than he had promised, finding Maka sound asleep. He decided not to bother her for the night. Tucking her carefully into bed, he noticed the letter she was grasping between her fingers. With a frown, he took it away, tossing it into the box he knew she stored them and kicking it back where it belonged.
"You are worrying too much"
"Soul, he hasn't written to me in over a year! This is not normal!" Maka said with exasperation in her voice. Why couldn't he understand?
"Maka it's been 3 years! You wouldn't expect him to write you every day for the rest of his life, would you?"
"Momma does it with no problem!"
"Well he is not your momma! Hes not your son either! Or your fucking husband for that matter!" Soul snapped, his red eyes staring at his meister, who looked back at him, challenging him.
"You don't talk to me like that Soul!" Maka roared "How can you be so insensitive! What would you feel if I stopped writing to you all of a sudden?"
"Maka is different! You are my wife! We haven't heard anything from Black Star as well, and I don't see you dropping a fit over it!"
"You know that is a completely different matter! Black Star knows how to take care of himself"
"AND CRONA DOESN'T?" Soul yelled, anger burning in his face. His red eyes were like daggers, staring at Maka, looking for some remotely light of common sense.
The blonde meister stood in the living room of their apartment, silent, a small luggage next to her feet.
"Seriously Maka, are you really going to travel to the other side of the world just to know why he hasn't written letters to you? You have any idea how does that sound?"
Yeah… when he put it that way, it did sound weird, almost like a stalker or a crazed mom searching for her child studying abroad. Maka sighed, looking down to the luggage next to her feet. She had told Soul she would go back to Nevada, looking for Crona. Despite knowing he was there, after Kid had assured her he was ok and living a normal life…
Something was odd. She could feel it in her gut.
Yet, as always, Soul was the voice of reason.
"Maka…" Soul sighed, walking towards her, laying his hands on her shoulders. "Im sorry, Im sorry I yelled at you, but you are overreacting. I don't know why he hasn't written back to you, but you need to cut him some slack… he needs to learn how to live without you."
Maka lowered her sight, staring at their feet. For some reason, that words hurt. Yet, Soul was right… he sounded right, at least. Was she being too pushy? Was she overreacting?...
Did Crona really forget about writing her?
"Im sorry too Soul… you are right." She said, her face showing discomfort, a slight shadow of unease. Soul broke their distance, hugging her tightly, Maka responding his embrace "Is just… I miss him, you know?"
Soul stood silent, tightening his embrace.
Crona's eyes opened ever so slightly, the sunlight of dawn piercing through the window, falling right into the sofa of the living room where he had spent the whole night. He groaned, covering his eyes with the back of his hand, taking a deep sigh. Odd… he felt odd, like… how could he call it? Something was missing, like… something he should have, but not in a bad way. It was… like a weight that had been taken from his back. A rather pleasant feeling, a release of tension, he felt loose and… recovered? From what? He couldn't pinpoint the source of… of… how could he call it? Relief? Something like that.
His nose caught the scent of breakfast. Smelled like waffles, eggs and bacon… Blair wouldn't do such a thing, her cooking was basic at best, so what…?
His eyes opened with shock, getting up from the sofa as if he had been pushed out of it, looking around him. The sofa… he had fallen asleep in the sofa? But… when?
The Soul Resonance.
Crona's face turned pale. Dear lord… he had done it, he agreed, he allowed her to travel through his soul, to search into his very core, to read him like a book. He wished with all his might for her not to find out certain… stuff, information way too delicate for her to know, he had wished with all his might. Did she find out? Did she… know? How he felt?
Did she know what he had done?
He felt what was the beginning of an anxiety crisis, his hands trembling, his eyes out of focus. Dear lord he had done it! He had showed her everything, what had happened! She would never forgive him for what he had done, she wouldn't and shouldn't! He knew better, he was a monster, a freak, an abomination, he-
A book fell right on his skull, firm but gentle, making him gasp and look up. In front of him there was Maka, already in fresh new clothes and ready to start the day, staring at him with severe yet warm eyes.
"Stop it… I can feel you from miles" She warned him, right before changing her stern attitude for a soft smile, her eyes looking at him with… what? A certain feeling, something Crona couldn't decipher. "I can feel you… Crona"
"M-Maka… I…. d-did you?..." Crona wanted to ask, he wanted to know. Had she seen everything? All he was hiding deep inside him? How much did she know?
The blonde meister didn't answer. Instead, reaching for the swordsman's hand, she took a seat in the sofa and pulled him back into it, making him sit back down right next to her. There, Maka glanced at him, her emerald eyes traveling through his thin body, his scared blue eyes, his trembling shoulders, feeling the anxious grasp of his hands between her own. She didn't answer, she didn't need to.
Instead, she allowed her soul wavelength to approach Crona's, inviting him. Now it was easy, like holding your own hand at your back, you can't see it, but you know it's there, you know you'll reach it. Just like that, without barriers, Maka felt the embrace between wavelengths, how they pulsed at the same rhythm, singing the same song, in perfect harmony. Without a word, Maka suddenly embraced the demon swordsman in a tight hug, resting her cheek in the crook of his neck, feeling his heart thundering against her chest.
She had him back, her friend, her dearest friend, was back.
Just like that, Maka didn't need to give him any explanations… Crona could feel it. Her acceptance, her unwavering faith in him, her eternal support, and… something warm and too special for words, something he hadn't felt in so many years, since the day she left. Above all… he felt her need, the craving… she missed him. She truly, definitely had missed him. He knew that, he could recognize that feeling anywhere, because he felt it for her every day.
Crona swallowed hard, closing his eyes tightly, holding back tears of painful joy. Even now, after she had seen all the rot inside of his soul, he felt the uttermost absence of disgust. She didn't reject him, she didn't… why? She didn't know? What he had done? She didn't see?
"I did see…" She whispered in his ear, feeling him tremble in her arms with her words "I know what happened in your mission…"
If she knew then… why? Why would she forgive him? Why?...
"It was an accident Crona… you couldn't control it, they pushed you to the edge" She knew, she understood… he didn't mourn for the guys, although he did resent their betrayal. Oh no, he grieved the soul of that one boy that could have been saved, he grieved the soul of the girl that died in front of him, all because he couldn't control himself…
Maka understand, she didn't blame him, she didn't judge him, just like that? It was that simple?
"You're not a monster, you hear me?" The blonde meister said in her usual demanding voice, loud and confident, her hands going from his sides to hold on his cheeks, forcing the fidgeting swordsman to stare back at her "You are not"
Crona stared at her, fixed in her beautiful green eyes, like gemstones, bright and so full of life, looking at him in such a way that made his skin shiver in delight. She always had that effect on him, he couldn't deny her anything. And yet, Maka would always be Maka, she would see the good in everyone.
He wasn't sure if her words were completely true… but he was sure of only one thing: for Maka they were true. She wasn't lying, he could feel it in her soft, warm, blissful wavelength. She could be wrong? Yes, of course, he wasn't a young boy anymore, he knew that even Maka could make mistakes… but if she thought he wasn't a monster, then he wasn't… for her.
Stein had told him the same… that he wasn't a monster, that his mutation had been a… what had he called it? An "interesting" side-effect of the witch's soul Ragnarok ate. Marie told him he wasn't a monster, he was her child. Kid, the Thompson sisters, Kim and Ox… they all had told him the same, when they found out.
But the only words that mattered were Maka's. Her judgement, it was all that it mattered to him, her saying was the only words he would take for the only hard truth…
What the rest of the world thought about him, he couldn't care a rat's ass.
Yet a little part of him still wanted to doubt, still wanted to ask, unsure of her words, unsure of her truth… the feeling didn't last long, her wavelength was resonating hard and steady inside him, clearing him from any doubt.
Maka was sincere, she wasn't lying, and she believed what she was saying… every word.
She was sure Crona had seen a bit of her own memories as well.
Unlike him, she was sure he had seen everything. It wasn't pretty, knowing that someone else besides Soul and herself knew about their issues, but if she ever had to share her problems Crona would be the first to know them. So, it wasn't that bad… she was planning on telling him anyway.
Right now she didn't care. Right now, all she wanted was to engulf herself in that witchy wavelength she had missed so much. The feeling of resonance with that soul, with that specific soul, was so soothing and endearing, like ointment into a fresh burnt. Tightening her embrace with the swordsman, she could feel his soul fluttering, reacting to her own, in a dance of souls she had wished to feel again for so long.
She had no idea how much she had needed that moment until now. Curious, wasn't it? Needing something so bad, and not knowing it until you had it. Although, she probably knew, deep inside… was this what she felt missing for so long? This feeling?
"Stop this mushy shit already!" A roar erupted inside Crona's body, Ragnarok bursting out of his meisters back. "I smelled breakfast and I demand breakfast now! Where is it?"
Maka glared at the black blob above Crona, her green eyes turning from loving to blazing guns in a blink of an eye. Ragnarok sensed the change of wavelength through Crona, and for a moment he doubted it was a good idea to push the blonde meisters button… too soon maybe? Yeah, kind of, if Blair had opened her mouth, and she most certainly did, then…
"Crona, feed me! Im hungry!" Ragnarok demanded, deciding it wasn't safe to antagonize Maka. His meister was easier to drag around.
But when Crona lifted his gaze… Oh boy. The swordsman shot daggers at him, his blue eyes staring at his weapon with a deep frown.
"I'm busy right now" Crona growled in a low tone, a warning tone of voice. The black blooded demon stared back for a second in silence… just a second.
"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! I HAVENT EATEN ANYTHING SINCE YESTERDAY YOU MORONIC MORON! I DEMAND FOOD! FEED ME!"
"We should punish you without food a month for what you did!" Maka roared, standing up from the sofa to point at Ragnarok "You were accomplice of Meena, you are his weapon! Your job is to protect him!"
That triggered Ragnarok, his wavelength burning with anger. Crona felt it, getting back on his feet from the sofa and walking straight into the kitchen, trying to avoid what could be a very heated confrontation.
"I-I'll give you something, calm down" He said to his weapon partner, holding his right arm tightly, trying to calm himself down as well. Crona was confused. Maka was right… did Ragnarok betray him? That was out of character for him really, to actually plot against him… what did Ragnarok win in exchange? He had to talk to him about it seriously…
Above all, because distrust was starting to dwell inside of him, and he could feel the gears of their permanent resonance crack. Ragnarok was very simple minded, looking only for his own satisfaction, never holding a grudge, not caring for anybody else but himself… so… why? Why did he do it? Crona tried not to think about it, fear of losing his resonance with Ragnarok growing by the minute.
The least he wanted was a soul rejection, because Crona wasn't sure he could come into terms with his weapon again… It could be fatal for both.
Maka felt Crona's immediate worries through his wavelength, her Grigori soul allowing her to see how his soul was in direct conflict with Ragnarok's. Crona knew, he understood. What the weapon had done was nothing but betrayal, but he had to endure it like a bitter medicine. Crona and Ragnarok were now too powerful for a Soul Rejection, they could kill each other.
With a sigh, the scythe meister walked towards them, into the kitchen. She had been the first to wake up in the morning, finding herself resting atop Crona's chest. Their resonance had lasted all night, at one point both were too exhausted to move from the sofa, falling sleep in the living room. She stood up, careful of not waking them up, and decided to make breakfast. She only had just finished one plate before she felt the swordsman wavelength shifting into consciousness.
"There's a plate of food already in the table, if he's so desperate" Maka said, pointing at the now cold food served in the kitchen's table. Crona nodded, lifting the plate above his head so his weapon had access to it.
Ragnarok stared at the food for a moment, balancing his options, debating between refusing to eat something cooked by Maka and furthering Crona's anger towards him, or just eat it and complain about it… Yeah, easy choices.
The demon sword opened his mouth widely, pushing all the content of the plate into his mouth. Eggs, bacon and waffles all together fell into the black hole he called stomach. With a burp, the weapon handed the empty place back into Crona's hands.
"Tasted hideous" Was his only remark, before disappearing back into Crona's body. The meister took a deep breath, holding back his anger against his partner.
"Wait you little shit!" Maka roared at Ragnarok, but the weapon didn't respond. "Coward!"
"I-Its okay Maka… I-I'll talk to him later…" Crona said in a low tone of voice, thoughtful. He just couldn't believe Ragnarok would do something with the sole purpose of hurting him. Yes, he often hurt him, but only if the weapon could get a benefit from it, like blowing steam, get rid of boredom, or winning an argument. This time though, Crona had no idea what Ragnarok could get in benefit from making him so miserable.
Maka stared at the swordsman, worried at them. When Maka got angry at Soul, their souls would stop resonating, and until they solved their differences, she wouldn't be able to hold him while on weapon's form. But with Crona was different, he just couldn't drop Ragnarok… the sword was his own blood, a rejection would destroy every fiber of his body, ever organ and muscle. She didn't want to push it further.
"Ey… we haven't cooked together in a while… want to help me out?" She offered with a smile, focusing on pampering his worried wavelength with her own. It warmed her heart, feeling how eager his soul reached for her own, she had missed that feeling so much.
With a smile, Crona nodded, standing in front of the kitchen's sink to wash his hands.
"You both, explain truthfully and perfectly, right now"
Liz and Patty glanced at each other, standing in the middle of Death's Room. Kid looked at them with a frown, disbelieving his own weapon's actions. They fooled him! The Thompson sisters knew how protective he was over Crona, damn, the sisters were overly protective as hell! The Shinigami just couldn't grasp the idea of the Brooklyn demons doing something deliberately hurtful to the young meister.
Liz tried to start, rubbing the back of her neck with a pout on her mouth. This was going to be difficult, knowing Kid had close to zero understanding of the whole situation. It wasn't like the Shinigami was ignorant or blind but… well, he was a god, and he often could miss the point in many earthling issues, especially when the issue was Crona's delicate sanity.
"We wanted Crona to forget Maka" Patty interrupted Liz train of thought, talking truthfully like Kid asked.
"P-Patty! When you say it like that it just sounds wrong" Liz reprimanded her, noticing how Kid arched an eyebrow.
"And why in the name of Death would you want Crona to forget his best friend?" The Shinigami asked with exasperation in his voice, raising both his hand to hold the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stop an incoming migraine.
Patty glanced around, like toying with her own thoughts, trying to find the best way to explain such intricate situation.
"Well… Maka left, Crona got batshit crazy, we heard Stein say it was because of Maka not being around… so we thought that if Maka wasn't going to be with him, he could forget her for his own good!" Patty explained with a confident tone.
Yes, Kid remembered the talk he had with Stein, after they managed to rescue Crona from SouthAmerica's Shibusen prison. It had been tough, especially since the principal wanted to blame all the deaths and disappearances of his area to the swordsman. They had to gather enough evidence to prove his innocence. Fortunately, one of the surviving victims finally talked, proving Crona's absolution.
The death of Martin, a human soul, was noted as collateral damage. He had been helping the Kishin eggs to capture their most recent victims, after all.
After the psychiatric analysis of Stein, he deduced Crona's bizarre transformation was a combination of drug overdose, Ragnarok's new Death Scythe powers, and a -probably- awakening of his dormant witch powers. All fueled by an unstable mental sanity, wrecked by Maka's absence in his life.
Her anti-demon wavelength had been, after all, the principal treatment to his madness for years.
Liz and Patty were with him, the day Stein told him Maka's memory was now a madness trigger, instead of a stabilizer, like before. Thinking carefully, Kid understood why Patty could have ended with such conclusion… but Liz? Really?
"Liz?" Kid asked directly, knowing the oldest Thompson sister knew his train of thought.
"We couldn't talk about her in reunions without Crona having a depressive fit!" Liz defended herself "Kid, you know we damn love his guts, he's one of us, and watching him so hurtful was horrible… is horrible…"
"Then Crona arrived with that girl, and we saw how much more at ease he was!" Patty noted, looking at Liz who just snorted.
"More like numbed… that bitch was almost as bad at him like his own mother, but… for some reason Crona wouldn't react as much when hearing about Maka"
"And that was because he stopped hearing about her at all" Kid ended the sentence, anger rising in his voice. That girl had been Meena, a weapon of South America's Shibusen, the girl that talked during Crona's judgement, one of the witnesses that survived, pledging for the swordsman's innocence.
After that, Crona begged for Kid to let her go with them to their Shibusen, arguing that she had been threatened, that she would die in retaliation for talking in his favor. Kid took her under his wing, thinking he was protecting a witness. He sighed.
"When Meena started to say to everyone she was dating Crona… we thought it was for the best, to just… move on from Maka, you know?" Liz confessed with a low tone in her voice, her knowing eyes looking at the floor. "Damn I know we were mistaken, but it was way too late to do something about it, Crona would be crushed"
"You don't give him enough credit, he's not that weak" The Shinigami crossed his arms, still tasting his own words in his mouth. Actually… he wasn't that sure either. If Crona found out that Meena had used him as well, without Maka supporting him, what would have happened? "Seriously, how you both managed to add Ragnarok into this whole plot?"
"That was a coincidence! I think Ragnarok wanted the same we did!" Patty laughed wholeheartedly.
"Then Stain and Marie knew what was happening as well?" Kid asked, staring back and forth to both of his weapon partners.
"I doubt they were sure of what was happening, especially Professor Marie, she would have stopped everything right away… Crona never said anything to anyone" Liz stated, saving for herself the suspicion that Stein definitely knew… but he decided to do nothing as well.
In an odd, twisted way, Meena had kept Crona's madness at bay, just like Medusa used to do it, at her will. Maybe Crona got so comfortable with the abuse because… he was used to it from the start. It was familiar, right? It was easier having someone to tell him what to do, than living on his own.
And in Stein's point of view, maybe having Crona numbed was better than leaving him by himself, with nothing but the hell inside his head. He was now too powerful for letting him slip into a madness frenzy.
"Tch… to think I got fooled by that girl" The shinigami sighed with disdain.
"Witch… Trasnfor… mation…" Kim Diehl wrote down the board in front of the whole class. Some of the students groaned in disdain, others cheered in excitement. They were now in the biggest classroom of Shibusen.
The students were almost two to three star meisters, along with all the students of the Eclipse class Maka had met when she arrived. The blonde meister decided she wanted to join Crona into his day to day work, especially when she found out about the topic of today's class. Apparently he had loathed that topic from the moment he knew it would eventually be taught to the students. He was sitting next to her in one of the classroom seats, ready to aid whenever Kim needed him. He was fidgeting, nervous, his blue eyes staring here and there but still out of focus.
Professor Stein was in that class as well, sitting in a wheeled chair, staring at the students around, but mostly at Crona. Puffing smoke out of his lungs, the doctor toyed with the cigarette between his fingers. How odd… Crona's wavelength was now in almost perfect harmony with Maka, just like in old times.
Had he told Maka everything?... He didn't think so.
"Now, not all the witches can transform, its actually very hard to do, and only certain family bloodlines can manage such skill" Kim recited, spreading in front of the board a large piece of fabric, that seemed a graphic representation of families and bloodlines. "We have record, thanks to the pact with Maaba and the Witch Council, of 7 different families with such skill… Beast-Bound Witches, if you prefer"
The students started scribbling, taking note of the names and bloodlines ties in the chart. It was like a Family Tree, showing names, arrows joining them, splitting them, but every family stood fairly separated from the others.
Crona took a deep sigh… there it was, marked with a big red cross…
"So, as you can see, most witch families keep their transformation inside the bloodline. That's why you'll rarely see them mixing their blood with another family with the same skill. It's a witch tradition to keep the transformation as pure as possible, otherwise the family can lose its ability in the next generations"
"What you're saying is, rats with rats and cats with cats?" A meister in the crowd asked, making a few students hold a chuckle. The rest was deeply interested in the subject… many students had died in the hands of shapeshifting witches.
"No, because rats and cats usually share a common ancestor, theyre in the same family" Kim pointed out, showing how Rats, Racoons, Rabbits and Cats were in the same circle written on the chart. "Also, very funny, that would be incest. Most witches will search for mates that have no ability to transform, is not that hard since most male witches can't do it."
One of the witch students of Eclipse classroom sighed in disdain.
"I come from a family like that, for example, most of you already know I can transform into a Raccoon, if I were to have offspring, they could be raccoons, or transform into a cat, a rat, or rabbit, you understand?" Kim added. The students nodded, adding more scribbles into their notebooks.
"It's important to remember the most common transformations and their main attributes, for example witches that transform into flying animals like owls, crows, bats and eagles"
Maka was absolutely fascinated. He never got to have this kind of education. Really, most of her studies were about weapon handling, soul resonance, soul amplification and combat skills… this was so much more. New students were learning magic, how it worked, how to use it, how to identify it, how to defend themselves against it. Back at the time, Maka had no idea about Soul Protect shields, witch conjures or magical illusions until she saw them first-hand in battle. She felt like a student again, and she loved it.
Crona felt the excitement in Maka's wavelength, how much she was enjoying herself, and it filled his heart with warmth and pleasure. Finally he had done something right, taking Maka with him to school. He had seen some of her memories as well, and although he didn't understand completely her current situation with Soul, he knew she needed to just stop thinking about it, just for a while.
"Proffesor Diehl, what does that red cross mean?" One of the students asked at the back of the class. Crona groaned… it had to happen, soon or later, really.
"… This is… hmmm…" Kim hesitated, knowing the answer, but doubting if she should explain it herself. Staring at Crona, who made no advances at all trying to step up, continued. "It's used when its believed the whole family line got extinct, either because no more witches were born with the shapeshifting skill, or all the witches with it are dead."
In the chart there were two families with a red cross staining them. One had the drawings of a dragonfly and a butterfly. The other had the drawing of a snake, a spider, and a scorpion.
The students knew perfectly well the name of the last three animals family.
"That thing is like, soooo wrong" Angela snickered, surrounded by the Eclipse class students.
"The Gorgon's were one of the most powerful witch families, that's why they didn't bow to Maaba's rules" Professor Stein said suddenly, interrupting Kim's class while moving across the room in the wheeled chair he was sitting at. "This class is important, because when you confront a witch, their transformation will tell you a lot about them. What attacks you can expect, how they will defend themselves, what attacks are more effective, and when you must flee from the fight."
More scribbling sounds. Professor Stein glanced at Crona. The young man was a little shaken, as he expected, but still calm and connected to reality. Maka was holding his hand, reassuring him.
"During the conflict with Asura, the Kishin, witches turned out of be our most powerful allies. Their magic was the only thing that made Shibusen's victory possible. This is why, Shibusen's next step is joining witches as meisters, to handheld demon weapons and start a new generation of powerful Death Scythes"
The Eclipse salon roared in cheerful victory screams. More witch meisters? Like Kim and himself? Was Stein sure about that? Crona frowned, staring at the gray-haired teacher, who just stared back at him, giving him a light smile before lifting his cigarette back into his mouth.
Was this the reason of why Stein had trained him with Kim after his incident in South America? Did Stein used him to as some kind of lab rat? Did he…
"Stop" Maka whispered at him, noticing Crona's train of thought. The swordman looked at her. "Is not like that and you know it"
Yet, fear still lingered at the back of Crona's mind. A worrying idea creeping slowly into his head, tendrils gently gripping at him. The scythe meister's soul, so close to him now, kept him in line from an anxiety fit, but still…
Stein had told him his witch powers had nothing to do with what happened that day. It had been a combination of factors, or what Ragnarok called a "Power Incontinence". Gross as always, but sounded kinda right… he couldn't hold it. Maka told him it wasn't his fault, yet she hadn't say anything about… the thing.
His transformation.
"Now, as Angela said, this chart is wrong" Professor Stein added, making the pink-haired swordsman shudder with anticipated fright. "We have one member of this family… Crona, come here if you please"
There it was… it had to happen, soon or later. Stein had trained him for that moment.
"Angela, over here please" Kim called for the young witch, the girl happily prancing from her seat to the front of the class, next to the tall shaken meister.
"Now, you'll see a similar yet completely different transformation. You first, Angela" The doctor said, moving over to the side of the classroom with his wheeled chair.
Maka frowned. She saw Crona's memory, that… thing. The huge ravenous black dragon. Did he actually ask Crona to transform there? She wouldn't have any of that! With Angela was more than enough! Certainly most students around had never seen a witch transform before, she understood the value of such example… but not with her Crona, not like that.
"Professor Stein, I don't think this is appropriate" Maka talked, standing up from her seat to confront her former teacher. The white-haired scientist stared at her for a minute.
"Sit down Maka, I'm doing this because you're here, there can't be a better moment. If you're so worried, help him out with your wavelength, but this is something he must accomplish."
Crona understood. Of course… it made sense. If Maka was there, she could sooth his madness with her anti-demon wavelength. In any case something went wrong, she could do something about it. He just needed to believe in her.
And he did, with all his might. She didn't flinch from him in the morning after seeing… that Thing, so… this couldn't be worse.
Could it?
"Start" Kim ordered.
"Soul Protection, Off." Angela murmured, focusing on the release of her witch powers. Her witch wavelength traveling through every room of the academy. There were few who would actually sense it, the Soul Perception skill was rare, but Maka could perfectly visualize Angela's witch soul, which had been hidden before under a human masquerade.
"Charm – Meleon – Char – Charm" Angela said with a grin on her face, moving her hands up front, her fingers intertwining, showing what seemed a reptile form with the movement of her hands. Soon, Angela's body disappeared in a purple smoke.
The students were loud, talking and shouting about the unseen transformation. By Lord Kid's orders, no witch of Shibusen could transform without approval, and certainly not without supervision. This was to avoid foreign witches trying to sneak on the school. Crona stared at where Angela had been standing, the smoke slowly fading, showing a very small reptile.
"hahaha that's fitting! It's a chameleon!" One of the students laughed, staring at the little reptile of green skin and purple dots.
Crona kneeled, offering his hand so Angela could climb on him, away from the dangerous floor. It was so small, even smaller than how he remembered Eruka's frog transformation. The witch climbed through the thin swordsman's arm, placing herself on top of his head.
"Best-Day-Ever!" Angela grinned in her chameleon form, snuggling on Crona's pink locks.
Maka's brow twitched.
"You can do it" Professor Stein said in a low tone of voice, only for the demon swordsman to hear. Crona glanced at the scientist for a second, he had to do it… he had been practicing for years, since he returned from South America…
He had to do it now, in front of the class, just to be sure he was ready, that he wasn't just a clicking time bomb that could be triggered in any second. This was his final test… and Maka was there to see it. A few days before, he certainly wouldn't be able to deal with this, but now… now he was sure that, no matter how bad, no matter how ugly, she wouldn't flinch from him.
Not after what she already saw.
"So, as you can see, Angela turned into a chameleon, which explains her shapeshifting skills and mimicking witch powers" Kim explained, staring with a grin how Crona stood there watching the little chameleon nesting on top of his head.
"Now, ready Crona?" The healer witch asked, making the swordsman jump a little on his place. "Don't worry, at your pace"
The students started talking between them, murmurs could be heard around the classroom. The Eclipse students stood there silently, yet their faces showed how eager they were to see the legendary Crona "The Demon Swordsman" Gorgon in action.
For some, Crona's reputation was so unbelievable, almost like… really over exaggerated. Supposedly, that meister had been at the edge of becoming a Kishin, so powerful that he was immortal, he could heal from every wound and his strength was such that he could lift entire buildings with his bare hands. No one of the current students had seen him fight in real life, tho.
"Five dollars he turns into a spider!"
"Bet me 10 for a snake!"
Maka dug her fingers in the nearest book she had in her reach, ready to throw some nice old fashioned Maka Chops into those over-talkative students. She soon noticed Crona managed to ignore the comments of the young meisters and weapons around, as if he didn't mind, as if he had heard worse.
And she knew he had.
"… Soul Protection, Off" Those words caught the scythe meister off guard. Had he been using Soul Protection all that time? She knew he had the soul of a witch, she literally have had his soul in her hands, but… if he now used that skill, it meant that…
Just like that, the room was filled with his overwhelming Soul Wavelength, and its new Witch aura. The feeling of magic oozing from his soul, it threw at her some flashbacks of her youth. Maka's eyes saw his soul, now at plain sight of her. A giant purple sphere with bat-like wings, merged with Ragnarok's soul, vibrating with magic power.
She remembered the last time she felt such intense wavelength… and it came from Medusa, his mother.
Most students couldn't see it, the change in his wavelength, but Professor Stein seemed to agree with Maka, staring at Crona with a faint twitch in his right eye. Yes, apparently Crona's witch wavelength wasn't so different from his deceased family. It screamed Gorgon from every pore, and yet it was different. Although they could distinguish his unique wavelength type, like a genetic code, it still was his own, it had his fingerprint, his essence, no matter how similar was to his family, he was still himself. Maka could notice that, feeling his wavelength deep inside her, humming his song along with hers. She gave him a warm reassuring smile.
The demon swordsman was very aware of the effect he now had on Professor Stein and Maka. Was it that bad? He couldn't feel his own wavelength, or other wavelengths for that matter… just Maka's. And she still felt welcoming. Despite what she was seeing and feeling, she still was there for him, her Grigori soul linked to his own. It was alright, her judgement was the only one he cared about.
He was bad at calling spells, and his summoning was lacking of creativity, at best… but it was his own. With his hands up front, he simulated jaws with his fingers, opening and closing.
"Dragon-Drake-Gon-Dragon" He murmured, feeling the magic engulfing his body… and he changed. A black cloud covered his body with a bang.
Maka had no idea she had been holding her breath, until now. The black smoke slowly dissipated.
"What is that?"
"it's a crocodile!"
"Dumbass, its too small! Its an iguana!"
"A giant thorny dragon!"
No, not at all. In front of the whole class was… something. It was a reptile, there was no doubt about it… a black cat-sized lizard, probably two feet long from nose to tail. Its jet black skin looked sleek, smooth to the touch, with pink stripes covering all its body in a tiger-like pattern. Maka had seen those!
"Gila Monster" Professor Stein explained, staring at the venomous lizard that was slightly shaking in the room, with a chameleon snuggling on its back.
"You're perfect even in your animal form" Angela giggled, her skin colors changing to match Crona's lizard skin, turning almost invisible to the unaware eye.
"S-stop Angela, it tickles…" Crona musited, his soft voice unchanged despite the abrasive look of his body.
"Gila Monster was the next obvious option in the Gorgon's hereditary tree, since venomous animals are so rare" Professor Stein explained, lifting himself from his seat, looking at the long lizard on the floor. He smiled at him, feeling a very well-known pinch of pride at the insecure meister.
After all the time they spent together training with the other witches, the swordsman had finally achieved to control the basics of his witch powers. This was a big step, a step in the right direction, Crona was no longer a danger to himself and others, and what happened three years ago in South America, would never happen again.
The sharp reptile eyes of Crona were blue, distinguishing him from any other real lizards. They were looking back at Professor Stein with a thankful stare.
"What kind of powers would you expect from a venomous big lizard as this one?" Kim asked, all of a sudden lifting Crona's long body from the floor. The dragon witch wiggled frantically in her arms.
"D-Don't lift me! It feels weird!" Crona gasped, unable to escape from the healer witch's tight embrace.
Students started to yell around in the classroom, trying to guess the abilities of the dragon witch form of Crona, but Maka was unaware of what was being said. Her green eyes stared at her best friend, his changed body, it was shocking to know that he was indeed a witch. Like, she knew from day one he was one, at least he had the soul of one, but… to actually have magic powers was a completely mind-blowing event for her.
And he looked so cute! She wanted to hold him. Was he warm? Cold? Was his skin as smooth as it looked? How did it feel for him? Was he comfortable with it? So many questions!
Crona finally managed to free himself from Kim, quickly returning to his human form, black smoke vanishing the lizard and uncovering his lanky male body again, as if nothing had happened. Stein patted him in the back, saying nothing. Self-conscious, Crona took his seat next to Maka, who was looking at him with a big smile.
"You're so full of surprises, aren't you?" Maka teased, noticing his blue shaky eyes slowly relaxing. He was shaken, but still with both feet in the world of sanity.
Soon her emerald eyes saw Angela still cuddling on Crona's head. Slowly, but threateningly, lifted a book in front of the swordsman, making the little witch to shriek frightened, jumping off the meister's head. With a purple cloud, the chameleon witch returned to her human form.
"You're such a party pooper" Angela growled with a frown, returning to her spot with the rest of the Eclipse students. Crona took a deep sigh.
"C-can I see you when the class is over?" The swordsman asked Maka in a low tone of voice, low enough so only she could listen.
"Sure Crona, but… where are you going?" The blonde meister asked, looking in confusion how the swordsman lifted himself from the chair, asking permission to leave the class. He didn't answer, just stared at her, his blue eyes looking at her wholly, before leaving the classroom.
It was the start of a hot summer in Death City.
And yet, Crona was walking down town, alone, immersed in his thoughts. His black gabardine always looked out of place in any season that wasn't winter, but he didn't feel safe with any other garment that didn't cover most of his body. Hugging himself, with his arms crossed on his chest, he started to feel the emptiness Maka's wavelength left on him now that she was far away.
How could he have survived five years without her near him? Oh yeah, he didn't… not completely.
Taking a deep sigh, the swordsman looked around the old and new buildings of Death City. The same city, the same people, citizens that now were used to him. But they didn't know, nobody did. Not even Stein, he didn't see it… his REAL form.
But Maka did… didn't she? She saw, through his memories, what he had become. Something deep inside him was telling him it all was an act, that there was no way she could understand it, or even accept it. It was too gross, too alien, too unspeakable… no witch in the world had such transformation… how was that possible?
Well, no witch had black blood either, so…
Also, did she get to know? About… how was he feeling? Maka was acting normal, maybe, just maybe, he succeeded in his attempt to hide his feelings from her. Maybe she didn't know yet. Or perhaps… she knew, and she couldn't deal with it, so she had decided to ignore them. So many questions, and he couldn't even dare to think on asking directly.
Speaking of which…
"Ragnarok…" Crona called to his partner, feeling his blood spurt on his back, the demon sword sitting on top of his head.
"What?" The little demon asked rudely, staring down to his pink hair.
Crona didn't answer, his walking on Death City streets taking him to a lonely children's park. He could speak there, where no one was around. Sitting on a stone bench, the swordsman looked up to the colorful games in front of him, the swing rocking slightly with the wind.
"Why?"
That was it. It was everything Crona wanted to ask him. Why… why?... The swordsman couldn't grasp the idea of Ragnarok doing what he did, it was too personal, too hateful, too intricate for the sword to do just for shit and giggles. It had been bothering him the whole day, a constant nagging on the mouth of his stomach. The gears that worked between their souls slowly but surely distorting, doubt rusting through them.
The demon sword stood on his head quietly, just for a minute.
"Why what you dumb shit? Be specific!" Ragnarok roared. Instead of hearing Crona's whining, he felt a shock of pain run through his body. Soul Rejection. Crona's hand held on his gabardine tightly, biting down a yelp in his lips. "Goddamit Crona! You weak asswipe! Are you really doing this right now!?"
Another squeal of pain, this time like an electric discharge, made Ragnarok punch his meister's head.
"Stop it Crona! Right now!"
"Then tell me why! Ragnarok, why?" Crona roared, looking up to his weapon partner. "Above all things you've done to me, this is the worst! Punching me in the dark, starving me, insulting me, nothing is compared to what you did! How could you do this to me!?"
"Crona hold your damn panties! You are taking this way too personal"
"Then you did it for your sick amusement!? IS THAT IT!?" Crona asked with a scream, feeling the threat of a burning pain slowly increasing all over his body, like daggers poking him from the inside, in every organ, ever muscle.
Ragnarok felt it too, in its blood, the instability, the feeling of being close to lose its shape. Any wrong choose of words could end with their resonance… What could he say?
He would try being honest, for a change.
"I did it for us! For your goddamn sanity that's why!" Ragnarok yelled, frustrated, blowing a hard punch on Crona's head. "Really asshole! You went batshit crazy for that bitch! Not even Medusa ever riled you up that badly! EXCUSE ME FOR TRYING A SOLUTION!"
"Y-you call that a solution!? Lying to me!? Making me believe she was gone!?"
"she IS gone you stupid motherf.. GAH! You are so stupid you don't know how stupid you are!" The demon sword roared, punching Crona again, right on his left shoulder.
Crona flinched in pain, feeling anger bubbling in their blood. Lifting his hands, he managed to hold on Ragnarok's tiny arms, stopping his aggression.
"I trusted you Ragnarok! You were the only one who could never lie to me!"
The sword felt silent. Staring at his meister, he stopped his pummeling on his head. That hurt, for some reason. The demon sword was not used to many feelings, but just like Crona, he understood pain, misery and hurting. Those words hurt, somewhere inside him.
Groaning lowly, Ragnarok yanked his arms, forcing Crona to release him.
"What else could I do!? Dammit Crona, you forced me into this! Into this mushy friendship crap! And then you forced me to watch your self-destructive tantrums! You starved me for months bitch! If that fat cow was the reason, then I would gladly erase her memory from that melted cheese you call brain!"
"WHY!?"
"BECAUSE I DON'T WANT YOU DEAD, YOU IDIOT!" Ragnarok roared, puffing angrily, striking the hardest punch he could manage right into Crona's head, making him yelp in pain and shock. He was pissed. "I have no use for you dead! How am I going to keep eating delicious things!? How am I going to keep bothering everyone around here? How am I supposed to ruin Stripes adored symmetry in his house, HOW AM I GOING TO KEEP YOU AWAKE AT NIGHT WHEN I CANT SLEEP? OR HEAR YOUR CONSTANT WHINING IF YOU'RE NOT HERE?! I am linked to you, you bastard!"
Crona looked up to his weapon, staring at his angry features in that cartoonish face of his. Even like that, he could see how angry he was.
"Goddamit you asshole… we were so much better before… before her stupid shit of a hug!" The weapon growled, yanking Crona's hair in a tantrum. "We were badass! With nothing to care or look out for! Nothing but us and limitless power! And now we are here, screaming in a freaking children's park, over a PMSing bitch ass cow! Shopping with those crazy sisters, training with the damn witches, toying like stupid kids with Marie's child, why you had to make everything so GOD-DAMN- COMPLICATED CRONA!"
The gears clicked. Realization showing in the swordsman's dark eyes, staring at the frustrated face of his weapon. The stinging inside Crona's body stopped, the boiling blood cooling off, their wavelengths slowly returning to a steady, rhythmical pace. With a movement of his head, the meister shook off Ragnarok's grip on his hair, staring down to the sand below his feet. Maybe, in Ragnarok's simple mind, returning to the emptiness was better than living with so many overwhelming feelings, probably because being constantly numbed by madness was a more stable mood than the rollercoaster that actually living was.
"Ragnarok… I don't want to stop feeling…" He whispered, raising his naked hand, placing it on his own chest, feeling the beating of his heart. "I know… I know is complicated… but please, I need this… I need her."
"She-is-NOT-staying!" The demon yelled again, frustrated.
"I know… I know she is not, but… as long as she's here, as long as it last… please, Ragnarok, let me have it…" His weapon understood those words, and the actual meaning of them. It was something they both knew would happen, when she eventually leave. Crona was aware, just as aware as he was…
"… this is not going to end well, you know that, right?"
"I know… Im sorry Ragnarok" Crona said, taking out a deep sigh out of his chest "and… thanks"
The little demon flinched, looking at Crona with his unexpressive round eyes.
"For caring… thanks"
"Whatever you moron" The demon said, melting back inside Crona's body. "Have it your way! Go all lovey-gooey with the cow, but I'll take pictures when she breaks your heart!"
Crona smiled. Funny… there was no way she could break something that had been shattered beyond repair a long time ago. It would be more like… closure? That's what Professor Stein had said to him, that he needed closure. Probably that was the reason why he decided to let her in, into his mind and soul… he yearned for closure. A good bye, this time for good, Crona was getting ready to say good bye to Maka.
Until then, he had decided… he would enjoy her stay, fully, completely, like in old times of his youth. Just for this time, the last time, he would be a little selfish, and search for his own needs. And his only need now was Maka.
It would be his dying wish come true.
After the long class with Kim was over, Professor Stein retreated in the warmth of his house, where he could feel the soothing wavelength of his wife, Mary, and her playful voice mixed with the childish chattering of his son. His troubled mind could find rest and peace in that environment, a familiar, madness free zone that eased his impulses. With a relaxed sigh, the scientist took his time to read over again his notes about witch wavelengths and how they could affect the power of a demon weapon. Certainly, a witch meister would be a lot stronger than a human, at least for most cases, although resonance intensity was even more important.
Since Crona's incident in SouthAmerica, their school had to prove that the witches were not dangerous, and that the pact with Maaba was useful. Hundreds of years of animosity between the Death God and the witches didn't play a very good lubricant for the new world order. As much as Crona wouldn't like to admit, he had the biggest burden in his shoulders. Half-human, Half-witch, imbued with a demon weapon, raised by a witch and trained by Shibusen… his fuck ups were Shibusen's fuck ups. Stein had to make sure the demon swordsman could understand the importance of such training.
According to the world, Crona should have been executed a long time ago, and Stein wouldn't have any of that. He was determined to prove witches could be meisters, they could be trusted, they could help to keep the balance and order Lord Kid desired so much. Kim was a perfect example of that.
They needed to be prepared, Stein felt it in his gut, in every new case of disappeared meisters, vanished weapons, students that left to missions and never returned. Every weapon was a vessel of power, and just like Asura once ate his own partner, could a kishin egg deduce that eating weapons would make them stronger? Stein could deal with dead students, it was sad and infuriating, but bearable. Not knowing where they were? That was different, unsettling…
That time, in the jungle of Colombia, there were just four small kishin eggs preying on the weak. They had been fooled, thinking those disappearances had anything to do with the missing Shibusen students. No, Stein was now sure that all those students were connected to only one kishin egg, hiding somewhere. The most frightening part was… probably wasn't a human going bad, or a weapon going bad.
That kishin had been successfully hiding for years… either it was a witch or a demon weapon… or both.
Stein reclined on his studio chair, tossing his notes on the desk in front of him. Staring at the stitched ceiling, the scientist took a cigarette out of one of his medical coat's pockets, holding it between his lips without igniting it. Marie didn't let him smoke inside the house.
A bright light coming out of the biggest mirror of his studio called his attention. With a deep breath, Stein walked up to the mirror, answering the call.
"Professor Stein" Lord Death greeted with his usual neutral tone of voice, so much different from his father's cheerful one. Still, he was wearing his trademark skull mask.
"Lord Death, is there a problem?" The scientist asked, both of his hands comfortably resting inside his coat pockets.
"It happened again" Kid said, plain and simply. Stein's frowned.
"Where?"
"The students we sent to investigate the disappearances of some people in New Mexico, they haven't called." Lord Death's voice was filled with anger. More students gone.
"How long? It may still be time."
"Barely, they had to establish communication with Shibusen three hours ago. With the problems we've had, they knew they had to call in the exact hour."
"It's not too far, I'll tell Crona to get ready and leave immediately"
"Actually, Stein, I believe is time for us to take this case personally" Kid sighed, taking off his face his skull mask. His golden eyes showed anger and frustration. "I can't lose any more students... and I have a bad feeling about this, this time they got M.I.A. a few states away from us… its getting closer"
"Either turning reckless or bold… or it might be trap" Professor Stein noted. Unable to restrain himself, he lit the cigarette he was holding in his lips.
"A trap, surely, that's why I need you to take Spirit and investigate this case."
"Spirit?... you would be left without Death Scythes to protect the city. Marie can come with me."
"I won't leave little Victor without his mother, even if it's for a few weeks, and besides…" Kid sighed, sudden horror showing in his face, turning pale. "… there's no possible way of wielding a scythe symmetrically…"
"Seriously? Kid…" The scientist shook his head in disbelief, his hand holding the screw on his head, giving it a slight twist.
"No… no I refuse" Kid shuddered, determination suddenly showing in his face. "Besides, it would be a complete suicide to try and attack the city, even without Death Scythes around, let's hope for the enemy for being that stupid."
"I'll get ready, we'll leave tomorrow morning" Professor Stein nodded, ending the communication with the mirror.
Something was off… the disappearances had never occurred so close to Death City… it was almost as if the kishin egg were challenging them.
Certainly bold or reckless… or a trap.
AkireRosales: CHAPTER 10! Im finally out of the writters block! My hands are doing magic in the keyboard im telling you all!
This story is still alive! Thanks so much to all the wonderful readers that came back to this mess! It pains my heart seeing all the stories I followed so long ago left abandoned… but it has fueled my determination to finish this story! FlaillingKittyLover, Ludifer, QueenOfGames, Sakicakes, all my fallen CroMa warriors! I won't fail you!
Yush! Without a doubt! Im already writing the next chapter! Im on a god-damn roll! Whispers WILL be finished, hear my words!
Also, I know it wasn't the full blown-out confession everyone is waiting for… oh no, I have plans for that one, is gonna be good… very good. Be patient, we are SO close!
Reviews please! Im doing this for all of you my readers!