Chapter 10

(Soul)

The girls were making BBQ while Black Star and I were left to do what we wanted. Black Star came over and placed his arm around my neck.

"Hey Soul, so are you going to ask Maka out now?"

"I keep telling you we aren't like that."
"Could have fooled me with how you kept staring at her every time she served the ball. Heck, whenever you did that your head became an easy target to score."

"I'm gonna kill you." I said threateningly.

"Dude chill out."

I huffed at him in annoyance.

"Soul let me ask you a question. If there were other guys at this beach and they were hitting on Maka what you would do?"

"Stop them, Maka would hate hanging around jerks that only want to get off for one night."

"What if she looked like she liked the guy or wound up hanging with the guy all day. How would you feel about that?"

I thought about it, but I couldn't really picture her doing that.

"I can't really picture that."
"Why can't you?"
"I can't really see her hanging around any guy other than you or Kid just to hang out."

"Who's that?"

"I just can't."

"Ah, so that's why you can't think of her that way." He said as if he realized something.

"What?

"Ah nothing you need to worry about now, but as a little advice from a God like me, next time you see some random guy you don't know on the street just picture him talking to Maka without you. I think you'll get it then. And also, if you wait on things too long, you'll miss out. Now let's go swim till dinner is ready."

"I have no clue what you're on about."

We swam a race for about an hour till the girls called us to eat. Ah BBQ, how I missed eating it over the year. There's even grilled corn and baked potatoes with butter and sour cream inside. I am not letting Black Star hog the meat. For every piece of BBQ, he took I took one every corn cob I took one as well. Soon it seemed like we started a speed eating contest and started to annoy Maka.

"Slow down you guys and actually eat your food. You don't need to swallow it whole, the foods not going to run…"

When she stopped mid-sentence, I looked over at her. She was staring out onto the ocean.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I just sensed the Kishin, it's starting to come towards the shallow areas."

"Already?"

"Yeah, but we won't need to go after it for about another hour."

"But isn't it the edge of Death City away?"

"No, while you were gone, I've been practicing my soul sensing ability. The range it covers has increased by a lot. It might not be to the level where we are when we resonate, but I can sense souls about an hour away time traveling wise. I've even practiced with Kim and developed it to the point I can tell if someone is a witch using soul protect as long as they're in viewing distance."

"Seriously?!" Tsubaki, Black Star, and I said at the same time impressed.

"Yep, Lets finish eating then get ready to head out. I've already purchased a cheap inflatable raft we can use to lure it in. so all we need to do is blow it up and head out."

"Oh, is that what's in that bag that you had me bring with?"

"Yep, there's a foot pump in there too, and two paddles that are compact."

"If the boat survives, we can save it to use again. Cool."

"Yep, that's why I got it even if it was on the cheap side. It's been sitting in my closet back at home for the past two years, I'm glad it'll finally get used."

"You've had that for two years?" Tsubaki asked.

"Yeah, it was on sale and seemed like a good deal. I figured It might be good if we ever decided to take a vacation or go on some waterlogged mission."

"You bought it with a mission in mind? No wonder you always seemed to be prepared when we go out." I said.

Everyone finished eating then took turns on the foot pump to blow up the raft. Despite its compact size it was easily large enough for four adults to fit on, and when Tsubaki and I turned into our weapon forms large and stable enough for our meisters to have a good fighting position. We rowed the raft with Maka steering the front, Tsubaki and I in the middle, and Black Star giving us a push from the back. It took about ten minutes to reach a position off the coast Maka thought we could intercept it.

"It should be here in about another ten….ah."

"What's up Maka?" Black Star asked.

"It's noticed us and sped up heading straight for us. I estimate the arrival in five minutes."

"Seriously?" I asked transforming into my scythe form.

"Black Star do you think you and Tsubaki can distract it for us if it surfaces before attacking so Soul and I can get the finishing blow in?"

"Sure, but what happens if it tries to swallow us whole?"

"Then Soul and I will just have to fly us up. Then we attack, but the soul feels a little small to swallow a boat, so I don't think that will happen."

"Sure, thing then." Black Star said having Tsubaki transform.

Just as Maka said the kishin came exactly in five minutes and it did surface before attacking. Its appearance looked similar to a mermaid since it had a human shaped upper body, but it otherwise looked like the barf some drunkard who ate too much coughed up. Personally, it made me want to hurl just looking at it.

"So gross." Maka said.

Took the words literally right out of my mouth. I mean the thing was as ugly as Maka was pretty. Even compared to Tsubaki, Maka could stand on par with her look wise and that was even back before…wait. What the hell am I thinking at a time like this. Stupid Black Star, it's all because he started going off about that stuff. Better get my head back into this. The kishin dove under the water again. Black Star and Tsubaki sliced at the water in a way that it's only escape route was to leap up where Maka and I were waiting. The moment it did we cut it in two and it transformed into the kishin egg. Maka turned her head to the side looking elsewhere.

"What's up?"

"That wasn't the only one."

"Really? How many are there then?" Black Star asked.

"It's hard to pin down the exact number at this distance, and there seems to be a slightly stronger soul overlapping them a bit."

"Maka want to resonate for a bit to get a better picture?" I asked.

"Sure, that'd help."

Our souls sinked up in the usual way. No matter how many times we did it, it gave the coolest feeling. Kind of like how warm water feels when your taking a shower. Another way to put it is it feels like when you eat jello or pudding. Only the temperature can tell you it's in your mouth, but you don't need to chew it just goes down the hatch. All that's left after is the taste of the flavor. When we sinked up this time for some reason it felt a little deeper then before. If I were to put it in words a little richer or warmer without being to a burning point. Maybe it's because we're older than we were a year ago, or because we were apart for so long. Still it was cool in its own way. Maka's wave length reached out further as we drew our resentence deeper.

"Got it." She said and we let our resonance drift down gently.

"So, how many?" I asked.

"It's about thirty. It seems they're the same as this one, except for the larger one that seems to be the leader."

"Well, lets go take care of them all. Good thing you have a strong god like me to help." Black Star boasted.