She had to know. It had been bothering her ever since he said it earlier. She stared at the ground nervously as Soul fumbled with the keys to their apartment.
"Finally, home sweet home. Social interactions are so goddamn tiring." Complained Soul as he made his way to the couch. He practically dragged his feet as he unceremoniously plopped down on the couch face first.
They had just gotten back from the ceremony of Asura's defeat. As joyous the occasion may have been, Maka couldn't truly immerse herself within the festivities. There was one glaring problem picking her brain. She couldn't put it off any longer, she needed to settle this now.
"Hey Soul, what are you planning on doing now?"
"Hmmphbrgh." Concluding that he was unfortunately incapable of replying while stuffing his face in their suddenly extremely comfortable couch, he sat up to look at his Meister with a confused look. "Uh… what? I dunno, probably shower, since we just got back and all."
"No, not that, I meant for the future." Maka sighed while she facepalmed, as if there was literally no other way Soul could have interpreted that.
"I'm sorry, what?" questioned Soul incredulously. Of all the things he expected to do after they sealed the Kishin, discussing about the future was definitely not one of them.
"I mean, you're a Deathscythe… and that means you're technically Lord Dea- I mean Kid's weapon now." It still hasn't fully sunk in for her that Lord Death passed away. "And since our main priority at the time was to suppress the Kishin, Lord Death told us to stay partnered up because it was the optimal situation for our battle strength, so…."
Her thoughts sprung back to when she talked to him earlier while he was playing a song. Their song.
"Will you even be able to play without me?"
"Shut up, of course I can."
Her eyebrows furrowed at the memory, thinking maybe that was Soul's subtle signal that he wanted to dissolve their partnership. It wasn't the first time this particular thought crossed her mind. But she usually managed to alleviate the idea, believing the defeat of the Kishin, and thus him leaving her, to be far away into the future.
Soul's eyes widened slightly in surprise at what she was saying. His confused gape slowly transformed into his classic smirk.
Oh, I get it.
"Worried I'm gonna up and leave ya now that I've been given the fancy title of "Last Deathscythe" aren't ya?" sneered Soul with his classic shark-like smirk as he stood up from the couch.
Maka sputtered out hurried denials while ignoring the bright red tainting her cheeks. Just as she was about to dish out a good 'ol fashioned Maka chop, he walked closer towards his Meister, started petting her head and softened his smirk into a smile and said,
"Well too bad Tiny Tits, until the day I die or you start to honestly think "I hate every fibre of your being", "I can't stand to look at you" or "Just get lost", you're stuck with me. You want to let the rest of the world hear our resonance right?"
Maka was debating internally whether or not to continue her Maka chop when she heard the nickname, but ultimately decided against it when she heard her partner's words. She felt his soul reach out to her and enveloped her own with warm and fuzzy wavelengths as she realized that this was his roundabout way of reassuring her, his 'cool' way. Typical Soul. She smiled and tackled him with a hug.
"Yeah, definitely."
He grunted in surprise but immediately returned the hug, feeling her body flush against his. This is nice, if only she did this more often. And then realization dawned on him. What the hell was he thinking?! This is Maka, his meister, his oh so cute and adorable Meister, Fuck, stop that. He decided to distract himself by throwing out another topic.
"And besides," He grumbled, glancing away as she looked up at him questioningly, "We've still got like, 4 years of DWMA left, so it's not like I'm an officially legal Deathscythe or anything."
"What? Really? What about your Deathscythe paycheck?"
"Really? That's the first thing you ask? Didn't know that was the reason you still wanted me around."
"Aww, but I was hoping to get some brand new books with your new raise."
"Yeah, well-"
"Well aren't you two adorable? Cuddling all cute like that while arguing about salary. Just like an old married couple, nyaa." A new voice startled them from their reverie. It was at this point that Maka decided to shove Soul away from her only for him to return to his original position on the couch. In a more painful approach. She searched around looking for the source of that distinctly recognizable voice.
"BLAIR!" Said owner of voice was perched on top of their TV in her cat form, bearing a fitting cheshire grin. "HOW LON- Ahem, how long have you been there?" She coughed into her fisted palm as she attempted to regain any sense of composure, hoping desperately that the witch-cat suddenly gained the memory capacity of a goldfish.
"Hmmmm, long enough nyaa." She jumped off from the TV and made her way to the open window.
"Um... Aren't you feeling hungry Blair? It's getting pretty late." Please let this work, please let this work. Fortunately for Maka, Blair's attention span was currently shorter than Patty's as the cat meowed in agreement.
"Hmm, true. Bu-tan's going to go get some fish now. See you later." Maka watched as Blair jumped out their window and released a breath that she didn't know she had been holding. Sighing in relief that she managed to distract Blair, she completely forgot about the groaning figure beside her.
"Damn it, woman! Give me a heads up next time, or better yet, just ask me to get off." He looked off to the side in annoyance. "Didn't know you hated hugs so much…" He grunted that last part under his breath in hopes that she wouldn't hear him.
"Oh? Is the oh so cool Last Deathscythe a huge teddy bear?" Apparently she did.
"Well don't worry, your hugs are very nice, Mr. Eater." She laughed as she saw his quickly reddening face. He tried to come up with a retort, but before he could say anything, Maka walked with a spring in her step towards the kitchen, reveling in the fact that she won this round.
"I'm gonna go start making dinner, wouldn't want you to cook and have another fire alarm go off now wouldn't we?" She ignored his protests as she asked him, "Can you start chopping the vegetables?" She glanced behind her to see him begin to stand up and follow her into the kitchen.
"Yeah, yeah, sure, we're making curry right?" He asked to make sure which vegetables he needed to cut.
"Yep." She turned her head to look at him with a softening gaze, "Thank you, Soul."
"Uh… Sure?" Soul didn't really understand why he needed to be thanked so sincerely, when all he was doing was helping out with dinner as usual. He chalked it up to Maka being Maka and just rolled with it. A sappy Maka is always better than a Maka-choppy Maka.
She felt so relieved and happy that she didn't even notice their souls beginning to intertwine. "You're stuck with me." Those words kept repeating in her head as she happily replayed it over and over again.
Truly, thank you Soul.
"The future, huh?" pondered Soul out loud.
After finishing dinner, they both decided to call it a night and head to bed. Because "The defeat of Asura is not an excuse for a long holiday, if we add anymore, then the spread for holidays over the year would be…. Would be… ASSYMETRICAL. And nobody wants that.", or at least that's what Kid said.
As he continued to think about it, he wasn't so sure what exactly he wanted to do. He needed… a goal, a dream, so to speak. His thoughts turned towards his Meister. She would probably continue her dream of becoming the best Meister of DWMA. But what about him? The answer seemed simple enough, the best Meister obviously needed to have the best Weapon. He started smirking, naturally a cool guy like him was well on his way to becoming the best weapon in DWMA, right?
Their first remedial fight against Stein, yeah…. That went well. But hey, Stein's a 3 star Meister, so that doesn't count, even if they got their asses handed to them while he was in a rolling chair…. That time against Crona… This scar on his chest isn't exactly proof of his overwhelming power… How about the battle on the moon? That went relatively well, until they were unable to resonate and were almost killed by a moon tooth… Undoubtedly, the scariest ones were the two fights against Giriko. It wasn't a world threatening situation, it shouldn't have even been that hard. They were up against a single autonomous lunatic weapon damn it, and yet, he was helpless to protect Maka, twice. He winced at the thought of what might have happened, had those situations escalated further. It was at that moment that Soul came to an uncool realization.
"Death… I suck balls at being a weapon." He was a freaking Deathscythe for fucks sake. He should not be having this much trouble in combat. Maka was going to need a better weapon than him if she wanted to be the best Meister. The thought of her replacing him made him shudder, even though she basically asked him to stay by her side earlier that night, the paranoia still lingered. No other stinking uncool weapon was going to be Maka's partner, not if he could help it.
Soul took a moment to wonder if this amount of possessiveness was normal. He reassured himself that it was just because he worries that Maka was too high maintenance for other weapons to handle.
She's violent, temperamental, a man hater, flat chested, although she has been filling out recently…. And those long legs… FOCUS, EATER. She's a nerd, also adorable, and likes to steal my clothes every now and then to wear them around the hou-
He needed to pull the reins on these thoughts. Before they grew into something much bigger than he was mentally ready for.
If there was one thing he learned from his pig tailed best friend through their adventures so far, it was to stop running away from his problems. It was a lesson that took him so long to realize and he was glad to have reached that life changing epiphany. Naturally, he proceeded to do fuck all with that piece of wisdom and chucked this problem to the back of his mind.
Soul decided to distract himself by focusing on the other problem, his weakness. He needed to find a way to better protect Maka. None of the classes in DWMA ever seemed to have taught them anything other than the fact that a Weapon-Meister Duo got stronger through resonance. Not strong enough? Resonate with other teams. But they never really delved into what they should do if they wanted to get stronger individually. An outlier to this rule popped into his head. Black Star. Stein helped him get stronger through that training with that wavelength-sucking water.
Soon, the beginning of a plan formed within his head, and he decided to execute it tomorrow.
"Stupid Blair, coming out of nowhere like that!"
Maka was currently screaming into her pillow in frustration. It had never been easy to get closer to Soul, with him being obsessed about being so damn "cool" all the time. He said that hugs and feelings were too mushy and uncool. So the fact that he hugged her back this time was a massive achievement in her book. She wasn't exactly sure why she was so happy to make progress in getting closer to him. It's not like she wanted to get romantically involved with him.
She swore to herself when Mama divorced her stupid Papa that she would never like or fall in love with someone. It would never end up well, especially between Weapon-Meister partners. Men were full of lies, driven by lust and could never be trusted, and she has lived her life by that rule ever since her Mama left. It seemed that her rule held true, as every passing weekend, whenever her distraught mother would call her for an hour-long phone call, she slowly sounded happier and happier. Meanwhile her Papa kept on flirting with other women seemingly unaffected by the divorce, only giving crocodile tears when he knew she was watching. Men truly were the lowest of the low.
Though Soul proved to be an exception to her theory.
She quickly learned that to become the best Scythe Meister, she would have to trust her partner. Originally, that wouldn't have been a problem, because she thought that she could easily find a female Scythe partner. Even though Demon Scythes were incredibly rare, she was sure there would be at least one. Oh, how naive she had been.
She had met so many nice and dedicated weapons, but none of them were scythes. Just when she was thinking that asking for a Demon Scythe was too much, a lonely albino sitting in the corner of the Weapon-Meister introduction party caught her attention. She softly smiled as she reminisced that day.
She had never seen him in Meister classes before, so he must have been a weapon. She had walked over to him and asked him what kind of weapon he was. He was hunched over, leaning his forehead on his knees when he perked up at hearing her question. He seemed surprised, almost as if he wasn't expecting people to talk to him at all. His blood red eyes stole her attention. After quietly muttering that he was a Scythe, she completely disregarded her rule, got too excited, and jumped the gun, asking him to be her partner. Soon, her brain caught up to what was happening. Realizing that the person in front of her was in fact, a male, she quickly hoped that he would say no, and if he said yes, then she would make up some sort of excuse to escape to the bathroom.
But he did neither of those things.
He stood up slowly, his posture never failing to portray his laziness, held out his hand and asked her to come with him somewhere first. In hindsight, she should have left at that very moment, it was strange to suddenly ask a person to leave somewhere together, especially when they just met a few minutes ago. But the sincere look in his ruby eyes drew her in, and she accepted his hand without even thinking.
He pulled her softly towards a café near the DWMA and asked the owner if he could borrow their piano. She wondered for a moment if this was his way of hitting on her. Maybe he thought that she was one of those girls who fawned over any guy who could play a musical instrument. But she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, seeing as she came this far, she might as well go through with it. He strode towards the piano hesitantly, almost glaring at it and then turned towards her. She smiled politely as she pondered what he was planning.
"I'm going to play the piano. Consider this my self-introduction and listen."
Her immediate thoughts to his words were a bemused 'Pretentious guy' as she stifled a giggle. But the moment his fingers hit a key, she was enraptured. She saw him move more passionately than she ever did the whole time he dragged her into this café. His back hunched over and his fingers flew across the keys as he played a violent song that screamed of hurt and malice. It told her a story without words. It was as if she was reading a novel, yet she didn't have any details about anything. She could feel it through her soul. She couldn't help but stare in awe at what she was hearing and seeing. Her belief that men couldn't be genuine about anything was being shattered in front of her eyes, but she couldn't find it in herself to feel frustrated. A wide smile slowly crept its way on her face.
As the song slowly came to a close, he sighed, as if in disappointment. He turned around with a depressed and contemplative look which was almost immediately overtaken by surprise and unease as he stared at her. Almost as if he expected her to have disappeared. She held out her hand, as he had done before.
"Hey, I'm going to ask again, do you want to be partners? I didn't really get it, but it was interesting, I like it."
His eyes seemed to have widened even more and for the first time since she met this boy, he grinned. His sharp teeth didn't even startle her at this point, she was enjoying having her expectations broken by him. He took her hand tentatively, acting as if she could suddenly dissolve into thin air. She wondered what kind of thoughts were going through his mind right now.
"Sure, sounds cool. But first things first, you have a name?"
Embarrassed that this whole time she forgot to introduce herself, she coughed and attempted to salvage her dignity.
"Ahem, right, sorry about that. My name is Maka Albarn, what about you?" She returned the question, not knowing that this was the day she would learn the name of the person who would forever change her life.
"Soul, Soul Eater."
She woke up to realize that she had been dreaming. Dreaming of a very fond memory that never failed to put a smile on her face. Energized from her rest, she decided to get ready for the day.
Soul had a plan ready. The plan required him to send Maka into class ahead of him. Why did he need his Meister to head on first? Honestly, he had no clue either. What he did know was that whenever he talked about training by himself, she would freak out and start barraging him with Maka-chops. And secretly he was glad she did that. Because that meant that he didn't need to actually exert any effort. He could just laze around like usual, and he would be content until the next time he told her he wanted to train.
Not this time. This time, he knew that he needed to do this, he needed to be capable of protecting her better. What kind of uncool weapon can't even protect their own Meister.
When they arrived in front of the DWMA at 6.30, Soul told Maka to go ahead to class while he parked his motorcycle. The weather forecast that morning predicted that it might rain, which gave him the perfect excuse, since they couldn't use the normal parking spot, so he had to go park in the designated Death Scythe parking lot. Soul silently thanked the weather gods for giving him this perfect opportunity. As soon as he parked his precious bike, he rushed off into the building, searching for Stein.
After a while, Soul noticed that he only had around 10 minutes left before class started, he was about to give up. And then he heard a frustrated grunt. It seemed like it came from the balcony. As he walked out into the balcony, he found Stein near the railing glaring daggers at a cigarette box. A crank of his screw calmed his nerves before he glared at it once more. This cycle repeated itself 4 more times before Soul lost his amusement and coughed into his fist to gain the insane professor's attention.
"Yo. Morning, Prof Stein."
Stein's gaze lifted from the box towards Soul. The hand cranking his screw stopped, and he seemed slightly surprised seeing the lazy student greet him in the morning. He sighed gratefully for the distraction and returned the greeting.
"Good morning to you too, Soul." He chucked the box he was holding into a nearby trash can. Soul couldn't help the smirk that made its way onto his face as he concluded what had happened.
"I take it Ms. Marie isn't so happy about you smoking around her?" The professor's face stiffened slightly, which was a sight to behold. The well renowned strongest Meister of DWMA, reduced to a squirming mess at the mere mention of his future wife.
"No, no she isn't. Now, I'm sure you didn't find me just to talk about my smoking habits. Did you need help dissecting something?" Quickly regaining his composure, he gained a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Or were you going to volunteer yourself for a few experiments? I've got a few ideas rolling around in my head after Spirit escaped." Cackling dangerously, he started to list off his 'exciting' plans one by one to the growingly uncomfortable Deathscythe.
Seeing that he needed to answer quickly before he gained new stitches, Soul voiced out his original intention of meeting Stein.
"Am I strong enough to be a Deathscythe?"
Stein stopped his enthusiastic rambling at the interruption. His eyes widened slightly in amusement as he noticed the Weapon's serious tone. He had an inkling as to what brought this on, but thought that it would be more interesting to coax it out of the usually closed off and cool Deathscythe.
"Well, Soul, you've collected 99 evil human Souls and 1 Witch Soul, Arachne's soul at that, not to mention that you've collected an additional 99 Souls along with 1 strangely powerful cat even before that." The young Scythe's eyes rolled at that memory. That furball was more trouble than she seemed. "Most teams don't even reach 50 souls, so I'd say you're pretty worthy of being a Deathscythe."
"That's not what I meant."
"Oh, then what exactly did you mean?" asked Stein in an amused tone. Soul was staring at the ground in frustration. Knowing that he was weak and admitting it to someone else was completely different. He was hoping that Stein would cut to the chase and immediately understand what he was asking. Judging from the amused look on the professor's eyes, it seemed that he knew exactly what Soul wanted to know, but he wanted to hear it out loud. Damn uncool difficult asshole.
"How can I get strong enough to stay by Maka's side?" Soul determinedly stared at the Meister, hoping that this time he would get an actual answer.
Stein had always liked Soul. Inside that cold and uncaring exterior was an observant, strategic and logical mind. Stein knew that Soul paid attention in the more logical oriented classes, but he never showed any outward interest, choosing to maintain his "cool" by being lazy in class. This was why the mad man chose to milk this situation to its fullest, hoping that he can make Soul more proactive. He scoffed in his mind, I guess I'm a teacher after all. Satisfied with his student's openness, Stein felt a little proud at the progress his lazy student was making by taking an initiative in something.
"I see, so you wish to stay by her side. Since Maka's goal is to be the greatest Meister, she would eventually replace my post here. That would mean that you would need to be assigned as Lord Death's personal weapon, so that you would not be sent to be in charge of another area in the world. You would have to surpass Spirit as a Deathscythe, or wait until he retires and acquire that spot." mused Stein thoughtfully.
Soul took in what he said. He knew this, he'd thought about it already. He was going to have to surpass Spirit in strength, though that was part of Maka's plan this whole time. She did want to create a Deathscythe that surpassed her father. But this still didn't tell him what kind of training he needed to do in order to accomplish said task.
"I know that, but what sort of training do I need to do to surpass that shitty old man?" Stein merely laughed at his impatience and calmly gave him another question.
"Let me ask you this: How do you think you made it this far? Was it your strength? Was it Maka's strength? Or something else? And what do you think is holding you back from getting stronger?"
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he pondered the teacher's question, humming quietly to himself.
"I'd say that we were just lucky to have people come rescue us at just the right moment, and accidents happened that either distracted or defeated the enemy. As for what's holding me back, it's probably the fact that I've been a lazy ass about training."
Stein seemed impressed at the admittance of his own faults, (just not impressed enough) as the professor added his own 2 cents.
"Close: Luck is definitely a factor to why you've accomplished what you and Maka have done. As for the laziness, that's partially correct. What's actually delaying you is your mindset. You seem to have this idea, that no matter how dangerous the situation gets, you'll be able to scrape through just fine, even without accidents or rescuers."
Soul furrowed his brows in confusion. The hell was the professor on about. As if reading his mind, Stein continued, "Why is that, you may be wondering? It's because you've been too reliant on your Black Blood."
Soul flinched at this. Was this true? Had he really been relying on the one thing that he swore to never give in to this whole time?
The answer was yes.
Deep down, he knew that he felt content knowing that the Black Blood would be there to save their asses if they fucked up. It could regenerate lost organs, strengthen their defense, increase their offense, and with Maka's anti-madness wavelength, he wasn't even worried about the after effects. He felt disgusted with himself. He needed to get rid of this stupid mindset, because after the fight with the Kishin, Soul was purified from the Black Blood. And thus his so-called last resort had been taken from him.
Stein observed Soul go through his inner turmoil and was satisfied that he managed to tackle this particular problem. This wasn't exactly a problem before, because as horrible the side effects of the Black Blood were, it was effective in dealing with tough enemies. It's a different story altogether now, because that option didn't exist anymore. Though having an angsty student in the middle of class seemed like a pain, so he added a little tidbit of information to ease Soul's thoughts.
"Personally, I think it was also due to the fact that you and Maka were unnaturally strong together." It seemed that Soul's attention was successfully hooked by this line. Smirking slightly, the psychotic professor continued, "You two have an abnormally high compatibility with one another despite your clashing personalities. Resonating at those extremely high levels can help even 1 star Weapon-Meister teams reach 3 star strength. I've seen many souls interact with each other, and yours seem to resonate at the level of lovers. Though I guess that shouldn't be a surprise considering that you wish to stay by her side." Soul's cheeks slightly reddened at this, but it quickly faded as he tried to regain his cool by creating a distraction.
"Yeah, whatever Prof. You still haven't told me how I can get stronger." Stein quickly checked the clock. Realizing that it was almost time for class, he motioned for Soul to follow him as he answered his question. He watched as the young Scythe begrudgingly stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked beside him.
"True, I haven't. But no need to worry, you'll find your answer in today's class." reassured Stein. At this, Soul turned toward the mad doctor in slight confusion. Apparently he was going to have to pay attention in class now. Terrific, how uncool. But I guess if I'm gonna do this right, I should've expected my cool factor to drop. He fisted his hands inside his pockets in determination as they continued to their destination.
Maka arrived in the classroom with plenty of time to spare. It was no surprise that no one else had arrived yet, seeing as they were usually 30 minutes early, due to her insistence. Tsubaki usually arrived 10 minutes later after her routine of waking up Black Star 7 times. 4 times on a good day. And yet the bumbling idiot still somehow managed to be late every single time.
Kid and the twins usually arrived at 6.32. It was the compromise that Kid had come to, seeing as he couldn't just arrive at 8, he decided he had to be 88 minutes earlier than 8. Though now that Kid was taking his father's place, he doesn't have to go to class anymore, and thus the twins have apparently chosen to come later.
She was bored. What was Soul doing? It usually didn't take this long to park the bike. Maka's mind raced to find a possible explanation. Soul did get a lot of those letters requesting to be his partner. Stupid fangirls and their stupid obsession with Soul. Of course now they want to be his partner; It would be pretty convenient for them that he was already a Deathscythe. It was one of the things she worried about before their talk yesterday.
She already knew that she wasn't the most skilled Meister, courtesy of the Chapter of Envy. She had been working on her skills ever since. But it still hasn't deterred the crazy amount of fangirls he had, seeing as the letters practically flooded out of his locker every time they went home.
Maka wouldn't have minded all the letters if Soul had just ignored them all. But he didn't. He brought them all home, and she had no idea what he did with them! It made her so paranoid that he would consider leaving her, comparing them to her one by one, seeking her flaws, finding the perfect replacement. At least now she has reassurance that Soul wouldn't leave her unless she wanted him to.
And then it hit her.
Oh no, what if he actually WAS finding a replacement? What if he doesn't really want to stay with me? What if he's just staying with me out of pity?
"Hm? Who's staying with you out of pity Maka-chan?"
"EEK!" Surprised by the new voice, Maka squealed in panic. She whipped her face around only to be met with the innocent, albeit confused stare of Indigo eyes.
"Tsubaki," sighed Maka in relief. She put a hand over her heart in an attempt to calm it down. "You surprised me there." The Meister chuckled softly as she gestured to the seat beside her. The Shadow Weapon joined with her own laughter as she gladly took the silent offer and sat down.
"I can see that. But what were you so focused about Maka-chan? You said something about someone staying with you out of pity?" The Meister froze. Did she say that out loud? She was glad that it was Tsubaki that heard her and not anybody else, especially not Soul.
"Oh, nothing to worry about Tsubaki." Maka waved off the weapon's concern. Tsubaki didn't seem to believe her as her eyes narrowed slightly. But seeing that the topic was making the Meister uncomfortable, she decided to leave it for now.
"Where's Soul? You two are usually talking with each other by the time that I get here." The mention of Soul's name seemed to cause Maka to twitch slightly. An interesting piece of Information that Tsubaki filed into her brain for future use.
"He's just gone off to park his bike. The forecast says that it's going to rain today, so he went to use the Deathscythe Parking lot." Maka was glad that Tsubaki didn't push any further. She knew that the Weapon probably realized that something was bothering her, but was just too kind to force it out of her. They continued talking about today's classes, how Black Star was probably going to be late again, among other things as the class slowly filled out.
She saw that things were mostly normal. Kim and Ox held hands as they entered while Jackie and Harvar followed behind them. Killik gave his partners a piggyback ride. Liz and Patty seemed rather lost without Kid here, but they were back to normal as soon as Maka and Tsubaki started talking to them. Yep, everything was all fine.
However, In the back of her mind, that thought still ran rampant. She knew she was being insecure, and since she just settled one insecurity yesterday, she wasn't sure if asking Soul about this new one today would seem too awkward and needy. The Meister sighed internally as she set this problem aside for now. She needed to focus, class was about to start, but Soul still wasn't here. He better not be ditching with Black Star again…
Just before the bell rang, Maka's brow raised slightly in confusion as Stein rolled into the classroom in his chair with Soul in tow. As usual, the chair fell over at the door, resulting in an unceremonious crash. Ignoring the Professor's usual antics, Maka focused on her weapon. What was Soul doing with Stein? He didn't get into any trouble right?
While Maka was continuing her deliberations, someone else was having their own problems.
Ugh, give it a rest already. Visibly disturbed by the sight before her, Jackie turned her head away from her Meister and Ox's flirting session. She was happy for the couple, she really was, but did they seriously have to rub it in her face? It didn't help that she used to have a crush on Kim. She sighed in exasperation. She knew it was pointless to dwell on things she couldn't control. Her Meister, no, her best friend, was happy, and who was she to stop that?
Glad that class was about to start, she brought out her books, straightened out her seating posture, and patiently awaited the arrival of their teacher. Soon, Stein crashed into the classroom along with Soul. The white haired Scythe seemed to give the classroom a once-over before stopping his glance at her. His eyebrow arched up a little in confusion, which then softened into a look of… is that sympathy? before walking up the stairs toward his seat. Jackie had no more time to dwell on this thought as the professor gathered everyone's attention.
Soul took his time as he slowly walked up the stairs and sat down next to Maka. She gave him a questioning look, silently asking him what he was doing with Stein. He dismissed her with a shrug of his shoulders, while keeping his face as neutral as possible, hoping to keep his plans a secret as long as possible.
"Alright class, glad to see you're all here today" bellowed Stein, completely ignoring the absence of a certain self-proclaimed God. "Unfortunately, we will not be dissecting anything today." The class collectively sighed in relief at this. "Instead, we are going to continue from where we left off before the Kishin was released."
Maka raised her brow at this. Were they supposed to have a different curriculum than what they were doing before? Though it did seem strange that most of the classes were directed towards Team Resonance, with the occasional PE class. Noticing that Stein sounded serious at the moment, Maka instinctually nudged Soul to wake him up, since he always went to sleep whenever Stein went into his so called "uncool lecture mode" and she always woke him up whenever important information was being explained.
But her eyes widened in surprise as she noticed that not only was her weapon awake, but he seemed oddly concentrated on the lecture. His eyes were narrowed in a focused gaze towards the professor in a way that she has only seen a few times before, but definitely not during class. And he even had a notebook and pencil ready! Who was this and what have they done with Soul? After verifying her partner's identity through her Soul Perception, she dismissed the idea of him being an impostor with an afterthought of, Oh well, he looks pretty cool when he's focused like this anyway.
"As you know, the Kishin was a high-threat emergency. As such, DWMA saw it fit, to have you focus on the fastest way to get stronger, Team Resonance. Though this may be the fastest way to gain strength during battle, it is not the most effective in the long run. To be a truly efficient Weapon-Meister Team, you should be capable of realizing your own full battle potential. None of you here have managed to even begin to unlock this potential, and therefore, still have room to grow. Well, all of you except for-"
"THE GREAT BLACK STAR HAS ARRIVED! YAHOO! REVERE ME MORTALS! I HAVE COME TO SAVE YOU FROM BOREDOM! HAHAHAHAHA!"
The screaming interruption named Black Star slammed the door open, causing, well, an interruption. The students ignored his sudden entrance, completely used to his antics. Stein, on the other hand, seemed strangely satisfied, forming a devious grin on his face.
"Perfect timing, Black Star, get over here for a demonstration as punishment for being late."
"A chance to show off my divine skills? You bet your ass I'm doing that!" Black Star immediately marched over next to Stein. Maka spared a glance towards Tsubaki in pity, noticing that said weapon was currently trying to hide her face with her hands in embarrassment.
Stein continued, "As I was saying, none of you have begun to unlock your true battle potential, except for this little idiot right here." Said little idiot started guffawing and shouting about how Godly he was as the rest of Spartoi's jaws collectively dropped.
Maka, unable to accept that the blue haired dolt was actually ahead of her in technique, immediately raised her hand to question the professor.
"Professor Stein, what has that moro- I mean, Black Star been doing to reach this battle potential?"
"You mean other than being my divine Godly self? Maybe you should start worshipping me every day, maybe my greatness will rub off on you, my precious follower, HAHAHAHA! Wait, were you about to call me a moron?"
"Shut up Black Star! The only thing Godly about you is your stupidity!" Maka hotly retorted as she held up a book for a long distance Maka-Chop.
Professor Stein saw this moment as the perfect time to interrupt their shouting match. "Actually, his stupidity has something to do with why he has managed to unlock his potential." Ignoring Black Star's complaints at being called stupid, the professor continued, "Before we go any further, let's go over some basics first. What exactly can soul wavelengths do? Ox, would you care to answer the question?"
Seeing this as a chance to show off his intelligence to Kim, Ox pushed up his glasses and answered smugly, "Soul wavelengths allow us to resonate with our partners and we can even release them for a soul wavelength attack. They also exude the owner's personality traits and are thus unique to each person."
"Correct, but that's all you know so far. As Ox has said, soul wavelengths are unique to each person and therefore, are capable of granting them unique abilities. In Black Star's case, he has been unconsciously using his wavelength to enhance his strength. Allow me to demonstrate with an arm wrestling contest. Black Star, go to the right side of the table."
Black Star, who had at this point tuned out the professor's ramblings, jumped at hearing his name and followed accordingly. Seeing Stein place his arm in a position to arm-wrestle, the blue haired Meister did the same. Once they had a good grip on each other's hand, the professor began to speak.
"Alright, now, I'm going to give a demonstration of Black Star's strength with, and without the aid of his wavelength. We'll start off with when he's using it. 3, 2, 1, GO!"
A large crack emerged from the points of contact from their elbows against the table. Stein and Black Star were struggling for dominance as veins began to bulge on their faces. The cracks kept spreading as Black Star slowly gained the upper hand, pushing Stein's hand ever closer to the table. The air around them trembled and sparked. Only Maka could see their souls growing in size and intensity as it enveloped them. She knew first-hand that Black Star had incredible physical strength, her cheek was sore for 2 weeks! The cracks were spreading further as Stein resisted Black Star's advances. Black Star was letting out incoherent grunts as he tried to push Stein the final centimetres to the table. But he just. Wouldn't. BUDGE.
"OK, that was Black Star's strength enhanced with his wavelength. Now I will use my wavelength to cancel out his own." Stein said calmly. His face didn't show an ounce of the strain he had earlier as he slowly and easily returned them to their starting positions. Black Star seemed mortified that he was being pushed back so easily and tried in vain to regain his lead as he felt his usual strength disappearing.
Through her Soul Perception, Maka could see that Black Star's soul had shrunk down to its normal size, flailing pointlessly inside his struggling form. She was in awe at what was happening. Could she demonstrate that kind of physical strength with enough practice? Could anyone have Black Star level strength just through the correct usage of their soul wavelengths? Was Black Star using his wavelength to enhance his physical strength this entire time? This whole time, Maka believed herself to be helplessly inferior to Black Star and that there would be no way for her to catch up to him. That becoming the best Meister in DWMA would need an overwhelming statistical advantage in mission successes and that she should just give up on winning a head-on fight with him. Yet, here was Stein, dominating an arm-wrestling match against the man who could lift up a moon tooth!
Stein eventually let Black Star's hand softly touch the table before turning towards the class as if he didn't just man-handle the strongest student in a contest of brute strength. Black Star was wheezing on the floor and was muttering something about 'how Gods should let their followers feel accomplishment from time to time'.
"Now, somebody tell me about what they just observed. How about you, Kilik?"
"Black Star just got his ass handed to him!" cheered Kilik.
"Shut up!" shouted Black Star as he still laid himself on the floor, which only elicited a snicker from the Pot Meister.
"True, but not the answer I was looking for, Soul?" asked Stein with a mischievous glint in his eyes. If his student wished to get stronger, then this would be a perfect opportunity to make him more active in class and make him break his 'too cool for school' schtick. Soul clicked his tongue in annoyance but gave an answer anyway.
"Black Star has been unconsciously using his soul wavelength to enhance his strength, and that gave him the advantage in the first half of the match. But just before he won, you canceled out his wavelength by using your own, so it nullified any sort of enhancement he had. And since you are naturally stronger than him, you won." answered Soul in a thoughtful tone.
"Correct. Thank you Soul." Stein saw that Soul had a slightly confused look on his face. And thus, he pressed on, "Do you have a question, Soul?"
Completely forgetting to maintain his cool act, the weapon's curiosity got the best of him. "Yeah, actually. Why didn't you power yourself up with your own wavelength to beat Black Star? Why cancel his out?"
Maka was flabbergasted. She always had a feeling that Soul was capable of analysis, seeing as he was usually the one coming up with strategies during their battles, but she never saw it happen during class, so she was never sure. He always said it was uncool to, as he would call it, 'be a nerd'. And he was even asking a question?!
What the heck was happening?
"I'm glad that you noticed that. That actually has something to do with his aforementioned stupidity. Remember that Ox said that each person's wavelength is unique. Although each person is capable of using soul wavelengths in a similar fashion, such as enhancing one's own strength, they can also use them to develop special abilities. The kinds of abilities that each person develops are usually unique from one another and can stem from their own personality." He then raised his thumb over his shoulder, pointing towards Black Star.
"So in this simpleton's case, his ability is to increase his battle strength in the most straightforward way possible, which is increasing his physical strength. Though most people can learn this technique, Black Star does so at an abnormal amount. I am unable to match his wavelength enhanced strength, and therefore I cancelled out his wavelength." Stein saw that Soul's gaze morph into understanding after processing the new information. "Does that answer your question Soul? Or do you have another?"
"Nah, I'm good, thanks." Responded Soul nonchalantly, as he leaned his chair back to prop his feet up on the table. His Meister was still too stunned at his sudden proactiveness to berate him for his manners, or lack thereof.
She did however, appreciate the new information she was receiving because of said proactiveness. Sometimes he noticed things that she would dismiss without a second thought. Granted, that usually happened while she was preoccupied with an enemy, but an extra set of ears always helped. Stein had said that each person could develop their own special abilities. She quickly wrote down what she thought was important in her notebook, glancing at her weapon enough times to notice that he, at the very least, wrote down some notes.
She internally pondered the reason for this sudden change. Maybe he was trying for a 'genius without even trying' vibe. It probably wouldn't work, considering the entire class was already acquainted with his normal antics. Maybe he has a fever, in which case she should probably be worried.
"Now, this is just an introduction to a deeper understanding of your abilities. Because they are unique, we are unable to give you specific instructions on how to train them. We can only train you on the basics, such as enhanced strength and flight, among other things. To further develop and discover your abilities, you must experiment yourselves. I'd like to add that most Weapon-Meister teams don't even use these techniques that often, but the best ones do," Stein then pulled up his chair and sat down. "This class starts next week. The rest of the period is self-study. Have a nice day." He pushed hard on the remains of the podium, sending him directly towards the door, before making his chair jump a little to avoid the door's lower frame. A faint yell of 'SUCCESS' was heard as Stein rolled along the hallway to who knows where.
Maka was ecstatic. This was her chance to stand on equal ground with Black Star and Kid. As she looked around the class, she noticed that most of the weapons seemed uninterested in the idea of powering up. It made sense, seeing that the Meisters were usually the ones doing all the moving. She began imagining what her ability could be and how she could apply that with Soul.
Soul.
This class would make him stronger too. It would train him to be a better Deathscythe than her Papa. It would make him more capable as an Autonomous Weapon.
It would make him not need her anymore.
She hated feeling this way. She knew that she couldn't stop him from training, but a part of her relishes in the fact that he needed her to be able to fight. It gave her a sense of security, that he couldn't leave her.
She shook her head in an attempt to dismiss those thoughts. She should focus on the positives. With this class, she can keep her promise to him. She could get strong enough, that he wouldn't need to sacrifice himself for her. She would never allow her weakness to hurt him ever again.
With this, she can stay by his side.
Soul leaned back further on his chair as he put his arms behind his head. He was grinning his shark-like grin at the prospect of his dream being more in reach than he thought. He figured out how to get stronger, He let his eyes close as a spark of a faded memory crossed his mind.
Mommy, I'm going to be a super strong superhero when I grow up.
He cut off that memory before it got too vivid. It was a good memory, but it was linked with many bad ones. That moment was lost to him for many years. Not once did it enter his mind, ever since that fateful day, where everything changed.
How fitting, now that his resolve has been hardened, this distant memory came back to him. He would make kid Soul proud. He was going to be the strongest, coolest Deathscythe ever, better than Maka's shitty old man.
Maka.
He would be able to protect her better. She wouldn't need to carry all the burden of the battle by herself. He would gain enough strength that he would never have to leave her.
With this, he can stay by her side.
Alright, hoo boy. Man this site is confusing. Aaaaand I don't know how to make Author's Notes. So that's fun.
As you can probably tell by my inexperience, this is my first fic. I can't promise I'll update too often, but hey, I'm not really expecting a lot of people to actually read this fic anyway, so that seems like a good win for me.
But for anyone that actually liked what they saw here in the prologue, I'm glad that you're here and if you're willing to stick around, I hope I can live up to your expectations.