Episode 23: Faithful Reunion

9:30 a.m., Soul & Maka's Apartment, Maka's Room— over an hour had passed and both Maka and Chrona have yet to leave the comforts of the bed. Chrona, who was happily cuddling her best friend, slept soundly.

Meanwhile, Maka was staring at the ceiling. She was reflecting on the events which led to her uncontrollable transformation yesterday in the hopes of making some sense of it all. However, try as she might, the end always came out hazy. She could only remember the moments before the fight and after when she and Chrona were trapped. She sighed at the thought of how tight and cramp it was in there.

"Help! Somebody, help me!" she screamed, but no sound came out. She was scared and wasn't sure of what was going on. She just woke up and found herself in pitch-black darkness. She tried to move, but there was little space to do so. 'Where am I? Why can't I move?' Such thoughts raced in her mind as she started to panic.

Suddenly, she felt something wrap around her. She freaked and was about to fight back when a faint voice whispered in her ear, calling her name.

"Chrona!" she immediately knew who it was. At that instant, the dark veil that muffled her senses was slowly lifted. Thus, with the face of her most beloved finally cast to light, there was nothing stopping her from rushing to her open arms. Alas, if only it were not for the depressing metallic prison around them, such would've made quite the beautiful reunion.

"Chrona!" as she held her closely, all her fears and worry seemed to melt away. Also, the immediate danger of the surrounding blades vanished when they were found to be surprisingly dull to the touch.

Perhaps the only bad thing about that experience was that it made everyone worry. Regardless of all that's happened, at least everything worked out at the end.

After the incident, Stein explained to them that her 'extra features' were merely latent attributes brought upon by her own unique biology as the offspring of her weapon father and her meister mother.

He assured them that, though this was an unprecedented case, it was completely normal so Maka had nothing to fear. Yet with that being said, nobody failed to notice Stein's youthful enthusiasm in an 'I-wanna-disect-you!' kind of way.

Anyway, there were still lots of question that remained unanswered. Like, what triggered these latent abilities to manifest? And, why only now? Such power could've really helped her in her battles against Mosquito, Medusa or even against the Kishin.

"How?" she thought, remembering the war of words she had with Black Star. Her memory was a bit hazy, but she was sure that right before IT happened, she felt a force of some kind flowing across the yard. It was very vibrant like soul resonance but far more subtle. Afterwards, someone behind her actually whispered, 'Soul Resonance'. So what did it all mean? Considering the flow of energy came first, it could mean that there was a large team resonance occurring silently between the students behind her. But, it still wouldn't explain how things ended up the way it did…unless, of course, she resonated along with them. In doing so, perhaps that surge of energy was enough to—

"No way," she quickly dismissed the notion as impossible given that the mechanics of 'Soul Resonance' and 'Team Resonance' were deeply rooted in the fact that it takes more than one to resonate and that resonance must be between people who are equally compatible with one another. Furthermore, if there was the slightest bit of hesitation or a momentary lapse of concentration, then the resonance would immediately be broken as what had happened with her first team resonance with Kid and Black Star.

As she thought deeply about this matter, Chrona was slowly waking up. And the first thing that came into her perspective was Maka's flat-board body. Despite already knowing this fact about her, she couldn't help but be surprised at exactly how barren they were. She slowly placed her hand atop them just to prove to herself that there was something there when—

"MAKA CHOP!"

The next thing she knew was her face was planted 4 inches into the bed and that almost all sensation to her legs, arms, and body were lost. She also heard something snap, but she wasn't sure whether it was her neck or the bed. Fortunately, this wasn't her first (or her last) Maka Chop, so she was a bit more used to the pain.

"C-Chrona!" gasped Maka, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she tried helping her out.

Meanwhile, another odd scene was about to take place back at Shibusen…

As Soul wallowed in misery, a certain person happened to pass by. Dressed in the garbs of a Catholic priest and sporting a white skullcap, it was none other than Justin Law, the youngest Death Scythe in the history of Shibusen.

"E-Excuse me, sir." Such words were written on the cardboard-ish-type body of an 'extra' student who approached him.

"Oh, what is it?" he spoke, softly.

Then, the 'student' did an 1800 turn and showed him the writings on his back which were, "Please teach me how to fight as a solo weapon!"

"I see," his eyes saddened, "I'm sorry. But I can't."

The 'student' did another 1800 turn. This time though, "Why?" was written while the previous line was crossed out.

"I don't know. But there's something odd about you…I just can't put my finger on it," he wondered what it was as the 'student' ran off with freshly-drawn tears on his face or perhaps that was his body.

Confusing as it was, this strange encounter managed to give the lost Soul something worth considering.

Later that morning…

"Not this again!" Soul shouted, standing before a dusty dune buggy whilst being accompanied by his old comrades-in-arms, Mr. Sponge, Mrs. Bucket, and Sir Soap.

"What do you mean?" asked Justin, "These are the basics of your training as—"

"As a car washer!" he interjected, "I thought you were going to teach me how to become a great solo weapon!"

"I am," he replied, calm as ever, "this is just like the movie about a child training with menial chores while chanting the mantra of 'wax on, wax off', right?" Though, as he thought about it, perhaps it was 'jacket on, jacket off' anyway, he wasn't sure.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!"

Author's Notes: As promised, here's a brand new chapter for ya!... Sorry guys that its been a long time before I posted these two... Been kinda busy with my final examz... anyway, I'll be working on the next chapter and I'll try posting it within a week or two... oh, If you guys see any problemz, inconsistent plot flow, grammatic errors, or general comments... please feel free to leave a comment i.e feedbacks are the best way of knowing whether or not people are actually reading my work... Thanks! :D