The Mission in the Forest

Sora, Maka and Soul were traveling to the nearest town where some people states that they saw strange things in the near forest. Since the three of them wouldn't fit on Soul's bike, they decided to use the train. Soul and his meister were explaining to Sora about how works the use of Demon Weapons.

"So if the souls' wavelengths of the meister and the weapon aren't compatible, they can't make a team?" asked Sora

"Yeah, but even if they are compatible they have to match their wavelengths, their souls have to be in harmony," explained Maka. "That's why the people who watched your battle against Black*Star found strange that you could grab Tsubaki in her shuriken form."

Sora scratched his head. "Well, I didn't do anything special," he said. "I just grabbed her without thinking."

"You must have some kind of super soul or something," Soul said smirking. "Hey, tell us something about the Keyblade now."

Very few people were interested in the Keyblade, and this is the first time someone requested some explanation about the sword, so Sora thought about how to answer that question.

"Let's see, unlike demon weapons, Keyblades requires of heart's strength not soul's. Someone with a strong heart could be a wielder if a Keyblade choose him," said Sora. Maka interrupted him for a moment.

"People call you the Chosen One, but as far as I know there are more Keyblade wielders, what makes you different from them?" asked Maka.

Sora put his hand on his chin. "To be honest, I have no idea," he said with a goofy grin which made Soul and Maka sweat-drop.

"And what is the Keyblade capable of?" asked Soul. "The only thing we know is that it's really useful against the Heartless."

"Its main power is the ability to seal or open the barriers between worlds, as well as to "lock" a world's Keyhole, preventing the Heartless from attacking that world's heart," explained Sora. "However the attack to your city is different, since it's just a part from a much bigger world, your city doesn't have a Keyhole, so I must eliminate the Heartless until they leave."

Soul and Maka were speechless at the explanation. That's the first time they heard about the worlds' heart so it was a normal reaction.

"Also Keyblades can change their appearance too and be more powerful," he said. "When you change the Keyblade's keychain, the sword changes and acquires new abilities."

Maka and Soul were listening at Sora like if he was telling a fantastic story and the spiky boy understand their interest.

"I can perform magic with the Keyblade too…" said Sora but then he remembered what happened the other night. By the look on her face, it looks like Maka realized something.

"It was you, right?" asked Maka with a mock serious face. "You were the one who made those lightning bolts and cause that racket."

Sora laughed nervously. "Yeah, sorry," he said apologetically and Soul chuckled at his reaction.

"Anything else?" asked Soul.

"Yeah, one last more thing," he answered, and then he drew his Keyblade which surprised Maka and her partner. He handed the Keyblade with the handgrip pointing at the Scythe Meister.

"Here, take it," said Sora with a smile.

"Wa-wait, are you sure?" she asked doubtful. She didn't expect Sora to said that.

Sora nodded at her with a smile. "Come on, don't worry, nothing bad will happen."

Maka grabbed the Keyblade a little nervous. She looked at the sword amazed; she could feel the power that lies within the sword and suddenly, while she was contemplating it, the Keyblade vanished from her hands which took her and Soul by surprise.

The Keyblade appeared in Sora's hand. "The Keyblade choose its wielder, so if another person takes it, it will come back to him," he explained.

"That's why Black*Star's disarming didn't worked very well," said Maka and Sora nodded. Then the train began to stop.

"Looks like we're arriving," said Sora.

The train stopped and the group went out. They walked a few steps and reached the town where they separated to ask some people about the forest. After half an hour, they met near a fountain in the center of the town.

"Any luck?" asked Sora. "The people just tell me what we already know."

"Same here," said Maka. "And you Soul?"

"A guy told me that the strange things only appear at night, just like Death City," answered Soul.

Maka sighed in resignation. "We'll have to wait until night then," she said. "We should eat something."

Shibusen

While the mission group was investigating, in Shibusen a hyperactive ninja was fighting all the students he could, even meisters that were older and more experienced than him. He beat them all with ease with Tsubaki's help. Now they were walking through the academy.

"Black*Star," said Tsubaki to get his meister's attention. "Today, you fought more people than usual, is there something bothering you?"

Black*Star stopped and putted his hands on his pockets. "I need to get stronger," he muttered, and then looked at Tsubaki. "Lately, I've been meeting people that I couldn't defeat. Kid, the samurai Mifune and that guy called Mosquito…"

"Are you upset with Sora?" asked Tsubaki concerned. She thought that after fighting Sora, Black*Star got even more depressed than before.

"No, of course not, he's a cool guy and Kid too, but I can't let them leave me behind," he answered, and then he put his fist on his chest. "A God of Death and the Keyblade's Chosen One won't be enough to stop the Great Black*Star."

Tsubaki smiled relieved at seeing that Black*Star wasn't still depressed about his losing streak. After their talking, Kid, Liz and Patty approached them from behind.

"Hello Black*Star, Tsubaki," greeted Kid.

"We've seen all the students lying on the ground outside, you fought today a lot Black*Star," said Liz which made Black*Star smirk.

"Have you seen Sora, by any chance?" Kid asked to Black*Star and Tsubaki. "I wanted to ask him about the Heartless situation."

"He went on a mission with Soul and Maka," said Black*Star. "Those two stole my place. I wanted to kick some Heartless' butts."

"Oh yeah, the Heartless' Missions my father told me about," Kid said. "Well, I'll have to wait until he comes back."

The Shinigami was about to leave, but then Tsubaki called him.

"Listen Kid," she said, "maybe it's just me but…"

"What? It's something wrong?" asked Kid.

"Today I've seen Sora concerned about something," Tsubaki explained. "When Professor Sid told him about the Heartless' Missions he had a very serious face."

When Kid heard this he started to worry too. "It's possible that we're in more danger than expected?" wondered Kid.

Later that day, the mission team started to walk towards the forest. None of them were talking so Maka decided that it was the perfect time to ask Sora why he looked worried at Shibusen.

"I'm curious Sora," she said, "why did you pick up this mission over the others?"

"I wanted to check something," answered Sora. "I suppose that's why you wanted to come, right? To find out what was bothering me about the Heartless."

Maka gulped and laughed sheepishly. "So you noticed…"

Sora smiled sadly at her. "I appreciate your concern Maka, but you don't need to worry about me. I'm sure you guys have more problems apart from the Heartless."

"Come on man, now we're all friends, it's normal that we want to help you," said Soul and Maka nodded. Sora was happy to have friends like this.

"Okay you win," he said grinning at them, "but I'll tell you when we return to Shibusen, deal?"

"Deal!" they said.

After a few minutes, they arrived at the entrance of the forest. It was really dark, but they could see a little. All the people in the town were now sleeping, so it was very quiet.

"This place is giving me creeps," commented Soul, and then a branch breaking could be heard.

"What was that?" said Maka. Sora stopped and started to look around.

"It could be the Heartless, stay close," said Sora.

"Soul, transform," Maka said and Soul obeyed and transformed into his scythe form.

Now Maka and Sora were back to back looking at their surroundings. Then Soul said something.

"I wish your ability of Soul Perception could work with Heartless," he said.

"You can see other people's souls?" asked Sora amazed. "Wow, you're really something."

Maka blushed a little at his compliment. "Thanks, but it's not just me, Kid and Professor Stein can do it too."

Sora then had an idea. "Maybe it can be useful if I give it a little boost," he said and Maka looked at him puzzled.

"Boost?" she asked and then Sora put his hand on her shoulder.

"Try using your Soul Perception now," said the Keybearer.

Maka nodded and closed her eyes, and then she could feel that Sora was using his power to help her looking for the Heartless. After a minute she could see it, a heart, it was almost like looking at a soul, it even has its own wavelength.

"I can see it, it's approaching to us from the left," said Maka.

Sora drew his Keyblade and looked to the left. "Blizzaga!" he said and a blast of ice came from his sword that froze a tree but also hit the Heartless' tail making it appear. "Here is our giant chameleon, it looks I was right after all," said Sora. "A Lurk Lizard."

"Uh, Sora?" said Soul.

"Yeah?" asked Sora looking at the scythe.

"I think that reptile is not alone," answered Soul.

Sora looked behind to see that they were surrounded by lots of Heartless. There were Poison Plants, Soldiers and Neoshadows.

"Well, what do we do?" asked Soul.

"You're asking me?" said Maka nervously looking at their enemies.

"What do you think?" answered Sora. "It's time to fight. They have no chance against the three us."

Maka nodded and charged at the Heartless in front of her. She swung her weapon and cut three Heartless at once. The Soldiers tried to attack her but she could block each attack with the handgrip and the blade of the scythe moving the weapon with grace.

While Maka was fighting the normal Heartless, Sora was dealing with the big one. The Lurk Lizard launched his tongue and grabbed Sora's wrist, but he took chance and use the ice spell again, freezing the Heartless mouth.

The Keyblade wielder ran to the Heartless and hit it several times, then the Heartless recovered and tried to hit Sora with its tail, but he could jump and prepare the finishing move.

"Ice Storm!" he shouted and then he wrapped himself in ice and dealt multiple hits with a somersault attack destroying the Heartless.

Meanwhile Maka was slashing all the Heartless that charged at her, but the more of them started to appear, the forest was full of them.

"Shit, there's no end of them," said Soul.

"With Sora here this should be easier," said Maka, "but they don't give up."

"Hey Sora, how are you doing?!" asked Soul to the Keybearer.

"I don't want to worry you but it seems that more guests arrived to the party," Sora said.

Maka then looked where Sora was. "What are you talking about?" she said but then realized what he meant. There were lots of Heartless, many more than they expected. Mainly there were more of those chameleons but also Heartless that looked like knight with dual blades.

Maka stepped back to where the Keyblade wielder was. "Any ideas?" asked her, and then Soul had one.

"Hey Maka, why don't we try the Soul Resonance?" he suggested.

"We already tried that, remember?" answered her, "it worked against a few Heartless, but now there too many of them."

"I'm not talking about a normal Soul Resonance." he clarified. "I'm talking about a Chain Resonance with Sora."

Sora was now curious about what he meant.

"But we haven't mastered that yet," Maka said as she killed a Heartless that jumped to her.

"Maybe, but his soul can match easily with everyone so it should work," Soul said.

"So, basically, we've to match our souls' wavelengths, right?" asked Sora.

"Yes, they must be in sync, it's complicated but with your kind of soul it could work," Maka said.

"Let's give it a try before the Heartless decide to attack," said Sora.

Maka and Sora closed their eyes and started to focus. They started to feel each other power, their breathing synchronized. Maka was surprised of how easy they could do the resonance, although it felt different. Suddenly the two of them had a golden aura on their bodies as well as their respective weapons.

Sora's Keyblade started to grow, and then it transformed into a huge scythe made of light. On the other hand, the blade of the scythe form of Soul increased its size and was also wrapped with a golden light.

Then Sora and Maka opened their eyes and prepared to attack.

"Heartless Hunt!" cried Maka and Sora and she swung their weapons like if they were drawing a circle around them. Blasts of light were fired by their scythes wiping the whole forest of Heartless, although some trees were destroyed by the attack too.

The three of them were speechless, but after a moment Sora could let out a few words.

"Uh…was that supposed to happen?" asked him dumbfounded. Maka was still shocked, so Soul answered.

"Well, yeah, but we didn't expect the result to be that powerful," he said.

"I think I did it wrong," Sora commented. Maka snapped out of it and looked at him.

"What do you mean?" asked her.

"I think we didn't do a Soul Resonance." Sora answered. "It's possible that I synchronized my heart instead of my soul with yours, so…"

"So we did a Heart-Soul Resonance?!" asked Maka in disbelief and Sora nodded.

"That was awesome!" said Soul as he turned back to his human form. "It was like the Witch Hunt, but the difference of power was outstanding!"

"Witch Hunt?" asked Sora and Maka answered him.

"When I resonate my soul with Soul's we can perform a technique called Witch Hunt, it was like this, just less strong." she said.

"Oooh, so that's why you shouted "Heartless Hunt" before," Sora said smiling teasingly.

"I said it without thinking, besides it fits, right?" said Maka flustered waving her hands defensively which made Sora laugh.

"Yeah, I think so," he said.

"Black*Star is going to be jealous when we tell him what we did," Soul said smirking and made the other two laugh.

"It looks like we're done here. We should return to Death City," said Sora.