It wasn't over, it had just begun. Maka and the others hadn't seen that one coming. "So, now we have to work even harder?" Ox was the one asking this time.
"Yes, you will have to train even harder, Ox, or you can back out, but you're not going to do that, are you?" Stein was dead serious, sitting there on his white-greyish stitched chair.
"Of course not, sir," Ox seemed a little scared seeing Steins face.
He had never been this determined about anything, Ox thought to himself, but this thinking of his took a quick end getting disturbed by Black Star.
"Yahooooo!" Black Star looked so happy and fearless jumping up and down in his seat.
"Finally my chance to surpass god have been regained!" Black Star almost cried of happiness, tears were streaming down his chin while Tsubaki tried to calm him down.
"Why is he crying?" Kid looked at Black Star with a questioning face.
"He's just emotional coming to think of having one more chance to…. Yeah, you know." Tsubaki was looking at Kid knowing they understood each other. Kid knew what she was hinting to the surpassing god part, but they shouldn't say it out loud while Black Star was in a condition like this.
Soul looked down at his part of the desk looking a little upset. Maka looked at him.
What was he thinking? She thought, knowing she shouldn't ask, but she couldn't think of not knowing. She had to know.
"Soul? What are you thinking about?" She was really wondering why he looked so upset. What could it be?
"Ahhh, it's nothing, I'm fine, like really fine. Just tired, that's all." He looked happy now. Was that all though? Was he really just tired?
"Okay, class, that's all for today, you may now go attend to what you want, but I strongly recommend you to practice to become stronger." Stein grabbed Maka by the arm. Soul looked behind him and saw that she had been taken back by Stein so he came over too.
"The two of you have to practice extra hard. We really need you, okay?" They looked at each other. Maka was determine. They were going to practice harder than ever, and they knew that they would have to pay the price.
"Yes of course Dr. Stein. We will always support the academy." Maka wasn't really sure if she was up for it. It just felt right to say. Whatever that was.
"Good, now off you go." Stein was certain that Soul and Maka would really make the difference if it came down to a fight, but just exactly how big of a war would this turn into? Stein was not sure of this yet, but he really wondered.
Maka walked with Soul home to their place, meeting Blair cooking. Again. Kid, Liz, Patty and all the others were there too, even Crona.
"Hi Crona." Maka got happy seeing Crona around, she was so happy knowing that Crona wanted to be with them.
"He…hey Maka." Afraid as always, Crona was sputtering when he was trying to talk.
They all ate together, it smelt so delicious. It was a stew, the stew that Maka had gotten the day she got back to herself after lying on a hospital bed for a really long time. Oh, god, how much she loved this stew, the other seemed to like it too.
Kid had never eaten this much, Maka thought to herself. She saw everyone taking one and two and even three more plates when they were done with their last portion. It looked like they hadn't eaten for days.
Was it that good? Maybe so. Coming to think of it, what could be better than that stew? It was delicious.
They sat down, looking in different directions. They were all really stuffed after dinner. Blair had gone to sleep, and the others sat there soundlessly, looking at one another. Soul had to break the silence somehow.
"Sooo… How are we going to beat even more of those freaks? I mean, we already had a hard time beating Asura." He had an empty look in his face.
"That won't be a problem as long as I am here." Black Star was as confident as always. "I'll keep everybody safe and at the same time beat every one of those freaks."
"I guess we just have to practise as hard as we possibly can. I'm pretty confident that we can do this. I know it," Maka said with a smile on her face. It was getting late and everyone were about to leave, one by one they went out that doorstep saying their good byes.
"See you guys tomorrow." Maka was looking forward to more training. She could maybe learn to balance and make her kishin hunter perfectly. She would have to make sure Soul was up for it too of course, if not, she would have to make him, with one of her books.
The next day she woke up a little grumpy, as she had the tendency of being. She went out into the living room and watched TV. A few hours later Soul came out. Maka saw the big scar Soul had on his chest. She looked away from him, she still felt really guilty for letting that happen to him. Who would have thought that the one doing this to him would turn out to be a good person? She had never thought that Crona would turn out good, but she was very happy that he was.
Soul had taken his shirt on and went over to Maka and gave her a hug from behind. She wasn't used to Soul doing something like this, but she liked it. She hugged him back. They both agreed to go to the academy and see if there was something they could do or if anyone wanted to talk to them. When they got there everyone was doing their things, no one were in class. Maka spotted Stein.
"What's going on, Dr. Stein? And why are there no one in the classroom?"
"I wanted everyone to go out and practice, so I let them go, and I chose to check on them when I feel the need to do it."
"Let's go practice too, Maka, we could really need it." Soul looked just as chill as he used to, actually he looked a little careless, but Maka knew he was dead serious.
Stein nodded as they walked away. They didn't manage to get very far down the hallway before they both saw him. The only thing they wish they could overlook just this once, but that was impossible.
"Fool!" Excalibur was walking out from one of the classrooms at the end of the corridor. He was screaming at one of the students. Soul and Maka was trying to walk past him without him seeing them.
"Fool!" Excalibur had stopped walking now. Soul stopped and looked over his shoulder spotting that Excalibur looked at him. "My history is dated back to the 12th century!"
"Excalibur, we don't have time for this." Soul was very angry looking, almost a little hostile. He readied his scythe and was almost about to hit Excalibur.
"Soul? You know that Excalibur is a lot stronger than us? Right?" Maka whispered and looked worriedly over at Soul. They looked at each other, turned around and ran to the other end of the corridor while Excalibur still told his story to the white, dead wall. Excalibur hadn't even seen them run away.
They ran as fast as they could. Maka had never run as fast as she did, holding Soul's hand which dragged her the whole way outside. They had to run the whole way around, though, just because Excalibur was in their way. The back door was on the far end of the corridor and it was pretty exhausting to run that fast. Why didn't Soul get tired? Maybe he was in better condition than she was? Yeah that had to be it. Soul breached the back door. He ran only a few meters outside before he stopped.
"Hey Soul? May I try something at you?" Black Star was the one who had stopped him. One second later Soul was flying high up in the air screaming very loudly. It actually took much longer for him to hit the wall than Maka thought it would. He was now falling slowly down the wall. It must have hurt like hell on earth being hit without any heads up.
"Uuuhhuuu..." Soul lied almost unconscious trying to grasp for air.
"Why would you do that, Black Star?" Maka looked pretty pissed at Black Star while trying to comfort Soul at the same time.
"Did you see how strong I was, Tsubaki? Damn, how strong I am. No wonder why I'm almost unbeatable." Black Star was looking at his muscles proudly. It almost looked like he was crying, but he couldn't do something like that could he? No way. He had completely ignored Maka's question though.
BAM! Black Star started bleeding from the top of his head. While Black Star was located on his back at the cold ground, making a pool of blood, Maka was trying to help Soul Getting up in a standing position so she could look a little helpful. He took his time but got up at last.
"Are you okay, Soul?" Maka asked, worried.
"Sure." Soul was so damn chill. How did he even do that? He just freaking flew a good ten metres up in the air and he was still this chill. How?
Soul helped Black Star up. They looked at each other.
"Sorry, man, I should have told you shouldn't I?
"No sweat." they looked at each other for a while. Tsubaki looked at Maka. All of a sudden Soul and Black Star started hugging each other. It looked a bit awkward seeing Soul and Black Star hug each other, but it was kind of cute too, seeing the two of them not afraid to show their feelings in a way like this. Just hugging.
Black Star and Tsubaki looked at Maka as she dragged Soul after her at the ground.
"What the hell, Maka?" Soul looked pretty angry at Maka as she was dragging him down the empty road. She tried to keep it in but she couldn't. She was crying.