A/N - In this chapter, science happens! No, I'm serious. I'm actually applying what my middle-school self learned about waves and physics in regards to souls in Soul Eater because hey, depth and world-building, I'm down for that. I can… feel the nerdiness… threatening to overwhelm me…
Wait, wait, wait. Hold up a minute, I've written nearly 150K words of Soul Eater fanfiction. I'm already a huge nerd! Haha, never mind. False alarm, people, I was a huge geek this whole time.
There's really not much to say about this chapter besides that. Well, that and the fact that I keep accidentally having Tempus call Alecto by her full name instead of Ally and I need to go back to correct it every time. I'm really out of practice, aren't I?
I'd like to thank MegglesGG a lovely guest reviewer, and little101 for leaving amazing reviews! To MegglesGG, I'm really glad you enjoyed that chapter. It was mostly just filler and a transition to the important plot of this arc, but I'm glad that it was enjoyable filler! And "boldness" is a really charitable word to describe Blair's behavior towards Soul, but I suppose you're right about the anime front. Guess it might just be a cultural divide sort of thing.
Guest: The storyline is moving at a turtle's pace, isn't it? Haha, I guess I'm just a slow-burn kind of writer. I do hope it'll all pay off in the end and be worth the length for you guys! And I'll be sure to check out the story, thank you!
little101: What, being able to manipulate the fabric of time and being proficient at a clusterfuck of a weapon type (Tempus, I'm sorry for making your weapon design so complicated) isn't super badass? ;P Nah, I kid, I know what you mean. Don't worry, Alecto's combat prowess is going to improve. It's probably going to improve in this very arc. Like, this chapter and the next. I have great timing, huh?
Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter.
DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time.
Chapter Thirty-Three - Goes The Clock - The Time Meister Seeks Extra Help, Part 3
"Have you considered asking Professor Stein about it?"
"That… is a possibility."
"Professor Stein?"
The patchwork professor looked up sharply, cold green eyes boring through the glass of his thin, round-rimmed spectacles. "Yes, Alecto? What is it?"
Alecto fought the urge to fidget under the intensity of his stare. ""I was wondering perhaps Tempus and I could get extra lessons, to help hone our ability to use our wavelengths effectively." She didn't pause, she didn't stutter, she didn't slip into Latin. This was a matter of getting better, of learning how to fulfill her duty as a meister. There could be no room for hesitation.
Stein stared at her for a few seconds impassively, and during that time she feared that he would say no, that he was busy with other students, or that it was just impossible, since he was not a time meister and thus did not know the techniques she would need to be taught, as all the other instructors had told her so long ago. But he didn't say any of that. Instead, what he said was, "You too, huh? All right, then." He looked back down at the paper he was grading. "The two of you can see me after glass to get started. I think I already know where you need improvements."
Alecto hoped that meant that he'd simply taken the time to analyze her fighting style, and not that her faults were so obvious that anyone with a scrap of combat expertise could see where she was bungling up. "Gratias tibi!" she said, nodding her head appreciatively before stepping away from the front desk and back up to her seat.
As she sat down, she turned to Tempus, who was sulking in the chair next to her and rubbing at his forehead. The bump from the Maka Chop he had received a couple of days ago had mostly shrank back into non-existence, but he still frequently complained about it hurting. "Still sore?" Alecto asked. Tempus nodded. "Well, maybe next time you'll think twice before stealing one of Maka's books. Honestly, and you call me too reckless."
"At least my recklessness has never left me with a concussion," Tempus grumbled. His sour expression morphed into uncertainty as he glanced at Stein. "Hey, Ally…"
Alecto cut him off. "Are you having second thoughts about this?"
"No," Tempus said. "Trust me, I am all about improving our timey-wimey skills in an environment that doesn't get us killed. It's just… you promised that you would take it slow."
"Yeah, with missions. This isn't a mission. This is just ordinary, run-of-the-mill schoolwork."
"If you say so," Tempus said, sounding doubtful but resigned.
Lessons that day were unusually quiet, as most of the class had gone off on missions. Maka, Soul, Black Star and Tsubaki had gone to train their soul-tracking skills in London. Kid and the Thompsons were still in Hungary. Kim Dhiel and Jacqueline had gone to Oregon, if Tempus's sources were correct. And Ox Ford and Harvar D. had teamed up with Kilik Rung and the Pots to deal with some black market ring for human souls over in Scotland, of all places. (At least, that's what Ox had been bragging to a disinterested Kim the previous Friday.) So the room was pretty empty, and it didn't take long for the remaining students to clear out after Dr. Stein's lecture.
As the last student filed out of the room, Alecto and Tempus made their way back down to the front desk, where Stein sat expectantly in his office chair, backwards as usual with his forearms resting on the back as he regarded the two time meisters. "So," he said. "You want to increase your wavelengths' capacity, is that it?"
Alecto nodded. "Sit, you said you already knew an area in which we could improve?" she asked, feeling slightly apprehensive. Behind her, she could sense Tempus lingering a few feet away, and could feel his wariness radiating outward like an earthquake emanating from its epicenter."
Stein felt it, too. "You really don't have anything to worry about Tempus," he said, his voice only a few steps more emotive than "monotone" as he pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out from the pocket of his lab coat. "I assure you, this lesson won't be anything like your remedial task." He lit one of the cigarettes and pinned it between his teeth. "During that very remedial lesson, I noticed something very interesting about the way you two use your distortive abilities."
"Quid?"
"You don't work together at all."
"What?!" Tempus exclaimed, taking a step forward. "That's ridiculous. Ally and I can resonate just fine. Sh-she's the only one I can resonate with, you can't tell me we don't 'work together!'"
"Let me explain." Stein stood up, kicking his chair to the side. "You're right in that your resonance is very stable. Remarkably so, considering how vastly different your wavelengths are. But when you two use your time distortion wavelengths in combat… Are you two aware of how destructive interference works?"
Alecto stared blankly at him. It was Tempus who answered this question. "I think I was taught about this back when I was twelve," he said. "It's like when two ripples in a pond hit each other and cancel each other out, right?"
"That's the basic gist of it, yes." Dr. Stein turned to face the chalkboard, grabbing a piece of chalk off of the sill and beginning to draw two small rough soul-shaped drawings on the large greenish-black surface. "The same principle can apply to certain types of wavelengths, including time wavelengths." He drew circles radiating from the two souls, clearly meant to represent wavelengths. "From what data I've gathered on your souls, two two of you are actually performing two synchronized but distinct temporal distortions at the same time." The wavelength circles began to overlap. "Some of your wavelengths are flowing together, causing the strength of the desynchronization to be greater, but the destructive interference caused by your wavelengths bouncing off each other-" Stein scribbled over the overlapping wavelengths, turning the whole thing into a bit of a chalky mess. "-is causing your grasp on the flow of time to be far looser and more easily disruptable than it should be. Is this all making sense?"
"I… I think so…" Alecto murmured. Her eyes widened. "Wait! Is this why we fell out of desynchronization in our fight with you back in the remedial lesson? I don't remember letting go of time then…did you, Tempus?" She turned to her weapon who shrugged and shook his head.
Stein nodded, back still turned. "Ah, good, you remember. Yes, I was able to disrupt your soul wavelengths then. And I imagine that won't be the last time, unless you learn how to use each other's wavelengths to amplify your own instead of brute forcing it. Tell me, when you come into contact with another person, do they end up getting dragged into your distortion?"
"I-ita, all the time. That's one of the biggest holes in our ability."
"That's because your wavelengths are interfering with each other," Stein explained. "What you want to do is achieve constructive interference, where your wavelengths are meeting and amplifying each other. Think of how a Soul Resonance works, but on a smaller scale. If you do this, you should be able to limit or maybe even expand the radius of effect of your wavelengths to whatever you want."
"Wow," Tempus said. "You can figure out all of this just from taking a quick peek from our souls?"
"Not exactly." Stein turned around to face them exhaled, letting the cigarette smoke float between his lips. "You two aren't the first time meisters that I've met, you know. I'm comparing your souls' data to the other time meister I knew."
Alecto stared at him. "You know another time meister?"
"Yes." Stein nodded. "Her name was Daiyu Zhan. She and her sister Mei were partners here at the DWMA when I was a student."
Alecto struggled to imagine a younger Dr. Stein, but it wasn't working out. Would he still have had grey hair? When did he get all those stitches? Were some of those body parts even his? And what about that screw? "What happened to her?"
"No one knows." The doctor shrugged. "We assume she and her sister are both dead. They disappeared twelve years ago while hunting a witch, and no one's heard from either of them since."
Alecto frowned. "Oh." She'd hoped that here was some way to get in contact with this Daiyu Zhan and see if she'd be willing to teach her and Tempus something. But if she had died twelve years ago…
"Don't worry," Stein said. His voice was slightly softer than usually, surprising Alecto. "For two students who have primarily taught themselves, you two have done an admirable job." He sat back down in his chair, spinning around a couple of times before slowing to a stop, his voice switching back into Teacher Mode. "Now, I want to two of you to try and attack me. Not fatally, of course, though I wouldn't mind a few extra scars. I do enjoy stitching myself up. I'll be using my wavelength to try and disrupt yours, and it is up to you to stop me."
Alecto suddenly didn't understand anything. "Quid? Nobis te pugno?" she asked, staring at the doctor like he was mad. Which he was, a little bit, really.
"I thought you said that this wouldn't be like the remedial lesson!" Tempus objected.
"It won't," Dr. Stein said. "You're fully aware of the nature of this assignment, this time, and no one is fighting to kill. Many extra lessons involve fights to learn and practice new techniques. Usually against Kishin Eggs, but given the specific circumstances I'd prefer you to be in a scenario in which I can keep a close eye on your soul and track your progress."
"I… guess that makes sense?" Alecto glanced over at Tempus. "I'm game if you are."
"All right," Tempus said, clearly having a few doubts about this. Alecto couldn't wholly blame him; the last time they had exchanged blows with the professor had ended poorly, to say the least. She could still clearly remember the pain as he sent a burst of energy directly through her wavelength, feeling like he had shred it to pieces.
But they needed to do this. She needed to do this. If there was something, any opportunity for her to strike away one of her weaknesses, if she could just get good enough to make Tempus a Death Scythe like she'd promised… she needed to take that opportunity. She couldn't let this slip through her fingers because of a single unpleasant incident.
She held her hand out to Tempus, and he shifted into his weapon form without a word. As the leather of his glove wrapped itself around her hand and wrist and his clockwork hands spun into place with a whirr, she turned an unmoving charcoal stare to Dr. Stein. "You may get those scars after all," she said. "Just because you're a teacher doesn't mean I'll be willing to hold back." The last time she did that, she'd taken a gravestone to the ribs. She was going to learn from her mistakes.
This time, she wouldn't falter.
"Good." Dr. Stein leaned forward, resting his arms on the back of the office chair once more. "You won't learn if you limit yourself in any way. You can begin whenever you think you're ready."
Right. Alecto closed her eyes and reached her soul out towards Tempus's, feeling the steady hum of his wavelength. Tempus, she thought, sending her words out to her weapon through their soul link, if I can just focus on when you use your ability, theoretically speaking I should be able to time mine just right to match up with yours. Maybe keeping our wavelengths as close to each other as possible will allow us to offset this destructive interference he talked about?
"That's as good of a place to start as any," Tempus replied. "You ready?"
About as ready as I'm likely to get. Twelve o'clock position, Tempus. I know I said I wouldn't hold back, but the goal is to land a blow, not to stab him.
"Right." Tempus's hands swung into place, parallel with her upper arm. "Can't really afford to let him grab one of my hands again, considering what happened last time."
Alecto winced at the memory. Smart thinking.
"Hey, someone's gotta be thinking ahead here, at least against a guy like the ol' professor. And no offense, Ally, but past events have indicated that foresight is not exactly your strong point."
Hey now. Alecto reached out with her wavelength and took a firm hold of the flow of time around her. She could feel Tempus do the same. At the count of three, we'll both go, all right? Unus…
"Two…"
Trēs!
Tick. Alecto opened her eyes. The world around them had ground to a near halt, and Dr. Stein was frozen in his chair, cold green-gray eyes unblinking as he stared straight through them. "Try and attack you, huh?" she muttered, tensing up and shifting into a more combat-appropriate stance. "If that's all it takes…"
She pushed herself forward, lunging for the doctor and swinging the blunt edge of Tempus's buckler towards his exposed face in a wide arc. This couldn't be the entire lesson, it was too easy, there was no way he'd be able to block their attack in ti-
Tock. Something suddenly tore through her wavelength, painless but unpleasant, disrupting her desynchronization. Judging by Tempus's small gasp of shock in the back of her mind, the same thing had happened to him. Now moving at the same timeframe as Alecto, Dr. Stein quickly lifted his forearm and blocked the attack without so much as blinking. "Try again."
Alecto stumbled back. Damn! He's not even fazed? She regained her footing. Tempus, we're going to have to try harder.
"Didn't Stein say that the way we were brute forcing it was making us less effective overall? I don't see how 'brute force it more' is going to help us!"
Well… nescio! This is all I know how to do!
"Well, great." Tempus sighed. "We're going to have to brute force it just long enough for us to figure out what he meant by 'constructive interference,' aren't we? I guess that's always how we've done things, so why stop now?"
Will figure this out, Tempus. We have to. Alecto gritted her teeth, trying to calm the anxiety boiling in the pit of her stomach. I have to.
Tick. She charged again, this time jabbing her arm out for a quicker, more direct hit. Tock. Again, he stopped her desynchronization cold, rolling to the side and tripping her with her foot as she fell past him. Tick. She fell into the momentum, tucking into a roll and kneeling on the ground, aiming a blow at his chair to try and knock him off balance. Tock. He simply wheeled out of the way unharmed. "You're still not getting it. You're focusing on your partner's wavelength, which is good, but you aren't using it to strengthen your own. Think of how you perform a Soul Resonance."
"What?" Tempus said. "What in the name of Pluto's hotly debated status as a planet is that supposed to mean?!"
I don't know. Alecto was not a person who learned by simply being told what to do. If her year and a half with the DWMA had proven anything it was that she was definitely a trial and error sort of meister. Does he want us to… perform a Soul Resonance? But our only Resonance Technique is Sundial Spear, and that's way too dangerous to use in a classroom!
"Maybe… we do the resonance without the technique? That's a thing we can do, right? I mean, we haven't done it in a while, but…"
Let's try. Alecto pushed her wavelength out, bouncing it against Tempus's own. Constructive interference, constructive interference… She could feel her partner's wavelength doing the save, the humming of his soul in her innermost mind growing stronger and stronger with each passing second.
"Almost," Stein said. "You're definitely on the right track."
Alecto couldn't figure out of that was good or not. "On the right track" was something, but it obviously wasn't at the level they needed to be. Ready, Tempus?
"Yup."
Tick. The two of them wrench their time out of sync together. There was a noticeable difference in the strength of the desynchronization this time; even the dust motes visible in the streams of sunlight hand frozen, except for the area directly around her. "Faciēbāmus bonum nos?" she asked.
"I don't know what you just said, but it looks like we did it!"
"That is exactly what I was asking about." Alecto turned to Dr. Stein, who sat in his chair, frozen once more. "Good. If this is what he was talking about…"
"...then this lesson will be over sooner than I'd hoped," Tempus added. "Good. The smoke from that cigarette is killing me over here."
"You don't even breath in this form."
"That's how bad it is! Can we just knock the professor in the face and get this over with?"
Alecto rolled her eyes. "All right," she said, bracing her heels against the floor and getting ready to strike. "Qui audet adipiscitur, after all." She charge forward, aiming a direct blow towards Dr. Stein's glasses. She could do this, he was right there, there was no way he would be able to disrupt their desynchronization in time.
Tock.
He disrupted their desynchronization in time, wheeling out of the way once more. Alecto stumbled and barely caught herself, whirling around to face the mad doctor. He'd stood up, placing a foot on the edge of the seat of his chair. "You're desynchronization was stronger this time, which is good. Your biggest strength is the raw power you possess, Alecto, and its important to utilize that when you can. But your distortion is still loose. You need to focus, narrow your soul's wavelength down to a fine point."
"You want me to utilize my power, but you also want me to narrow it down?" Alecto said. "Just what is that supposed to mean?"
"I'm sure you'll figure it out." Stein kicked the chair at her. Stunned that he was actually taking action against her instead of sitting there and defending, she didn't get out of the way in time, and it knocked her back a couple more feet, her back hitting the chalkboard. Damnare!
She rolled her shoulders and prepared to desynchronize again, ready to do it as many times as it took until they got it right, But Stein was quicker, lunging forward with the heel of his palm outstretched. He's doing a direct soul attack!
Immediately her thoughts flashed to unimaginable pain, like lightning tearing through her very wavelength and ripping it to shreds. Her hands began to shake, and her legs wouldn't move, she couldn't push herself out of the way. Time seemed to slow down around her (whether it was Tempus's doing or her mind playing tricks on her, she couldn't tell) and she heard someone calling her name, but she couldn't focus, she was too scared, too-
"Damn it!" Two words, clear as day, pierce her fear-fogged mind. "I'm not letting you pull the same trick twice, Professor!"
Time turned to its normal speed as Alecto's thoughts snapped back to the present. Stein's hit connected, his palm colliding with her shoulder. She closed her eyes and braced herself for the pain she knew would come.
It never did.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. She felt something, a faint stinging sensation buried deep within her wavelength. But it was muffled and very faint, almost as if… almost as if she were experiencing it second-hand. Her eyes flew open. "Tempus!"
"Ngh." Tempus's voice was strained, but not enough to cause Alecto real worry. "Son of an ass, that stung. Are you all right?"
"Me? I… I'm fine. What was that you just did?"
"I dunno. I just sort of… threw myself between you and the attack? I didn't even know I could do that, I was just acting without thinking."
Alecto shot a questioning glance at Dr. Stein, who had stepped back a few feet and was gazing at them with an intrigued look on his face. The professor took a final drag of his dying cigarette, the light of the classroom catching on his glasses. "Interesting," he says. "It seems we're making progress in a different direction than planned today."
A/N - Huh. That was unexpected.
I say, having been the one to plan out and write this arc.
There's not much to say about this chapter, only that the destructiveinterference thing is something I've had in mind for a while now because damn it, I learned that science and I'm going to use it! As well as the whole thing that's happening at the very end that will get expanded upon next chapter because ha ha cliffhangers feed my soul.
Latin time!
Gratias tibi: "Thank you"
Nobis te pugno?: Literally means "we will fight?" but in context can be read as "fight you?" or "attack you?"
Nescio: "I don't know"
Faciēbāmus bonum nos?: "Did we do good?"
Qui audet adipiscitur: "He who dares, wins." Geez, it's been a while since I used that particular phrase. Kind of surprised I still remember what it means off the top of my head.
It seems I'm working on a roughly weekly update schedule, so expect chapter thirty-four (and the end of this arc) to be posted around the end of that time. In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!
- Diana "Nocte"
