SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise

Chapter 15: And So It Begins

"Hey Cutie...watch out, or someone will get hurt...one day." It was that girl from before...

Maka's stalker...was joining Noah...


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"Soul, let's try it again." Maka demanded.

"Oi, aren't you getting tired of this? You've searched a million times and came up with nothing. How about we take a break?" I reasoned. She glared at me and brought her hands to her hips.

Leaning forward to touch our foreheads together, she snapped, "Kid's our friend. I'm not giving up."

With a push of my index to her nose, I barked back, "I never said for you to give up. I said take a break. You need some time to think instead of stressing out so much. Go back to being a bookworm for like ten minutes, will you? That's a lot cooler than an uptight lunatic."

"MAKA CHOP!"

"Ah, dammit...did you really have to do that?" My head ached from the smash. She nodded and went off into the apartments. "What? Where are you going? I thought you weren't gonna 'give up'?" Maka stopped in her tracks.

"I'm gonna read a book..." She seemed nervous and a little angry. Then, she stormed down in my direction and dragged me in the direction of our cubicle with her. "You...don't stay out here alone."


"I'm a big boy. I can take care of myself." I declared, only to be shot down by an olive, piercing stare. "Okay, I'm coming, I'm coming." We entered the complex and I could here Maka mutter something about Samata creeping around again.

When we got into our apartment, Olive Eyes shuffled through each volume of text on her shelf and threw one to me; we then went into the living room and settled to read. After about ten seconds of looking at the book Maka handed me, I threw it on the couch behind me and threw my legs up on the coffee table.

"Well, you could've at least said you didn't wanna read."

I retorted with, "yea, but then you'd force me to. So I'd rather throw the book." Maka snorted at me and I shrugged and leaned over to see the title of her text. "The Theory of A Soul? Why are you reading that?"

Not looking up, the bookworm dug her nose into the pages. "I need to see if I can extend the reach of my Soul Perception." With a grunt, I threw my hands behind my head and leaned into the cushions. Maka got to her feet with a gasp as she turned to the next page and then began to spring up and down on the sofa. "Soul! Soul! Soul!"

I got up to see what she was causing such a fuss over. "What are you hopping around for?" She showed me the page she had turned to and I read what was written. "'Extending the reach of the Soul Perception ability can be achieved through Soul Resonance.'" My eyes widened. "Our souls can resonate, can't they?" Maka gave me a hopeful, vigorous nod. "Where did you get this?"

"My mama left it with me after she left. I can't believe it, Soul! We can find Crona and Kid!" The girl hugged me and squealed in glee. "Alright, let's get started! Let's go, let's go!" Olive Eyes tugged at my arm towards the door. And suddenly, the phone rang.

Scurrying over to pick it up, I greeted the person on the other line, "hello?"

"Ahh, yes, yes, Soul-kuuuun~! Come to the Death Room immediately with Maka-chan." It was Lord Death. "The rest of Spartoi is waiting. Now hurry on over~!" With a thank you and a farewell, I set the phone on the receiver and grabbed the cruiser keys.

"Let's go! Shinigami-sama needs us and the rest of Spartoi at the Death Room!" The girl took the book and tucked it away, God knows where. "We can go back to the Soul Perception later."





All of Spartoi was gathered in the Shinigami's office when we arrived. That included Kim, Jacky, Ox, Harvar, and the odd trio, Kilik, and Pot of Fire and Pot of Thunder. Kilik's partners were just mere children; the couldn't even speak yet. But to my great surprise, when Maka and I had gone on group missions with them, they've proved to be quite powerful despite their appearance. So with that said, the meeting had officially took place.

Lord Death took about five minutes to explain the circumstances of the situation at hand. When he was finished, a voice quickly reacted, "they want two million dollars?!" Liz despairingly exclaimed. "Th-that's possible, right, Shinigami-sama? I mean, you are one of the wealthiest families here at Death City...you're the founder of this academy, for Pete's sake!"

Lord Death sighed. "Though it will take quite a bite of our savings, this is the only option without blood shed. So let's do it. Spirit, where did you say they would take the money?"

"WAIT!" Maka interrupted. "I apologize for cutting in like this, Shinigami-sama, but I can find him! I have Soul Perception, remember?"

"Maka-chan, you have only discovered your power recently, yes? Not to bring your spirits down or anything as such, but such novice experience can only gain a perception range of about ten meters." Lord Death explained.

The lectured girl stood her ground firmly. "You're not entirely correct there, sir. I discovered my Soul Perception at thirteen. Yes, I know it's only been three years, but I have practiced using the ability on my own. My range is fifty meters." Shinigami-sama breathed an 'oh?' of interest which caused Maka to look at her twiddling fingers. "My mama left me a book on souls. I looked through it and it showed how I can widen my range." Maka manifested the book from her person and flipped to the page that exhibited such information. The Deathscythe and Lord Death both leaned forward to see the text.

The Shinigami spoke. "Ahh, Soul Resonance. But you'd need a strong bond with your partner or you--"

"HAVE TO BE IN LOVE WITH THEM?!?!?!" Spirit broke in. "N-no way, my Maka is still my wittle pwincess~! She's not in love with anybody! And definitely not this punk!"

"I was never your 'princess', Papa. And maybe I am in lo--" The girl cut herself off and blushed. She crossed her arms and looked away. "Look, let's just get started on finding Kid! You don't have to give that ransom! I'll find where he is and we'll go start up a mission to go take him back!"

Kim wrapped her arm around the inner elbow of Maka's. "Oh, you've always been so obvious, Maka-chan! We all knew you fell head-over-heels hard when you met Soul!" That caused the girl's whole body to flush to a bright red.

"Maka-chan, loving someone is nothing to be ashamed of." Jacky quietly informed, which only caused Olive Eyes to become even rosier, if that was possible.

"GAH! ENOUGH, ENOUGH, ENOUGH! Can we focus, please?" Maka shrieked. "Soul, let's go out to the courtyard here. We're gonna find Kid." She lugged me away with her before any more snickering and pointing could be done.

But she wasn't fast enough.

"KYAHAHAHAHAHA GET THE BAIT, SOUL!" Blackstar wailed. "THE GREAT BLACKSTAR GIVES YOU AND MAKA HIS NOBLE AND GLORIOUS BLESSINGS! KYAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Maka snorted and picked up the pace. "You ready to get our friend back, Soul?" I nodded and she pumped a fist in the air for victory. "Alright!"

We dashed to the school's garden and stopped in the center of the scenery. "Okay, what do I do?" I asked.

"Well, we have to resonate souls first, and I'll lead from there." With a 'how do we do that?', she sighed. "You did it before."

"Yea, but I don't know how. It just happened."

"Well then, relax and try to sense my soul."

"But how do I do that?!"

"Fu--! Just relax, dammit!"

I snickered at her. "Okay." She grumbled at me and glared away at a far off plant. "You're cute when you're mad, you know that?"

With a blush, she Maka Chopped me. "Will you just focus?! God damn!" She turned around and relaxed her body. I set my hands on her shoulders and tried to zero in on her soul.

How am I supposed to do this? I don't get what I'm supposed to be looking for! Then I heard something. It was a light humming I could hear in the back of my mind. What's this? As I aimed my attention to the buzzing, it slowly elevated in volume and I realized it was as if a piano had one of its keys struck. A G note...? Suddenly, I felt the pull and heard the clink that occurred when I first kissed Maka. Woah...

Woah is right. A sweet voice was heard in my mind.

Maka? Get out of my head! I yelled in my thoughts.

I could feel her soul heat in irritation. We're resonating, you idiot! Now pay attention. Help me sense Kid and Crona's soul!

I don't know how to, dammit! Oh wait, hold on... When Maka activated her Perception, I could hear countless tones all humming simultaneously. There are so many souls...I can hear them all... As I listened to the many chords and melodies sang by each soul around us, I found one that seemed familiar. Is that...?

Yea, it's Kid! I can see his soul! Maka thought. Now that I let this soul resonance stuff sink it, it's kinda cool to communicate through our thoughts. Yea, it is pretty cool, isn't it?

My brows furrowed and I thought back to her, you didn't have to answer that...

I heard her huff and then another idea raced from her head into mine. They've only taken him a few miles away. We can definitely get him. He's in a...an abandoned warehouse or something...let's go tell Shinigami-sama!

And what about Crona? She was crazy about finding her.

Well, I have to widen our range further then, she pointed out. As she extended the reach of the Perception miles and miles across, I began to feel her soul getting angsty. We're at three hundred miles, Soul...I can't find her yet! She panicked.

Calm down. Keep expanding the search radius. I responded and squeezed her shoulder in reassurance.

Maka inhaled and exhaled slowly. Okay. I felt the presence of billions of more souls added onto the incredible amount I had already sensed prior to the amplification. Soul...at this rate, I'm going to have to search the whole world! Where could Medusa have taken her?! Her body began to shudder.

We'll find her, don't worry, Maka. Let's set our priorities. As far as evidence goes, Crona ran away--We can't prove she was kidnapped by Medusa. Sure, we have an 'M' to go by, but that doesn't prove any speculation to be one hundred percent true, I bluntly stated. We've located Kid right now, so let's just go get him. He's the one who was, for sure, kidnapped. Once we get him back that's when we can go for Crona.

But even Shinigami-sama and Papa think Medusa is behind all of this! They think that evil woman took her daughter back! Maka protested. She was obviously too headstrong to reason with, but I didn't care. Soul, we gotta find Crona.

I yelled through my thoughts. Don't you think I believe that too?! But we can't entirely be sure. We found Kid first, so he's our number one priority! Crona will be next!

The soul resonance had broken off in that moment and she fell into my arms. The sudden rush of her hitting up against me made me lose my footing and I fell fanny-first on the luscious green grass. For a second, she didn't speak, but then a whisper escaped her, "okay..." Getting up from under her, I assisted the dazed girl to her feet and she dusted off her skirt. "Sorry." Maka quickly grabbed my hand and we went back to the Death Room to give the others the news.






Early morning in the following day, Spartoi gathered at the gates of Shibusen to prepare for the departure of our rescue mission. With the sight of Maka holding Mother's scythe, Blackstar wielding his Enchanted Sword, Tsubaki with her chainscythe, Kilik with his gauntlets, and Ox with his lightning spear, I was given a boost of confidence. Although the other partners, including me, had only regular militant weapons, my heart was still filled with determination; we're going to save Kid...and Noah's not getting that ridiculous ransom...

Shinigami-sama advised us that there needed to be someone to stay back to keep communication with the group, so Kim and Jacky were the decided nominees. With Spirit handing each of us an earpiece with an incredibly tiny microphone, we channeled in on each other's walky-talky.

The Deathscythe questioned us, "are you all set up?" He was answered with multiple affirming nods and scanned all of us before giving an affirming dip of his chin. He had one problem--Maka and I were hand in hand, and he had to clear his throat chastisingly while shooting a cerulean glare into my crimsons. I deepened my natural scowl at him and Maka stepped closer to me then squeezed my hand tighter. Spirit grunted in defeat and turned away. "Okay, get going, kids. You have no time to waste."

"Alright then, you heard 'im. Lovebirds, feel free to lead the way." Kilik directed at Maka and I, which brought a tinge of pink to our cheeks.

I hopped onto the orange and yellow cruiser as the runner-up nerd, his quiet partner, the gaunlet-wielder, his young partners and the ninjas jumped into one of the academy's Mission SUVs. Maka snaked her embrace around my waist, secured the scythe behind her, and resonated her soul with mine. As I felt the presence of the numerous souls surrounding us, I pinpointed the humming of Kid's and let its melody guide our way, along with the occasional murmur of 'we're getting closer...' from Maka. We sliced through the streets of Death City and eventually hit the desert sands. When we entered a ghost town, I ceased the bicycle's motor as we pulled up to a shaggy warehouse with a rusted metal plate reading 'Book of Eibon'; I guess this was a bookstore at one point. The group slowly made their way out of the automobile they arrived in.

"Alright, let's save Kid." I declared with a smirk. Loading my M-16, I cocked it back and was ready to start a fight with these bastards. Cool guys never let these kind of people take their friends...but since I failed to stop it from happening, then this is the way a cool guy redeems himself. Maka gave me a prideful grin and spun the scythe with graceful ease. She was definitely ready to beat the shit out of some kidnapping assholes, too.

Liz and Patty loaded their twin pistols and had confidence and hope burning in their blue eyes to rescue their partner, friend, and for Liz, her lover.

Ox howled into the dawn's atmosphere, "Beware the power of the Lightning King!" His partner, Harvar, stood there in his usual silent seriousness and readied his artillery.

Pot of Thunder and Pot of Fire copied what Harvar was doing as Kilik smashed his elemental gloves together and hooted into the air. "Okay! Let's do this!"

"WATCH OUT, NOAH, YOU MOTHER FUCKER! YOU'LL DIE AT THE HANDS OF GOD! YOU BETTER BELIEVE YOU'RE A LUCKY GUY TO BE MURDERED BY MY GLORIOUSNESS! KYAHAHAHAHAHAHA! PREPARE TO DIE BY MY SHINE!" The egoistic boy exclaimed. "YAHOOOOOO! ENOUGH TALK, LET'S GOOOO!" He rammed his skull into the boarded-up entrance as if it were merely paper and whooped and hollered the entire time. I swear, that kid always ruins the chance of a sneak attack...

His meek camellia girlfriend chased after him calling out, "wait, Blackstar! Oh..." The rest of the us attempted to catch up to the power-driven boy who was bound to run into one of the leader's minions soon enough.





You better be ready, Noah. You never fuck around with a Shibusen student...especially not their friends...or you'll get hell beaten out of your sorry ass.