Soul Eater but it's Sonic

Chapter 20

"I can tell you're going easy on me," Tails said.

Sonic's mind snapped back to reality. He had been spacing out in the middle of combat training with Tails. The two brothers were at the DWMA training facility wearing light padding on their bodies to keep them from hurting each other.

"Sorry,"

They continued exchanging hits and blocks. Sonic decided to take advantage of his size, overwhelming Tails with a series of hits while out of reach of a counterattack. Tails faltered in no time and had his legs swept out from underneath him by a kick. The fox flopped onto the ground.

"Maybe easy mode wasn't so bad,"

Sonic laughed before helping his brother up. "Let's call it, for now,"

While the brother's were removing their practice gear, Starline approached them.

"How's combat training going for you, Miles?"

"Its, uh, going,"

"Maybe this will suit you better," Starline tossed Tails a metallic cube. It was plain and unassuming with only a few ridges in its structure. "It's the soul frequency bot we talked about the other day. With the finishing touches done, it can now emulate different soul frequencies for you to try matching. Training with this will help you adjust your wavelength and use soul force on a wider range of opponents,"

Tails held the cube in his hands, then activated it. He could sense the changes within the device, even though the outside revealed nothing. The artificial waves began changing frequency, so he responded by changing his soul frequency as well. Then the cube zapped him.

"Yow!"

"Mis-aligning your wavelength with another will always have consequences. The orb isn't as bad as the real thing," Straline grinned.

"Could have fooled me," Tails grumbled.

"Can I have one of those cool cubes?" Sonic asked.

"You want to practice soul force? Seems a bit out of the blue, no pun intended," Starline gestured at Sonic's whole body.

Sonic scratched his head. "I guess. I feel like I've hit a wall lately. That means I should do more than the usual training, right?"

"You might want a better reason than that if you plan on training efficiently. You need a path that suits your current needs,"

"What should I do, then?"

"You'll have to be the one to decide that. When you discover what's holding you back, I can do a much better job helping you,"

"Ack!" Tails yelled, dropping the cube after it zapped him once again.

Sonic couldn't think of anything, so he left the training facility. He had some alone time since Shadow was off doing his physical rehabilitation routine. He'd been making great progress. They'd be clear to fight together tomorrow if his checkup went well. The thought made Sonic anxious, rather than happy. He was angry at himself for that. Shadow needed him. They'd gone through so much, why was he wavering now that things were getting better?

He pondered Shadow's status as a Black Arm weapon. That inevitably made him think about the darkling. Their battle. He shook it from his mind and tried focusing on something else. So what if Shadow was a Black Arm weapon? It didn't change anything, right?

Sonic wandered around campus, trying not to give the unpleasant thoughts lurking in the back of his mind much attention. The morning weather was mild and pleasant, but he hadn't really noticed. What did catch his attention was a certain death scythe who was wandering about campus as well.