Soul Eater but it's Sonic

Chapter 45

"Shadow, be reasonable!"

Eggman paced around Shadow's cell looking destitute. Shadow appeared adamant.

"I am being reasonable. You're the one who's out of line. Why would you ask me to resonate with other meisters after I nearly corrupted Sonic!"

"It's likely that your familiarity with Sonic is the source of the danger. He's too reckless and you enable him. It's important that we measure the effects of your resonance with other people. A scythe as powerful as you can't be sitting around in here while the kishin is growing stronger!"

"Then let me leave Death City and investigate my past. Alone,"

"I already told you that plan is absurd! You won't find anything out there,"

"You don't know that. The only way you could know that is if you already know about my past,"

Eggman pointed a finger at Shadow. "Don't levy accusations at me! I have enough to deal with,"

"Then tell me about how I was found before I woke up,"

Eggman sighed. "You were first discovered on the outskirts of Death City. I told you this when you first woke up,"

"Where did the record player come from? Did I have any other belongings? How could I show up in the middle of nowhere with only an old record player with me? It doesn't make any sense! It's worth looking into,"

Eggman let out a more aggravated sigh this time. "There's nothing to this Shadow,"

"I'll decide that for myself," Shadow snapped.

"If you chase this, you'll be wandering aimlessly for the rest of your life. Which won't be long since you'll either be hunted down, or driven insane by the kishin's chaos waves!"

"I'll take that risk. I need to know who I am. I ignored my past and Sonic was almost corrupted because neither of us understand what I am. I won't blindly move on like nothing happened,"

"I can help you understand! Let us study the effects of your resonance with other meisters in a controlled environment. You don't need to chase something as nebulous as your past if we can figure everything out with data!"

Shadow crossed his arms. "You can run your resonance tests. If it's on me and Sonic,"

"Absolutely not! It's too dangerous, and he is not qualified to be your meister!" Eggman sneered.

"Either you run your tests to figure out if it's safe for me to partner with Sonic again, or I leave,"

Eggman laughed. "You aren't going anywhere,"

Surprise pierced through Shadow's standoffish demeanor. "What? You can't keep me here!"

Eggman pulled open the door. "Watch me,"

The heavy metal door slammed shut. Shadow ran over and tried opening it. The door wouldn't move, so Shadow turned his right hand into a blade and began striking it. Aside from several high pitched scraping noises, he did not achieve any results. He kicked the door once before walking away.

"Damn it," Shadow hissed.

He glanced around the room, hoping to come up with some kind of plan. Nothing came. Shadow considered his new status as a DWMA prisoner. Then, he realized that being a prisoner was likely only news to him, and that, from the DWMA's perspective, he never had any significant freedom to begin with.

Shadow paced the small interior of his prison. Did the DWMA really think he was that dangerous? Then why were they trying to pair him with other meisters? Things weren't adding up. He needed more information.

Shadow contemplated the different factors surrounding his current situation, until his mind kept being drawn back to worrying about Sonic. Was his meister really okay? What if he'd become corrupted after all? That idea instilled a very bitter and volatile fear in Shadow. For the sake of his own sanity, he'd assume things weren't so dire.

"Hopefully you're faring better than I am, Sonic," Shadow sighed.

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Footsteps moved throughout Sonic and Shadow's place. With Shadow being locked away somewhere inside the DWMA, Sonic relegated himself to wander their apartment restlessly. Relaxing seemed wrong, at least until he knew how to better help his weapon. He hadn't heard back from Silver or Blaze, and had no idea when they might return.

Sonic stopped at Shadow's room once in a while. It was still fairly bare, but the objects that were there served as proof of his weapon's existence and gave his mind some peace.

"Please be okay, Shadow," Sonic murmured.

A knocking came from the door, giving Sonic a bit of hope. He wished Shadow would be standing there as if nothing were out of the ordinary. Sonic curbed his expectations for the more likely scenario: that Blaze and Silver had come to give him an update. Looking through the peephole gave him some alarm. He opened the door.

"Starline?"

"Good evening, Sonic. Would you accompany me for a brief stroll?" Starline still looked as tired and unsettled as he had been since the kishin's release. After a second glance, Sonic believed his professor's wellbeing might still be deteriorating. An air of mischief was accompanying Starline too. "It's DWMA policy that I be monitored at all times, but I seem to have given Vanilla the slip. It would be wildly helpful if you could fill in for her,"

Sonic's eyebrows drew together. He glanced around the otherwise empty hallway.

"Okay..."

He entered the hall to close and lock the door, then followed Starline out of the apartment complex. Night had fallen recently, and the chilly air wasn't helping ease Sonic's rising suspicion. It also didn't help that they weren't moving toward the DWMA campus at all. Starline didn't speak or acknowledge Sonic's presence much. He seemed a bit hazy and distant, so Sonic spoke up.

"Where are we headed?"

Starline raised one webbed index finger and tapped the side of it against the front of his grinning bill.

Sonic found himself glancing around the empty streets. Were they being monitored? The quietness and solitude didn't sit well all of a sudden. He wondered how many people were left in town aside from the students and staff after the kishin's awakening. Death City was never a very active town, now that he thought about it.

They reached what looked like an abandoned factory on the edge of Death City. The inside of the building was full of dusty, outdated machines that were severely neglected. Starline led Sonic to an old service elevator.

"Would you be so kind?" Starline gestured toward the intertwined metal bars that made up the elevator's gate.

Sonic grabbed hold and strained for a moment before the gate gave way. He pushed it aside, then stepped in with Starline. After pushing the gate closed, he heard his professor laugh drearily.

"Aren't we quite the team? I'd hate to infringe on your role, since you're so good at it,"

Sonic followed Starline's gaze to notice the large lever protruding from the floor on the other side of the elevator. Sonic sighed and clasped the safety brake on the handle. With the lever unlocked, he brought it over with a hearty pull. The elevator awoke from its slumber to bring the two down into unknown depths.

"And what's your role, exactly?"

Starline stared through the gate and watched the old, decaying brick wall go by until it was replaced with polished metal. The more spaced out steel walls of this section of the elevator shaft were sparsely fixed with LED lights that occasionally cut through the persistent darkness lingering about the elevator.

"Something in the realm of 'grand poet turned humble guide,'"