A Soul Eater Story: Wandering Souls

Chapter 20 Bravery has the last word! Maka vs the Kishin Asura!

Poppy could sense Lorranna's mind running a million miles an hour with a single word processing through her thoughts: Protect. This probably continued for a few minutes even after Maka had appeared and challenged the Kishin Asura until she sensed an opening to send her wavelength to calm Lorrenna's own.

Despite what many thought of Poppy, that she was some air-headed ditz that only caused trouble, they were wrong..

Alright, they were partially wrong. But she was capable of acting mature when the occasion warranted it. The first time she had ever let anyone else besides Lorranna see that was when she saw Kid after he and her Meister had almost kissed by the school's fountain. Even though she had been childish about it, singing that chant like a little kid, she was silently reading Kid's body language to see if he truly cared for her friend, which she could tell he did.

When she and Lorranna first met, it had been a year after she had went off in search of her father, and Poppy was a struggling street rat in a small fishing town in Scotland. Her parents had abandoned her to an orphanage when she was three and began showing signs of being a Weapon and had never seen them since. Her bright red hair and developing abilities had always gotten the other children's attention, calling her names like tomato and freak, causing her to run away from their torment. Right as she was about to die from starvation, Lorranna had found her and had nursed her back to health simply out of the goodness of her heart. From then on, after she got better, Poppy swore to be by her side through thick and thin, and then some.

Sending her wavelength to Lorranna, she felt her friend slowly come to her senses and transformed back into her human form.

"Hey. Feeling better?" Poppy asked, a small hand placed on Lorranna's forehead like she was checking her temperature. Lorranna smiled at her friend, thanking her for snapping her out of it while leaning into the touch.

Taking notice of Maka's ongoing battle against the Kishin, Lorranna asked Poppy to bring Black Star and Tsubaki's bodies closer as she brought up her shield again, focusing the rest of her energy on tending to their more serious wounds. 

Maka's fight against the Kishin went on back and forth, leaving Lorranna and Poppy left with nothing to do but watch their friend and pray for victory.

At one point when it seemed the madness of fear had taken a hold of Maka, Soul thrown out of her hand, Lorranna and Poppy were surprised to see blades come out of the girl's arms and legs.

"How is she doing that?!" Poppy inquired, obviously confused since Maka was a Meister and not a weapon. Looking closely at Maka, Lorranna noticed a similarity between Maka's scythe arms and another scythe weapon she knew.

"Maka can do that because her dad is also a scythe. She's tapping into her buried DNA heritage to defend herself while keeping her mind blank so the madness doesn't affect her." Lorranna replied, almost not believing what she was seeing either. And that was saying something.

In awe of their friend, the two girls continued watching.

However strong Maka's endurance was, her strength ended when Asura had her on the ground and began squeezing her organs until they began to rupture, causing her to wake up from her self-induced trance due to the pain, her scream piercing through the air as the blades disappeared into shards of light.

Lorranna winced at Maka's screams while Poppy pressed her hands over her ears as tightly as she could. After that, things seemed hopeless. Glancing down at the boy still unconscious to the world, tears falling from her eyes, she prayed that after their death, they could meet again in another life.

But then, somehow, the tides of Fate must've decided the bad guy won't win this time.

Maka, despite her grievous injuries, took a hold of Asura's wrist and began talking, her words causing Asura to slowly panic. Using his bandages as projectiles, he sent them at Maka as she continued, talking about the people that were from the outside of the sphere giving her the strength to continue fighting and what that strength was the bravery to continue fighting when everything else told her to quit.

With a final attack, a simple punch to the face that should have done nothing, it started to disintegrate the Kishin from the inside out, leaving nothing left of the horrible nightmare that was the Kishin Asura and the barrier that left too, letting the suns rays light up the ground beneath it.

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By the time the sphere had completely disappeared, everyone who had been left unconscious by the Kishin had woken up, including Kid who found himself lying on Lorranna's lap.....What?!

Needless to say, Stein wasn't completely ok with it. I mean, really?! Why was a boy's head on his daughter's lap?!! He had been really worried about her after he had sensed her wavelength suddenly explode earlier and had waited long enough to make sure his baby girl was alright....

It was also pretty obvious that it took a lot of convincing from Spirit and Death, who were both now up and about, that Stein shouldn't start questioning Kid with any torture techniques.

Knowing that Lorranna would be upset at Stein for beating up her love (Stein died a little on the inside when he thought that) interest, Death calmly advised Stein not to do anything rash, lest he want his face re-introduced to the ground by his daughter like when they had first met. This caused Stein to pause in his advancement and decide on a later date to question the boy's intentions with his daughter.

And speaking of the two, Kid was walking around, trying to gain feeling back in his legs, when he spotted Lorranna sitting aways on a large boulder, gazing at the clear sky with an odd expression on her face.

"Lorranna... Is there something bothering you?" he asked, causing her to turn to him in surprise, not hearing him approach.

Smiling softly, she shook her head. "No nothing is really bothering me... it's just...." she breathed deeply and motioned to the amount of rubble around them. "I'm just concerned how we will come back from this. It's certainly going to take an amount of time just cleaning up this mess." she said, a hint of laughter behind her voice as she looked around at the amount of rubble.

But Kid knew that wasn't what bothered her. Walking until he met her where she sat, Kid took her hand into his and her eyes widened in shock.

"Whatever worries plague you, Lorranna, I will do my best to put them to rest." He had never spoken to her like this, but it felt natural to do so. And while he had been unconscious of the event, he was halfway aware of what Lorranna had done after he had exhausted himself using his transformed Death Cannon, feeling that she had used her soul to protect and heal him the entire time.

"Kid....." Lorranna said, a small blush forming on her face that stained up to her ears. Kid's words sent a spark inside her heart, and frankly she could care less about it. As long as she and Kid were together, their friends standing with them against their foes, bravery and love would always have the last word!

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A/N: Dun dun dun!!!! Asura got his butt wooped by Maka in the end and everyone is alright!! All's well that end's well according to Fairytales and other mushy, lovey-dovy stuff! About to leave for a week long trip with family, so I guess this is where I write in the moment you've all been waiting for!

THE END