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“A simple, honest soul. Ruby Rose, huh?” Maka asked herself while looking at the soul in her hands. She looked at the soul she was holding, before sighing and letting it go. As she watched the huntress’s soul float over to the mechanical monstrosity she called a scythe, Soul tapped her shoulder and asked her a question.
“Maka, can I get a look at that paper we had again?” He said as some of the petals that were raining fell on his hands. Maka turned to look at him as she pulled out the paper with the terrible drawing that they were given for the mission, alongside the list of crimes that were the reason for the hunt.
As Soul read through the list, his eyes began to twitch before exclaiming, “I’m starting to think that somebody else set us up with this mission, I can’t believe that Red did any of this!” as he threw his hands into the air. Maka let out a short giggle at his antics before throwing her opinion in about Ruby.
“You’re only realizing this now? Not when her soul was clearly not a Kishin Egg?” Maka asked with an eye roll as she thought back on what the list said, “I can’t believe anyone could be so cartoonishly evil as to kick puppies.”
“Not just that!” Soul exclaimed while crumbling the poster in his hand. “It says that she murdered two of her classmates, crippled a third, stole the soul of a human in order to take her powers, and cut off the tail of an innocent man!”
Maka couldn’t help but let out a laugh at the list of crimes that Ruby had supposedly committed, but she got cut off before she could respond by an indignant shout.
“Hey! I only cut off that guy’s tail because he poisoned my uncle!”
Soul’s eyes widened when hearing that voice, and she would bet money that her expression was nearly identical to his. They both turned to look at the rooftop, and where the scythe once was, Ruby had taken its place, sitting up while rubbing at her head. She looked perfectly fine, despite having died a few minutes prior, and looked to be somewhat annoyed at what was on the crime list.
“The only thing on that list I did was cut off someone’s tail, that was because he was trying to kidnap me!” Ruby yelled while making random gestures with her arms, likely trying to visualize the event. “Even then, I only cut his tail off after he poisoned my uncle!”
As Ruby continued to rant about how unjust those crimes she was accused of, saying that a Cinder was the one that had killed those classmates, Maka and Soul made their way onto the roof that Ruby was sitting on. Ruby was still ranting when they reached her, this time about how her sister had been framed for crippling someone, as Maka sighed while pulling a book out of her bag in order to interrupt Ruby.
“Maka Chop!”
Ruby’s barrier flared as the book slammed into her head, before she collapsed the roof, rubbing her head once more. Taking the opportunity, Maka asked the question that had come to mind from the moment they heard her voice.
“How are you alive?” She shouted with some of her shock coming through, “I didn’t use any healing wavelengths on your soul, and your body dissolved into petals!”
“I don’t know! I floated over to Crescent Rose and felt like I fell asleep, then I woke up!”
Ruby shrugged at Maka’s question as she responded, before noticing something, “Oh yeah, why’s your dress white? Wasn’t it black before?”
“Blame your eyes for that. Which, why didn’t you use them earli-” She gave a quick response before trying to ask Ruby about her usage of her silver eyes, only for Soul to cut her off.
“I think the more important question to ask is why you’re so calm! We split you in half!” He shouted while mimicking the motion of their I-hunt.
“You did, but I didn’t really feel anything. Between my eyes doing that thing again, and whatever you did to turn off my Aura, I only felt pain for the first second you hit me.” She said while poking at her lower body, “I didn’t feel anything when you cut me, and right now, all I feel is very itchy.”
“What do you mean you don’t even know what your eyes did!” Soul asked with a shout, “Those laser beams you shot out were stopping our wavelengths!. You killed Little Ogre when you destroyed the black blood! How do you have an ability like that and not know what it does?”
“What ogre?” Was all Ruby could say in response. “Is that something about you being a ohmygoshrightyou’reascythehowdoesthatwo-”
Ruby’s weapon gushing was cut short as she let out a groan of pain before grabbing onto her chest. Maka jumped back as she began thrashing around on the ground, before grabbing her elbow and scratching the skin into shreds. Maka grabbed the arm doing the scratching, and had to fight to stop Ruby from continuing to rip apart her elbow only for the scuffle to be interrupted by a sudden noise.
SHINK
A metallic, red and gray scythe blade burst out of Ruby’s elbow. Maka stared. Soul stared. Ruby stared. Soul looked at himself and grew a blade from his arm, as if to double check. Ruby looked at Soul, and then at herself. Maka touched the blade, only to flinch back after cutting herself on it and confirming that it was a real scythe blade. Soul’s jaw dropped. Ruby’s eyes widened. Maka opened her mouth, only for her words to be interrupted by a loud…
“SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”
Ruby let out an ear piercing squeal, so loud that Maka saw the windows of the buildings they were closest to shatter apart.
“How is your screaming just as damaging as your laser eyes red?” Soul asked with irritation, while also trying to avoid the elephant in the room, as Maka began to talk.
“How did you become a Demon Weapon? That shouldn’t even be possible!” She yelled out while grabbing at her hair, while Ruby could only shrug sheepishly.
“I guess we know what happened to Crescent Rose now.” Ruby commented, her love for weapons overtaken by her confusion. “Do either of you have an idea? Because I didn’t even know people could turn into weapons.”
Maka and Soul looked at each other, as if they were telepathically debating over who should answer the question, as Soul opened his mouth.
“There’s a guy that can probably figure out everything that happened here.” Soul started to say, “But you’ll have to come with us to meet him. Most of his equipment is back home.”
“I can’t! I have teammates, my uncle, and a mis-” Ruby’s rapid denial was cut off by a gunshot that came out of the arm that she had waved around during her denial, having morphed into a sniper rifle. “How long will it take?”
“Alright then Ruby, onward to Death City.” Maka said with a slight smile, if only because Ruby hadn’t stayed dead for her mistake, ignoring Soul’s mutters about wanting a gun. Ruby managed to push herself up, only to fall flat on her face.
“I can’t feel my legs. A little help?” Ruby asked sheepishly, only to yelp as Soul picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. “Sorry for third wheeling on you guys by the way. My bad!”
The trio began to walk away, Maka sporting a luminescent blush and Soul’s cheeks slightly tinted from Ruby’s question. It was only after they left Mistral that Ruby remembered to ask about the cause for their entire fight.
“Who was it that told you all those things about me?”
“Some weirdo named Finder Call. Ever met someone by that name Red?”
“Not at all! Now I want to meet them to know what they had against me!”
Alas, it seems not all problems were solved just yet.