Synopsis |
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As Crona grows stronger upon consuming Asura, Maka Albarn and Black☆Star struggle to hold their own against them. As Crona uses their madness to disrupt the soul wavelengths of their DWMA opponents and captures Soul Eater and Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, Death the Kid and Spirit Albarn try to catch up to Maka and Black☆Star's location. |
The Dark of the Moon II is the one hundred fifth chapter of the manga Soul Eater. It was collected as part of Volume 24.
Featured Appearances[]
Characters
DWMA on the Moon
DWMA on the Earth and in the Sky
Opponents
- Crona
- Ragnarok (weapon form only)
- Black Clown (weapon form only)
Locations
- The Moon
- The Earth's Surface
- London Bridge, London (flashback)
Techniques
- Blood Madness
- Bloody Lance
- Shadow☆Star: First Form - Chain of Blackness
- Rose Thorns Storm (first appearance)
Objects
Plot[]
The Moon[]
Wind blows dust up across the Moon's surface where Maka Albarn and Black☆Star stand, some distance from the mouth of the Moon, looking up towards that mouth where, atop its bottom teeth, stands Crona. Maka and Black☆Star tighten their grasps along their scythe and sword. Out of Crona's shoulders explode Black Blood, forming into the arms of Ragnarok. Now with their four arms, Crona grasps two swords resembling Ragnarok's weapon form, and one sword resembling the weapon form of the Black Clown.
Maka dashes across the distance until she is running up into the mouth, as she shouts, "Crona!" Once reaching Crona's location, Maka has leapt, ready to swing her Death Scythe Soul Evans at her opponent. Two of Crona's Ragnarok swords block the slash. "You big, stubborn dummy!" Maka shouts, shocked how Crona would actually swallow Asura. Crona responds by swinging their Black Clown sword at Maka, who dodges by jumping from Crona's left shoulder. Crona explains that, now possessing Asura, they can use his madness to destroy the world. Maka responds by kneeing Crona in the face, then kicking Crona in the face, then repeatedly striking Crona with the end of Soul's staff, all while shouting insults at her friend: "You dork! You dope! You're so damn stupid! Just die!" Soul is surprised by his meister's behavior, reminding her that they are here only to "beat some sense" into Crona, not kill them.
Maka then feels Ragnarok's blade sweep past the right side of her head. The slice is so precise that it only cuts away a bit of hair from her right pigtail. "You're the dope here, Maka!" Crona responds, asking why she would fight with "a giant scythe" in close combat.
Maka then knocks the top of Soul's blade into Crona's abdomen, pinning them down to the Moon's surface. As she knocks Crona down, Maka leaps, pushing the weight of the blade's dull side into Crona while she dodges two of their swords. "Can you block my third blade, though?" Crona asks, as they swing the Black Clown sword at Maka.
Crona and Black Star battle
Tsubaki Nakatsukasa's sword form blocks the Black Clown sword, as Black☆Star has now entered the Moon's mouth, cutting in between Maka and Crona to plant a kick into Crona's chest, knocking them and their weapons across the Moon's surface. But the multi-limbed Crona slices their swords into the ground, allowing them to upright themselves. Crona claims they could kill Maka if she fought alone. "That's right--I'm not alone," Maka says, "because I'm weak. But you're not alone either, Crona!" Crona holds up the twin blades of Ragnarok again, dashes towards Maka and Black☆Star, claiming they need no one else anymore. With a swing of their swords, Crona forms a Blood Madness attack similar to Screech Alpha, tearing up the Moon's surface as it approaches Maka. Black☆Star gets in front of Maka and with a swing of Tsubaki dispels the Blood Madness attack. But Crona is already before him. With a mere swing of their waist, Crona's limbs knock the three swords at the surprised Black☆Star, managing to actually push back the ninja.
Maka grips her scythe and swings it again at Crona. Whether from the swing or Crona's dodge, Crona is off their feet and descending to the ground. Maka lifts her scythe and bring its blade down upon Crona's chest. Maka looks with surprise as no cut is made: Crona leans backwards, twitching, before swinging themselves to somersault over Maka's staff and, with this propulsion, swinging the three blades at Maka to knock her out of the Moon's mouth. Maka shouts as she slams Soul's blade into the mouth before she falls. But Crona has already gathered Black Blood along their wrist to form Bloody Lance, sending the sharp cone spiraling across the ground and towards Maka. Before the Lance can pierce into Maka, Tsubaki's Shadow☆Star: First Form - Chain of Blackness has pierced into the Lance itself, knocking it off its course. Tsubaki's chain is held by Black☆Star, and as Tsubaki's blade remains lodged into the Bloody Lance, Black☆Star swings the chain around himself until he throws that Lance at Crona. Crona leaps to dodge, but Black☆Star twirls the chain again to bring it towards himself. Black☆Star leaps, clutching the Lance so that he may guide its momentum. Tsubaki's blade releases the Bloody Lance, knocking it towards Crona. The crash of the Bloody Lance against the Moon's mouth tears a chunk of it out of the ground, but the attack just misses Crona.
Black☆Star lands next to Maka, who tells her, "Hang in there." Maka thanks Black☆Star for saving her, remembering how the ninja saved him much as he had when they first fought Free in London. Maka smiles, claiming Black☆Star must like her. The ninja blushes and sweats, stammering as he tries to explain that having to save Maka just shows how "small-time" she is. Maka ignores his response, claiming she will have "to express my gratitude to Crona." Black☆Star grimaces, now offended that Maka won't thank him.
Crona's vines pull the Moon's tooth down to crush Maka and Black☆Star
From Crona's body, thorns emerge. Soul warns his colleagues not to pause in this battle. The thorns snake up towards the Moon's nose and down its lower lip, as Crona screams. Black☆Star seems to recognize what Crona is attempting, as the thorns rope around one of the Moon's upper teeth—one right above Black☆Star and Maka—and begins dragging it out to drop atop the meisters.
The Earth's Surface[]
Franken Stein and Marie Mjolnir look to see that one of the teeth in the Moon's mouth has fallen down. Stein is confused at what is happening.
The Sky[]
Death the Kid is trying to fly as quickly as possible on his skateboard Beelzebub to rejoin his teammates. Patty Thompson sees the tooth fall out of the Moon's mouth as well and asks whether it was one of the Moon's baby teeth. Liz Thompson worries the Moon will need dentures. Kid admonishes his weapons to focus as they hurry back to Maka and Black☆Star.
The Moon[]
Dust is kicked up by the collapse of a tooth upon Maka and Black☆Star. Crona, however, is surprised at what they see when the dust clears: Black☆Star is holding up the entire tooth on his own, saving himself and his teammates. While Maka is dumbfounded, seated below where the tooth would have crushed her, Black☆Star asks Tsubaki what they do in Japan when an upper baby tooth falls out. Tsubaki says that a family usually throws the tooth under their house's crawlspace. Therefore, Black☆Star tosses the entire tooth out of the Moon's mouth—where it falls from the Moon down to the Earth below. Maka asks, "Have I been fighting alongside this monster all along?" But Soul smirks, asking whether his meister is now scared of Black☆Star. Maka admits she knew of Black☆Star's power beforehand, therefore she has no reason to fear Crona.

Crona compromises Soul Resonance with Rose Thorns Storm
Crona is surprised at Maka's reaction. They order Maka to stay away, firing thorns at her and Black☆Star. While the DWMA students block the attacks with their weapons, the thorns still manage to cut along their bodies. Crona begins to laugh, releasing more thorns until forming Rose Thorns Storm, blossoms blooming at the ends of these thorns, which Crona claims will spread their emotions, their madness acting as a set of gears out of sync and hence will compromise the Soul Resonance of Maka and Black☆Star with their weapons. As the Black Blood drips from these thorns, dark energy swirls around Maka's hand, causing Soul's staff to grow to hot. For Black☆Star, Tsubaki grows too heavy to lift, as the soul wavelengths of meisters and weapons "have gone out of control." Crona mocks their opponents, claiming that if the Moon's teeth are no longer aligned, neither will be their wavelengths, much as this world will no longer fit together.
Soul tries to harness his piano, his attack managing to cut away one thorn heading towards Maka, but his piano's attack cutting very close to Maka's head. Maka then sees the thorns wrap around her scythe's staff and Tsubaki's weapon form, now transformed into her ninja sword mode, as Crona brings the weapons towards themselves. Crona mocks their opponents for not bothering to "suck up your weapons and everything else with them, the way I do!" Soul tries to play his piano again, but no sound emerges. Maka calls out to her partner, as she prepares to fight without him. Black☆Star claims he can fight without a weapon. Crona responds, "What a relief!"
Meanwhile, at the bottom lip of the Moon, a blade coming out of the sleeve of a man's jacket cuts into surface. Spirit Albarn is trying to climb as quickly as his thirty-something-year-old body can take him, all the while complaining that the children left him behind.
Trivia[]
- The splash page includes allusions to Crona's childhood and identity, not only the thorned roses associated with their techniques but also a rabbit, similar to The Little One that Crona killed.
- This chapter contains a few references to The Experiment Arc. Maka reminds Black☆Star that he saved her much from falling from a tall height, as he had during their fight against Free. Also, Crona compares their madness as putting gears out of alignment, similar to the metaphor Stein uses to describe Maka and Soul's diverging soul wavelengths as similar to gears out of alignment.
References[]