Synopsis |
---|
Black Blood saves Maka Albarn's life, as well as empowering her and Soul Eater. With their DWMA peers and unlikely allies in Eruka, Free, and even Gopher, Maka is able to attack Asura directly so to enter him and save her friend Crona. |
The Dark Side of the Moon VIII is the one hundred eleventh serialized chapter of the manga Soul Eater. It was reprinted in tankōbon form in Volume 25.
Featured Appearances[]
Characters
- Maka Albarn
- Soul Eater
- Black☆Star
- Tsubaki Nakatsukasa
- Death the Kid
- Liz Thompson (weapon form only)
- Patty Thompson (weapon form only)
DWMA and Allies on Earth
- Franken Stein
- Marie Mjolnir
- Azusa Yumi (weapon form only)
- Kilik Rung
- Eruka Frog
- Free
Asura's Army
Noah's Army
Other characters
- Little Ogre (splash page only)
- Death City jazz café employee (first appearance)
Locations
- The Moon
- DWMA's location on the Earth
- Death City
- Jazz café (first appearance)
Techniques
- Kishin-Hunt
- Black Blood Dress (new design)
- Dark Keyboard
Plot[]
The Moon[]
Blood explodes upward from Maka Albarn's body, Asura's hand shoved through her chest and out her back. Yet the Kishin recognizes that her blood is black. Maka lifts her head to face Asura, a mad smile across her face as she laughs and seizes his arm with both of her hands.
Death City jazz cafe, the Past[]
Years ago, Maka is surprised that the student she recently met, Soul Eater, has brought her to this location. He explains that the cafe has a piano in the back. The boy seems to have just met her, as he asks why she chooses him as a DWMA weapon partner. Maka keeps the explanation simple: he is a scythe, she is a Scythe-Meister. While Maka is still confused why Soul would ask such a question, he replies, "Hmm."
He turns to the piano, saying, "I'm gonna play the piano...You can think of it like my introduction." While Maka says she finds this forthcoming introduction "interesting," she smirks and thinks her new partner is a "show-off."
The Moon, the Present[]
"I saw the light at the end of the tunnel," Maka says with a laugh, "or should I say...that start of the tunnel?"
From the Moon's surface, Spirit Albarn calls out to his daughter. But Maka is not in danger: with just her fingers, she is able to dig into Asura's arm, forcing the Kishin to remove the arm from her torn body. As the Black Blood heals Maka's wound, Sid Barrett on the Moon's surface and Death the Kid in the sky realize Maka used the Black Blood to destroy the boundary between them, as Crona did to absorb Asura, so that they may harmonize with Asura's Madness to weaken him. In the Black Room, Soul opens his mouth into a mad smile as he increases his piano playing.

Maka wears her new Black Blood Dress
Maka releases her grip on Soul, as her clothes rip away to reform into the Black Blood Dress, only now it is strapless and angelic wings form along her pigtails. Her mad grin disappears and her eyes focus with determination as she seizes Soul again, who has transformed as well: his scythe now has similar angelic wings where the blade attaches to the staff and piano keys are along his blade. Soul confirms what Maka realizes: they can enter the Kishin through Soul's own Black Blood so they may reach Crona. Black☆Star flies down towards Maka, as both he and she were afraid that she was dead.
As Asura realizes it is Soul's "hideous noise" of piano playing that is weakening him, Maka asks Black☆Star and Kid to immobilize the Kishin long enough for her to hit him. Asura charges his energy again to throw at the meisters, as he says he feels fear of the uncertainty yet knows these meisters cannot get near him. Asura discharges his energy, knocking back Maka. Asura removes Vajra from his mouth, as he tells Maka the Black Blood will not make her immortal. She blocks Vajra with Soul, yet the tip of that weapon pierces her shoulder. "You cannot melt Vajra," Asura says as he prepares to kill her.
Then Black☆Star leaps between Maka and Asura, shielding her as he kicks back the Kishin. Asura responds by knocking aside Black☆Star's arm, breaking it and injuring his back. The force of the attack smacks Black☆Star to the Moon's surface. Tsubaki Nakatsukasa calls to her meister. Asura mocks Black☆Star: for all the power he has, it is his devotion to his "pitiful companions" that led to his defeat. As Maka cringes from the pain in her shoulder and her guilt for Black☆Star's injury, the ninja stands again, telling Maka to focus not on himself but on their mission. Tsubaki worries for Black☆Star's spine, but he promises his weapon he will fight with just his muscle if necessary.
Kid flies towards Asura, attacking with twin shots, but such "infant shinigami" attacks fails to impress the Kishin. Black☆Star is back in the air as he slices Asura, but the Kishin mocks this attack as lacking the ninja's "original spark." Asura does not turn around as Maka leaps behind him to slice him, but one ball of energy from the Kishin knocks her, Black☆Star, and Kid down to the Moon. The attack already leaves the meisters supine, but Asura continues his attack, cracking the ground beneath their bodies as their bodies fall more and more into the ground. Asura removes the scarves from his face to mock these "foolish" humans, even Maka in her "Sunday best," for trying to oppose him when they "should be cowering in the shadows like me." Asura says these humans should know they will not defeat him.
Maka replies that she is not finished fighting. Asura opens his hand to reveal an eye in his palm, causing Maka's chest to illuminate as he shoves her harder against the ground. Asura asks what kind of a Shinigami Kid is to let his friend die when this fragment has the Madness of Order to counter his Madness of Fear. As Kid too is immobilized by Asura's attack, Kid's body and Lines of Sanzu illuminate. Kid reminds himself to trust his friends, not just his power, to win this war. Asura simply laughs at this "squashed frog" of a Shinigami before reforming his frown: tired of this battle, he no longer desires to make his opponents feel all kinds of fear and will now kill the meisters.
A shot from the Earth's surface fires into Asura's right shoulder. It is Azusa Yumi, wielded by Kilik Rung. To achieve such accuracy, Eruka Frog used Calculation Magic to pinpoint Asura's exact location in the sky. While Kilik is impressed, Eruka tells him to quit speaking and prepare for the next shot.
As Azusa's next shot hits Asura in the chest, he locates his Earth-based opponents and aims Vajra to fire. Eruka calls to Free, who stands behind her and Kilik to teleport them to a new location before Vajra's shot hits them.
Elsewhere on the Earth, Franken Stein calls to his colleagues through Incom, announcing he and Marie Mjolnir are ready to attack but require from Eruka the coordinates of Asura. Eruka sends that information mentally, as Stein charges Marie's weapon form before throwing her upward. Marie flips through the air—past Asura, but as a more autonomous weapon, she can release her electricity to touch upon Asura, drawing her back to him to make sufficient impact, first smashing against his shoulders then to swing around again to maintain momentum to knock Asura in his chin. With her latest attack, Asura throws Marie away. As Marie flies into the sky, Sid, armed with Spirit in Death Scythe form, and Akane☆Hoshi, armed with Clay Sizemore in weapon form, stops Marie from crashing, but the force of Asura's impact knocks all of them down.
Asura mocks these humans before he is attack by an explosion hurled at him by Gopher. With the Sloth iteration of Noah next to him, Gopher asks for the other Noah to be returned. Initially confused, Asura vomits onto the ground the other iterations of Noah, impressing Gopher.

Maka pierces Asura with Kishin Hunt
This action distracts Asura long enough for Kid to fire more shots at Asura, as he and Black☆Star hold the Kishin long enough to allow Maka to attack. Soul calls to Maka to play the keys on his blade. Upon playing the keys on his blade, Maka releases her Soul Wavelength as a blast of energy that injures Asura. Maka shouts that she does not fight alone but with others who support her. Asura smiles, asking whether she intends to enter him "to travel the path of fear," and she replies that her courage will be her attack. With a slice of Kishin Hunt, Maka releases an auditory blast of energy, cutting into the Kishin so she and Soul may enter him to save Crona.
Manga and Anime Differences[]
- Whereas the anime implied that Maka and Soul first met when Soul, dressed in a suit, sat before a piano, this chapter shows their first meeting as occurring in the back of a jazz café, while Soul is dressed in his first outfit from the beginning of the series before he begins to play the piano. While it is possible that the two moments could be the same one, assuming Soul for some reason changed his attire, the differences are significant. However, in both instances, Maka is wearing her original outfit.
Trivia[]
- In the splash page for this chapter, numerous other splash pages are edited into the background, including ones for Chapter 18, 24, 33, 42, 47, 48, 77, and 100.
- Stein's incom has a different look than its previous appearance in the manga. While retaining the skull shape, its middle "tooth" is much longer.
References[]