| Synopsis |
|---|
| Tsubaki Nakatsukasa's battle against her brother Masamune has left the physical realm and enters the spiritual one, as the two fight within the Uncanny Sword itself. While Black☆Star stands guard over her unconscious body to protect her from the villagers of Shin who blame his Star Clan for Masamune's attack, Tsubaki is in a fatal battle that will answer the question, does a camilla blossom have a scent, or does it die quietly? |
Uncanny Sword (Part 2) (不思議な剣 (パート2), Yōtō (kōhen)) is the eighth chapter and eleventh installment overall of the manga Soul Eater. It was adapted as Episode 11, "Tsubaki, the Camellia Blossom – What Lies Beyond the Grief?" in the anime Soul Eater.
Featured Appearances[]
Characters
DWMA
Potential Kishin
- Ryōku
- Child
- Child's mother
- Perverted old man
- Villagers
Locations
- Village of Shin
- Death Weapon Meister Academy
- Death Room
- Front Entrance
Techniques
- Uncanny Sword
- Puppet Rain
Objects
Plot[]
Village of Shin[]
As the rain continues to fall, Black☆Star is surprised to see Tsubaki Nakatsukasa collapsed unconscious, her hands gripped at the hilt of the Uncanny Sword as her soul has entered into it to fight her brother directly.
Villagers of Shin gather to find Ryōku, the child possessed earlier by that sword, unconscious, and given their earlier hostility towards the Star Clan, they assume Black☆Star is responsible. One child seizes a club and knocks it against Black☆Star's head. The usually bellicose ninja does not turn: he simply sits before Tsubaki. Even as the child beats Black☆Star, the ninja simply smiles and encourages Tsubaki to win this battle while he waits for her return.
Inside the Uncanny Sword[]
Tsubaki versus Masamune
Tsubaki and Masamune are battling like they were in armed combat in the real world. But this setting is unlike any location: it is full of water upon which the warriors run across, with lines forming stick figures. Despite Tsubaki's technique, Masamune is clearly overwhelming her. He seizes her by her face and thrust her head under the water, mocking her namesake as a bloom without fragrant, whose only purpose is to die, "miserable and hideous." Masamune removes Tsubaki from the water by kicking into her while slicing her waist with his blade, spilling her blood across the water as she tumbles across the surface.
Masamune observes that, if this battle was taking place in the physical world, then Tsubaki would have already died. Tsubaki struggles to catch her breath as she looks at her brother, and he thinks the look on her face is one of sorrow. Masamune demands she not look at him like that, because it was that look that made him pursue "the path of the Uncanny Sword."
Death Room[]
"Lunchtime!"
Through his father's mirror, Death the Kid observes the villagers of Shin beating Black☆Star. Kid asks why Tsubaki's body has stopped moving, so Death asks Franken Stein for a simplified explanation—only to discover the professor is in the middle of eating lunch.
Stein compares Tsubaki and Masamune's spiritual battle as similar to a tug of war, as each Nakatsukasa struggles to absorb the other's soul. This information drives Liz Thompson who tears, as she clutches Patty Thompson and proclaims that siblings should protect each other.
Stein then observes that a person becomes a Kishin out of some "weakness of the heart." But if the first Kishin came to be out of fear of death, then what motivates Masamune's path to becoming a Kishin?
Inside the Uncanny Sword[]
Despite her injuries, Tsubaki continues to battle. Yet Masamune notices that her favors her Kusarigama despite how many weapon transformations she has. Masamune assumes Tsubaki is pitying him, which causes him to explode in rage as he slices into her shoulder. At this moment, Masamune is doing better at absorbing Tsubaki's soul than she is absorbing his.
Masamune explains that, in the Nakatsukasa Clan, weapon abilities are passed down generation to generation with the first-born child always receiving the most transformations. But Tsubaki, only the second-born child, received all of those forms that were Masamune's to claim. Masamune explains that he thought he was was treated more delicately since childhood due to this failure to have these weapon abilities. Tsubaki again looks at her brother, and he again complains of the pity he assumes she has for him. He blames Tsubaki's pity for driving him to desire to become a Kishin. Therefore, he says, with his eyes pitch black, he will kill so he may become a Kishin, then he will be able to "master the martial way."
Masamune then initiates Puppet's Rain, as numerous shadows form into sharp points that stab into Tsubaki, hoisting her into the air as she is impaled. With death all but certain, Tsubaki calls out to her meister.
Village of Shin[]
"Black☆Star's positivity"
Black☆Star still waits patiently for Tsubaki to awaken, but the number of villagers with clubs has increased, as they beat upon him. But Black☆Star ignores these ignores, instead encouraging the unconscious Tsubaki to remember their first meeting.
Death Weapon Meister Academy, Front Entrance (The Past)[]
Tsubaki on her first day
During an DWMA entrance ceremony, Black☆Star was already ahead of his time, making an entrance only deserving of holy ones like himself. His chants and proclamations fall on deaf ears, however, as his classmates depart the front entrance.
Then Black☆Star hears one lone clap of gratitude: it is Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, a new student wearing a "Weapon" nametag. Black☆Star introduces himself by his own "Meister" nametag, initiating their partnership.
Village of Shin[]
Black☆Star remembers that Tsubaki watched his entire performance at the Academy's Entrance Ceremony. Therefore, he will sit and watch her "performance" to its conclusion.
The first child to beat Black☆Star then notices Tsubaki's stillness and decides to beat her too for her association with the Star Clan survivor. But the blow of his club is interrupted by Black☆Star, who blocks the attack with just his hand. Black☆Star seizes the weapon in his fingers and orders the child not to interrupt "Tsubaki's show" again. He then snaps the club in two and threatens to kill this child. The child backs away, and Black☆Star goads him to shut up and watch from his farther distance. With half the club still in his hands, the child throws it at Black☆Star's head, telling the ninja, "Shut up!! Star Clan!"
Inside the Uncanny Sword[]
As Tsubaki is dying on his Puppet Rain, Masamune asks the silent camallia whether she has any final words. Tsubaki still stares at him with the same expression she has had during so much of their battle. Masamune thinks that, to be a Kishin, he "must cast aside [his] feelings." He stabs his sword directly into Tsubaki's chest and completes absorbing her soul.
Death Room[]
Stein has lit a cigarette, as he tells Death that, despite Tsubaki being a "multi-form high-performance weapon," she cannot win again Masamune. But Death disagrees, claiming her biggest strength is actually her very soul.
Inside the Uncanny Sword[]
Although limp on Masamune's attack, Tsubaki still lives. And even as he desires for her death, all Masamune can remember is his childhood with Tsubaki, when he would ask her which game to play. Tsubaki would repeat the question, frustrating Masamune as he has to repeat the question. Tsubaki notices her brother's disease and says she wants to play Kemari, a Japanese ball game. But Kemari was not the game that Tsubaki wanted to play: she interrupts her brother's own thought to think that she really wanted to play house. Tsubaki then thinks of her brother's remarks about the significance of her name, and as she thinks, her soul refuses to be absorb by her brother's.
"No!!!" Tsubaki screams, resuming light as she removes her ninja sword and stabs it through Masamune's back. "I won't be considerate of you anymore!!! I will stop you!! This is the real me!! Please feel it with all of your soul!!" Masamune ignores Tsubaki as just "a petty flower," but Tsubaki proclaims, "Even tsubaki have a fragrance!" Brother and sister erupt in a final display of rage.
Village of Shin[]
Tsubaki being drawn into the blade
In the physical world, Tsubaki's body is sucked into the Uncanny Sword itself. Black☆Star is shocked: has his partner lost?
Inside the Uncanny Sword[]
Masamune bids adieu to Tsubaki
Masamune's black eyes remain, staring intently on the exhausted face of Tsubaki. His Blade seems to be logged through her chest, suggesting he has won. Then Masamune closes his eyes and holds a tsubaki flower before him. He lets go of his sword, revealing that his own body, his own soul, is dissipating: Tsubaki has killed him. As he dissolves, Masamune concludes that there is indeed a beauty and a smell to even the camellia flower. Masamune's last words are, "When I touched your soul, I realized it has a wonderful fragrance."
Masamune's body and sword dissolve, its energy exploding out of Tsubaki's back wound and forming into Masamune's soul. Tsubaki sobs as she clutches her dead brother's soul to her chest.
Village of Shin[]
Black☆Star still stares at the Uncanny Sword, eventually snatching a stick from the perverted villager to poke at the sword, demanding Tsubaki awaken for the "encore" to her performance. He is then shocked as the sword explodes, transforming into Tsubaki herself. Surprised, the blood-soaked Black☆Star welcomes back his weapon, asking whether she is okay. Despite her assurances, Black☆Star studies her averted stare. He smiles and offers her a hug. Tsubaki finally breaks down sobbing, embracing her meister with an apology and asking whether he is okay despite his physical injuries. Black☆Star assures her that he is fine.
The moment between meister and weapon is ruined when the young boy who first struck Black☆Star proceeds to do so again—and true to his promise, Black☆Star kicks the child away, shocking his mother. The noise of this kick also awakens Ryōku. As the villagers complain of Black☆Star's violence, the ninja tells these "losers" to stop "talk[ing] out of their asses" and to move on beyond whatever the Star Clan did to them earlier. This advice is not taken well, as the villagers again threaten to throw rocks at Black☆Star and Tsubaki. Their mission completed successfully, the DWMA members run away, Black☆Star hoping this village of "assholes" falls apart, while Tsubaki apologizes for her meister.
Still seated as he recovers from his injuries, Ryōku actually smiles, saying, "I'd hate that guy even if he wasn't one of the Star Clan."
Death Room[]
"Improvement!"
Black☆Star and Tsubaki have returned to the Academy, where the meister asks his weapon, now that her mission against the Uncanny Sword is concluded, whether she will remain his weapon. Tsubaki thinks that, with Black☆Star, she gets to be true to herself, and she agrees.
The ninja and his weapon are then surprised to find not only Death waiting in the Death Room to congratulate their first soul acquisition but also Stein, Maka Albarn, Soul Eater, Kid, Liz, and Patty. Black☆Star is actually taken aback and offers a quiet thanks, while Tsubaki apologizes for causing their worry. While the students congratulate Black☆Star and Tsubaki, Stein admits to Death that he may have underestimated these children. But their conversation is interrupted as Black☆Star takes the stage atop Death's mirror, unveiling Tsubaki's Uncanny Sword Mode, which, while visually impressive, exhausts his soul wavelengths immediately, stunning their peers and prompting Tsubaki to revert to her human form to fan her exhausted meister. Stein is surprised that Tsubaki absorbed her brother's technique while Death is just happy that one Kishin has been defeated.
Manga and Anime Differences[]
- In Episode 11, Maka and Soul are in the Death Room watching Black☆Star and Tsubaki in the Village of Shin. In Chapter 8, Maka and Soul are not shown in the Death Room until Black☆Star and Tsubaki return.
- In Chapter 8, Death interrupts Stein's lunch. This scene is expanded in Episode 11: not only does Stein bring his lunch, but Liz and Patty bring snacks for everyone, which they and Kid consume but which upsets Maka in the midst of watching a fatal fight between Tsubaki and Masamune.
- In Chapter 8, Tsubaki determines on her own that she will not let Masamune think of her as only a petty flower that pities Masamune. In Episode 11, however, Tsubaki is initially unable to ignore this complaint by her brother, until Black☆Star enters her soul to tell her that he knows her to be better than what her brother thinks she is. In this chapter, Black☆Star never enters Tsubaki's soul and never makes such a statement.
- In Chapter 8, Tsubaki and Masamune's struggle to outweigh the will of the other involves the siblings clutching each other and trying to stab their weapons harder through each other. In Episode 11, this final attack begins with Tsubaki and Masamune far from each other, with Tsubaki rushing towards him across the water before leaping to avoid his Shadow Puppets and descend down upon him.
- In Episode 11, when Masamune dies, his sword pierces through Tsubaki's chest, yet is blocked by a camellia flower. In Chapter 8, however, no such flower appears over Tsubaki's chest wound, and this chapter actually shows a gorier image of the blood seeping from her wound as Masamune lets go of his sword.
- At the end of Chapter 8, Death is inside his mirror. At the end of Episode 11, however, Death is outside of his mirror.
- At the end of Episode 11, the students have actual dialogue with Black☆Star and Tsubaki when congratulating their achievements, at which point Liz claims Patty was an emotional wreck over the fight, while Patty corrects her sister that it was actually her who was sobbing. This dialogue is not present in Chapter 8.
Trivia[]
References[]