| Synopsis |
|---|
| As DWMA students spar in order to prepare for Kid's rescue, Marie Mjolnir and Franken Stein return to Death to announce Justin Law's murder of Joe Buttataki. As the new youth unit Spartoi forms, Maka Albarn makes a major accomplishment: she claims the one-hundredth soul to make Soul into a Death Scythe. |
Startup is the sixty-second serialized chapter of the manga Soul Eater. It was reprinted in tankōbon form in Volume 15.
Featured Appearances[]
Characters
- Maka Albarn
- Soul Eater
- Black☆Star
- Tsubaki Nakatsukasa
- Liz Thompson
- Patty Thompson
- Sid Barrett
- Mira Naigus
- Marie Mjolnir
- Franken Stein
- Spirit Albarn
- Death
- Kim Diehl
- Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre
- Ox Ford
- Harvar D. Éclair
- Angela Leon
- Other students
Noah's Gang
- Noah (Greed)
- Justin Law
- The Clown
- Giriko
- Gopher (first appearance)
- Death the Kid (kidnapped)
Other characters
- Frey D. Sadoko (first appearance; dead)
Locations[]
- Death City
- DWMA
- Sparring room
- Death Room
- DWMA
- Noah's Lair
Techniques[]
Objects[]
- Tape recorder
- Book of Eibon
Plot[]
Splash Page[]
Death Weapon Meister Academy is a school with one goal for its students: meisters collect 99 human souls and one witch's soul to feed to a weapon, who then will become Death's weapon.
A City[]
Maka claims her 100th soul from Frey D. Sadoko
The serial killer Frey D. Sadoko condescends to the "DWMA bitch" who stands against her and the god she represents. Looking from above at Sadoko, Maka Albarn announces Sadoko's crimes—forcing victims to listen to a cursed recording so to be killed in their nightmare—for which Maka will harvest Sadoko's soul.
As Maka jumps toward Sadoko, Soul Eater reminds her with this, they will finally claim their one-hundredth soul. Frey, attacks, using Nine Inch Nails, but this technique is blocked by Maka, who proceeds to bifurcate her. Soul reverts to his human form and collects the soul.
DWMA Sparring Room[]
Next morning at the DWMA, students practice sparring. Tsubaki Nakatsukasa and Mira Naigus are impressed by the sparring match that they watch, more so with Kim Diehl's opponent, Patty Thompson. Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre says that Patty has fought five partners in a row without tiring, leading Naigus to recognize how Patty is wasted as a weapon given her in-person combat skills.
Kim collapses and admits defeat. Ox Ford, bruised from his duel against Patty, says he as the Lightning King could not defeat her indoors—and cannot resist saying Kim beats all people hear in terms of cuteness—while Harvar D. Éclair tries to ignore his meister's comment and focus on how Patty may be stronger than Maka.
Liz Thompson praises her younger sister's fighting skills. While Patty's defeated opponents are annoyed, Tsubaki admits she would be as proud if her meister were fighting. At that moment, Black☆Star appears to challenge Patty, despite his injuries, to see whether he is stronger than Death the Kid's weapon.
Black☆Star reveals his scar from Mifune
Jacqueline notices the cut on Black☆Star's right arm across his star tattoo, left by Mifune in their previous battle, which Kim could not heal despite repeated attempts with her Regeneration Magic. Black☆Star mocks Kim's abilities—infuriating Kim, who demands payment for her services—before saying that he promised Mifune to become a Warrior God, hence he will not remove this scar so easily. This remark causes Jacqueline and other female students to blush—and Kim's blushing frustrates Ox. Kilik Rung also thinks Black☆Star will beat Patty, prompting Jacqueline to remind Kilik he lost against Patty as well. Before standing before Patty, Black☆Star assures Angela Leon he will win.
After Naigus announces the sparring match to begin, Black☆Star calls a time out to make the fight even, and more interesting, with a handicap: he orders Tsubaki to bind his hands so he does not attack Patty directly with his wavelength. Distracted, Black☆Star fails to anticipate Patty running up behind him and kicking him in the testicles. Naigus criticizes Black☆Star for calling a time-out rather than turning away from his opponent, Angela kicks the downed Black☆Star in the head, and Black☆Star begs an embarrassed Kim to heal his "little Black☆Star," his "dick" (the word itself is not used in the chapter, as he was cut off by Kim's rant).
As Tsubaki bemoans her meister's foolishness, Liz praises her sister's fighting skills, before falling into sadness with the reminder that they all must train more if they are to rescue Death the Kid. Tsubaki and Black☆Star assure Liz that Kid is strong and focus on order to allow himself to stay captured for long. If Patty is fighting so hard because she has faith in Kid, then Liz must as well. Liz smiles and agrees.
Sid Barrett interrupts class to speak quietly with Naigus—but Black☆Star, smiling, can hear their discussion.
Death Room[]
Death and Spirit Albarn welcome back Franken Stein and Marie Mjolnir. Stein begins with an apology for escaping custody, Spirit apologizes for assisting with Stein's escape, and Marie apologizes for running off with Stein. Marie then presents a taped confession from the real killer of Joe Buttataki. Unfortunately, background noise blocked the audio, infuriating Spirit for allowing Stein to escape custody.
Spirit announces that Azusa Yumi discovered an investigation report Joe had hidden before his death, which identified Justin Law as the killer. Stein already knows some of this information: immediately after the battle for Brew, Justin met with an unidentified person, which allowed Stein and Marie to follow Justin's path until they found him. Spirit is impressed at what Stein and Marie discovered, but he is not above embarrassing Marie by implying the two had some “honeymoon cruise.”
Stein concludes that, when Justin escaped with a Demon Tool, Justin's collaborator is a Demon Tool expert, although not necessarily a witch. Death anticipates that this collaborator may be the sorcerer who kidnapped Kid.
Noah's Lair[]
That same sorcerer, named Noah, opens the Book of Eibon, from which Justin emerges to face the sorcerer and their peers: Giriko, The Clown, and someone who looks like a young boy.
The defected Death Scythe wipes the blood from his face to announce, "DWMA's strongest meister and his pet pulverizer got in my way." Giriko mocks Justin's retreat, while Justin mocks Giriko's lethargy. As the two bicker, the boy receives permission from Noah to assassinate Maka Albarn.
Within the Book of Eibon, Death the Kid curses his kidnappers.
Death Room[]
Soul is about to become a Death Scythe
Maka and Soul return to announce the successful completion of their mission. Death notes the duo have changed their clothes—which Spirit finds adorable—and announces the inauguration of the DWMA's Elite Youth Unit, Spartoi. Death explains the newly returned Stein re-titled the "Kid Squad," named for the armed skeletal warriors of Greek myth, born from dragon's teeth to drive madness from the land. But Maka is too excited by Stein's return to pay much attention, hugging her teacher and welcoming his return.
Spirit says the birth of Spartoi includes another birth: that of a new Death Scythe. He holds Arachne’s soul to Soul. The members of the newly formed Spartoi watch as Soul, drool coming from his lips, opens his mouth to ingest the soul.
Trivia[]
- Frey's Nine Inch Nails attack is yet another musical allusion included in Soul Eater, specifically the rock band. The attack is written with characters meaning "Well-Rudeness-Pain," as that coming from a water well, and in Japanese reads as "Id Break," a fighting technique from the Final Fantasy spinoff game series SaGa. Like Soul Eater, Final Fantasy is produced by the company Square Enix.[1]
- Black☆Star refers to himself as "bushin" ("war god"), in contrast to "kishin" ("demon god"). This contrast is thematically related to Black☆Star's earlier struggle to choose between "the Path of a Warrior" and "the Path of a Demon."[1]
- Spartoi refers to the Greek legend of those warriors who sprang from the earth after Kadmos, founder of Grecian Thebes, sowed the teeth of a dragon to replace those warriors killed by that very dragon he defeated.[1]