Entry tags:	anime/manga, anime/manga: soul eater
Crossposts:	http://nenena.livejournal.com/363941.html

The opportunity to get yourself arrested and thrown in jail just to see if you can break out again, that is.

That's right. Free is back.

So! We open with a black splatter of a word bubble that I assume is supposed to be Justin's dying words. We will destroy all order!

Justin... Stein think-bubbles. His eyes (or rather, his glasses) finally return to normal. You never understood, not even in the very end... It's because you were always so alone that the rules broke you and you descended into madness... It was because when you upheld the rules you lacked any sort of imagination. No wonder you broke... And besides... Even if all rules are destroyed, that's not the world that I wish for...

Kid turns his head and sees Stein looking all pensive next to a smoking pile of ash. "Did the professor finish off Justin?!"

Suddenly, nameless Shibusen grunt! "Kid!!"

"Now what?"

"You've been ordered to return immediately to the Demon Tool Airship." They really couldn't come up with a better name for that thing? "Shinigami-sama is online and waiting to speak to you."

But Kid is all, like, busy shooting clowns and fighting a losing battle and stuff. "Are you insane?! You expect me to leave the battlefield in the middle of this mess?! I don't care what his reasons are, there's no way I'm going to obey an order like that!"

Suddenly, Stein and Marie! Making damn short work of the clowns all around Kid. "Hey, what's up." I am not kidding that is Stein's actual line.

"Father ordered me to withdraw from the battle," Kid explains to Stein.

At a time like this? Stein think-bubbles. It must have something to do with those negotiations...

"Shinigami-sama is waiting," Shibusen grunt gamely continues. "Please hurry."

I bet he can't stand the thought of leaving when he sees our own wounded soldiers all over the battlefield...

Suddenly, Brilliant Professor Plan! "Follow Shinigami-sama's orders and take the wounded back to the airship with you!" Stein tells Kid.

"Now even you're telling me to retreat?!" Kid says, getting pissier and pissier by the panel.

"The other Death Scythes and I can take care of this battle while you're gone! You can come back here after you've followed Shinigami-sama's orders! Death Scythes don't have all of that flashy power just for show, you know!"

"It's not that I don't have faith in you or the Death Scythes," Kid says as he continues to blast more clowns, "But this is a battle for the sake of Order... As a shinigami, I can't back down from this fight!!"

God fucking dammit Kid your daddy issues are so transparent and your protests are so melodramatic and stupid. Just do what your dad goddamn says and then you can get back to blowing up clowns to your heart's content. I mean did you not just see Stein and Marie finish off Justin and jump right in to save your ass from a whole panel full of clowns, or what.

Stein is apparently thinking the same thing, because in the next few panels he jumps around Kid, takes a swing with Marie, and blows up an entire posse of clowns in the most ridiculously dramatic way possible. Just in case Kid needs any more convincing that these guys are going to be pretty fucking just fine without him.

"I understand, Kid," Stein says. "You're special. There are things you can do that us normal humans could never do. And right now there is something that must be done that only Kid can do."

"Are you kidding me..."

Stein looks out at the line of clowns approaching them again. "They just keep coming, don't they? They won't even let us catch our breath."

Stein drops Marie from his hand, and she jumps out of her weapon form. "Stein?"

"I'm at my limit, so I can't use your 'izumi' power anymore. Please take Kid back to the airship, and take any wounded soldiers with you."

Maries stares at the back of Stein's head.

"Hurry," Stein says, "the clowns are reviving again!!"

"But--"

Stein fist-bumps her. So adorable. "I'm going to be okay," he says, smiling at her.

Marie is definitely not convinced, but she turns away from him anyway and starts heading back toward the airship. "Understood. Let's go, Kid."

Kid chews on some ellipses, then finally turns and follows Marie. "We'll be back soon," Kid tells Stein.

Meanwhile, in the Death Room! Big Daddy is waiting in front of his mirror.

Azusa is standing on the other side of the mirror, inside the airship. Kid arrives. Azusa helpfully announces that he has arrived. "Kid is here."

Kid does an excellent job of glaring at the mirror in the pissiest way he can possibly glare. "What is it, Father?" Ha ha omg his shirt. The only visible battle damage on Kid at all is some slight singing on the collar of his shirt, which must have happened when Moonbeam's collar bomb exploded on his neck. Which does lead one to wonder how Kid's clothing could possibly be made of the same explosion-proof material that his body is apparently made of.

"Happy to see you safe and sound, Kid!"

"Please skip these useless pleasantries and cut right to the important matter," Kid says. Oh wow Kid way to be a TOTAL DICK to your dad there.

Next we get a panel of Shinigami-sama being uncharacteristically silent, which I guess is his version of making sadface. But in the next panel he finally begins to speak again. "First I need you to calm down and listen to me. We at Shibusen are currently in the middle of negotiations with an important power. These negotiations began in secret before we even launched the attack on the moon."

"An important power...?"

"Witches."

Kid is le shock!! "Witches? But Shibusen and the witches have been enemies for years..." Well, except for Kim. And Angela. And now even Risa and Arisa. Hell even Medusa was willing to cut a deal with Shibusen and help them out in the fight against Arachne. Oh yeah and they were able to force Eruka to help them rescue Kid, too. Come on, Kid! It's not like Shibusen has never negotiated with witches before!!

Goddamit Kid, your memory is so bad that in the next scene I bet you're going to act surprised when Kaguya tells you that the clowns can endlessly regenerate again. Oh wait.

"What could a witch possibly...?" Kid asks, continuing with the lack of memory and excess stupidity.

"In order to defeat the kishin, Shibusen summoned all the Death Scythes to participate in this battle, and had to send a vast number of our worldwide forces to the moon," Big Daddy explains. "It would be most inconvenient if trouble were to break out down on Earth while we're in the midst of being so short-handed... And the most threatening source of potential trouble, of course, the witches."

"So you're negotiating with the witches to prevent that from happening..."

"Yup... The one responsible for creating our current predicament by reviving the kishin is the notorious witch Medusa, but the rest of the witches never agreed with the idea of reviving the kishin... Because the kishin's insanity is a threat even to witches. Therefore it won't be too difficult to negotiate a ceasefire between us for the purpose of uniting to defeat the kishin."

"So then what do you need me for?" Kid asks. "If all of what you said is true, then aren't the negotiations going smoothly?"

"Azusa has been keeping me up to date about how the battle on the moon is unfolding..." Big Daddy says. "With our negotiations we may be able to finally have a way to stop the clowns' infinite propagation abilities."

"Are you saying that the only person who could do such a thing is...?

"Yes. A witch. And the one spell that causes Shibusen the most trouble... Because of that troublesome spell who knows how many witches have been able to enter Shibusen itself..."

"!" Kid has a lightbulb moment. "Soul Protect!!"

"Soul Protect is a spell that prevents the stink of a witch's evil wavelength from leaking out," Big Daddy explains for the benefit of those of us readers with memory loss as bad as Kid's apparently is. "The clowns' constant regenerations are triggered by the kishin's insanity wavelength. But if we can use a Soul Protect to cut off the kishin's insanity wavelength, then the clowns will finally stop regenerating."

"So that's why we need the witches to help us..." Kid says.

"But the witches refuse to negotiate with us unless we fulfill one absolute condition: A shinigami must come in person to the Witches' Realm in order to continue our talks. And I can't leave Death City. Therefore I want you, Kid, to travel to the Witches' Realm and finish these negotiations for me."

"But.. I'm on the moon right now." Oh, Kid. Of all the things you could possibly come up with to protest your father's orders this time, that is probably the least of your concerns right now. Also, don't you have a magical flying skateboard that can travel halfway around the world and back again in a short period of time? Or did you forget that Beezlebub exists, too?

"Oh, the witches know that," Big Daddy says. "They're just imposing unreasonable demands because they don't like us..." Gee, I wonder why. "But with the position that we're in right now, we have no choice but to kowtow to those demands... Shibusen has no way to stop the infinite regeneration of the clowns. Therefore I am issuing a temporary order to retreat, Kid."

Kid clenches his fists. "...Is there really no other way...?"

Because her sense of dramatic timing is apparently quite finely tuned, Azusa chooses that moment to turn toward some Shibusen soldiers and ask, "What's the situation on the battlefield?"

"We've completed removal of the dead and wounded from the battlefield. Beginning preparations for launch!"

Kid is le shock again!! This time with two exclamation points!! "!! We can't launch this ship now! With so many clowns still on the moon's surface we'll be shot down within seconds!"

"No, we won't be," Marie says. "Don't worry."

"You don't mean... No..."

"The Death Scythes won't be withdrawing from the battle."

Down on the battlefield, Stein smokes a cigarette, and Spirit lets his luxuriously shampooed hair flutter softly in the wind. Deng's meister and Zubaydah look out at a field full of clowns beginning to regenerate.

"Here they come..." Spirit says. "Oh, and don't even try that 'I'm just going to let myself temporarily fall into insanity' thing," he warns Stein. "Because you just did, and you completely fell apart."

"Did I?" Stein blows skull-shaped smoke rings from his cigarette. "Look, I won't fall into insanity. I have you, and I have Marie, and I have my students, and I have everyone at Shibusen... But at the same time, the real me is never going to change... I'm never going to stop being irritating or gloomy, so I guess you'll just have to keep putting up with me."

"Gimme a break..." Spirit says. "I spend more time taking care of you than I do raising my own daughter. A little bit of gratitude every now and then would be nice, you know." Suddenly, Spirit is lightbulb moment! "I know! You should start a family! If you do that then you won't have time to be babbling about insanity or whatnot anymore."

"So says the man who tried the whole 'having a family' thing and failed miserably."

"Uu...." Spirit's face. "When you put it that way, I'm kind of on the side opposed to following rules, too."

"And that's exactly why you're the Death Scythe," Stein says with a grin.

Meanwhile, in the Witches' Realm! There is a witch wearing a cute hat. "Grandmother Witch. we have received a reply from Shibusen regarding the negotiations."

Meanwhile, in Shibusen's dungeon! Eruka is croaking. "Using a Soul Protect to cut off the kishin's insanity wavelength and end the clowns' ability to endlessly regenerate? That's what my Shibusen contact told me when I asked him about it earlier." Wait, Eruka actually convinced one of her guards or somebody else at Shibusen to tell her information, including information that Big Daddy said a few pages ago was supposed to be super-duper top secret confidential?! "The theory behind their plan is sound... But that's not something that one or even two witches would be able to do... It would take greater numbers..."

Suddenly, a knock on Eruka's door!

"ERUKA! CAN YOU HEAR ME? IT'S ME! FREE!!"

"Free?! What are you doing here?!"

"I'm here to rescue you, duh! I mean, you're the one who came into a dungeon and rescued me back when I was locked up! Did you really think I was gonna abandon my own rescuer? Like I would ever do that!!"

Eruka walks up to the door. "But how did you get in here?!"

"Did you forget that using a Soul Protect makes getting into a place like this a piece of cake?"

Eruka presses her hands to the door. "Even if you use a Soul Protect, it can't be that easy. This is Shibusen, you know!"

"Like I care whether this is Shibusen or whatever! I'm getting you outta here right now!!"

The door opens.

Eruka throws open her arms and grins happily. "FREE!"

Then her grin immediately turns into a sour frog face.

Free is in handcuffs, surrounded by Shibusen agents.

"So you're captured, too," Eruka says.

Free grins winningly at her. "That's right!! Since I was coming to rescue you anyway I couldn't waste the opportunity!!" Then he looks disappointed. "But now it looks like they're gonna release you right now. I guess it's because " and there is a pun here on reason and arrest and head injury all in the same word and goddammit Ohkubo how am I supposed to translate that?!

And oh hey look, Risa and Arisa are there too! And Enrique, who is holding up a mirror, through which Tezca speaks. "Now that everyone's here, let's hurry back up to the Death Room. Shinigami-sama is waiting."

Free stares at Enrique. "I guess you could say this is like monkeys and dogs," he says. Terrible pun explanation time: Japanese use the expression "like monkeys and dogs" the same way that we say "like cats and dogs" in English, i.e. to describe two groups that are constantly fighting for stupid reasons.

But then, just to put the cherry on top of the fail sundae, Free tries to explain his pun to Eruka. "Because, you know, I don't like monkeys. Also, the hammer is my penis."

"Oh shut up, you dumb dog."

Meanwhile, in Italy!

The Spartoi group is splitting up. "All right, we're heading back," Ox says. "We don't have any means to get to the moon, so we can't go with you..." We apparently means himself, Harvar, Kirikou, and the Pots.

"I don't know why, but I was just ordered to return to Shibusen, too..." Kim says. So that means that her and Jackie aren't going to the moon either.

"But as soon as we get back to Shibusen, we're going to find some way to get up to the moon and join you guys," Kirikou says.

"We'll be waiting for you!" Black Star says. Wait, how is Black Star getting up there?! Is he going to hitch a ride with Maka, or is he actually going to use his Tsubaki's Illogical Scarf Mode to get all the way to the moon?

"WAIT WAIT WAIT!" Somebody shouts.

It's Soul, running to catch up to the group, Tsubaki at his side. "Here. We've got one for everyone."

Kirikou takes Soul's gift in his hands. "And this is supposed to be...?"

"While Maka-chan was talking to Shinigami-sama, Soul and I bought these from that street vendor over there," Tsubaki says.

"Tsubaki said that it's, like, a headband you can wear when your hair is getting in your eyes and stuff..." Soul says.

"Since we're all separating right now, I thought it would be nice if we could stay together in the sense of at least wearing one thing that matches all the rest of us..." Tsubaki says. "As in, 'even when we're apart our hearts are together'!! Or something like that."

Black Star looks at Soul's headband. "Hey, how come Soul's headband is the only one with that design on it?"

"Oh, I drew this on there myself," Soul says. It's the Soul Eater logo, of course.

"So draw one on our headbands too!" Kirikou says.

"Oooh, let me see that!" Kim pipes in.

Unfortunately, it's Maka who ends up taking a marker and trying to do the actual drawing.

"Ooooh, Maka's so bad at art class, how did she end up being our master painter?" Soul teases her.

Maka scribbles and scribbles until she gives up. "YOU draw it!!" she says, thrusting the headband in Soul's face.

"O... Okay..."

"Soul," Black Star says, "Can I add some stars to mine?"

"Yeah, no problem..."

Black Star turns around. "Tsubaki, you draw it."

"Okay!"

Next panel: Disembodied word bubbles everywhere, but no visuals!

"Seriously?! Jackie, are you serious?"

"Why? Do you think it's weird?"

"...No. It's great."

"Harvar's drawing zig-zags."

"It's just because I don't like curves."

Later! The rest of the Spartoi have left, and only Maka, Soul, Black Star, and Tsubaki are still in Italy.

"Kirikou and his group are gone, too. I guess that means it's time for us to get going," Soul says to Black Star.

"Guess so!"

"WAIT! WAIT!" Tsubaki shouts.

Oh my god. Tsubaki. That bag.

"Again?" Black Star says. "What is it this time...?"

"This is Maka-chan's idea this time," Tsubaki says.

Maka unzips the bag. "The order to execute Crona... was issued because Crona opposed Order and committed crimes which cannot be forgiven. But now that I've met with Crona and I understand why things ended up that way, I can't carry out the execution. But if I disobey that order, then I no longer have the right to bear this Spartoi logo, either." Maka touches the Spartoi logo on her shoulder, then reaches down into the bag and pulls out something long and black. "That's why I brought this."

Soul stares at her. "That's..."

"I talked to Maka about it, and decided to bring it along," Tsubaki says. "I packed everyone else's into that bag, too."

Soul grins a surprisingly toothless grin. "I get it."

Oh my god. Maka. That coat.

Oh my god. Ex-Spartoi. That outfit change.

"ALL RIGHT, EVERYONE!!" Maka says, one hand on her hip and the other pointed straight up at the moon. "WHERE'S THE MOON?! IT'S RIGHT UP THERE!!"

Oh my god. Maka. That battle cry. Leaves much, much, MUCH to be desired.

To be continued next month!





...No but seriously I still don't understand why Maka and the rest of the Spartoi are making Such A Big Deal about disobeying the order to execute Crona when several chapters ago Kid directly explained to them that even though Big Daddy may have issued the order, he still expects the Spartoi to decide for themselves whether Crona needs to be killed or not. I mean, it just doesn't get any more clear-cut than that.

But still, not gonna lie here, seeing the four moon-bound Spartoi putting back on their original outfits was a pretty awesome moment.

Edited to add: Two things!

1. If you would like to link to this summary, I would appreciate it if you could link to the dreamwidth version, NOT the livejournal version! Thank you!

2. Also, shout-out to all the lazy scanslators reading this! Please don't be as lazy this month as you were last month, mmkay? (Explanation.)