A/N: Talk about being extremely late to the punch. Oh well. I had my own personal headcanon for what I believed was going to happen after Chapter 110, and I'll be damned if Chapter 111 is going to stop me from uploading it. Considering the next chapter of the manga is coming out in less than twelve hours, most of the people reading this will probably have already read the new chapter by the time they see this. I guess you can all just laugh at how far off I was from canon.
So here is my version of how I would have Chapter 111 go down.
Disclaimer: I can't draw to save my life. There's no way I own the Soul Eater manga.
Soul could feel the madness churning inside of him, but he tried not to let it bother him. He knew that pushing the Black Blood to the limit was dangerous, but he was willing to break all of the rules if it meant getting himself and his friends out of this battle alive. His song's tempo increased, and though Soul was alone with a demon in a tiny room with a shitty piano, in his head it was an entire symphony of music. An imaginary crowd sat as a captive audience to the masterpiece escaping from his fingers, and it only encouraged him more.
He could feel his control slipping, but he could also feel his Resonance with Maka growing stronger, and that's what they needed. Winning this battle wasn't just important to them, but the fate of everyone. Soul's head was clear enough to remember that. So he continued his piano playing, even after Maka called out is name in worry. He'd be fine.
He told her so. "I've been lazing around a bit with the Black Blood, but I'll be fine," he mused. "I won't lose myself anymore." An involuntary chuckle escaped his throat as he said it, and he bit his lip to prevent more from tumbling out. He had it under control.
Sweat poured down his face, and he resisted the urge to wipe his brow. He couldn't stop the music, not now. It was seeping from him; every pore on his body was dripping with notes so deep and dark that he himself was getting worried. Worried about what, he wasn't sure. This was the most powerful he and Maka had ever been. And with Kid being a full-blown Shinigami, Black Star's incredible combat skills, and his soul piano and Black Blood, it was the strongest their Resonance Team had ever been as well. The defeat of the Kishin was within reach. The dread pitting in his stomach with every new note that erupted from his piano was unnecessary.
He had to admit that the power he felt was amazing, though. Is this what the demon had been talking about all this time? How the Black Blood could make him stronger? It was like liquid energy flowing through his veins. His entire body hummed with it, and another laugh passed from his lips, gleeful and insane. He told himself that he had a handle on it.
Outside of the Black Room, he heard Asura say something about his own Black Blood. Soul couldn't quite hear the exact conversation, though; not over the sound of the imaginary audience's cheers, his "adagio of the soul" practically tearing the Black Room apart like it was a tangible thing, a force, a beautiful cyclone ready to destroy anything in its path. It seemed that Soul's music was affecting the Kishin somehow, and Soul didn't bother to hide his laughter at that. They were winning.
"This is my piano, you Kishin bastard!" He howled. The Black Room filled to the brim with his words and his music and his insanity.
He could vaguely hear the Kishin mention targeting Maka, but he wasn't concerned. As his song's melody ebbed and flowed around him, Maka sped above the Kishin, out of reach. She was faster and swifter because of his song, and Soul wished he could pull himself away from his piano long enough to laugh at the little demon who was always so keen on mocking him. Look at us now, he wanted to say. I can control the power you give me.
Kid and Black Star moved in to back Maka up, and Soul nodded. Good. Those two would take care of Maka and he could focus on his song. He was reaching a high-point in it, and once he hit that point their Resonance would be stronger than ever. He tried to tell Maka that that was when they should strike Asura because it would do the most damage at that point in the song. He opened his mouth to speak to his meister but maniacal laughter was all that came out. His fingers slammed down on the ivory keys with much more force than intended, and the imaginary symphony surrounding him turned cacophonous, making him shudder as he tried to rein the dark melody back under his control. Maybe it wasn't fine.
Back in reality, Asura launched a ball of energy that exploded somewhere, throwing up a huge cloud of dust. He vaguely wondered who it was aimed at and if they were okay. Since he couldn't speak, Soul's mind honed on his Resonance with Maka. Is everyone alright? He asked her through the link. His fingers were growing numb from his piano playing, but stopping was out of the question.
He awaited her response, but she didn't answer. Suddenly, their link was awash with shock. Shock and terror.
Soul's playing faltered, and the audience in his head disappeared, leaving him alone. He tried to will his mind to return to reality, but it was as if his consciousness was trapped inside the Black Room. What was wrong with Maka?
He tried to ask her if she was okay, when all of a sudden the music pouring from his piano turned into retched noise. It was as if a monkey had tuned his piano and then thrown garbage inside of it. The soft tinkling of the keys turned into grating and clashing, and abruptly Soul's fingers wrenched themselves from the keys as if on their own accord. The noise stopped and all was silent. Soul listened intently, but he couldn't hear Maka, and when he reached out to try and Resonate with her, her soul was gone.
What happened?
The absolute silence inside of the Black Room terrified him. He couldn't hear anything outside either, and that scared him even more. Without his piano playing, the Black Blood within him lost its power, and Soul was finally able to break free from the Black Room's hold and see the outside world. Through his scythe-eye he could see that he was on the ground. Maka was nowhere in sight, and the cloud of dust from the last blast was still settling, so he couldn't see Black Star or Kid either.
This was bad. This was very bad.
Soul knew that transforming was dangerous, but he felt so alone without the sounds of battle and the melody of his song that he needed to see someone. He needed to know his friends were okay, that Maka was okay, and the longer he laid there on the surface of the moon, the less sure he was of that fact. Being an immobile, meister-less weapon was not helping his anxiety.
He transformed as swiftly as he could, and immediately scanned the moon for a place to hide. The first thing he noticed, however, was that the Kishin was not around. He swiveled his head left and right, searching for the obvious threat, but Asura was not in sight. Soul wished he could risk calling for Maka, but was sure that in doing so he would stir the Kishin from wherever it was, and without his meister Soul wouldn't stand a chance.
He heard a cough from his right and turned to see Black Star and Kid near a pile of debris, the blast from the explosion finally settling as his friends emerged from the rubble. He turned to them to ask where Maka was, and it was in that moment that something warm and wet dripped onto his cheek. He winced and blinked his eyes, wiping away the water from his face as he returned his attention to his friends. He needed to know where Maka was.
His words died in his mouth when he saw the looks on their faces. Mouths agape, terrified eyes staring at the space above Soul's head, the scythe's throat closed up. Saying that he was afraid to look up was the understatement of the century. He craned his neck back and looked up as another drop of water fell on his face.
His heart stopped.
It wasn't water.
Soul's meister hung above him, limp and covered in blood. Asura's arm was elbow-deep in Maka's chest, bloody hand protruding from her back. Her eyes were frozen in a final look of horror, and seconds later they were closing.
Please no.
Soul's knees buckled, and he dropped to the ground.
The Kishin grinned in satisfaction at the horror on Soul's face. He laughed at the sight, and the smug chuckle that fell from Asura's lips was the only noise that Soul seemed to register. Everything else was silence.
Then, as quickly as the pleased look passed across Asura's face, it was gone. Disgust replaced it, and he looked over to the arm that Maka was so grotesquely skewered on. His look told Soul that his best friend was merely a nuisance to the Kishin now. The threat was eliminated. With that, the Kishin shook his arm twice, without an ounce of remorse, and Maka's immobile body fell unceremoniously to the ground.
Soul wasn't even aware of the fact that he had stood, but in seconds he was directly underneath the Kishin's hand, catching his meister in his arms. Asura, apparently finding no more pleasure his attack on Maka, returned his attention to Black Star and Kid. Soul wanted to pay attention, to stop the monster from going after more of his friends, but he was rooted to the spot where he stood, eyes glued to gaping hole in his meister's chest. There was no strength left in him. He dropped to his knees once again.
She had to be okay. This was Maka Albarn. She had been through hell and back countless time with her goddamn pigtails still intact. There was no way that she was—
He held her close to him as he sat on the ground. He felt the demon inside his soul twitch in anticipation. If Soul wasn't paralyzed in fear he would have been yelling at the demon. Screaming at him. This was all its fault. If the little demon wasn't constantly forcing Soul to use the Black Blood all the time, Soul would have been paying attention to his meister. Maka was a thousand times more important than any type of power that the demon could have given him.
Wait…The Black Blood.
When Soul and Maka had fought Crona back when the Kishin was first revived, Maka had used the Black Blood. In caused her to go mad, but during her battle with Crona her wounds were sealed shut because of it. If he could harness the Black Blood's power and pass it to Maka, she could heal her wounds! Soul closed his eyes and focused on returning to the Black Room. Holding Maka tightly, he drew himself inside of his soul and within seconds he was standing in front of his piano in his pinstripe suit. The demon emerged from behind the piano, looking almost scared.
"Tell me how to harness the Black Blood's healing powers." His crimson eyes were hard as he glared daggers at the monster that had ruined his life, as well as Maka's.
The demon shrunk behind a leg of the piano. "It can't help you now," it said, shaking under the authority of Soul's imposing figure.
Soul grabbed the thing by its stupid little suit and hefted it in front of his face. Its too-long arms reached up to cover its terrified face, but that didn't stop Soul from screaming. "Tell me how to save Maka!" The room shook.
The demon only shook its head once more. Cowardly tears dripped down its face. "In order to transfer the Black Blood to her, you have to be able to Resonate with her. You can't. She's gone."
Soul's hands began to shake, and he dropped the demon at his feet. He walked out of the room and slammed the door shut behind him hard enough to make the door splinter. Back in reality, he awoke once again. The demon had no idea what it was talking about. All Soul had to do was Resonate with his partner, and then he could save her. He closed his eyes and concentrated on feeling her Soul wavelength. She lay right in front of him, so it should have been easy.
He felt nothing.
His breathing faltered, but he steeled himself against the pain in his own chest and tried again. He reached out his soul with all his might, even throwing in a broken "Let's go, Soul Resonance!" in for good measure. Maka's soul didn't react. Maka's soul wasn't there anymore.
Maka was gone.
"Maka?" His voice shook. The word he spoke wasn't just a name to him. It was a question that now would never be answered, a plea falling on deaf ears, a promise that he had broken. The word was begging his meister to open her eyes, to hit him on the head with a book and to yell at him for being stupid. In that one word, it wasn't just his voice that was breaking. His heart had shattered too. "Please, answer me," he begged. Her eyes remained closed.
Soul's eyes flicked from his partner's face to her chest. In any other moment he would be commenting on her tiny tits, then getting a book in the face for badmouthing them and fist to the stomach for staring in the first place. But now his focus wasn't on how flat her chest was, but the fact that the normal rise and fall of it had ceased. Blood covered the entirety of her jacket. Soul heard and awful choking noise and it took him a moment to realize that the sound was coming from him.
It's all my fault. Soul wished with all his might that he could blame it all on the demon, but Maka's death was going to be his burden to bear.
I am your weapon partner, Maka! That means that I am always prepared to die for my meister!
It was as if he had said those words to Maka a lifetime ago. That was before the Black Blood infected him, before this entire mess lead to his best friend's demise. He had never meant those words more that he had now. Maka was never supposed to die. It was Soul who had always been willing to risk his life for her. His eyes returned to the bloody gash staining her black trench coat. That should have been his wound.
"Can you save her?" Soul twisted his body to look behind him. Black Star stood behind him about twenty feet away, face lined with worry. His body was numb, but Soul was dimly aware of his head shaking from side to side, and saw the tears escaping from Black Star's eyes.
Soul knew no way to console his friend. From where he sat on the ground, with Maka lying dead in his arms, he was in no position to offer any kind words. The only sound that came out of his mouth was his own choked breathing as he continued to cry over the loss of his meister. There was no way anything could ever be okay after this.
He heard yelling off to his right and turned to see Kid, attacking the Kishin with everything he had. Liz and Patti Resonated with him at full strength, and from a distance they attacked with full force, probably afraid of getting too close to the Kishin after seeing what he did to Maka. He was thankful for the Kid distracting the Kishin. He turned to Black Star. "What should we do?"
The blue-haired assassin shrugged sorrowfully as he looked at the body of his childhood friend. Black Star, who was known for his explosive personality and loud mouth, could barely get his voice above a whisper as he walked toward Soul. "We're gonna have to move her. We still have to fight. We can't let Kid fight the Kishin on his own." Black Star watched as Soul continued to sit there, arms tightening around Maka. He placed a hand on Soul's shoulder when Soul refused to move. "Come on, man. We have to go."
Soul shook his head sharply, trying to clear it, but his mind was as foggy as ever. "You're right." He stood, Maka's bloody form still in his arms. "Go back and help Kid. I'm coming." Black Star nodded, stern as ever, and told Tsubaki to transform into the Enchanted Sword as he ran back into the battle.
With Maka still in his arms, Soul paced over as far from the battle as he dared to go. He set Maka down as carefully as he could, although he supposed the point was probably moot. But if he ignored the gaping wound on Maka's chest and the fact that her face was a white as a sheet, it was almost as if she was only sleeping. He pushed her bangs out of her face and looked down at her. The tears rolled down his face as he steeled himself to leave her. He wasn't sure if he'd survive the upcoming battle without her, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to.
"I'm sorry," he told her. "I'm so so sorry."
The noise of the battle grew louder, and Soul turned from his meister's body. He'd fight until the end like Maka would have wanted him to. He was preparing to transform his arm into a scythe when he heard a shout from behind him.
"Soul, MOVE!" And with that he was roughly tackled to ground, knocking heads with someone as they skid across the ground. A giant fireball hurled passed the two, and his assailant hissed as the heat scorched their back.
As the smoke cleared, Soul looked up to see a very angry pigtailed girl laying on top of him.
"What's the matter with you, you idiot! Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Soul couldn't speak. "The Kishin almost killed you, Soul! Why the hell were you just standing there?"
He couldn't breathe. He couldn't move. Maka kept blabbing on, completely ignoring her weapon's look of shock.
"Look, I'm sorry I dropped you, okay? The Kishin came after me and I didn't have time to dodge so I just jumped off of you. I had no other choice! Of course, I wouldn't have done it if I would have known that you were going to transform back into a human." She hit him roughly in the shoulder. "If you have some kind of death wish, save it for after this battle, okay? You're a sitting duck in your human form, you moron! And you know that! And what's worse! You transform back into a human and then couldn't even help me? I was pinned under that rubble for an eternity! I was calling your name the entire time to try and get some help, but you just stood there! And what the hell were you doing kneeling down afterwards?" Maka looked down at her weapon impatiently, awaiting a response. It was then that she noticed Soul's wide-eyed stare. "…Hey, Soul, are you okay?"
As if awaked from a trance, Soul shot up from where he lay on the ground, sitting up so abruptly that Maka almost fell off of him. Before she had a chance to comment on his strange behavior, Soul was grabbing her around the shoulders and desperately pulling her towards him. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her hard enough to make her gasp for breath. "What's your problem, Soul?" He buried his face in her shoulder as he hugged her, trying to control his breathing as tears clouded his vision. He didn't care how uncool he was being. He would cry in front of the entire world if it meant that this was reality, and that his meister really was alive in front of him.
"Is it really you?" He asked, desperate for confirmation, even if this was all in his head. He'd give anything to hear Maka speak more.
She had to forcibly push Soul back so she could look at him properly. "Of course it's me. Who else would it be?" She looked over his shoulder to see Black Star run up to them.
"Is that Maka?" He asked, unsure if he was seeing things correctly.
"YES. It's me! Why does everybody keep asking me that?"
Black Star jumped up and screamed loud enough to cause ground to tremble. "YAHOO! I knew Maka couldn't be killed by someone so small! She's waaay bigger than that! Almost as big as me! Now let's go kill that Kishin bastard!" He ran at the Kishin with renewed fervor, still yelling at the top of his lungs.
Maka's head whipped back toward Soul, forest green eyes burning in frustration. "If someone doesn't tell me what is going on right now, I am going to stab something. Why are you all acting so weird around me? And what was Black Star saying about me getting killed?"
"It was an illusion." Maka and Soul both turned to see Kid standing before them, twin pistols held rigidly at his sides. "Asura made us all believe that you had been mortally wounded." Soul's hands, which had never left Maka's since she had pulled away from him, tightened around hers at Kid's words. It was all an illusion. Maka was really alive.
"An illusion? About the Kishin hurting me? But why? What would the purpose of that be?"
Soul looked at the singe marks on the back of Maka's coat. He already knew. "To distract me." She looked at Soul, confused. "My soul piano was affecting Asura's Black Blood. If he made me think that you were dead, I'd be too distracted to defend myself. He could have killed me no problem." Maka shook her head, ready to refute Soul's words, but he cut her off. He squeezed her hands once more. "Maka, it worked. He almost did kill me. You said yourself, I was a sitting duck. If you hadn't pushed me out of the way, I'd be a pile of ashes right now." He pointed to her burnt coat. She had just barely avoided being incinerated as well.
"But, thankfully, it didn't. You're both alive, and now we have to keep fighting. This isn't over." Kid looked over to Maka and relaxed a bit. "I'm glad that you're okay, Maka." He turned and went to go help Black Star handle the Kishin, who was currently going on a rampage due to his failed plan.
Soul shook his head. "An illusion? I can't believe that we were all affected by it." His eyes met Maka's. "You didn't see anything? Asura didn't make you hallucinate too?"
She smirked and looked down at her hand. "He couldn't." She released one of Soul's hands to pull off her right glove. On her index finger was a thin golden ring. "My Papa gave it to me before he left to go fight the Kishin. It was Mama's wedding ring. He said that there's an engraving on the back that purifies from madness and misfortune." She smiled as she looked down at the cheap ring. "I guess it works."
Maka looked Soul. He wasn't sure what his face looked like, but he guessed it must have still been a look of shock, because instead of her usual curt tone, her voice was soft when she spoke to him. "Hey," she said quietly, "are you ready to go back?"
Soul nodded slowly as he stared at her, but before she could stand, he pulled her into another hug. He held her for only a moment before letting go with a sigh. "Let's go finish this."
Though she was smiling at him, the look of puzzlement didn't leave her face as she held out her hand to him. His fingers wove into hers and he transformed into a scythe. He Resonated with her immediately, and when her soul connected with his, Soul sighed in relief. Maka only made it a step forward before she stopped and gasped.
"Maka?" Soul's voice was worried again, and the fear of losing her again made his heart stutter. "What's wrong?"
"You…" Her words breathy and short, and for a second Soul wondered if she was having trouble breathing. "You didn't just think I died, did you? You saw me get stabbed. You held my body in your arms." Her voice was shaking, and he could feel her supporting her weight against his handle as she propped him up on the surface of the moon.
He understood now. As Soul's soul connected with Maka's, their link was awash with every thought and emotion swirling around in Soul's head. Maka falling into his arms, her blood on his face, the Kishin's satisfaction, Soul's absolute grief, it was all there. Maka's brain was flooded with images of her death, and it took her a moment to regain her footing.
"Are you alright?" Soul asked, worried.
She shook her head in disbelief, deeming that a very stupid question. He could feel through their Resonance that the shock she felt wasn't for herself. "I should be asking you that. Are you going to be okay?" Her wavelength was filled with regret that she had let Soul go through that pain alone. Worry that he might not be able to handle the battle flowed through their link to him.
The panic that Soul had felt when he thought his best friend was dead hadn't fully subsided, that much he was sure of. But situated comfortably in Maka's hands, her Soul Wavelength surrounding him in waves of warmth and familiarity and comfort, the steady beat of her heart strong enough that Soul could write a song to it, Soul could honestly say had never felt better. Maka was alive. Knowing that, Soul, in Maka's strong grasp, was ready to take on the Kishin and anything else that came their way.
"I'm fine," Soul said confidently. "Let's go kick some Kishin ass."
A/N: And there you have it. I have no idea how the battle would actually end, though. That's Okubo's job to figure out. I just wanted to perform a little wish-fulfillment and have Maka live through the next chapter, is all.
This was intended to be way shorter, but I got a little carried away talking about the Black Blood in the beginning, and then I just couldn't stop typing. I'm pissed that I finished this so late, because I would have liked to have had it uploaded a couple days before Chapter 111 came out, but life got in the way. It was still fun to write, though.
So tell me, how did you like it? Better or worse than how things turned out in the manga?