Battle 7

For the second volume of Battle Angel Alita, see Tears of an Angel (volume).

Battle 7
Volume:	2
Chapter	7
Japanese title	天使の涙
Romanized title	Tenshi no Namida
English title	Tears Sign The Tears of an Angel (Viz)
Subtitle	Compassion
Total pages	25 (27 in VIZ Media Edition)
Released	1991
Story Arc	Makaku Arc
Chapter Navigation
previous Battle 6	next Battle 8

The Tears of an Angel (天使の涙, Tenshi no Namida^?), subtitled Compassion is the seventh chapter of Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita.

This chapter was originally included with the first Viz printing of Rusty Angel to present the first story arc in one volume, but was later removed in the Viz Media Edition to match the original Japanese tankōbon.

Cover

Alita contemplating a flower and surrounded by various objects.

Summary

Alita vows to bury Makaku in the sewers after all the pain and suffering he has caused on the surface. He retorts that everyone "lives by eating other people's lives" and that the strong prey on the weak daily. He aims a kick at Alita, but she stops it with one hand and throws him to throw Makaku to the ground. She declares that because she has no memories of her past, she will find a sense of purpose, and that for now being a hunter-warrior lets her search for herself through battle. As she says that she has faith that people can choose who they want to be, she uses the Plasma Jet to slice the Power Body in half at the midsection.

Makaku however is able to escape before it explodes, and states that unlike Alita he will never have the choice to find himself. In response to her taunt, he bursts out of the ground beneath her, wrapping her in his Maggot Body. He reveals that they are on top of an tank of hydride alloy and that a cloud of hydrogen was released by the explosion. If ignited, it will destroy the cavern they are in. In response, Alita starts to tear apart his body, stating that she does not even need to use plasma. She is about to finish Makaku off when she realizes that he has been mortally wounded by the explosion. Makaku however is intent on committing double suicide with Alita, and uses the sparks generated by his damaged tail to ignite the hydrogen. This produces a tremendous explosion that destroys Bar Kansas and is visible throughout the Scrapyard.

Alita and Makaku both survive the explosion however, as Alita is able to hold back the blaze from the explosion with an electromagnetic field as it is a type of plasma. Taking advantage of the opportunity, she asks Makaku where his monstrous body comes from. Makaku reveals that this is what he wanted and tells his story. Ever since he was a child he lived in the sewers and didn't know anything else. He survived by eating sewer rats and drinking water that drained from the surface. However he longed for the life of the surface, and one day when he was watching life above through a sewer grate, was noticed by a pair of surface dwellers who used a flamethrower on him. He sustained critical injuries and in the sewers' noxious environment, his body began to decay. Makaku was rescued by Desty Nova, who revealed that his original body wasn't salvageable, but offered to give him a new body tailored to fit the desires that lay at the bottom of his heart. Makaku never saw Nova again.

He was "mad with joy" with the maggot body that he received, and journeyed to the surface. He took over cyborg bodies and used them to kill people to get their brains and suck out the endorphins, finding his reason for existence in destruction. No one tried to stop him and nothing had changed since the day he lay dying in the sewers. This all changed when he met Alita. Declaring that his wish has at last come true, Makaku is consumed by the flames. Following his death, Alita finds herself moved to tears but cannot exactly explain why.

Debut appearances

Characters

• Desty Nova (not named)

Trivia

• The title of the second episode of the OVA is taken from the original English title for this chapter, "Tears Sign."