Black Star joins Maka and Kid and their partners outside to practice their Chain Resonance. Stein warns them that if they do not succeed, then they will be removed from his class. With this said, Maka warns Black Star in particular to do this properly, but he insists that he always does. Despite this, the three students fail multiple times, which angers Maka. She believes that Black Star is the blight of the failures. She starts arguing with him, but Kid steps in between them, and Stein decides to give them a break to cool down.
Maka confronts Stein with the purporse of removing Black Star from the team. She fails at this and returns to the group. Black Star then accuses her of tattling to Stein and being selfish. This infuriates Maka, bringing her to try to punch him, but fails. Kid tries to diffuse the situation, but Soul steps in and tells him to leave the two to sort it out on their own. Maka tries to punch him again, and this time, Black Star allows her to hit him. Black Star then warns Maka that, if this goes on any further, it sould be a duel, and he would be sure to crush her. With that said, Maka curses at the top of her lungs and runs off in tears.
Maka is soon visited by Tsubaki. Tsubaki tells her that it is all right for friends to fight sometimes and and Maka admits of her envy towards Black Star because of his strength. After some talking Maka comes to terms with her mistake and, realizing that she had ended up abandoning her team, eagerly goes to apologize. However, on the way, she gets nervous as she does not know what to say, and is met by Soul. She asks him if he had come to laugh at her, and Soul pauses before replying that the laughter should wait until after they had succeeded the Chain Resonance. Returning to the group, she apologizes to Black Star, who forgives her. The group resume their training and succeed, with Maka understanding everyone elses' souls and putting all of her trust into her companions. Stein then makes Maka the leader of the group. Later that night as they are heading home, Maka lets Black Star hit her to make up for how she hit him earlier. To everyone's surprise, he ends up hitting her hard and, though apparently bruised after beign sent flying, Maka smiles and says, 'Ouch.'
