Chasse aux Vampires — The Beast is the thirty-sixth chapter of Jun Mochizuki's The Case Study of Vanitas.
This article contains plot and/or ending details for The Case Study of Vanitas.
Read at your own risk.
Summary[]
So the story goes.
It all began with one village girl. She was born and raised in Gévaudan, living as a hidden Vampire for all her life in relative peace. Until the village’s priest discovered her secret. He cornered her alone within the forest while wielding a knife. No matter her tears, her explanations, her excuses, her pleas; no matter anything she did or said he continued to aim his knife for her chest. But just before his blade could run her through, she screamed as a last resort: if he kills her then her companions will come to kill him in turn. It was a false threat, a complete lie made in the desperation of the moment. And yet those simple words had the priest, despite the way he held her life in his hands, sweating and trembling with fear at the revelation: Gévaudan has been “defiled” by Vampires. The priest mercilessly beheaded the girl.
Seventy years had passed since humans and Vampires managed to reach a state of peace with one another. But despite that, many humans—particularly those who lived further into the provinces—loathed the very existence of Vampires as heretics. The priest who had discovered and killed the young hidden Vampire told his findings to the bishop. An investigation into the matter was immediately launched. In this area, the state of religion was unstable. The Church itself was divided into many different sects and the strongest influence were the locally held beliefs that permeated from person to person. This being so might have been a major cause behind this incident. Duty and paranoia alike fueled the believers as they continued their actions which grew more and more violent as these matters went on. And eventually, they became something unilaterally known as a Vampire hunt.
Hunt! Hunt! Hunt! Hunt the Vampires to extinction! HUNT!
An endless chain of violence. First spurred on by those few words holding no truth and all fear. Carried onward by authority, intensified by paranoia, justified by piety—they killed. They killed and killed and killed. No second wasted, no mercy given, no one spared. They murdered, they tortured, they dismembered and beheaded and eviscerated and killed. Like wolves hungry for carnage. They went in this order: first women to stop them from bearing more Vampires. Then children before they could mature into full-grown forms of Vampires. And finally men, as punishment for the sin of being born as degenerate Vampires. As they continued to kill, they chanted to themselves:
Peace to our land. Death’s salvation to the miserable heretics.
Time passed. The hunt continued. Eventually, a priest came to the bishop with reports of a beast. Someone had apparently seen a wolf-like monster near the site of a “disciplinary action” and a commotion is spreading among the people. It was most likely a wild animal coming to eat the corpse left behind, but nevertheless the priest came to ask the bishop’s opinion. The bishop was lost in his thoughts, then realized this to be the perfect opportunity. Legally speaking, what they were doing was illegal as Vampire hunts had been banned through the country. Meaning they needed something to act as a “proxy.” The fangs of the Beast that slaughter the heretics, like the wrath of God himself. The bishop continues to preach that the Beast was sent by God as punishment for their sins, all the while the Churchmen donned Beast disguises and slaughtered Vampires left and right.
“This is divine retribution. It is as God wills!”
In the middle of the snowfall. Chloé walks through the forest painted pure white and comes upon a scene dyed heavily in red. Corpses strewn about and blood staining even the air itself. She stares at the horrible scene, distraught, asking herself who would even do such a thing. A wolf howls, the sound reverberating through the night sky. Chloé looks up from where she’s kneeled by the corpses. She laments that the moon can’t be seen tonight either. The sky above is so infinitely dark. The snow blankets everything in pure white, and yet Chloé can’t see the world as anything but pitch black. In her mind flashes the radiant smile of Jeanne from so long ago. A great grief begins to fill Chloé. All she wants is to see her one last time—before she goes mad. Naenia’s shadowy form grips Chloé like a vice. Even as she picks flowers alongside Jean-Jacques, she begs upward, her voice going unheard, for Jeanne.
A man in a cloak thrusts downward with his sword. Chloé stares. Just beyond the brush where she stands is a group of men brutally killing a young woman right before her eyes. Chloé is pale with horror. She stares at the woman’s bloody severed head. As the men talk among themselves, debating whether or not to kill her despite her being clearly of noble blood for being a witness, Chloé’s mind spins nauseously as she realizes this may be what she knows as the Beast. The man’s hand reaches for Chloé. Her eyes widen with fright and she screams at him, “Don’t touch me!” A burst of energy like electricity flashes between her and him, sending him stumbling backwards. The man looks to Chloé and sees her shining red eyes and sharp fangs. She’s a Vampire.
Panic sets in and Chloé runs the other direction as fast as she can. The men give chase, all the while laughing about how right they were and how they needed to “purge” all the Vampires from their lands. Chloé as she flees wonders why. She remembers Ruthven telling her about Vampire hunts and inquisitions where countless people, humans and Vampires both, would be tortured and killed. But still she wonders why, because wasn’t the war supposed to be over? Some time later, Chloé has made it home and has told everything of what she experienced to the then Marquis d’Apchier, Herman. He reassures her worries and promises to investigate the connection between the Beast and Vampire hunts. Chloé is relieved, hoping that this will prevent anyone else from being killed.
Some time later. Chloé is slapped across the face. The woman who had done so tells her that the Marquis d’Apchier is dead. Chloé is in shock. The woman, Herman’s daughter, said her father and elder brother went out to hunt for wolves and ended up being killed by the Beast. But she knows that’s a lie, just as much as the lie that her mother killed herself. She knows the truth, that all of them had been killed by Churchmen. “Because of you!!!” Chloé stares, her very world shattering before her eyes. Herman’s daughter continues yelling—because of what Chloé had told Herman, the Church suspected their family of harboring a Vampire, the villagers rumoring that they’re controlling the Beast. She is in tears and she unsheathes a knife in her hands. All of it, all Chloé’s fault, all this happened because Chloé exists; she grabs Chloé by the collar and holds the knife high above.
Jean-Jacques tackles Herman’s daughter to the ground before the knife can connect. Chloé is surprised, and he cries out to her while grabbing her hand. The two of them run away, while Herman’s daughter remains collapsed on the ground and screams to Chloé—she will never forgive her, “Monster!” Those words endlessly reverberate around Chloé and never leave her mind ever again. They make it to the Château d’Apchier. Jean-Jacques asks if the woman knows where this castle is, and Chloé kneeling on the bed with her head bowed answers negative. Jean-Jacques sits beside Chloé and plans to stay there for the time being. He stops and grows increasingly flustered as tears drip onto the bedsheets. Chloé mutters half-coherently with her mind drowning in grief and guilt. She’s unable to even complete an entire sentence. All she can say is, all of this was because of her, Herman, all of them are dead, and Chloé—
Jean-Jacques hugs Chloé. It’s awkward and ill-fitting, Chloé’s head bowed too far down and Jean-Jacques having to simply place his arms on top of her rather than around her. Still, he holds her tightly. He tells her it’s okay, and while he doesn’t really understand, it’s not her fault. He promises he’ll stay with her forever. Chloé’s tearful eyes are wide in shock. Her shaking hands tightly grip the worn seam of his clothes. Chloé screams. Finally releasing all her agony out into a single, devastated wail at the top of her lungs. Sobbing her eyes out and not being able to stop. Jean-Jacques, listening to her break down in his arms, holds back tears himself. He wishes he had more power.
Time passes, and Jean-Jacques stays unwaveringly by Chloé’s side as they reside in the Château, caring for her as she drowned in her grief. Jean-Jacques sits on the bed with a sleeping Chloé curled up beside him and wonders how long it’s been. The servants in the castle already ran off, and so he plans to go into the village and see what he can learn. He gently pats Chloé’s sleeping head and asks her to wait here for him. Jean-Jacques makes it to the village and hides in the bushes to overhear the conversation of the villagers. According to them, Chasseurs have come hailing from Paris. And going further, they continue to spread a rumor that started from the Churchmen. Along with the Chasseurs, a Bourreau from the Senate has arrived. Jean-Jacques listens to them closely. While they express skepticism due to the Bourreau being a Vampire, nevertheless they declared: that will end the Beast for sure. A group of Chasseurs robed in white surrounded a lone figure clothed in black. Her hair is long and pale and pulled back into a braid. Jean-Jacques’s eyes are wide.
Jean-Jacques continues to pray. For strength that can protect Chloé, that can prevent her from having to cry like that ever again. The villagers raise up torches and pitchforks and handmade weapons. Jean-Jacques tries to stand in front of the growing mob. His father takes him and tosses him violently to the ground, cracking his fists. A dark haze of shadow starts to sprout from the boy, to his father’s surprise. Naenia’s grin flashes behind Jean-Jacques. His hands grow to claws, his eyes turn into a monstrous three pupils, and a dark and violent energy radiates off his entire body. Jean-Jacques craves more, more strength, more power, more—
Chloé wakes up. She sits up on the bed to find herself alone and calls out to Jean-Jacques, though she gets no response. As she’s getting dressed, a loud boom shakes the castle. She rushes to a window and stares outside in utter shock. A huge Beast of a wolf with monstrous eyes, red fur, and vicious fangs engaged in a fight with a lone figure wielding themselves a huge claw of a weapon. Chloé shakily asks what that is. Naenia appears behind her. She says that that Beast is none other than Jean-Jacques. Gleefully she calls Jean-Jacques “so kind,” having given her his True Name in exchange for the power to protect Chloé. Jean-Jacques in his Beast form howls to the snowy sky and Chloé watches, horrified. Naenia calls Chloé truly lucky.
Chloé runs out of the castle. The villagers march together in a mob with their torches and pitchforks and bloodthirsty rage. They chant, “Kill the Beast! Kill the Witch!” The figure fighting the Beast is knocked away. Jean-Jacques pauses in his rampaging as he sees a man holding a gun stands before him. Jean-Jacques looks to the man, his father. Jean-Jacques father points his gun at his Beast of a son and promises his end his misery. He grins, hungry for the bounty he’ll earn once he kills Jean-Jacques. Jean-Jacques stares at his father. A gunshot echoes through the snowy night. Jean-Jacques’s father laughs as his son’s bloody body lies in the snow at his feet, no longer in Beast form, just a young boy. He reloads his gun. A furious red-eyed specter swoops in and bites into his neck.
“Where… did it go wrong?”
Jean-Jacques tearily wakes up to the sound of feet trudging through snow. He’s in Chloé’s arms and being carried back. He weakly asks about his father, and Chloé assures that she didn’t kill him. Jean-Jacques tells her to run. The Senate’s Bourreau—in Chloé’s mind flashes an image of Ruthven.
“What was the first mistake?”
The Hellfire Witch is hunting her. Chloé’s eyes are wide. She senses someone behind her.
“Chloe!” Jeanne as a child smiled at her, bright as the sun itself, calling her name with joy and love as she opened her hands and let a wave of flower petals blow through the wind and flutter over her form. The one she longed to see again for so long. Chloé turns around. The figure comes into view. The flower petals fade into the drifting snowfall. Jeanne, now an adult, stands before her, dressed in armor, face stained with blood, red eyes glowing and fangs bared. Only her pale hair tied back into a braid has remained unchanged. She’s finally seen her again. Chloé comes to a realization.
“You’re… the Witch?”
Chloé smiles. Tears flow like rivers from her eyes. All she can feel is the despair of finally losing every last thing she loved. And every last thing she loved coming back to kill her. Where the grief and agony and despair that has been her life for so long turns to relief. Here is where it ends.
“‘The Hellfire Witch… Jeanne’?”
Characters[]
(*) - Denotes that the character did not appear physically, but as a part of another character's memories.
Terms[]
- Gévaudan
- Vampires
- The Catholic Church
- The War (Mentioned only)
- House d'Apchier
- Chasseurs
- The Senate
- Bourreau
- Malnomen
- True Name
Gallery[]
Coming soon!
Trivia[]
- Chasse aux Vampires is literally translated as "vampire hunt" from French.
[]
| v - e - t | The Case Study of Vanitas Chapters |
|---|---|
| Parisian Excursion Arc | 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 |
| Bal Masqué Arc | 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 |
| Hunters of the Dark Arc | 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 |
| The Beast of Gévaudan Arc | 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31 • 32 • 33 • 34 • 34.5 • 35 • 36 • 37 • 38 • 38.5 • 39 • 40 • 41 • 42 • 43 |
| Amusement Park Arc | 44 • 45 • 46 • 47 • 48 • 49 • 50 • 51 • 52 • 53 • 54 • 54.5 • 55 • 55.5 • 56 |
| Miel Incident Arc | 57 • 58 • 59 • 60 • 61 • 61.5 • 62 • 62.5 |
| Intermissions | 15.5 • 46.5 • 51.5 • 60.5 |
| Volumes | 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 |
| Other | Vanitashu no Karute • Author's Notes |