Vanitas — In the Event of Rusty Hopes is the first 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.
Synopsis[]
“Listen well, mon chaton.”
A young boy, brown skin and pale hair, clutching a book in his hands.
“You must never let anyone steal your ‘True Name.’”
His purple eyes are wide at the words he’s being told.
“Your True Name is the formula that shapes your very being.”
A man with a top hat instructs the young boy deathly seriously.
“In other words… it is your life itself—”
The present day. A Vampire has appeared in Paris. Word spreads like wildfire; nine victims being found, corpses drained of blood, the possibility of revenge against humans, the Church rumored to be moving, the image of a sunken-faced Vampire greedily sucking the blood out of a terrified woman’s neck… The sensation of cold. Concerned and fearful murmurs ripple among the crowd who is assembled in front of a bulletin board of news. However, many believe that Vampires lost the War against humans and were wiped out en masse long ago, or that Vampires are nothing more than tall tales and legends. Regardless, Chasseurs from the Church seem to be moving so there’s no need for concern. A young man staring at the board has his attention caught by something behind. A young woman, pale and breathing heavily, tries to move through the crowd, only for her exhaustion to overcome her and make her collapse. She falls over, but a pair of arms deftly catch her, and she looks up. The young man, brown skin and pale hair, asks if she’s alright.
Later, the two have tea together at a small café. The young man asks to take her to the infirmary, but the young woman declines politely. The young man leans in inches away from her face, causing her to startle and flush. The young man expresses worry at how pale she is, but she stutters and brushes off his concern. She explains that she’s currently on her way to meet a doctor, as due to certain circumstances she can’t let any other doctor examine her, though she still appreciates his concern. The young man makes to sit down, as the young woman notices a shadow on the floor slowly approaching her. A white cat jumps up with a loud meow, startling the woman. The young man sees his pet carrier open and empty and calls to the cat, Murr, who ignores him in favor of rubbing up happily to the woman. She embraces Murr and his warm fluffy fur, and introduces herself as Amelia while asking for a name in return. The young man stares, then introduces his cat Murr which Amelia awkwardly corrects.
The airship La Baleine
Their conversation is interrupted by an announcement sounding from the loudspeakers: La Baleine will arrive at Paris in one hour. The young man jumps to his feet. Anticipation grips his heart. As the announcement continues, the young man races to the nearest window at full speed, and he looks out. La Baleine, the grand airship made up of several stories and flying high through the skies as it makes its way to Paris. The young man stares in awe out the window of the airship, then yells “Paris” at the top of his lungs, making the other passengers flinch. He frantically spins all around trying to get a glimpse of the city in question. Amelia while holding Murr tells him they can’t yet see the city from their current location, making the young man sag in disappointment. A beat later he goes back to beaming at how fast the airship has taken them to Paris. He continues to stare out the window in amazement and eagerness, making Amelia stifle a giggle as she watches him. She notes that this must be his first time aboard an airship. The young man asks what gave it away, and Amelia asks if he was actually trying to hide the fact. The young man explains that he’s only ever lived deep in Averoigne for all his life, so he’s never seen or traveled on an airship so large before. Amelia doesn’t recognize the name, which the young man attributes to being deep in the countryside. The young man marvels at the power of Astermite that can result in all this, and remarks that Paris’s scale rivals even London, so he’s excited to arrive. Amelia asks if he’s come for sight-seeing, but the young man answers that he’s in pursuit to find something.
Amelia’s eyes widen in shock. The young man explains the origins of the cursed Book. “The Vampire of the Blue Moon,” the bedtime story passed off as mere myth for children. The story goes: there was a Vampire known as “Vanitas” who was hated large and wide by all. While other Vampires were born on a night of the Crimson Moon, Vanitas alone was born on the night of a Blue Moon, which was taken to be a symbol of misfortune. Vanitas became an object of fear and loathing as a result and was run out of the village by his peers. He wandered alone in the forest, scared of the darkness, freezing in the snow, banished from his home. And so, he swore vengeance against the Vampires of the Crimson Moon, that those who persecuted him so will befall a curse more terrible than death upon the opening of that Book. “A blue leather cover and jet-black pages… A clockwork grimoire linked to a silver chain…” The Book created by Vanitas to be able to interfere with Vampires’ True Names.
A figure steps atop the airship. Another man besides him asks if he’s truly heading in, to which he confirms as his target is inside. He won’t let any Vampires escape from him.
“Blue moonlight, like my own, will dwell in the eyes of he who holds this Book… and before long…”
He smiles.
“He will become the one who will destroy all Vampires.”
The clock inside La Baleine chimes, signaling the time to prepare for disembarking. The young man picks up Murr, who begins gnawing angrily on his arm, and offers to escort Amelia to her room. Amelia is left still wide-eyed at the story. She hugs herself tightly, suddenly overcome with the sensation of freezing cold. The two of them walk on towards their rooms as the announcement continues overhead. Amelia, her breathing now strained, asks if the young man truly believes the story to be true and the Book of Vanitas to really exist. He answers that he doesn’t know, but his old Teacher had sent him a letter telling him that its existence has been confirmed in Paris. Whether or not it truly does exist, he intends to go to Paris to see for himself. Amelia’s breathing grows heavier. Once again her exhaustion overcomes her, and she collapses. The young man turns to her in concern. Amelia screams not to touch her, and a nearby lamppost explodes. Shards from the lightbulb fall through the air, the young man’s eyes are wide, Amelia clutches her chest, Murr hisses, the crowd of people around them mutter in concern. The young man looks to Amelia. Her eyes are bright red and shine in the darkness—she is a Vampire. Amelia’s tearful eyes shine crimson, and a pair of sharp fangs emerge from her teeth.
The window explodes open. Someone falls through into the airship. The young man whips around. The figure his aim centered right on Amelia grins with glee, that he’s finally found her—
A thud. The window remains broken overhead. The figure had landed on empty air, and looks towards a fallen top hat nearby. The young man has Amelia cradled in his arms. The figure remarks wryly that he thought he had her. Pale skin, black hair, an hourglass earring, and striking blue eyes. He asks, “What’re you?” to which the young man asks the same of him. The figure stands up and dusts off his black coat before explaining that he only needs Amelia, and, smiling sinisterly, advises with a thinly veiled threat to leave her behind or else he’ll end up hurt. The young man tilts his head. He answers with a firm no. The black-haired man closes his eyes.
A blade passes by the young man’s eyes. He leans back just in time for the blade to barely miss. The black-haired man has whipped out a knife and begins attacking the young man in full. The black-haired man slashes wildly and ceaselessly as he laughs in glee at the fight, all the while the young man still carrying Amelia avoids every slash and remains silent. The black-haired man presses a button on the hilt of his knife, and a wire comes whipping out towards the young man and Amelia. The other figure who had standing with the black-haired man atop the airship starts to descend from the broken window. He watches the fight happening below with bemusement. Amelia starts to groan and writhe in the young man’s arms, until she bursts out screaming in utter agony. The black-haired man grins. He takes this opening to snare the young man’s ankle with his wire—and he pulls, and the young man starts falling onto his back. The brown-haired man overhead yells in victory, the black-haired man grins, and he goes in for the kill—
The young man tosses Amelia up into the air. Everyone freezes. The black-haired man gapes up in shock. The young man wastes no time and snaps into action. He effortlessly somersaults and lands gracefully on his feet. He pulls his fist back and lands a punch square onto the black-haired man. His eyes widen, and he’s sent flying and crashing into the other side of the courtyard. The young man whips around and jumps up to deftly catch Amelia in his arms. He lands smoothly on his feet with not a scratch on him or Amelia. The brown-haired man still hanging above gapes for a bit at what he just saw. Then he gasps, lands properly inside the airship, and asks the “Quack” if he’s alright. The black-haired man denies being a “Quack” and emerges from the rubble. He grins and bursts into laughter. He recalls the young man he just fought, the way his eyes glowed red, and notes him to be a Vampire as well. He wipes his nosebleed and walks off, commenting that they’ve only a little time left.
Amelia is panting and pale and in pain. Tears spill from her eyes, and coldness overcomes her. In her mind. Soft petals float about in a gentle breeze, surrounding her as she sits in a field and sky of glowing lights. Her eyes are closed and she simply sits there among the light and the flowers. A noise, like something seeping through. She opens her eyes. There’s a shadow there. The shadow is pitch black and has its left eye looking like shattered glass and is smiling. It muses on how nice the place is, the warmth enveloping her and the flowers blooming around her. The shadow cradles her face, “I like it.” It asks for her, for this place, for Amelia’s “True Name”… to be given to it. The shadow leans down and kisses Amelia. For a moment Amelia doesn’t react. Then her eyes widen in horror. A blackness starts to seep into her being. She groans in pain and distress as the blackness grows and spreads, like ink staining a white page black, the darkness starting to taint the flowers at her feet and the lights in the sky.
“It’s being blotted out…”
The blackness takes over. Inky tears spill from her eyes. Thorns consume and bind and suffocate her.
“My True Name… My life…”
Amelia screams.
“Pitch… black…”
Amelia continues to scream, even outside her mind as a crowd of people gather around her in concern. The young man along with an attendant worriedly surround her, as she clutches the jacket placed around her and pants and sobs incoherently. The young man asks the attendant to take Amelia to the infirmary, while he goes to confront the two who’d attacked them and find some answers. A low groan sounds. Amelia leaps out and embraces the young man around his shoulders. The young man is confused, as Amelia pants heavily and clings to him desperately. All she can feel is cold, a coldness so intense and freezing and all-consuming she feels she’ll die. Her eyes are lost in her madness. Amelia opens her mouth and leans into the young man. She wants something hot.
Amelia bites his neck. The young man’s eyes widen. Blood spills. The onlookers scream in fright as the young man cries out in shock. Amelia’s fangs sink deep into his neck, and greedily she slurps up his flowing blood. The young man shudders as his face flushes. He drops to his knees, unable to fight back as she keeps consuming his blood, his strength draining away from him drip by drip along with his blood. He pushes Amelia off him and backs away desperately. Amelia staggers back. Something spills from her—not red like blood, but pitch black like ink. It spills in pools at her feet. A twisted, distorted, warped voice emanates from her—that she’s not cold anymore, that she feels warm. And she wants more blood. Her eyes are pitch black like unending voids and the inky blackness spills like tears from her eyes and blood from her chest. The young man stares at her as she continues to transform.
Something emerges from the pools of black at her feet: thorny vines that surround and writhe around her as if alive, as if a part of her. They lash out like whips and destroy the area around, ensnaring people by their necks and arms. They pull the people towards her, as she bares her fangs and makes to drink their blood—the young man stops her. He stands between her and the people, restraining her as tightly as he can without hurting her. Desperately he yells at her—she has to stop, for if Vampires like them attack humans they will be disposed of, and unless she ceases that will happen to her. Amelia screams. The young man grits his teeth. A wave of exhaustion comes over him, his eyes widen. His body moves slowly, sluggishly, refusing to listen to him. The young man realizes, when he’d been bitten by Amelia—that was poison. Amelia lunges at him. He isn’t fast enough to react. Her fangs are bared, her eyes are dark and lost to madness, and it’s too late, she’s already attacking him—
Blue energy bursts into the air. Like crackling electricity, the form of lightning colored a vibrant blue. The young man’s eyes are wide. The black-haired man from earlier stands between him and Amelia, and scolds him for getting hurt just as he had warned. His hand is outstretched, and that blue energy fills the air once more. Like constellations floating around his being, making the black thorny vines disappear. He grins, and notes that her “symptoms” have manifested. The brown-haired man who was with him, in the process of dragging unconscious innocents out the room, asks if he’s figured it out. The black-haired man lists it all: unbearable chills, black tears spilling from her eyes and chest, briars made from shadows… He points and declares what this all is.
The Malnomen: “Églantine, Prison of Briars.”
A cage made of thorns that envelopes her form and keeps her in place, as blackness spills from her eyes and chest. The young man wonders about the term, “Malnomen.” The black-haired man explains, the remnants of True Names that have been warped by “maladies.” Amelia’s True Name, the very life of a Vampire, was warped, causing her to lose herself to a feverish madness fueled by the uncontrollable urge to drink blood. The thorny vines whip out once more to attack, but they are severed, a pair of bullets hitting each briar dead on. The brown-haired man wielding a gun snaps at his partner for taking so long. The black-haired man in turn calls him “Baldy” making him snap angrily. The young man desperately grabs at the other’s black coat. With growing distress he asks if he’ll kill Amelia, if he’s a Chasseur from the Church or an executing Bourreau who came to dispose her. The black-haired man bursts into laughter at his questions. His eyes narrow. He denies being either of those.
“I am a doctor. One who specializes in Vampires.”
He starts to pull something out by a long chain. He turns around with a proud grin.
“I came… to heal her!”
He pulls out a Book. The young man’s eyes widen.
“A blue leather cover and jet-black pages… A clockwork grimoire linked to a silver chain…”
As the Book’s latch unlocks and the gears adorning its cover unfolds, the young man realizes what it is.
The Book of Vanitas.
In the black-haired man’s hands the Book flips open. It writing starts to glow, and the pages flip as if coming to life in his hold. The black-haired man declares to get her True Name restored. The Book bursts in an explosion of light. Emanating from his hands, constellations become scribed into the very air and turn the space around him into a glowing sky. The power emitting from the Book surrounds Amelia. The briars of sharp thorn and binding vines start to disappear—the young man looks closer and sees them turning to ash before his eyes. Amelia screams.
In her consciousness. She lies in the darkness, wrapped and bound in endless briars that bind her. She sits up in the darkness and sees before her, a tiny light. Glowing and warm and emerging from the briars that start to turn to ash. She leans in towards it. That light, like spring sunlight, she slowly reaches for it. A voice speaks up—no. A figure approaches from beyond that light. The briars break down even more, fading away more and more into ash until they disappear. The figure reaches his hand towards her with a smile and declares that light to be hers and hers alone. The light envelopes her. Petals and glimmers of light in kind flow all around her. And the light she’d been reaching for, it is not around her—it is coming from her. Her alone. Like the first spring emerging from a long winter—
“Florifel,” She Who Guides Spring.
The black-haired man cradles Amelia in his arms. Light surrounds them like flower petals. Her eyes are once again clear, and he wipes the brimming tears from them. He praises that her True Name suits her very well. The brown-haired man, his partner, watches from afar and clicks his tongue, but the young man watches all of this with wide awe-filled eyes. Amelia looks at herself, the warmth coming back to her, the light returned to her. Her name, her True Name. Tears spill from her eyes, and Amelia collapses into her savior sobbing gratitude into his chest. The young man, amidst a storm of flower petals, watches with nothing short of wonder.
Amelia goes limp in the black-haired man’s arms, passing out from exhaustion. The young man approaches the two hesitantly and makes to say something—a pair of armed guards burst in and hold them at gunpoint. The two men instantly burst into cold sweats. The guards demand an explanation as to what happened, to which one denies the destruction being their fault. The guards identify the two as the intruders from the observation deck, which is their fault. The black-haired man, still in a cold sweat, scoffs. He stands and declares to the guards to not get involved. Raising a hand to his face, smiling a sinister smirk, and adopting a threatening aura, he warns them they’ll get hurt if they do.
A piece of rubble drops from the ceiling and nails him in the head. There’s a beat of silence. The black-haired man totters backwards and falls through the hole in the wall. The brown-haired man yells at him in panic—the young man jumps out after him and grabs him by the leg. Together the two of them fall through the air to the ground miles below. The brown-haired man screams as he watches them fall. As they plummet down at top speed towards the ground awaiting below, the young man, still clinging to the other’s leg, looks forward—and stares.
Paris. A sprawling cityscape waiting for them below, stretching out to the horizon in a seemingly endless sight. The night sky. Stars are beginning to peek out and shine their twinkling light from beyond the clouds above. And the moon. Hanging heavily in the sky, the centerpiece to everything, as if greeting them, as if calling to them. He gapes at it in wonder. It’s colored a brilliant blue. In the past—he was asked if he’s truly not afraid of the Blue Moon.
The young man, still only a boy, sat next to his Teacher. Another young boy cradling a white cat sat further away from them. His Teacher went on, even though the moon’s blue light was said to steal away the power of Vampires, was a feared symbol of misfortune. The boy looked at his Teacher, looked at the book open in his lap, displaying the story of the Vampire of the Blue Moon. Looked up into the sky. The Blue Moon shined down on him. The boy answered his Teacher—to him, the Blue Moon above looked beautiful. The Teacher smiled at him. He pulled the boy into an embrace while the other boy, still holding the cat, bantered with them further.
The letter the young man had received from his Teacher. “Mon chaton,” his Teacher requests of him. The young man is to fly to Paris immediately, as it has been discovered to truly exist there: the Book of Vanitas. His Teacher tells him, find it and see for himself, with his own eyes—the eyes that had looked upon the Blue Moon with such beauty—what is the “true character” of the Book of Vanitas.
The young man stares into the sky. He sits upon a pile of rubble in an empty church. A distance away, the black-haired man half sticking out of a pile of rubble of his own bursts into laughter and wonders how they’re even alive. The young man looks up into the sky through the hole they’d broken in the ceiling, then goes to pull the other man out of the rubble. He asks what he did to Amelia back there. The black-haired man flips to his feet and answers: an “inverse operation.” He used the Book of Vanitas to interfere with Amelia’s True Name and removed the maladies that were infecting her. “That’s all,” he concludes shortly. The young man hears this dismissiveness and starts trembling. He asks how he could say it like that, and the black-haired man turns around eyes narrowed.
The young man calls it “phenomenal,” eyes glowing with absolute amazement. The black-haired man stares at him in surprise. While waving his fists excitedly in the air, the young man continues to marvel at what he just witnessed. That the Book could do such a thing, that it’s not at all like the cursed grimoire told in the original bedtime story. The black-haired man starts shaking himself. He bursts into laughter, remarking that no one has ever marveled at the Book as if it was something amazing before. As he continues to laugh, the young man, slightly put off, asks if what he said was really so funny. Still laughing, the black-haired man declares that he likes him. The other’s face is irritated, but then he stops laughing and asks for a name. He answers.
Noé. Child of the ark, the self-proclaimed doctor identifies, and praises it to be a good name. He goes on to introduce himself in kind.
“I am Vanitas.”
The Blue Moon shines its light down upon them from the night sky above.
“I inherited this Book and the name from the Vampire of the Blue Moon.”
Vanitas, hand proudly poised to his chest, smiles at Noé.
“And I am… an average human being!”
Noé stares blankly. Still grinning, Vanitas requests for Noé to lend him his strength. He laughs about his combat abilities and sturdy frame, making for a good shield—Noé interrupts with a blunt decline. There’s a beat of silence. Vanitas ignores Noé’s words and clenches his fist in celebration, as if Noé had agreed his offer, while continuing to bulldoze over the other’s words. Noé, face darkening in anger, demands to be listened to—when Vanitas interrupts again and brings up Amelia. The amount of Vampires whose True Names were warped causing them to lose control is increasingly by the second. If nothing is done and the cause is left without being investigated, then sooner or later, the race of Vampires as a whole—“will be destroyed.” Noé eyes are wide in alarm. Vanitas smirks back at him. And so, he declares, he will prevent that for them.
“I’ll do as I please…”
Vanitas walks up the steps towards the pulpit.
“…Use methods I choose…”
Noé watches him with wide eyes.
“And, no matter what you people want…”
Vanitas grins.
“I will save you without fail!!”
Vanitas’s twisted, desperate, malevolent, cryptic grin. The sinister light of his blue eyes. His declaration of salvation no matter what. Noé stares, he can’t take his eyes off him.
The narration declares: this is only the beginning. Two figures clad in cloaks, one smaller and one taller, walking through the streets of Paris. This story that is unfolding tells of how Noé and Vanitas met, of the long path they walked together step-by-step. What they gained… A figure with long black hair looking out a window searching for something. What they lost… A pair of hands bound in chains. And… “Noé,” Vanitas’s distant voice calls. “I won’t die… Noé.” Long white hair strand by strand falling down in waves. “Even if I’m no longer here…” Black hair cut unevenly short. Noé’s eyes are wide.
And of how, at the end of that journey…
Vanitas’s bloodstained smile.
“I would kill him with my own two hands.”
Characters[]
- Noé Archiviste (First Appearance)
- The Teacher* (First Appearance)
- Amelia Ruth (First Appearance)
- Murr (First Appearance)
- Vanitas of the Blue Moon* (First Appearance)
- Dante (First Appearance)
- Vanitas (First Appearance)
- Naenia (First Appearance)
- Louis de Sade* (First Appearance)
- Jeanne (First Appearance)
- Luca Oriflamme (First Appearance)
- Dominique de Sade (First Appearance)
- Loki Oriflamme (First Appearance)
(*) - Denotes that the character did not appear physically, but as a part of another character's memories.
Terms[]
- True Name
- Vampires
- The Catholic Church (Mentioned only)
- Chasseurs (Mentioned only)
- La Baleine
- Paris
- Averoigne (Mentioned only)
- Astermite (Mentioned only)
- The Book of Vanitas
- Malnomen
- Bourreau (Mentioned only)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Vanitas is an artistic term referring to a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death. It derives from the Latin word "vānitās" which can translate to "emptiness," "nothingness," "falsity," or "vanity" in English.[1]
- La Baleine was created by designer Ryou Yamaguchi.
References[]
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| 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 |