Bal Masqué — Night of Sneering Masks is the seventh 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[]
The World Formula theory.
It was a theory first proposed by the great alchemist Paracelsus. It stated that just one step beyond the world where humans lived was a domain where every part of the world is replaced with “formulas.” And perhaps, if those constitutive formulas making up the fabric of the world could be rewritten—like the way people drew lines between the stars and called them constellations—then they could rid the human world of its rampant ills. The way death seemed to dance endlessly, eternally for everyone in the world. They could bring happiness to humanity itself. And so, with those hopes, Paracelsus dedicated everything to his research, gathering fellow scholars to help him from far and wide.
The Babel Incident.
Eventually, everything culminated in Paracelsus conducting an experiment that interfered with the World Formula on a scale yet unseen. That experiment would come to bring about the incident later known as “Babel”—the explosion resounding out like a pillar of light to the sky, constellations being written into the heavens themselves. An event with unfathomable impact upon the world at large. As a result of Babel, many cataclysms would fall upon humanity and its world. Earthquakes that tore apart cities piece by piece, storms of lightning that raged on overhead, death more rampant than ever. All anyone could do was pray to God for some kind of salvation. And by the time the worst of it passed, people started to notice that… something was wrong. “The world now holds things that were not there before.” Flowers that glowed with a luminescent light, minerals shining with ethereal blue. Beings who looked human but were not, who bore blood red eyes.
The Teacher read the book out loud as Noé, a mere child, a bandage over his left eye, sat on his lap. All the things he’d just described had their formulas rewritten from the large-scale interference. The Teacher explained to Noé, Astermite is believed to have been created when the constitutive formula for coal was rewritten, thus forming an entirely new mineral. And in the same way, when Babel rewrote the formula that constituted human beings, Vampires were born. Noé asked if that included himself and his Teacher, who confirmed this. Few humans at this age knew of the existence of the World Formula and its impact on the world at large, but the Teacher emphasized, they must never forget it. Glowing flowers bloomed all around them. Noé remarked that his Teacher looked to be having fun, which his Teacher confirmed. He was having fun, because he had Noé. The Teacher patted young Noé’s head and remarked that he was sure things would be much more fun.
A grand estate standing tall and high and glowing with glittering lights. The very picture of the prosperous, of the grandiose, of the brightest light in society to this day. Further into the home, up the stairs flanked by sparkling décor, into the main hall where it is taking place—
The bal masqué. Elaborate costumes, flowing dresses, intricate masks. Bodies pressed close and swaying to the music that played. The performers putting on a grand show for the attendees; fire-breathers spitting flame, clowns juggling colorful balls high into the air, acrobats spinning and flipping through the skies like birds about to take off. Vampires holding one another in deep embrace, exchanging blood behind closed curtains. Laughter emerging from behind masked faces. The three-storied hall glows with life on this night.
Dominique and Noé dance
In the center, two figures sway through the dance floor together, dressed in exquisite outfits that sway beautifully as they move, entwined so closely they draw all eyes on them. Dominique smiles, satisfied, and praises Noé for not forgetting how to dance while they were separated for so long. Noé replies that he couldn’t forget, because in childhood Dominique mercilessly drilled Noé on how to dance until he was near tears so they’d be able to dance together in the future, to which Dominique laughs. Noé goes quiet, and Dominique notices, asking if he’s alright. Noé brushes off her worry. He looks around the bal masqué, at the masks on everyone’s facing and the laughing clowns performing onstage, and he can’t help but be reminded of the eerie sight of Charlatan. Dominique stares at him quietly. She changes the subject and wonders if the human they brought along is behaving properly. She allowed him to attend as well for Noé’s sake, but should anyone find out he’s human…
Dominique’s attention is caught away when a group of people surrounding someone cry out in amazement. A young girl named Catherine gasps with a blush as a rose pops up out of nothing right in front of her. Vanitas holds that flower up to her and smiles charmingly, immediately captivating her. The young girl shows it off excitedly to her mother, as Dominique and Noé stare blankly at the group. Catherine’s little sister is jealous, so Vanitas offers her something from his other sleeve: a handful of candy that has her eyes glowing with wonder. The little family is enraptured with Vanitas as he continues to entertain and charm them with his tricks and magic. Dominique and Noé keep staring. At once, they swoop in to grab Vanitas by the neck and gut, choking him, before dragging him away together and leaving behind the puzzled young girls.
Noé scolds Vanitas, making the latter laugh to the former’s annoyance. Vanitas pulls out the pomander given to him by Dominique, allowing him to remain undetected as a human by even the most sharp-nosed Vampires. Vanitas huffs that he deserves to have fun of his own as well while Dominique and Noé “canoodle” together. Noé doesn’t know what Vanitas means by this. Noé tells Vanitas firmly: Dominique is his dear friend, and asks him to refrain from saying things suggestive like that in the future so she won’t be so troubled. Vanitas stares at Noé blankly and mutters how he doesn’t understand Vampires’ definition of “friend.” Dominique and Vanitas fall into step while Noé lags behind, and the former asks if he’s referring to the two’s exchange in the carriage. Dominique explains that Noé desires her blood because he’s already drank it before. For an Archiviste, the first time they drink blood from someone, they are forced to see that person’s memories against their or anyone’s will. Noé takes off his mask as his attention is grabbed by some nearby automatons, while Dominique continues to explain about him. Noé can change the depth and detail of any memories he sees at will, but feels guilty at the thought of peering into someone’s memories without permission.
Dominique stops. Noé is completely gone, nowhere to be seen. Vanitas deadpans that they should’ve kept the collar on him while Dominique sighs in exasperation. She brushes it off however and tells Vanitas that she wants to speak with him alone. Vanitas is interested. She leads him through a door on the opposite side of the hall, and Vanitas enters. The door slams shut. A pair of masked women stand at attention and ready behind him. One of the women grabs him from under the arms and restrains him from any movement, while the other at Dominique’s command goes to prepare “the usual.” Dominique explains to a wide-eyed Vanitas that the box they’re in is owned by the House de Sade. She takes off her mask as she’s flanked on all sides by a mass array and intricate collection of torture devices, and tells him that no matter how much he screams, no one will come. Noé’s eyes shine and sparkle with curiosity as he hovers around an automaton that’s steadily spewing out smoke. Murr, donning a little mask of his own, is cradled in his arms and gnaws angrily at Noé. The man is ecstatic, because he thought Vampires as a general rule tended to hate human technology, and he turns to ask Dominique who is the host of the bal masqué. Noé finds nothing but empty air and darkness behind him. Noé stares, stunned, as he sees that he’s all alone. A realization comes to him. Dominique and Vanitas both got lost. What a thing to happen, in his words.
Luca and Noé meet again
A figure wearing intricate clothes and a mask runs through the halls, and he asks if his uncle has arrived yet, if there have been any news regarding that. The two guards following him answer negative. The boy is worried, and orders his guards to tell Marquis Machina about his uncle. He says he’ll keep looking—he bumps directly into Noé. The boy is knocked backwards onto the ground his mask falling off, and Noé stares in surprise at who it is. Luca. The boy himself goes pale at the sight of Noé, who continues staring at him in complete surprise. Luca demands what Noé is doing here, if he followed them there, making Noé sweat. The two guards stand protectively between Luca and Noé. They ask Luca, calling him “Lucius,” and ask who Noé is. Luca hesitates in answering, sweating nervously, stuttering with his words. Eventually he answers: he is a friend. The three adults stare at him, stunned. Luca frantically says he has to speak with Noé about something important and drags him away by the cape, making his guards yell out in alarm, while Noé just continues to come along in a daze.
Jeanne at the Bal Masqué
As Luca continues to pull him forwards nervously, Noé stares at him. He notes that Luca said “us” as in multiple people. Noé wonders with fleeting curiosity, if that woman is in here as well. And true to form, some distance away in the estate, all alone in a dark corner, is Jeanne. She’s doubled over, grasping at the curtains on the wall to keep herself upright. She pants heavily, frantically, almost an edge of panic to her breathing. With distress, she grasps at her throat with her hand, face flushed and fangs bared. She begs, “Not now,” as thirst begins to overcome her.
Vanitas speaks up: “Hey.” As he’s being strung up spread-eagled on a bloodstained wheel, he asks what this is. He assumed Dominique was going to use those other torture devices on him, such as the iron maiden sitting across the room, and got excited. Dominique answers that all those belong to her elder sister. A knife flies at Vanitas—it pierces the apple sitting atop his head with perfect accuracy. Dominique, hand out from having thrown the blade, complains about his boring lack of reaction. The apple rolls off Vanitas’s head and he compliments her with a smile: she has good aim. She appreciates the compliment, but adds that she’s been feeling rusty lately and may end up missing at some point. Dominique holds up a pair of knives, smiles with glee, and suggest to Vanitas that he end things quickly.
Dominique interrogates Vanitas
Two knives fly at Vanitas. They sink into the wood on either side of Vanitas’s head. Dominique leans in inches away from Vanitas’s smile with a smile of her own and asks: what does he intend to do with Noé? Vanitas just laughs, amused by the question. Dominique tells him that she won’t stop Noé from following him where he goes, and if Noé wants that, she’ll help in any way she can. But if Vanitas wants to use Noé’s power for his own benefit… Dominique inches a knife underneath Vanitas’s eyepatch. She promises to carve up his flesh right then and there—and she slashes him. The eyepatch falls off. A small cut has emerged on Vanitas’s blank face. He laughs and mocks that he can see why Noé is so “soft and naive,” it’s due to growing up around her. Vanitas mocks the idea of Dominique being Noé’s friend. With a twisted smile, he calls people like her “convenient females” and nothing else.
Dominique stares blankly at him. She orders her assistants to spin him. They activate the wheel, and it begins to revolve at high speeds rendering Vanitas’s vision blind. Dominique picks up more knives and continues to throw them, always landing them inches away from Vanitas’s body even as he continues to spiral and spin along with the wheel. As she does so, Dominique continues speaking. She says herself she won’t outright deny the existence of the Vampire of the Blue Moon, and if Noé is willing to believe it, she’ll entertain the thought that he and his Book of Vanitas are real. But she doesn’t understand why Vanitas, who possesses the power of the Blue Moon, is claiming to want to save the Vampires of the Crimson Moon. She can’t believe that claim no matter how he says it. The Vampire of the Blue Moon hates Vampires of the Crimson Moon, so how can Vanitas swear he isn’t an assassin until their control sent to eliminate all other Vampires? Dominique’s fangs bare as she asks him—doesn’t the very fact that he is using his name show that Vanitas worships the Vampire of the Blue Moon?
Vanitas’s eyes go wide.
A flash of blood. The moon shining a brilliant blue. A hand stretched upwards towards that blue light.
Something in Vanitas snaps.
The wheel stops spinning, and Dominique orders her assistants to let him down. They release his restraints and Vanitas drops on the floor to his knees. He’s left panting heavily after being spun and having knives thrown at him—but his state doesn’t seem to be entirely out of exhaustion.
Vanitas speaks, voice low and dark and maddening.
“...‘Worship’? Me… worship that…?”
A shudder runs down Dominique’s back. She’s overcome with fright and alarm, and she backs up several feet from him.
Vanitas begins to laugh. Uproariously, thunderously, wickedly. Like the laughter of a man slowly going mad.
Dominique and her assistants stare in shock and alarm. Vanitas slowly staggers to his feet. He admits, she has a good point there. He walks past her, wavering and teetering on his feet, as he continues to mutter half-deliriously to himself. All the Vampires he’s met up until then were only concerned with whether or not the Book of Vanitas actually existed. Vanitas walks through the curtains out onto the balcony of the de Sades’ box. But now, Vanitas realizes he’s been going about things backwards. The first thing he should’ve done was brand his existence into their brains—which is what he’ll do right now. He steps up onto the railing of the balcony as Dominique watches him from behind with wide eyes. She tries to protest, to tell him to wait, but it’s too late.
Vanitas jumps
Vanitas jumps off and falls backwards off the balcony.
The chandelier just underneath, made out of milky white bones and creaking human skulls, clangs as Vanitas lands on it. Dominique runs out to the balcony and stares at him with alarm. Jeanne hears this from afar and raises her head in curiosity. Luca and Noé both go to see what’s happening. Vanitas takes a deep breath and begins to yell—
“Your attention, Vampires!!!”
Everyone in the dancing hall looks up in confusion.
Vanitas announces himself, declaring his name, that he is an average human being who inherited the Book and name from the Vampire of the Blue Moon. His voice reverberates through the entire estate. All in attendance wonder if they’re witnessing some kind of performance. Noé and Luca run out to look over a balcony, and the former wonders with alarm what the human is doing. Vanitas declares that first and foremost, he will prove that he is Kin to the Blue Moon. Noé and Dominique are shocked. Vanitas takes off the glove on his right hand and raises it up to the air.
His bare right hand is shown to the world. Like broken glass surrounding a bursting star, like his very flesh is slowly and steadily shattering, like a declaration of his existence and what is happening to it—all colored a glowing blue. This is the proof, Vanitas claims.
Vanitas's Mark of Possession
Noé shudders as a chill of fright runs down his back. Luca next to him goes pale. Every Vampire watching explodes in gasps and shouts of fear as they recognize what they see: a Mark of Possession. A mark left on those whose blood has been drunken by a Vampire. A show of force, of power, of ownership. A message for all other Vampires to see that clearly reads, “This prey is mine.” A Mark only appears when a Vampire embeds a portion of their power into another so that any other Vampire looking upon it will know with just one glance the difference in power between them. Vanitas announces to them: they already know. Who it was who carved that Mark into Vanitas’s hand. Their very instincts tell them, clearly and loudly, exactly what kind of power Vanitas now possesses. He smiles, twisted and terrible and vengeful, like the broken-eyed smile of the Vampire of the Blue Moon.
The Vampires around him are consumed with terror. They declare at once, they have to kill that man. Several at once jump out to attack him, to tear him limb from limb, to eliminate the threat he poses to their kind. All of them are knocked away with ease with a flash of blue energy. Vanitas takes out the Book, lets its pitch black pages flip in the wind as blue-colored power radiates from the tome. The Book of Vanitas, he shows, the cursed grimoire created from the hatred harbored by the Vampire of the Blue Moon for them, Vampires of the Crimson Moon. The power to warp True Names with the flick of his wrist, to plummet them to a fate far worse than death, all consolidated into a single leatherbound book held in the palm of his hand.
But they have nothing to fear, he says. They are truly fortunate, he says. Vanitas screams, his words carrying out as loud as possible into the night air. He—one who is Kin to the Blue Moon—he will use the Book of Vanitas not to slaughter them, but to save them. All they have to do is tremble with humiliation and let themselves be saved.
The Vampires cry out in shock. Vanitas asks, is that uncalled for? Do they object to that? He doesn’t care. “Whether or not you want me to… I will save you, without fail.” Dominique’s words echo in his mind, almost mocking him in the way they stick to him and refuse to let go. Asking him if he worships them. Vanitas screams at the top of his lungs. And that…
“That will be my revenge on Vanitas!!!”
Jeanne stares. From beyond the curtains and the gathered crowd of Vampires, she looks up at the human, eyes wide. Luca’s face is pale as he watches Vanitas go on. Dominique is similarly baffled and concerned in equal measure at what she’d just seen. Another masked man shows interest as well. And Noé… stares with understanding. He quietly calls out to Vanitas.
Vanitas stares dead-eyed into the darkness.
Characters[]
- Paracelsus* (First Appearance)
- Noé Archiviste
- Dominique de Sade
- Catherine (First Appearance)
- Vanitas
- Murr
- Marquis Machina (Mentioned only)
- August Ruthven (Mentioned only)
- Luca Oriflamme
- Jeanne
- Veronica de Sade (Mentioned only)
- Vanitas of the Blue Moon*
(*) - Denotes that the character did not appear physically, but as a part of another character's memories.
Terms[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Bal Masqué is literally translated as "masked ball" 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 |