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Introduction

Après la pluie — His Wish (Part Two) is the second part of the fifty-fifth chapter of Jun Mochizuki's The Case Study of Vanitas.

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SPOILER WARNING!
This article contains plot and/or ending details for The Case Study of Vanitas.
Read at your own risk.
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Summary[]

Darkness. Slowly, it fades into light. Noé starts to open his eyes.

Noé shoots upright in his bed in Hôtel Chouchou. Amelia, who had been tending to him as he slept, flinches back and clutches her heart, rapidly beating from being startled. Noé is breathing heavily, and he manages to recognize Amelia, to which Amelia responds happily. Still disoriented, he looks around trying to get his bearings straight when Amelia tells him that everyone is safe. Noé turns to her and she smiles at him. Amelia looks down then tells him how worried she had been for him. Noé stares at her with surprise then looks down in shame. He apologizes and thanks her for caring for him. Amelia offers to get him food and drink, which Noé tries to protest to, but Amelia just holds up a palm and stops him in his tracks. She explains, Dominique and Jeanne are speaking privately in the dining room—Dominique confiding honestly and Jeanne listening earnestly—and so Amelia requests he leave them alone for the time being. Noé absorbs this. Then he frantically looks all around the room, even peeking under the covers, until Amelia smiles and points him upwards. She goes to get food for the two of them as Noé goes out onto the roof.

Noé goes out where it’s still pouring rain. He stands on the rooftop. Droplets of rain fall in the space between them. Smoke from the chimney swirls up like dark strands coiling into the stormy clouds above. All is silent. Noé stands across from him on the rooftop. The rain falls gently over Vanitas’s face, still covered in bandages and bruises, that paint his dark form with speckles of white as he looks out over the cityscape. He doesn’t look at Noé. A beat of silence filled with only the sound of rainfall. Hesitantly, awkwardly, Noé asks how Vanitas’s injuries are. Vanitas doesn’t answer. Noé admonishes himself for asking a foolish question, face stained with guilt. A cold breeze blows over the both of them, and Noé shivers. He asks Vanitas to come inside and offers to go somewhere else himself if needed. Vanitas interrupts him. He’s waiting for “him” to show up. Noé is confused. Someone else steps onto the rooftop with them, and when Noé sees who it is, his eyes widen with alarm.

Mikhail.

Face torn up and bandaged and bloody, eyes dull and lifeless, and he’s staring at his older brother silently in the rain. Noé yells in panic, but Vanitas stops him. He tells Noé that all he has to do is stay right there. Smoke swirls up from a chimney between the two of them. Noé watches as the brothers stare one another down. His eyes lock onto Mikhail’s face, onto the bandages over the still bleeding injury in his cheek. Noé grimaces with guilt. He turns around and faces away from them. Mikhail slowly starts to speak. He had a question he didn’t get the opportunity for yesterday. He wanted to ask, so—rain continues to fall. Mikhail looks down, not meeting his brother’s eyes. Was it his fault that Luna died? He doesn’t remember what happened that day, all he knows of those events is that he’d lost his arm from it. So he wonders, was it his fault what happened—?

“No.” Vanitas tells his little brother directly. He is the one who killed Luna. Vanitas’s hourglass earring glints in the faint light of the morning. On that day where it all happened, Luna’s True Name had been stolen, causing them to go out of control like a crazed monster. Noé listens with surprise, as does Mikhail. And so, Vanitas became their Kin—receiving the Mark on his arm, used the Book of Vanitas with the power he received from Luna, and killed them. Mikhail listens to this story with bated breath. That is the truth, Vanitas says. He treats curse-bearers in order to find traces of whoever had stolen their True Name; this being his motivation behind saving the likes of Amelia, Thomas Berneux, Jean-Jacques Chastel, Chloé d'Apchier, and so on from their Malnomen. He thinks back to the days of him, his little brother, and Luna all together. He will never forgive Luna. A scene from the past, Vanitas holding his Marked arm up into the sky where the moon hangs heavily in the sky, shining brightly. To find and erase every last fragment of their existence, to consign them to oblivion. That is Vanitas’s “revenge” on Luna.

So Vanitas can’t go with Mikhail. Rainfall and smoke continues to persist between the two siblings. Mikhail stares silently. His hand starts shaking. He tries to deny this, that if they resurrect Luna things can go back to how it was during their childhood. Vanitas tells his little brother, the dead don’t come back. Even if they resurrected their parent, it would only look like them and not truly be Luna. Mikhail desperately interrupts Vanitas and reminds him of something the both of them are intimately aware of. The Books of Vanitas the two of them possess seep away more and more of their humanity with every use. They rewrite their very existences. Noé is alarmed to hear this. Just as they all saw yesterday, what happened to Mikhail will happen to Vanitas as well. Becoming something that’s not himself; Mikhail is the only one who can understand that pain. Mikhail reminds Vanitas of what he’d said before—that even if he knew he would die tomorrow, he wanted to stay human to the end. If Vanitas turns into a monster then Mikhail can kill him, because the two of them are the same. Mikhail reaches his hand out towards his brother, the rain falling on him like bloodstains. Desperately, pleadingly, Mikhail begs his brother to come with him.

Vanitas stares at his little brother’s outstretched hand. He doesn’t need that. Little droplets of rain like unshed tears fall all around him. If Vanitas can choose how he dies… Noé despite Vanitas’s protests declaring he’ll stay with him. If Vanitas can have one wish… Noé swearing he will never set Vanitas “free.”

“If I’m going to be killed, I wanted Noé to do it.”

Noé is surprised. Vanitas is resolute in his decision. Noé starts to tear up.

Mikhail retracts his hand, shocked. His bandaged and bloody face starts to twist up. He opens and closes his mouth, shaking with grief. Vanitas is silent at the sound of his little brother’s sorrow. Then he bursts into sobs like the child he is. Loud and echoing and mournful, Mikhail cries; the one thing he can do now that he can no longer get his brother back again. Eventually Mikhail stops crying. He sniffles and wipes his tears and sighs; he resigns himself to his brother’s choice. He declares that he’ll bring back Luna by himself. Vanitas asks what the Shapeless One—the Comte de Saint Germain is trying to do. Mikhail answers dismissively, neither knowing nor caring, as he hops onto his mechanical dog to depart. But before leaving, he tells Vanitas one last thing: Dominique has not killed anybody. Mikhail had used the Book of Vanitas to interfere with Vampires, which would inevitably cause them to go wild and attack humans, by which point Dominique would go to stop them again and again in spite of Mikhail’s orders otherwise. The evidence that she caused no harm should be present but Mikhail tells his brother to make sure it’s clear that she’s innocent. Vanitas asks why he’s going out of his way to say so. Mikhail pauses, remembers when he bumped into Dominique and she helped him up, and answers with a smile: he likes kind people. Mikhail leaves and Vanitas watches him go.

Noé slumps down with his back leaning against Vanitas’s. Vanitas complains about the weight, but Noé simply brushes him off. Vanitas asks if Noé wants to pursue Mikhail for answers, but Noé declines. Wiping away his tears, Noé says he wants to talk to Vanitas. Vanitas bites his lip, expression almost guilty. He quietly mutter an apology. Noé is completely confused. Vanitas continues muttering half-coherently—for being hasty, or waiting too long, or not doing enough—everything he says too muffled into his fists to be heard clearly. Noé comments on Vanitas acting uncharacteristically meek, to Vanitas’s annoyance. Finally, Vanitas raises his head and says clearly: he’s given up on making Noé to do what he wants him to. Noé gapes at him. Then he remembers their confrontation, his own words which he’d screamed to Vanitas—“I refuse to be what you want me to be.” Noé beams and laughs at Vanitas while leaning further against him, annoying him further.

Noé asks Vanitas what he’ll do next. Vanitas says he’ll first look into the Comte de Saint Germain, to which Noé reacts reservedly. Vanitas says that aside from that, nothing will change. He will keep treating curse-bearers, doing whatever he wishes, and saving Vampires for the sake of his revenge. Noé smiles and agrees that nothing will change for him either. Amelia, while preparing their meals, calls out to them from the window that the sky is clearing up once again. Together they look up. Vanitas looks up at the bright blue sky reflected in his deep blue eyes. Down below, the three Dhampirs have appeared and call to them. Dante angrily rants to Vanitas about every bad thing that happened to him yesterday; what Vanitas did to Dante himself, Jeanne threatening him as to where Dominique was, all of them coming to the amusement park to find everything in utter chaos. Johann and Riche add on that Orlok is furious and demanding to see them, making Noé break out into a sweat. Noé stands and beckons Vanitas for them to get going.

Noé reaches his hand to Vanitas with a smile. The brilliant light of the sky from beyond the clouds shines down behind him. Vanitas smiles back and takes his hand. The last droplets of rain fall. The clouds over Paris fade away into a clear, blue sky.

Characters[]

(*) - Denotes that the character did not appear physically, but as a part of another character's memories.

Terms[]

Trivia[]

  • Après la pluie is literally translated as "after the rain" from French.
  • In Volume 10, this chapter is combined with Mémoire 55 Part One to make a single consolidated version of Mémoire 55.

Navigation[]

v - e - t The Case Study of Vanitas
Characters

Main: Noé ArchivisteVanitas
Dhampirs: DanteJohannRiche
Galerie Valentine: ManetNoxParks Orlok
Hôtel Chouchou: Amelia RuthFlute
de Sade: Antoine de SadeChryslerDominique de SadeLouis de SadeMurrThe TeacherVeronica de Sade
Oriflamme: August RuthvenJeanneLoki OriflammeLuca Oriflamme
Chasseurs: Astolfo GranatumCharlesGanoGeorgesMarcoMariaMiraOgierOlivierRoland Fortis
d'Apchier: Chloé d'ApchierJean-Jacques Chastel
Blue Moon: MikhailVanitas of the Blue Moon
Archiviste: Noé ArchivisteLady Archiviste
Charlatan: ChèvreMonsieur SpiderMoreauNaeniaPlague Doctor
The Vampire Senate: FaustinaLord BellatorLord PaldenceMarquis Machina
Others: Beast of GévaudanCatherineÉricFannyFredGillesLouiseMinaNoé's GrandparentsParacelsusThomas Berneux

Nobility Archiviste ClanClan of the Blue MoonHouse d'ApchierHouse de SadeHouse of GranatumOriflamme DukedomThe SenateThe Vampire Queen
Terminology Species & Factions: BeastiaBourreauThe Catholic ChurchCharlatanChasseursDhampirsVampires

Objects: Astérisque FlowersAstermiteThe Book of VanitasMielWorld Formula Alteration Device
Weapons: Carpe DiemDurandalHauteclaireLouisette
Events: Babel IncidentThe War
Miscellaneous: MalnomenMark of PossessionTrue NameWorld Formula

Locations AltusAveroigneLa BaleineCarbunculus CastleLes Catacombes de ParisGalerie ValentineGévaudanHôtel ChouchouDoctor Moreau's LaboratoryParis
Volumes 1234567891011
Omake Romance is a✰LOVE MISSION
Episodes 123456789101112131415161718192021222324RecapSpecial
Blu-ray/DVD 12345678
Drama CDs Drama CD 1Drama CD 2Drama CD 3Drama CD 4
Soundtrack OSTSora to Utsuro0 (zero)Your NamesalvationCharacter Song Album 1Character Song Album 2
Character Songs Le Formidable!Hidamari ni Saku Hana~mon trésor~Na mo Naki MichiSekka
Other Media Stage Play
Extra Vanitashu no KaruteAuthor's NotesTimelineReal-World References
Author Jun Mochizuki
v - e - t The Case Study of Vanitas Chapters
Parisian Excursion Arc 12345
Bal Masqué Arc 67891011
Hunters of the Dark Arc 12131415161718192021
The Beast of Gévaudan Arc 2223242526272829303132333434.53536373838.53940414243
Amusement Park Arc 444546474849505152535454.55555.556
Miel Incident Arc 575859606161.56262.563
Intermissions 15.546.551.560.5
Volumes 1234567891011
Omake Romance is a✰LOVE MISSION
Other Vanitashu no KaruteAuthor's Notes
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