Cauchemar — Rumble is the thirty-third 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[]
Ruthven is biting Chloé’s neck.
He has her lifted up and pinned against the bookshelves behind, his hand on her face to keep her in place. Even as he drinks up her blood, Chloé doesn’t comprehend what he’s doing to her. Then Ruthven swallows. Chloé shudders as this utter feeling of wrongness, of being violated, consumes her. She grips his arm and kicks her feet and writhes in his hold, yelling “No!” and “Don’t!” and “Stop!” but it only continues. Eventually he separates from her. Chloé breathes heavily, with blood dripping from her neck, tears in her eyes, still trapped in his hold, and she glares at him hatefully. Ruthven, fangs and mouth still filled with her blood, growls at her, “Swear.” Chloé flinches. Ruthven orders her to use her power, the wisdom earned by the d’Apchiers, as he commands it—“Swear it!” Chloé realizes that this is a curse.
A wave of power bursts out from Chloé’s form. It ripples through the air, knocks Ruthven backwards, and slices through the bookshelves behind them. Chloé snaps at Ruthven to get out. The d’Apchiers research on the World Formula was started by her father for her sake, it holds the wishes carried and inherited through each head of the family, and it is the reason she remains there. Eyes red and fangs bared, she snaps that it doesn’t exist for Ruthven to use as a tool of hatred. Ruthven stares at Chloé in shock, then his right eye throbs. He doubles over onto the ground, clutching his head and yelling in agony. Chloé calls to him in concern. He begs for something to stop, to stop showing him “more strange things.” Chloé is completely unsettled by his yelling. Eventually, the pain seems to stop and Ruthven rises to his feet, his right eye dripping more blood that seeps through his bandages. Ruthven, covered in shadows, says, “Chloé… I’m…” before turning away and leaving.
Chloé is left alone on the ground. She absorbs what just happened and starts to tear up. She knew at that moment that she and Ruthven would never again smile together the way they used to. A twisted smile shows itself. Darkness envelops her, the specters of performers and clowns and puppets follow her shadow, and Naenia’s distorted form curls around her, as Chloé weeps into her hands.
“I had just… lost my first friend forever.”
Some time later, Chloé is told this: the war is over. It was about thirty years after Ruthven left her for the final time, and Marquis Machina was the one to tell her. The year was 1702 as she believes, and the man in question this time came to her in the form of a truly uncanny humanoid doll dressed in a kimono. Chloé comments on Marquis Machina’s unnerving appearance and he attributes it to be modeled after the dolls from a far eastern country. Regardless, he continues with his story. An armistice has been reached, thanks to Ruthven. Marquis Machina doesn’t really know how it happened, but Ruthven got himself adopted into the family of the Grand Duke Oriflamme. From that authority, he became a member of the Senate and maneuvered his way up at the expense of his older colleagues, whom Marquis Machina calls “useless old dotards.” He remarks that it was a joy to watch.
Chloé listens to these news with surprise. Marquis Machina says that while there is an armistice, that doesn’t equate to total coexistence. It was decided that Vampires will move from this world to “the world one step beyond it.” Chloé is confused at this. Marquis Machina explains that humans call the place “the other world” but Vampires call it “Altus,” a utopia. The world is filled with points connecting to sealed spaces that seem on the surface identical to the original, but are fundamentally different in some ways. People have guessed these to be similar to Vampires, singularities resulted from the Babel Incident. Then Marquis Machina corrects himself and calls them defects, bugs. Those spaces had finally been confirmed as safe, thanks to the research conducted by Ruthven in secret. Chloé calls Ruthven amazing for his accomplishments and continues to write something down. Marquis Machina watches her.
“Are you all right?”
Behind Chloé is a mess of papers scrawled all over with segments and passages of sheet music, strewn about and torn up and crumpled into balls. Chloé looks stricken to simply be asked that question. She says she is, and attributes her worn out appearance to her not getting enough sleep recently and having awful dreams. She nibbles on her fingernails nervously and is filled with urgency; she needs to complete the World Formula Alteration Device as quickly as she can. She remembers he childhood, her father promising to return her humanity. Marquis Machina asks if she’ll come to Altus with him. Chloé denies fervently—she can live only as a d’Apchier. Ten years go by. Time passes by in the blink of an eye, so, so quickly, like sheets of paper one by one fluttering away into the sky. Twenty years. All her work and hopes and desperation like leaves in the wind; she tells herself just a little further. Fifty years go by. By the end, all Chloé can think is…
“But what is it all for…?”
Chloé lies on the ground in the forest staring up into the sky. She leans her head against the flowers and reflects back on all the time she’s spent there. The researchers that formerly worked alongside her are gone. For more than one hundred years, it’s been no one else but her. She wonders why she has to keep up this research even now. The moon shines high from above past the clouds. A voice speaks up.
“Isn’t it because you’re lonely?”
Chloé’s eyes widen. A dark haze of shadow surrounds her, colors her vision black. The voice continues, mocking in its sympathy, understanding in its accuracy. Chloé, all alone and hopelessly lonely, putting everything she has into her research to distract herself from the emptiness she feels. A little bird taught her of the sky—Jeanne’s radiant grin as they laid in the flowers together looking up into the world—a beautiful sky she could never reach. She’s left thinking terrible thoughts, wishing she’d never learned about that sky, wishing she’d never realized her loneliness at all. Naenia grins at her and asks if Chloé hates that “little bird” for giving her a terrible, beautiful gift and then flying away. Gévaudan is no more than a birdcage made to imprison her. And the only way to be free is to break the cage. Chloé tells Naenia to stop. Naenia tells her to stop spreading her wings and start baring her fangs. Chloé growls again to stop. Rather than a bird, Naenia tells Chloé to become a Beast. Chloé screams at Naenia to shut up—
Chloé stops. At the end of her clawed fingers is Jeanne, blood dripping out her mouth, eyes dead. Chloé retracts her hands in horror. Naenia’s grin follows her as Chloé screams and Jeanne’s decapitated body lays at her feet and blood covers her form—and darkness takes over.
Birds chirp and sing overhead above the trees. Chloé is still lying on the forest floor. She bolts upright, instantly snapping into wakefulness once she realizes she fell asleep. She rushes to head back home lest her maids discover her gone. As she walks through the forest, she notices a pair of men who seem to be from the village and are talking about something. From their words she hears—near the village of Les Hubacs, a girl named Jeanne was killed. Chloé stops. Her heart races in panic as she continues to listen to the men; the girl is estimated to have been attacked by a wolf, her corpse’s innards eaten away. She had to have been only fourteen. Chloé looks down at her dress and finds it dirty. She’s alarmed but calms herself by rationalizing that she’s merely covered in mud, that “Jeanne” is a common name, that what she saw was only a nightmare…
Naenia appears again. Her upside-down smile asks which one is truly the nightmare, Naenia or the reality she’s living in? Chloé flinches away from the shadowy specter and runs off. Laughter rings, eerie music plays, the puppets dance, and Charlatan’s parade plays out all around Chloé despite her attempts to block them out. They ask “poor, lonely Chloé” what her wish is, what she wants to do. Naenia pleads with her to tell her real wish. Chloé screams to shut up. She trips and falls to the ground, exhausted in her distress. A twig snaps nearby behind her and Chloé flinches. She snaps at whoever is there, defensive and on guard from already being plagued with Naenia. From the bushes steps out… a young boy. Nervous and blushing, he introduces himself as Jean-Jacques Chastel. He asks Chloé if she is the “Silver Witch” and Chloé stares at him in surprise.
In the present. Jean-Jacques has just told Noé and Murr the story of how he met Chloé. A young girl with pale gray hair living in the forest, a little witch who did no harm and never aged. Jean-Jacques would always hear stories about the Silver Witch again and again, so he was very happy to meet Chloé. Noé thinks to himself, remembering his plea with Jean-Jacques to tell him what happened to him, Chloé, and the d’Apchier family, and is lost in thought. Noé then flinches, as Jean-Jacques has leaned in inches away from his face. Jean-Jacques notes that Noé is bleeding from the face and touches the injury, and Noé attests this to when Chloé had slapped him and assures that it doesn’t hurt—
Jean-Jacques licks Noé’s face.
Noé stops. He flinches back, completely bewildered. Jean-Jacques apologizes, as he’s never drunken anyone’s blood aside from Chloé’s and wanted to know how it tastes. Noé is only further confused. Jean-Jacques happily says that Chloé’s blood taste better, just as he thought. Noé is still confused, then he asks if Jean-Jacques is a Vampire too. Jean-Jacques, fangs slightly visible in his teeth, becomes bewildered himself that Noé hadn’t noticed. Noé apologizes for the fact flying over his head, as he hadn’t been thinking about it. Jean-Jacques starts to laugh, completely caught off guard. He smiles brightly and calls Noé a strange one. Noé blushes as Jean-Jacques asks if such a thing is normal in the outside world, or if Noé is simply weird himself. Noé catches onto his words: “the outside world.” Jean-Jacques explains that he is like Chloé, a hidden Vampire. When Jean-Jacques was born, the first thing people found out upon meeting was whether the person was human or Vampire. But even for those they already knew, there would be doubt. Noé begins to speak—
The ground shakes beneath their feet. The power of the rumbling almost has them tumbling, and makes the portraits of the late d’Apchiers around them tremble in place. Noé is alarmed and tries to calm a frightened Murr, while Jean-Jacques looks up expectantly and says that Chloé is starting.
Chloé is bathed in light. A beam of energy connects from the sky down to the room she’s in and illuminates directly into the machine she stands upon. A huge globe larger than her entire body, held in place by chains connecting to the ceiling, the inside of the globe filled with what seems to be the hands of a clock or the rod of a metronome. Various machinery and a gargantuan amount of books on shelves surrounds and nests this contraption. And Chloé stands upon it, resting her hand upon the glass as it glows its radiant light. The Alteration Device has been activated.
That beam of light shooting upwards can be seen from miles away—including the Chasseurs who stand within seeing distance of the Château. Astolfo wonders what that light is, only for a rustle to sound behind and Marco to warn him in terror. He turns with a snap, and finds their group surrounded on all sides by countless wolves who glare with hateful eyes. Astolfo wields his spear and growls at the “vermin” in anger. Elsewhere, Dante and Johann similarly find their group surrounded by countless wolves. Dante shrieks at their appearance and Johann hides his Dhampir companion behind his back. Jeanne looks to that beam of light in the distance with a stricken expression.
At the same time that Chloé prepares for her plan, Vanitas confirms that to be where she is and prepares to make for that light.
Characters[]
(*) - Denotes that the character did not appear physically, but as a part of another character's memories.
Terms[]
Gallery[]
Coming soon!
Trivia[]
- Cauchemar is literally translated as "nightmare" from French.
- The conversation Chloé overhears regarding a girl named Jeanne killed in Les Hubacs is a direct reference to the real life Beast of Gévaudan incidents, with a 14-year-old girl named Jeanne Boulet being known as the first recorded victim of the Beast.[1]
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 |