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Introduction
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Frapper à la porte — Knock, knock is the the sixty-fourth 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[]
Knock, knock, knock, knock: The signal to begin.
Dominique has just arrived. Her still doubled over panting, flower petals continuing to flutter around, Gano and Ogier still frozen in place, Johann and Dante staring in confusion, bat still hovering above. For a long moment, all apart of this scene remain in place without movement. Then the Chasseurs react, Gano recognizing at least the threat she poses. But Ogier in particular upon seeing her startles almost violently with the realization. He shouts out—she’s exactly his type.
Everyone stares at him.
Gano growls at him in fury. The two start bickering about Ogier’s taste in women and obsession with sex, even citing then crossing out Mira who is only interested in Olivier—all in front of Dominique who watches wordlessly for the moment. Then she smiles.
Dominique flips her hair over her shoulder while muttering to herself how they don’t recognize her on sight—she’ll have to fix that and make sure they do next time. Gano and Ogier’s argument is interrupted. Dominique extends her hand, first gently cupped with a single tiny icy spark dancing only at her fingertips and barely glowing. Then it grows, and along with it Dominique’s palm as she extends her innate power to turn the sparkle into a full-fledged snowflake, illuminating more and more strongly until it is lighting up the entire space in a singular color, ice-blue. She introduces herself. Dominique de Sade of the House de Sade, who loves beauty and pleasure above all else. Gano and Ogier’s eyes are wide.
Dominique blows on the snowflake. From just the palm-sized crystal cradled in her hand bursts out a veritable snowstorm that absolutely rips through the narrow alleyway. Ice in lashes surrounds and engulfs the Chasseurs, drawing sharp spikes that encircle them and separate from the Dhampirs behind. The temperature drops to freezing and the water pipes laid along the walls unable to take the pressure burst from the shattering cold. Around Dominique’s feet the pools of water collect, only adding to her arsenal as additional snowflakes steadily rise from these puddles and add their volume to the ever-growing snowflake she’d been cradling—it is now as large as a person and hovers ready over her head.
Dominique continues to taunt about wasting away the night in such a drab alley, but as a Vampire of the House de Sade she is more than capable of turning it into her own stage. Gano realizes too late and tries to snap at her for using overtly flashy abilities. She only smirks.
Dominique raises her arm up. Then, with particularly dramatic flair, she whips her hand upwards and with the motion her snowflake follows. Soaring into the sky, it emits one last bright shine then explodes into a firework—a snowflake of that exact shape so large it overtakes the entire night sky. A loud and proud and characteristically shameless announcement of her existence and presence that forces everyone to look in this way. Gently descending from the firework are smaller snowflakes that fall upon the dumbly shocked faces of the public, every single person in view to witness the sight stopping to gape at the sky. And, without even knowing this was the intended purpose, as a crowd they all come together and scramble to head to where the snowflake had emerged. Curiosity travels in waves and soon there’s a whole cluster of people in the alleyway. They react in varying manners at the coldness, the ice, the obvious scene of a fight.
As the shouting overtakes the alleyway, Gano groans in annoyance. Having lost all fight in him he complains how he doesn’t even have the urge to continue anymore. Contrast with Ogier, who is simply impressed and whistles to show it. Dominique calls the stunt a mere greeting that can be passed off as the usual for a House de Sade member, but she can continue. A glint in her eye that can be nothing except a threat, she invites them to continue playing with her at the risk of frostbite. Gano clicks his tongue and turns to leave before other Chasseurs arrive at the commotion.
But Ogier declines. Looking down at her, he cockily declares his desire to properly introduce himself to “the young lady.” Dominique looks up at him in turn, smile unmoving and glint in eyes unchanging.
Dominique looks past them at where Johann and Dante are still kneeled and makes sure to lock gazes with the former. She tilts her head purposefully at them, who remain shocked, before she turns to face the crowd. With a clap to draw their attention, Dominique addresses the crowd. She asks for their opinion of the snowflake firework, announces that winter will soon reach Paris with a wink, and tells them of the “Stardust Circus.” Ogier prepares to move. The crowd starts muttering in confusion and interest at her announcement, assuming this to be an advertisement. With their interest properly piqued, Dominique claps her hands one last time. The ice shards surrounding the alleyway at her command crack then shatter completely, covering the entire street in a freezing fog. The crowd is thrown into a panic and shouting and shoving fill the fog that surrounds Gano still standing angrily in place. In the commotion, Johann takes the opportunity and pulls Dante out of danger. Dominique herself jumps backwards agilely to make her own exit.
Someone leaps over and grabs Dominique.
The fog slightly dissipates and blows out of the way with his rapid movement as Ogier leaps to grab Dominique’s hand in a faux-romantic maneuver, not allowing her to leave. With a smirk he introduces himself as Ogier of Sphene, Eleventh Paladin of the Chasseurs.
Dominique instinctively recoils at how close he is to her face, then realizes the implications of him being a Paladin. She grabs her sword and, with the blade still sheathed, powerfully smacks his hand off of her. She jumps backwards again, managing to put that distance between them this time, while Ogier gives a rundown of what he knows of her. The House de Sade being an opponent more difficult to deal with than even the Oriflammes. Ogier wonders why such a high-ranking Vampire noble would bother to protect Dhampirs. As Dominique runs back what she’d seen in her mind and realizes both Chasseurs she’d been facing down were Paladins, Ogier recalls her calling them her “particular favorites.”
Ogier asks if they are Dominique’s pets.
Dominique stares at him wordlessly.
Ogier wonders if she’s mad as princesses wouldn’t want Dhampirs anywhere near her. Dominique interrupts and, unsheathing her sword, declares that she’s decided she’ll play with him for a bit. Ogier is surprised then quietly scoffs arrogantly.
Dominique rushes Ogier. Immediately he is put on the defensive, having to dodge and weave to evade the swift thrusts of her expert swordsmanship. Despite her rapid-fire attacking, Ogier simply smirks as he continues to maneuver around her. As they kick into the rhythm of a real battle, Dominique contemplates herself. She’s being so convenient that even she is painfully aware of it, having the nerve to be angry at the way the Chasseur speaks of Dhampirs while forgetting the way she had sneered at them before. Dominique as she reflects knows it; the day has been terrible for her even from the start where she ran away in embarrassment when she finally realized how arrogant she’s been. And even more than that, the actions she’s taking right now in saving Dhampirs is not what a Vampire of the House de Sade would do. Unbidden she’s plagued by visions of her siblings, Veronica and Antoine laughing as they mock and threaten her for being pathetic and admonishing her for thinking she could be anything more than.
As Ogier moves to the side, Dominique sends a particularly powerful stab in the direction of his fleeing that has her rushing forward into the wall. Ogier simply uses the wall to spin-leap overhead and dodge the attack entirely. He lands light on his feet directly behind her and sweeps at her feet, making her fall backwards. She curses internally as Ogier above her head reaches with his outstretched palm for her.
But for “me”—
Dominique looks upward at the incoming attack.
She remembers Noé telling her that she is important to him because she is herself.
She refuses to create more reasons to hate herself.
Dominique’s eyes shine red. Power surges forth. Ice bursts out in a powerful wave and engulfs Ogier’s hand, making him stumble and fall back. Dominique takes the opportunity to leap back onto her feet, swinging her sword to the side to summon into being several large snowflakes to use as footholds. Leaping off each of them one-by-one like midair steps, Dominique flees deciding to disengage from the battle now that Dante and Johann have had more than enough time to run and Ogier has been properly disarmed. Then growls from the darkness comes a voice cursing out Ogier’s incompetence.
(Dominique’s head is cut off.)
It’s horrifically eerie, a sensation phantom yet somehow oh-so tangible in how it feels real. Head lopped off her shoulders, neck sliced right open, hair chopped at the same short length she’d done to herself when she was wishing so hard it was her who died instead.
Dominique is petrified in place as the blade whips for her with the intent to kill.
She can’t move.
Dominique’s name is called. Someone leaps into the fray—Noé has appeared and pulled Dominique into his arms just as the attack struck, only the ending strands of her hair caught in its path.
Ogier snaps his head up in surprise. Dominique calls out to Noé just as surprised, to which he admonishes her to stay on guard. He lands easily on his feet, cradles Dominique in his hold properly, and dashes off like lightning, wasting not a second. Ogier is left gaping at how fast that was, unable to even detect who had come. At the same time his subordinates come running behind and call to him, and already agitated Ogier turns to snap at them for being too fast themselves. The Chasseurs who just arrived notice the chill in the air and ask if Vampires were there. A dark voice answers from the shadows: no. Gano steps out, swinging his weapon in circles with a clear threat in his shadowed eyes. They were just killing time after eating a meal and nothing more. While the others are intimidated properly, Ogier sees him and simply smiles in amusement. He calls him out for being bloodthirsty himself.
Noé slows down after gaining a good distance from the scene and checks in on Dominique. She reassures him, but has been rubbing her forehead against his shoulder to soothe her headache incurred by overworking her eyes. Dominique had launched that snowflake firework to catch another’s attention in case the situation turned into an emergency, at the very least relying on Count Orlok hearing of the incident. Dominique smiles in gratitude that it was Noé who came, fortunately having been outside to see just as it was launched and immediately knowing she was calling for his help.
A weak voice calls to them. Dominique and Noé turn—Vanitas is lying there looking dead or at least wishing to be, flipped over with his butt up in the air and head against the hard ground. Dominique asks what happened to him, to which Vanitas answers that Noé did. Just a bit ago when Dominique launched that snowflake firework, Noé launched into action—maybe too quickly. Without either Vanitas or Riche able to react, he had picked Vanitas up, took off running, was leaping across the rooftops, then at the sound of screams and yelling and the commotion, Noé had tossed Vanitas carelessly behind him not even looking as the human tumbled down painfully from the drop.
Noé is recalling this beat for beat as Vanitas tries to recover on the ground and Dominique tends to him. Noé apologizes for dropping him. Vanitas growls at him for somehow forgetting it has happened. Then Noé and Dominique together explain what had happened to have Dominique calling for help like that. The three of them leap down from the rooftops onto the streets, Noé being more gentle with Vanitas this time, as the story is exposited. Vanitas absorbs this information, taking away that the Chasseurs have also begun to take action regarding the Miel incidents. Dominique describes further the men she’d fought, both being Paladins, the one in particular putting on a constant grin, a pushy attitude with no regard for personal space, and overall a creep.
Vanitas assumes it’s Roland. He becomes so terrified he looks semirealistic.
Dominique corrects by remembering the names Ogier and Gano. vanitas, still shivering from the absolute terror at the thought of having to encounter Roland again, flinches as he notices a bat with a bow approaching them. Riche runs up, catching up to the group, their numbers finally reuniting.
Meanwhile, Dante and Johann make their way through the streets together. As they walk the derision, mockery, hatred of their kind follows their every step, every echo sounding like another curse to their existence. Dante when he was a child. He was taught to hide his eyes due to Dhampirs’ nature to have their eyes shine gold without warning or control. His mother had given him glasses to wear so he could hide better, and as she did she told him to be a “good boy.” Then Marquis Machina has asked him what he wanted.
A soft voice calls out and announces Dante and Johann’s return. At this, Dante finally lifts up his exhausted head. At his home, a makeshift slum of cloths and rope and anything they could scrounge up for themselves that surrounded intricate machinery of ambiguous nature, an unfitting background to the scene, a collection of Dhampirs gathered all together. With a warmth they were only able to reserve for one another, they greeted Dante and Johann back home.
As he steps into the only home he ever knew, Dante breathes out with what can only be relief.
Characters[]
- Dominique de Sade
- Gano
- Ogier
- Dante
- Johann
- Mira ((Mentioned only)
- Olivier (Mentioned only)
- Luca Oriflamme (Mentioned only)
- Veronica de Sade*
- Antoine de Sade*
- The Teacher*
- Noé Archiviste
- Parks Orlok (Mentioned only)
- Vanitas
- Riche
- Roland Fortis*
- Nox*
- Manet*
- Dante's Mother*
- Marquis Machina*
- Dhampir Family
(*) - Denotes that the character did not appear physically, but as a part of another character's memories.
Terms[]
Trivia[]
- Frapper à la porte is literally translated as "to knock on the door" from French.
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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 • 63 • 64 • 65 |
| Intermissions | 15.5 • 46.5 • 51.5 • 60.5 |
| Volumes | 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 |
| Omake | Vanitashu no Karute • Romance is a✰LOVE MISSION • Confessional Counseling Office |
| Other | Author's Notes |