|
Introduction
|
Hétérogène — Sneering Laughter is the forty-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.
Summary[]
In Altus Paris at Carbunculus Castle, Jeanne stands guard in a lavish room filled with luxury and riches. She notices on a small bookshelf a picture book that she guesses belongs to Luca. Recalling how Luca had once told her she could read any book she wanted in there, Jeanne eagerly takes the book out—La Belle au Bois Dormant (The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods). She reads through the book and absorbs the first part of the story, of Sleeping Beauty and the curse that makes her fall to an endless sleep. She closes her eyes and imagines the rest of the story, but with herself in the role of a prince who fights through the monsters and gives a saving true love’s kiss to Sleeping Beauty, who in her mind is Vanitas. Jeanne grins happily at this happy ending. Luca enters the room calling to Jeanne excitedly, who asks if he’s finished being measured for an upcoming ceremony. Luca confirms and ecstatically tells her that he’s grown a little taller in the past three months, and Jeanne indulgently celebrates with him. Luca brags that he’ll be taller than Vanitas in due time, imagining himself as a strong man towering over a cowering Vanitas. But the mere mention of his name has Jeanne perking up joyfully, so Luca changes the conversation.
At that moment a servant enters with some troubling news: Dominique de Sade is missing. She never reported at the appointed time, nor has she been seen at any de Sade residence in three days. It was assumed this was just her being a capricious de Sade, but Luca knows would never neglect her duties as a royal guard. While the servant continues to notify Luca of something about Paris of the human world, Jeanne realizes three days ago was when she and Luca went to see Dominique, meaning something must have happened to her after that meeting. The servant leaves and Jeanne frets while Luca is lost in thought. After seeming to make a decision, Luca asks Jeanne to do him a favor.
At the Exposition Universelle, Mikhail smiles as Noé looks up at him with fear. The carousel behind them continues to spin and play its music, as the words Mikhail just spoke echo—for Noé to discover why he killed their “father” by drinking his blood. Dominique stands atop the ferris wheel, still and blank-eyed. Noé nervously says he has no idea what Mikhail means—whose “father” he’s referring to, nor knowing what Vanitas has to do with all this. Mikhail absorbs this and blinks with confusion. Then he comes to a realization and starts laughing, to Noé’s disconcertment. Mikhail says he got ahead of himself, as evidently despite all the time they’ve been together, Noé doesn’t know a thing about Vanitas. Noé’s eyes harden in anger and he clenches his fist against the dirt on the ground. Mikhail ponders for a bit, realizing that Noé can’t just drink Vanitas’s blood out of the blue. He gets an idea and shucks off his cape, causing Noé to be confused. Mikhail continues to unbuckle the belts over his chest and unbutton his jacket and shirt, distressing Noé further and further the more the boy undresses.
Mikhail sits atop Noé’s lap with his shirt off and offers his blood to Noé. Noé is confused, alarmed, and horrified. Mikhail says he’ll give him the context he needs to drink Vanitas’s blood, while Noé’s head spins nauseously, unable to understand what this child is doing. A breeze blows through, and Mikhail taunts Noé to hurry or else they’ll catch cold—both him and Dominique up atop the wheel, her hair flowing through the wind. Noé stares at Dominique with distress and recalls a memory from childhood.
Noé had woken up from his feverish collapse to find Dominique wearing a suit and her hair cut short and styled like Louis’s. Noé had asked what happened to her hair, to which she answered that it was in the way so she’d cut it. She spread her arms showing off her appearance identical to Louis, eyes dead and tired, and asked if it suited her. Noé had collapsed into tears, to Dominique’s concern, repeating to himself that he has to protect Dominique even if it costs him his life. Mikhail cradle’s Noé’s head and pulls the latter’s face into his shoulder. The moon shines brightly and ominously above Mikhail’s head. Noé thinks of Dominique, all he has left. Noé bares his fangs and sinks them into Mikhail’s neck. Mikhail smiles and laughs as Noé drinks up his blood. The sound of Mikhail’s laughter follows him as Noé sinks deeper and deeper into the drowning pool of the boy’s memories.
In the past—Mikhail, much younger than he is now and with long hair in twin braids, sits with a blanket over his shoulders clutching an old doll while some adults discuss before him. The adults, a group of Chasseurs, claim he had been taken by the Church after finding him as a survivor hiding under a bed. His mother, a prostitute, made him dress as a girl to force him to perform tricks for her customers. The Vampire the Chasseurs killed was responsible for the deaths of the other prostitutes as well. While the adults are preoccupied, Mikhail sneaks off and comes across a closed door, which he reaches for curiously. Before he can open it, he’s pulled back by someone who warns him how scary and easy to get lost in the basement is. The man is a younger Roland, so completely wrapped in bandages that Mikhail calls him a “bandage-man” causing Roland to playfully growl at him.
Roland is leading Mikhail away by the hand when the latter asks when he’ll get to go home, and Roland answers that he’ll get a new home soon with more children his age whom he could make friends with. Mikhail is only confused though, and he then next asks why the Chasseurs killed that Vampire. Roland stops and says the Vampire had killed Mikhail’s mother. Mikhail rebukes that he had saved her, to Roland’s shock. Mikhail’s mother would constantly be angry, striking Mikhail and leaving bruises all over him, though Mikhail attributed this to “a devil working mischief” inside her. But when the Vampire came and attacked them, at the last moment when Mikhail watched his mother be bitten from under the bed, he saw her with a blissful smile on her face. Mikhail says that his mother looked really pretty in that moment, and the Vampire must have “chased the devil” out of her.
Roland is shocked, then collapses to his knees before Mikhail in tears, grieving that a child as young as Mikhail had already been led astray, and praying for God to have mercy. Mikhail is just dazed and confused at this. At that moment, Olivier, similarly covered in bandages and patched-up wounds, storms in along with Georges to find Roland. They pull Roland away and force him to continue his bed rest as ordered, while another Chasseur comes to lead Mikhail away. But before Mikhail could follow, a pair of hands materialize behind him out of the dark and pull him away, disappearing him with nothing left but the doll on the ground.
Mikhail slowly wakes to the sound of someone speaking, talking about how a previously procured child “broke right away” and was thus replaced. That man is Moreau, assuring his fellow researchers that the Chasseurs will be occupied with the prostitute killings and won’t notice or worry about one child’s disappearance. Mikhail stirs awake from where he’s lying tied up on the ground, which Moreau notices gleefully. Moreau pulls another child towards Mikhail, saying it will be their job to look after the boy now, and refers to them as “No. 69.”
Mikhail looks up and meets the eyes of a young Vanitas.
Characters[]
- Jeanne
- Luca Oriflamme
- Mikhail
- Noé Archiviste
- Dominique de Sade
- Vanitas of the Blue Moon (Mentioned only)
- Roland Fortis*
- Olivier*
- Georges*
- Moreau*
- Vanitas*
(*) - Denotes that the character did not appear physically, but as a part of another character's memories.
Terms[]
Trivia[]
- Hétérogène is literally translated as "heterogeneous" from French.
References[]
[]
| 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 |