Introduction
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La nuit sans lune — Dark Night (Part One) is the fifty-fourth chapter of Jun Mochizuki's The Case Study of Vanitas.
Summary[]
Rain continues to fall. The ceaseless downpour remains to be the only movement in the destroyed amusement park. All else is still—Vanitas crumbled defeated on the ground, Noé beneath him crying out his sorrow. Dominique and Jeanne having paused their fight to watch on in surprise. And above all others, Mikhail. Staring at the scene in both shock and devastation.
Noé’s eyes snap open in alarm as Vanitas collapses onto his chest. Noé frantically tries to rouse him up, but Vanitas barely hears him, their battle having exhausted everything out of him and leaving him practically dead to the world. The paws of the mechanical dog land nearby the duo, and Mikhail leaps off to yell in anguish at his brother. Mikhail is flushed with anger and demands why Vanitas didn’t kill Noé. He tried to drink his blood, and he was so close to killing him but—Mikhail looks at the knife lying uselessly on the ground. “Why?!” Mikhail demands. Vanitas barely holds onto consciousness as Mikhail yells that he’s all his brother needs, that he’d be fine without Noé.
Noé cradles Vanitas in his arms and stares at Mikhail. His anger grows as he realizes Mikhail had ordered Noé to drink Vanitas’s blood not to find out the truth but to make Vanitas kill Noé. Mikhail remembers his little family, himself, his brother, their “father,” just the three of them. It was short-lived but those days remain to be the happiest and most loved Mikhail had ever been. All he wants is to go back to that, and yet… An alarm rings. Mikhail stops and looks at his hand, clutching a small watch. Mikhail quietly says, Noé didn’t do as he was ordered. And so—Mikhail orders Dominique to die. Noé and Jeanne both whip around to her in alarm and panic. Dominique just stands there motionlessly, staring towards the ground. Mikhail calls to her, confused.
In the dark space of Dominique’s consciousness. Dominique has her arms wrapped around her child self in a tight embrace. The other figure, the one who looks just like Louis, watches on silently. Dominique’s child self tells her to let go, but Dominique refuses. She reminds them of the order they’ve been given, to jump off the ferris wheel when they hear the alarm, but Dominique refuses again. She tries to suggest another way to die, but Dominique won’t allow it. Her child self asks her why, as she agreed, and without her Noé would be—Dominique yells no. Dominique indeed agreed to jump because Noé is important to her and she doesn’t want to burden him any longer. But she remembers Noé’s expression when he saw her fall, the devastation on his face. That won’t work if it makes him look like that. Dominique with tears in her eyes clutches her child self tighter. Dominique hates herself; how indecisive and pathetic she is, she can’t stand it. But regardless of that, there’s one thing she won’t compromise on. The other two listen to her in silence. She won’t forgive anything that hurts Noé. Dominique sobs, and if her getting hurt brings Noé pain in return, she can’t allow that to happen no matter what.
Dominique’s child self is stunned. She stutters brokenly, lost, desperately repeating to herself Mikhail’s order, that she has to do it, that she has to die. She rips herself from Dominique’s hold and collapses to her knees before suffering from a complete breakdown. All she can do is repeat broken words and phrases over and over again, “Don’t,” “I hate,” “Don’t hate me,” “I’m sorry.” The other figure starts to explain what Dominique now already knows: this figure she sees completely shattering before her in the shape of her childhood self, is the “self” she’s averted her eyes from this entire time. She is Dominique. Mikhail used his Book of Vanitas to take advantage of her most fragile and vulnerable part, but nothing more. The figure stands up and Dominique looks up, tears streaking down her face. She is also Dominique’s self, this time in adolescence, from the time where she was trying to become just like Louis. She smiles and tells her older self, “Our True Name… isn’t the least bit defiled.”
Mikhail screams to Dominique. He doesn’t get a response. Agitated that she’s no longer under his control, he whips out his Book of Vanitas. Blue electricity lights up the air as he activates it, and at his command, several come out of the darkness. They are all Vampires, of all shapes and sizes, and they are all blank-eyed and bare-fanged as they stand to attention besides Mikhail. A shadow appears over Mikhail’s eyes, which are wet with the still-falling rain and unshed tears. Darkly, he orders the Vampires under his control to kill everyone there. Noé pulls Vanitas in closer to him protectively, and Jeanne whips around to find figure approaching her from behind. Mikhail recalls, he can’t use the Book of Vanitas as adeptly or in the same way that Vanitas does, so he made sure to practice before coming there. He can’t rewrite a Vampire’s True Name, but as exemplified with Dominique, he can temporarily make them do what he tells them to. The Vampires under his control surge forward with unseeing ferocity. Mikhail yells again and again, kill them, kill them, using his Book again and again to make them obey—
Black energy spills out from the pages into the open air. Mikhail looks on in shock.
Characters[]
(*) - Denotes that the character did not appear physically, but as a part of another character's memories.
Terms[]
Trivia[]
- La nuit sans lune is literally translated as "the night without moon" from French.
- In Volume 10, this chapter is combined with Mémoire 54 Part Two to make a single consolidated version of Mémoire 54.
[]
v - e - t | The Case Study of Vanitas Chapters |
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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 |
Intermissions | 15.5 • 46.5 • 51.5 • 60.5 |
Volumes | 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 |
Omake | Romance is a✰LOVE MISSION |
Other | Vanitashu no Karute • Author's Notes |