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Introduction
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Louisette — Pillar of Justice is the thirty-fifth 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[]
Noé promises that he will win this time and narrows his eyes with determination as he stares down Astolfo, who smile darkly and injects himself with a dose of the Chasseurs’ serum. Vanitas makes to say something, but just closes his mouth and gives Noé with a conflicted look. He relents on letting Noé fight Astolfo. Vanitas says he ended up in “a hell of a mess yesterday” due to the boy, referring to his time spent with Jeanne in the cabin, and tells Noé to land a punch square on the face for Vanitas’s sake. Noé blinks at Vanitas then smiles and confirms—“d’accord!”
Vanitas starts running. Astolfo, grinning gleefully, lunges forward with his spear and makes to attack Vanitas, who runs atop the edge of the Château’s walls. Then Astolfo flinches and he’s forced on the defensive, blocking a powerful strike aimed towards his face with the shaft of his spear. Noé had jumped forth and landed a kick square in the middle of Astolfo’s spear, the two of them straining against one another for a second. Noé declares that Astolfo’s opponent is him. Astolfo swipes with his spear, causing Noé to land on the ground to avoid the attack, and they face off one another. Vanitas meanwhile has advanced behind the two and is easily taking down the rest of the Chasseurs with his pair of knives. In the middle of both these fights, Marco trembles uncertainly in fear. Marco then has an idea and yells for Astolfo to use the “Aegis” to incapacitate Noé’s eyes. Vanitas catches this and instantly starts shouting to Noé, who stiffens in surprise. He yells specifically about the flash grenade Marco is about to use and how Roland uses it in his fights against Vampires, referring back to when they first fought Roland. Astolfo twitches at this. He slams the butt of his spear into Marco’s gut, causing him to drop the Aegis uselessly into the snow. Marco is doubled over in pain while Astolfo proudly proclaims that he can kill the Vampire with his own strength and nothing else. Vanitas scoffs at how easy that was and continues on.
Noé steels himself and takes a deep breath. He remembers Vanitas’s words from last time. If he was hoping to come to an understanding like with Roland, Noé answers yes. If he was holding himself back due to fighting against a child, Noé answers yes. Astolfo charges him with his spear. Noé had thought of Astolfo as a mere child and underestimated the other’s strength while being too certain of his own. As a result, he lost and was cut down the last time they clashed. But now in the present, with every strike Astolfo makes, Noé swiftly and smoothly dodges, all the while keeping his gaze firmly on his opponent. Astolfo is shocked by his speed. Noé leaps off the ground and reaffirms it to himself—the person in front of him is the same as Roland: a Chasseur Paladin, and one he must defeat. Noé kicks at Astolfo and strikes his spear’s shaft, pouring every amount of strength he has into his attack and causing a shockwave to burst from their clash. Astolfo is shocked and his hands gripping his spear trembles. Astolfo is sent several meters back from Noé by that strike. His hands where they grip his spear still feel a twinge of the power from that kick, and Astolfo is in shock.
Noé is satisfied, having finally gotten used to the range of the spear, but then he stiffens. Astolfo lowers the head of his spear to touch the ground and braces his hands and feet into position. His eyes sharpen with murderous intent and his face is deadly serious. He disappears from the ground. The afterimage of the head of his spear like a specter appears before Noé’s face. It’s only Noé’s sharp instincts that allow him to dodge out of the way, mere centimeters from making contact. Noé is shocked by how fast Astolfo has gotten. Astolfo begins a ruthless, breathless, limitless volley of attacks, sending Noé jumping backwards with each one. And with every strike, he growls, “Vanish.” Astolfo spins using his spear as leverage and manages a kick to Noé’s face. Noé recovers easily but is forced on the defensive. All the while, Astolfo screams for Vampires, every single last one, to vanish from his world.
Astolfo strikes with his spear. Noé jumps backwards and lands on the edge of the Château’s wall, the tip of the spear inches away from his nose where Astolfo holds it. Noé stands there firmly in place, just out of range of the weapon. Then a terrified shudder runs through Noé’s body. He falls back, just in time to avoid the spear from piercing his face. The head of the spear had elongated at Astolfo’s command, who clicks his tongue in annoyance at missing. Noé is in awe of the way he can change its range, of how incredible that is.
Astolfo leaps down onto the lower-level clearing that Noé had fallen to. Noé leaps backwards to gain some distance, then notices something on the ground behind him. Astolfo lands and stares in shock—and Noé points the pipe which he’d just ripped off the ground at him. Astolfo grits his teeth. A great fire blooms and erupts from above on the other side of the wall, but Noé and Astolfo are locked in battle, spear and pipe clashing and colliding over and over with metallic clangs that reverberate through the winter air. As they engage in their melee battle, Noé’s mind spins with his observations of the other. Individually each of Astolfo’s attacks don’t hold much weight, but he compensates for that using agility, dexterity, and his wits; such as intentionally leaving openings to lure his opponents in. Noé recalls the fire in Astolfo’s eyes and thinks he’s amazing. As he looks at Astolfo wielding his spear with all his might, he wonders—what on earth made him like this?
Noé uses the pipe to catch the head of Astolfo’s spear and holds it in place to the ground. The two of them strain against one another while taking a breather from their brawl. Noé, now face-to-face with Astolfo, asks him why he hates Vampires. Astolfo stares with utter shock. Noé apologizes, finding himself too curious, while Astolfo’s eyes start to tremble.
He’d been told what a kind human he was. A hand wrapped in bandages that Astolfo had tended to. A young Astolfo alongside a little girl younger than him stared in awe, as the young Vampire he’d helped invited him to talk again—he wanted to know more about Astolfo’s family.
Astolfo explodes in rage. A dark aura full of malice and enmity and hatred radiates off his form. Astolfo snaps at Noé for saying his name with his “cursed heretic’s voice” and whips his spear off the ground, sending Noé backwards. The light from within the Château shines and the Beast growls. Astolfo, face twisted with hysteria, answers his question: that Vampires shouldn’t exist at all. Vampires never should have been born. The Beast of Gévaudan destroys the ground it sprints upon as it rampages on. They are nothing more than filth without permission to exist. Chloé stares impassively as the ethereal light shines on her visage. And so, Astolfo—all those like him. Jeanne fiercely attacks the Beast as per her duty, despite the conflict visible on her face. They have to wipe out all Vampires and “make the world clean again!” Vanitas disregards all the violence happening around him and runs onward.
“Is that what you think personally?” Noé poses this question to Astolfo. He continues to ask, or if that is the collective will of the Church. Astolfo’s eyes are dark and lost in his madness.
Vanitas runs through the snow, lost in thought. He recalls the conversation he had with Noé just a bit ago. Vanitas had been holding a gem on a chain which pointed a light towards the direction of the Château. Noé asked Vanitas that if Jean-Jacques became the Beast to protect Chloé then what was the explanation for all the incidents prior to that? Vanitas asked if Noé learned anything from Jean-Jacques memories, but Noé said that most likely due to his being drugged all he could glean were fragments and feelings, all mixed up and out of order. Vanitas was silent, then claimed that they had been taking the existence of the Beast for granted, and so everything got too complicated. Vanitas told Noé to forget about the Beast and think about everything from the start. All the victims had been found in various states. Some may have been eaten by wild animals after all, but from the looks of it many seem to have been tortured to death. And most damning—the corpses which had been beheaded. Vanitas asks Noé what he would call all that. Noé stared at Vanitas in thought, then he came to a realization. There was only one thing that could be.
A Vampire hunt.
Noé asks Astolfo what the Church had been doing in Gévaudan all that time ago. After all, the ones who had first created the Beast of Gévaudan—it was them.
In the past. Chloé emerges from the bushes of the forest. She finds a group of cloaked men beheading a woman right before her eyes.
Characters[]
(*) - Denotes that the character did not appear physically, but as a part of another character's memories.
Terms[]
Trivia[]
- Louisette is another name for the French guillotine.[1] It derives from the name of the prototype designer, Antoine Louis.[2]
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 • 63 • 64 • 65 • 66 |
| 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 |