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Introduction
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Mal d’Amour — The Incurable Illness (Part Two) is the forty-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[]
Jeanne rushes into the room where Luca is waiting for her, and they greet each other happily and with relief. Luca worries over Jeanne’s well-being and Jeanne apologizes for causing so much trouble. They embrace and Luca suggests that they have tea and catch up over what had happened over in Gévaudan.
Afterwards, Luca is clutching his teacup with anger and dread when he hears that Jeanne and Vanitas had spent the night together in a mountain lodge. Luca almost explodes with rage, but reasons that the circumstances needed it, as Jeanne saved Vanitas’s life and had no other choice. Jeanne, oblivious to this, munches happily on the macarons before her. After hearing the rest of the story, Luca tells Jeanne that he’s glad she didn’t have to kill Chloé as initially ordered, for the grief that would’ve caused her. Jeanne is touched by this. Luca asks where Chloé is, but Jeanne doesn’t know as they deliberately kept Chloé’s whereabouts from Jeanne to prevent that information from being found through interrogation. Jeanne isn’t worried however, as she has faith that Vanitas would treat Chloé well, and she smiles warmly.
Luca pauses. He comments how unnatural it seems that Jeanne now trusts him so much. Jeanne then confides in Luca that after the incident in Gévaudan, she can’t get Vanitas’s face out of her mind, any aversion she’d felt before has disappeared, and her heart races at every passing thought of him. As Jeanne goes on about her feelings, Luca grows more and more distressed and panicked. He explodes trying to deny this, causing Jeanne to be worried for her physical condition. But instead Luca, so slowly as if he’s terrified to admit it, notes that it seems Jeanne likes Vanitas. Jeanne is stunned. She thinks this over, the idea of her liking Vanitas, as well as all of her encounters with Vanitas up until now, and something clicks in her mind. Jeanne grasps her face, her expression filled with wonder and awe and deep affection. Luca screams.
After some time, Luca has rushed over to where Dominique is with Jeanne in tow, yelling that she’s “gone all strange.” Dominique rushes over in concern. Jeanne admits, with growing emotion, that she seems to have genuinely fallen in love with Vanitas. Dominique and Luca both scream.
After a while, Dominique has brought Jeanne and Luca out into a garden under a gazebo to talk things through calmly. Dominique and Luca both start interrogating Jeanne, if she’s eaten anything odd, if she’s hit her head, if she’s been poisoned, if her eyes have been injured. All of these being the only feasible reasons the two of them could come up with for Jeanne’s sudden infatuation. Dominique then starts to go on about Noé, to Luca’s surprise. She understands falling for Noé, who in her eyes is strong, dashing, kind, and adorable—anyone could fall for him. Luca says he doesn’t even want that happening, and Dominique agrees, but she continues; Vanitas has been the absolute opposite, always treating Jeanne horribly, so how could she fall for him? Jeanne simply says that Vanitas has saved her countless times, making him a good person at his core. Dominique notes with dread how Jeanne’s feelings are always on one end of two extremes, as now that Vanitas has earned her faith, she’ll never doubt him again.
Jeanne smiles, so blinding and bright and full of joy, as she expresses how happy she is. She’d never expected to experience romance as a Bourreau, but she now gets to revel in this emotion, of racing hearts and restless moods and the impossibility to calm down. Dominique and Luca look at Jeanne’s expression and find themselves flustered. Jeanne then confesses she has a concern, which Dominique urges her to share. Jeanne claims that if her affection for Vanitas continues to grow, she might not be able to control herself the next time they meet, and with an expression like that of a hungry lion she expresses her desire to “push him down” and “have her way with him”—Dominique cuts her off, panicked. Jeanne is embarrassed to be taking her and Vanitas’s relationship so fast, but Dominique counters that she’s just being shameless. Jeanne is confused that claims that her mother taught her to take love aggressively, just as how she’d gotten Jeanne’s father, by relentlessly pushing until she’d won. Dominique argues against this with her belief that a relationship needs to begin with “correspondence”—such as in her youth when she and Noé would exchange letters all the time despite being within conversing distance of each other. Jeanne is surprised to hear this and turns to Luca for advice, only to find him looking blankly into the sky as if trying to flee reality.
Dominique continues to try and reason with Jeanne. As the two of them had found out together, Vanitas claims to have no interest in anyone who would fall for him, so it’s pointless to love someone like that. Jeanne realizes this as well. But instead of being discouraged, she grows even more determined and plans to train herself to be able to behave normally when interacting with him. Dominique tries to argue with this but none of what she says gets through. Jeanne cites the acting skills she’d built up from last time and becomes determined to not let Vanitas catch onto her feelings. Despite saying this, she’s very visibly excited, so much so that she’s waving her fists in the air and grinning eagerly, the mere thought of seeing Vanitas again causing this reaction in her. Dominique puts her face in her hands.
Dominique marvels at how intense Jeanne is with her emotions; she hadn’t realized Jeanne could smile so brightly. Dominique recalls when they first interacted and she had assumed that Jeanne lacked confidence due to her situation as a Bourreau, which is what made Dominique drawn to her with the urge to protect. But Dominique realizes—there was no need for that. Be it through Vanitas’s influence or Jeanne’s own inner strength, she’s grown to have a radiant light, unable to look away from. Dominique recalls how Noé had looked at Jeanne even in passing, how he seemed drawn to her.
In her mind echo the words of her siblings, Veronica calling her “dull as ever”, Antoine saying she can’t do anything, and Dominique remarks how all of that from Jeanne is nothing like herself. Someone calls her “a poor thing”, with blue eyes and pale hair and a sly smile, and a harsh shudder runs through Dominique’s body. Luca notices and looks to her in concern, while Dominique hugs herself tightly and repeats Noé’s name in her mind with growing desperateness.
Back at Hôtel Chouchou, it has already gone dark. Noé looks up to the roof where Vanitas is still sulking. He tries to urge Vanitas in by saying how cold it will get, which Vanitas brushes off. Noé steps out of the window onto the rooftop as well, saying that he’d been told by Manet that multiple Vampiric incidents occurred in Paris while they were away in Gévaudan, sounding like the work of a curse-bearer. Even this doesn’t get a response from Vanitas. Noé huffs.
Noé tosses a blanket over Vanitas’s head, and says that in Gévaudan was the first time he met a human who truly hated Vampires. Noé hated him too. Recalling his fights against Astolfo, Noé doesn’t regret fighting him or beating him in the end. But he wonders what made Vanitas and Astolfo take different paths in the first place. Vanitas stares at Noé. Noé thinks of what he knows of Vanitas’s past and what he knows of Astolfo’s past, and how much they parallel each other. Noé remarks that while the Vampire of the Blue Moon’s presence was significant, one small difference like the beat of a butterfly’s wings meant it could have been Vanitas Noé was fighting against in Gévaudan.
Vanitas asks what is Noé’s point. Noé says that on that day they met on La Baleine, he’s glad the man he met was a Vampire doctor rather than a Chasseur. Vanitas is surprised. Noé remembers Vanitas’s words from earlier, that the idea of someone falling for him is revolting, smiles, and says he still doesn’t like him. Even so—Noé declares under a canopy of starlight hanging over Paris that he’s glad Vanitas is the person he is now. Vanitas stares at Noé, who smiles up at him and says he wanted to tell him that no matter how arbitrary it seemed.
Vanitas makes to say something, but is startled out of his thoughts when he notices movement from nearby. He darts up to his feet, concerning Noé, but Vanitas doesn’t see anything and brushes off his concerns.
Elsewhere, a figure slowly approaches Mikhail as he looks at a postcard of an amusement park with glee and plans to head there. He looks up at the figure and smile indulgently, asking “Again?” Dominique, eyes blank and mouth dripping with blood, staggers, looks at her bloodied self with confusion, and slumps to the ground before Mikhail. Mikhail reacts with exasperation, as he always asks Dominique to bring Noé to him but she always disobeys. Mikhail runs his hands through Dominique’s hair and remarks that he’ll have to use her to bring Noé instead. Mikhail raises a knife over Dominique’s slumped form, smiles, and apologizes wanly before slashing downward.
Characters[]
- Jeanne
- Luca Oriflamme
- Dominique de Sade
- Chloé d'Apchier (Mentioned only)
- Murr*
- Louise*
- Éric*
- Louis de Sade*
- Veronica de Sade*
- Antoine de Sade*
- Vanitas
- Noé Archiviste
- Astolfo Granatum*
- Vanitas of the Blue Moon (Mentioned only)
- Mikhail
(*) - Denotes that the character did not appear physically, but as a part of another character's memories.
Terms[]
- Altus
- Carbunculus Castle
- Vampires
- Gévaudan (Mentioned only)
- Bourreau
- House de Sade
- Hôtel Chouchou
- Malnomen
- Chasseurs
- La Baleine
Trivia[]
- Mal d’Amour is literally translated as "love sickness" from French.
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 |
| 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 |