Introduction
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Salvatio — Uncertainty is the tenth chapter of Jun Mochizuki's The Case Study of Vanitas.
Synopsis[]
“I couldn’t do a thing.”
Darkness in the form of tendrils curling up like smoke into the cobweb sky. The broken ruins that was once their secret base. The blood-drained bodies of Fred, Gilles, and Fanny. Mina’s torn-apart corpse. Louis’s severed head sitting silent in its own pool of blood. The moon shining red down upon the world.
Noé lies on the couch, unmoving, eyes lifeless and staring into nothing. A knock sounds at the door. He lifts himself up off the couch as Dominique enters the room. She’s carrying a wooden chest, which he asks about. Dominique says Louis gave it to her some time ago. Her eyes are puffy from crying. She recalls Louis handing the chest to her, asking her to give it to Noé when “the time” comes. She thinks he meant now, so she gives Noé the chest. Noé reaches out to take it from her, but his breathing is uneven, shaky, labored. His hands tremble as they take hold of the chest, and he stumbles and drops it to the floor. The contents spill forth, clattering in piles in front of them. Revealing what is in the chest that Louis wished to give to Noé.
Wooden stakes.
A countless number of them. Dozens upon dozens piled into the crate. Each one carefully and precisely curving into a sharp point at the end. Noé stares in shock at the stakes. Dominique turns pale and recoils, not understanding what this is. But Noé does. The scritch scritch scritch of wood comes to mind. He remembers. Him finding Louis carving something out of wood, and when asked about it Louis simply answered it was a present for Noé. Looking back, whenever he’d find Louis carving at that “present” it was always long and thin, each drag of Louis’s knife against the wood grain making it thinner and sharper until it reaches a point. Noé had excitedly said he’d look forward to receiving it patiently. Noé’s head spins, with nausea, with horror, with despair. He doubles over, to Dominique’s concern. Noé wonders about Louis. What did he feel as he was making all of these stakes? What was the emotion he buried in these morbid creations? Noé pictures it vividly. Louis asking Noé to kill him. His fangs bared, entire face and chest stained with blood, begging for Noé to take those stakes he gifted to him and drive them right into his heart—
Noé sobs. He collapses.
“I’m sorry… Louis.”
He couldn’t save him, and he couldn’t even kill him the way he wanted to be killed. Noé grabs at his own head and slams his fist against the ground, frustrated with himself, with how useless he is. How useless he was as a child. And how useless he remains to be today. All he can do is endlessly think to himself, “I’m sorry.” A hand made of pure darkness cradles his own. That living shadow with its broken-eyed smile curls itself around his collapsed form lovingly. Its twisted voice coos in pity for him. How Louis was his friend, how he loved Louis so dearly, and how he failed to save Louis. The shadow whispers to him, its voice cloying, of how sad he must be, how hurt he must be. It asks if he wants it to take him to see Louis. Noé’s eyes are wide. And if it does, Noé will no longer be so lonely. All he has to do is, in exchange… The shadow cups Noé’s face, its terrible smile inches away from him. Will he give it his True Name? Noé is stricken as he stares at it. He can’t find it in himself to form words. All he can think of are Louis’s words to him, that he can’t do a single thing. He and the shadow lean into one another, lips inches apart, about to kiss—
“—Non!”
Noé’s eyes widen.
A voice calls to him, just like it did in the past not so long ago. Calling himself a doctor who specializes in Vampires. Grinning proudly and exclaiming that he’s here to heal them.
The shadow breaks apart. Vanitas stands above Noé, hand outstretched, having chased away the shadow as if it were no more than a mere nightmare. Noé, clutching his heart, stares back at Vanitas in shock. Vanitas smiles back and asks if Noé sprained his leg while dancing.
Noé gasps out Vanitas’s name. The shadow, its smile ever-present, backs up several feet from Vanitas, leaving vestiges of writhing darkness in its wake. Vanitas smiles cheekily while wielding The Book of Vanitas, and identifies the group as a whole as “Charlatan.” The shadow growls at Vanitas, but keeps its distance as it stares them down. Its comrade, the spider-masked man, emerges from the wall and stands back up. He wields his clawed blades once again and lunges directly for Luca. The wall between them explodes open. Everyone stares wide-eyed and alarmed at the crumbling wall, all aside from Vanitas who knows exactly who has arrived. Jeanne has come, wielding her Crimson Gauntlet and growling at the enemy to stay away from Luca. The boy himself cries out for her in relief as he sees her okay. Noé notices a bloodstain on Vanitas’s collar and asks if he’s hurt. Vanitas looks down at the blood, then smiles impishly and says he won’t tell. Noé is confused.
Jeanne stands guard before Luca, glaring fiercely at her opponents, Gauntlet ready to be used. Luca behind her glares with his own kind of force and asks them, named “Charlatan,” what they are and if they’re the cause behind all this chaos. The shadow smiles at him. Slowly, it begins to giggle. A deeply twisted and terrifyingly eerie noise, like the warning bells of an impending disaster. The shadow’s smile distorts into a truly deranged shaped and it squeals eagerly about how fun this all is. Jeanne, Luca, Noé, and Vanitas all glare at it with varying degrees of heat. A voice sounds from behind the shadow—he calls it “Naenia.” The spider-masks tells it to stop, as they’ve gone past the appointed time, and soon the Beastias—Veronica and Marquis Machina—will catch on. Naenia’s smile fades into dissatisfaction, and it complains, “Boring.”
Instantly, a shrill noise emerges from Naenia’s form. A song, that discordant and jarring and wrong-sounding music that was playing before, that turns all those Vampires earlier into curse-bearers. Noé recognizes it. The thunderous sound of countless footsteps approach, and the curse-bearers affected by the music burst out from the hole in the wall. At once they attack the four, lunging hungrily for them and restricting their movements in an instant. A voice calls for Noé, dark and twisted. He turns to the balcony leading outside, where Charlatan as a group are making their escape. Naenia speaks to him coyly, teasingly. It tells him it likes him. And it asks that, for the next time they meet, he give it his True Name. Noé yells at it, demanding for answers to what it is, why it’s creating curse-bearers, why Louis… Naenia simply smiles at him. This time its smile looks much more like a person’s than any other before. It bids him goodbye. Jeanne yells that she won’t let it. With a wave of her Gauntlet, she knocks the curse-bearers surrounding her backwards, clearing the way instantly. Noé stares in shock as he braces against her power, and Vanitas ducks as a body comes flying directly towards him in particular. Luca jumps into Jeanne’s arms as she carries him, and orders her to pursue them. Jeanne abides by her master’s command and leaps out.
Noé watches them go with hesitation, thinking that he should join their pursuit. Dominique runs into the room. She sighs with relief to find him, explaining the utter chaos happening in the great hall of the estate. Noé stares back at her, recalls the way she had sat staring at him with tears in her eyes when Louis was killed. Dominique asks if he’s alright—Noé pulls her into an embrace. He presses his forehead into her shoulder, face twisted in an old kind of pain, and breathlessly calls her name. Dominique feels Noé leaning against her for support, the exhaustion overcoming him, and her face softens with concern. She gently smacks his cheeks between her palms and tells him to pull himself together. Several curse-bearers all at once have manifested in the great hall, not just the ones who first turned but those who lost themselves to the voices of the other curse-bearers.
Malnomen — Dissonance, Orchestra of Wild Beasts.
Vanitas speaks up, explaining what the specific Malnomen infecting all these people is. It’s unique compared to other Malnomen of its kind, manifesting simultaneously when several Vampires who have been infected gather in the same place. Those infected Vampires will howl to the sky like that of a beast, their combined voices creating a dissonance that drives those around them insane, allowing it to repeat in on itself. A reverberating musical that carries malice and violence with each note, contaminating outward until all those who listen in are caught in the trap. Dominique asks Vanitas if he can save them. Vanitas holds the Book of Vanitas up and says, “I can do something about them.” Dominique narrows her eyes and concedes. The fabric of her dress rips—a slit is cut into the skirt of her gown by the sword she pulls out and wields readily. She tells him she’ll provide cover, and urges him to get moving before someone beheads all the curse-bearers. Vanitas whistles, impressed. The two of them move forth together, ready to get into action.
Noé stands back and watches them. He recalls, that’s right. Resolve hardens on his expression. Dominique smoothly glides through the crowd, swinging her sword and batting away her attackers without having to hurt them. She yells to direct them towards their first target, a curse-bearer consuming the blood of two on the floor below. Noé grabs Vanitas. He carries him under his arm like luggage and, as Dominique blinks owlishly and Vanitas hangs in his hold wide-eyed, leaps off the balcony onto the floor below. Noé reminds himself—things are different now. Vanitas laughs and activates his Book, the black pages flipping open and the inscriptions shining blue. A wave of blue energy like crackles of lightning strike at the curse-bearers. Each one they get, a flash of light engulfs their forms, and as that light fades, the Vampires drop to the ground, unconscious but alive and unhurt. That blue light, that sparkling star-like energy that saves every curse-bearer with each flash, surrounds Vanitas as if he’s amidst his own collection of constellations. Noé stares at Vanitas’s back, eyes shining as they reflect his light. Noé tells himself: this time, this time—he can save them!
As Vanitas stands in the wake of his powers, a group of Vampires emerge and spit venomous words at him. They blame him for the chaos, for turning their brethren into curse-bearers, for using his power as the Kin of the Blue Moon to wreak havoc on their species. They make to attack them—they’re intercepted and all drop to the ground unconscious. Noé stands at Vanitas’s back as he protects him. As Vanitas turns to Noé in surprise, Noé thanks him deeply. The Vampires surrounding them stare at them warily. Vanitas asks what those thanks are for, to which Noé answers noncommittally, he just wanted to say it. Noé and Vanitas stand back-to-back together and they’re surrounded by enemies. Vanitas turns to look at Noé. His eyes are infinitely dark at what he’s heard. Vanitas laughs lowly. Their backs are touching as he calls Noé’s name. Vanitas tells Noé—
“You’ve got the wrong idea about this.”
Vanitas steps away from Noé. They are no longer back-to-back.
Noé is confused. Vanitas smiles darkly, expression unseen aside from his thin smile. Dominique suddenly gasps. She urges Noé to go quickly, to the other’s confusion. She firmly commands them that one curse-bearer is still remaining and tells them to go already. Vanitas and Noé run off, but not without Noé turning back towards Dominique with confusion and concern. Once the two of them are gone, another appears. A figure approaching ominously from the other side, who seems to cause the very air itself to tremble as she comes. She calls out for Dominique, voice at once lilting and melodic and menacing. Veronica de Sade asks her little sister, a thinly veiled threat in her voice, why she was with that human man. Dominique, face pale yet calm, greets her elder sister.
Vanitas and Noé run together towards the last curse-bearer to treat. As they go, Noé wonders questioningly about what Vanitas had said earlier. “The wrong idea” the human said, but about what? Noé remembers the conversation he just witnessed. Dominique asking Vanitas if he can save the curse-bearers, and what Vanitas had said in response. “I can do something about them.” Noé’s eyes are wide as a realization starts to dawn on him. He calls out for Vanitas—a scream. The two of them run even faster. A woman’s voice begging to stop, and she screams—and she’s cut off by a splash of blood. The woman goes limp, hand falling in a pool of her own blood. She’s having her blood consumed by a curse-bearer, but this one is different from all the other ones previous. This one is much more… beastial, their entire body warped and distorted almost beyond recognition into a hungry, ravenous monster. But the dress and the flowers in her hair give her away anyways. Noé recognizes her instantly.
Catherine, the young girl whom Vanitas had charmed with a flower. Turned into a monster and devouring the blood of her own mother. Vanitas stares at her in silence, quietly, he remarks how he came too late for her. Noé looks at him with wide eyes. Vanitas explains that once the curse-bearer’s body has corroded so far to reach such a state, he can no longer restore them. Noé calls out to him quietly as Vanitas steps forward to approach the girl. Catherine, despite her monstrous form, the beastial claws and sharp teeth emerging from her, is sobbing with grief as they approach her. Lying unconscious nearby is an even younger little girl. Catherine begs them, tears flooding out of her empty black eyes, to kill her before she kills her sister too. Noé reaches out to Vanitas’s retreating back and begs him to wait. A flash of blue energy strikes Noé right in the chest. Noé chokes as he collapses to the ground, paralyzed. Vanitas, holding out his Book, tells Noé to stay out of the way.
Noé remembers. When they first met. Vanitas’s words, that he’ll do as he pleases and use whatever methods he chooses. Noé lifts himself up shakily and tries to beg him not to. Vanitas holds his Book out to Catherine and activates it, constellations of blue bursting out into the air between them. Vanitas speaks to her quietly. He sees what her True Name is, and tells her that it suits her very well.
Noé screams to stop.
Vanitas speaks her True Name.
Lashes of energy strike out at Catherine.
Noé stares. Blue energy, vestiges of the Book’s power, surround Catherine’s form. Her tearful eyes start to fade with light. Her monstrous form starts to crumble piece by piece. Catherine fades to dust right before Vanitas.
Footsteps race for Vanitas, and Noé grabs the human by the collar. He demands why, but Vanitas interrupts him. He asks Noé why he’s angry, because he already said so very clearly at the beginning of all this. Noé is baffled. Vanitas reminds him: “No matter what you people want…
“…I will save you, without fail.”
Noé stares. His eyes are wide, expression stricken at the realization. He looks at the dust on the ground, all that remains of the young girl Catherine, and asks. This—is this really salvation? Noé’s mind races with what he saw, with the memories of the past he had to relive. The way they overlap so much and so painfully. Catherine begging Vanitas to kill her. Louis begging Noé to kill him. Louis being beheaded right before Noé, suffering a horrible and painful death that was not the way he wished it to be, not by the hands of the one he wanted it to be. Louis failing to be saved not only in the way he lived but also by the way he died.
“I don’t understand… Vanitas…”
Noé, devastated, begs for an answer from Vanitas, who stares back emotionlessly.
“What is ‘salvation’?”
Characters[]
(*) - Denotes that the character did not appear physically, but as a part of another character's memories.
Terms[]
Trivia[]
- Salvatio is literally translated as "salvation" 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 |
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 |