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Introduction
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Strascinando — Tremolo is the thirtieth 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[]
Vanitas, Dante, Johann, and Jeanne continue their way through the Silver Forest to the Château d’Apchier. Vanitas asks further about the World Formula Alteration Device created by the Marquis d’Apchier’s family to interfere with the World Formula. He guesses that the reason humans and Vampires alike got involved in the Beast of Gévaudan incidents to do something with said Device. Dante says probably. Jeanne listens on nervously as the others behind her continue to converse; Vanitas asks where Dante learned this from and whose orders the Dhampirs are following. Johann worriedly protests but Dante sighs that they were never ordered to stay quiet. He answers: Sir Francis Varney, “Marquis Machina, the Clockwork Fiend.” Vanitas guesses that he is their patron, but Dante snaps that Dhampirs only ever ally with other Dhampirs. Vanitas is surprised, and Dante elaborates—they were hired by the Marquis Machina to do three tasks. One, get Vanitas the Kin of the Blue Moon involved. Two, investigate if the Alteration Device truly exists. And three, if possible bring it back to him.
In the Château d’Apchier, Noé glares angrily. Chloé smiles back at him serenely, Naenia curled around her shoulders. Noé, eyes red and fangs bared, snaps at Naenia to get away form Chloé. Jean-Jacques is bewildered by his hostility. Chloé however simply looks back to Naenia in surprise and asks if that’s her name. Naenia nuzzles Chloé’s neck and answers that she’s simply called that by others, and Chloé responds mildly. Noé is frozen in shock. Chloé brushes off the matter and beckons Noé forward as their food has arrived, and behind Noé appears another automaton carrying a variety of plates. Noé stares. His red eyes and fangs fade. He’s unable to comprehend what he’s seeing, the odd scene playing out before him. Jean-Jacques serving the meals to the table where the instrument-headed automatons sit, Chloé poised at the head of the table, Naenia hovering over her happily. He stares at Naenia’s grin and remembers the way she—it was the reason behind what had happened to Amelia, and…
…What happened had to Louis—
Chloé beckons Noé to sit and eat once again, but Noé interrupts. He asks if the Beast of Gévaudan was her. Chloé and Jean-Jacques pause in their dinners to look to him. Noé was told that the Beast was a curse-bearing Vampire, meaning Naenia had stolen her True Name. And so, he asks how Chloé can smile with her the way she does. Chloé answers it was what she wanted. Noé stops, stunned. Chloé tells him: she became a curse-bearer of her own accord in exchange for getting her wish. Noé stares, completely stricken, and absorbs her words; “Your… wish?” Naenia appears right in front of him. She gleefully confirms that even if she deeply, badly wants a Vampire’s True Name, it’s difficult to take it by force when faced with one as strong as Chloé. Noé looks up at Naenia’s smile, inches from his face. Naenia continues: in that situation, she asks nicely and offers to grant them their wish in exchange for their True Name. Noé’s eyes are wide and start to turn red. Naenia says the same applies for Noé himself. No matter how many times she’s tried, she’s always failed to get his True Name from him. She caresses his face with a giggle and poses the same question: what wish shall she grant him in exchange for his True Name?
“Did you say that to him?”
Naenia stares.
Noé’s eyes are red and his fangs are out as he asks:
“Did you say that same thing… to Louis?”
Naenia is surprised and starts to remember. In their childhood, when Noé had seen Louis suffering. Noé had asked what he can do to help Louis. Louis had stared up at Noé and hesitated to answer: “Noé… I… am…”
Naenia grins. Noé’s eyes widen in fury. He attacks her with full power.
Jean-Jacques is bewildered but Chloé just continues to eat her dinner despite the chaos. Noé sharpens his fingers into claws and demands answers from Naenia, what she is, what she’s trying to do, what she’s after from stealing True Names. He leaps onto the table to continue his enraged attacks. Every swipe of his claws only passes through Naenia’s shadowy form and turns her appearance even more bedraggled, never once truly hurting or harming her. The self-playing instruments upon the automatons continue to play their screeching music as the backdrop to this violence. Noé continues to yell at Naenia: stop taking True Names, don’t take True Names from anybody anymore. Noé remembers his childhood, of meeting his two dear friends. “Give him back,” he says.
Noé, face full of grief and pain and rage, screams—“Give Louis back to Domi and me!!!”
Noé’s foot slips and pulls at the tablecloth upon which dinner was set, and Chloé’s eyes widen as food is sent flying into the air in front of her eyes.
Chloé slaps Noé across the face.
The force of her slap was so powerful it sent Noé flying across the room and crashing into the floorboards, a dent left in the wood where he landed. Noé is bewildered. Chloé steps upon the table herself and tells him ominously how she detests those who waste food. Jean-Jacques behind her has swiftly caught the candelabras in his hands and regards Chloé with a pale, scared expression. Noé, sprawled on the floor, didn’t even see her move and barely realizes that he’d been slapped, before he falls completely to unconsciousness.
Noé wakes lying down with a pack of ice put to his cheek. He’s in what seems to be the kitchen of the Château with Murr sitting at the food of the table he’s lying on, and Jean-Jacques who is tending to a pot nearby. Jean-Jacques cautions that Chloé is quite scary when she’s mad, and Noé apologizes through the throbbing pain in his face. He asks where Chloé is right now and Jean-Jacques answers that she’s with Naenia and warns Noé to stay away from her for the time being. Noé rises up with alarm and insists that he can’t leave her with a being so dangerous—his stomach growls. Noé doubles over in pain. Jean-Jacques reprimands him for ruining their dinner earlier only to complain about his own hunger right then, and Noé apologizes tearfully and heartfully. Jean-Jacques places a bowl on a nearby table. Jean-Jacques while bending down to set a portion for Murr too tells Noé to help him clean up the leftovers.
Noé stands and, despite being unsure, sits at the table and takes a bite. His eyes widen and face flushes with delight. He asks Jean-Jacques if he made this as well as mended Noé’s torn clothes, and Jean-Jacques confirms cautiously, unsure of what Noé wants. Noé calls Jean-Jacques amazing, to Jean-Jacques’s surprise, and marvels at how he can do anything. Jean-Jacques is still for a moment before he blushes red. Bashfully he brushes off the compliment and asserts it’s all from the time he’s spent looking after Chloé. Noé replies that he’s tried cooking and sewing before but has never been successful at it so he really respects Jean-Jacques’s skills. Murr eats his portion of dinner while watching the two interact. Noé, while thinking about how far away Jean-Jacques is sitting from him, apologizes once again for ruining the food Jean-Jacques had cooked earlier. Jean-Jacques, seated all the way at the furthest end of the table from Noé, says only Chloé was actually mad and he himself doesn’t care much. Noé thanks Jean-Jacques for saving both himself and Murr and apologizes for expressing his gratitude so late. He introduces himself properly and extends his hand to the other. Jean-Jacques stares at Noé’s hand blankly, not understanding his intent, and Noé clarifies he wants to shake Jean-Jacques’s hand. Jean-Jacques gapes up at Noé, gapes down at his hand, and blushes bright red. He says no one has ever asked him to shake hands before, and he takes Noé’s hand.
Afterwards, Jean-Jacques is guiding Noé through the Château and tells him that this place belongs to the d’Apchier family. Jean-Jacques takes a candle and shows Noé to a room that is filled with the portraits of the d’Apchiers, in particular that of Herman d’Apchier, the last head of the family. Noé recognizes the name “Herman” as what Chloé called one of the automatons with instruments for heads. Jean-Jacques continues through the portraits, showing Herman, his wife, their children, their siblings—all of whom are dead. Behind a curtain is a portrait of Chloé, whom Jean-Jacques calls the last surviving d’Apchier. Noé stares up at her portrait; she looks completely unchanged in age and appearance from how she appears in the current day. He asks Jean-Jacques how long Chloé has been here. Jean-Jacques closes his eyes and answers: always. For a long, long time, far before the Beast of Gévaudan ever appeared, Chloé would be here to watch over the d’Apchier family. An image of the past, Chloé walking through a field of blooming flowers alongside two little girls as the children’s parents follow behind. The sun shined on this moment of their family together and still alive.
Jean-Jacques asks why Noé and his companions are here. Are they Chloé’s enemies? Noé regards Jean-Jacques with a distressed expression and says his enemy is Naenia, not Chloé. Jean-Jacques retorts that Noé is trying to separate Naenia from Chloé and Noé strongly confirms. He recalls to all the times he’s witnessed curse-bearers and the terrible forms they’ve taken, and says that if the Malnomen is left as is there’s no telling what would happen to Chloé. Noé says his companion has the power to restore Chloé’s True Name, so if he could just arrive in time—Jean-Jacques asks why. As Chloé said herself, this is what she wants. Noé stops. Jean-Jacques says that before Naenia had appeared, Chloé would spend everyday crying her heart out, and there was nothing he could do for her. If this is what she wants, if she no longer has to cry so much and be in such pain, Jean-Jacques is fine with anything. It doesn’t matter if it all ends in ruin, he will stay with Chloé until the very end. Noé is devastated. Voice, shaking, he pleads with Jean-Jacques to tell him—Jean-Jacques, Chloé, the d’Apchier family. What happened to them?
Naenia asks if it’s alright to leave Jean-Jacques and Noé alone together. Chloé says this is a good opportunity, as Jean-Jacques deserves to have a friend. Naenia is intrigued and says that with herself, she despises an outsider touching what belongs to her. Naenia commends Chloé for her maturity. Chloé giggles and denies this, claiming that despite how she looks, she is “a terribly jealous woman.” Chloé looks back at where her automatons are, continuing with their playing still, and thanks them for their patience. She says the time has come, and she embraces a large globe bigger than herself which shines with an eerie light.
“Let’s let the music of our revenge echo here in Gévaudan, shall we?”
Characters[]
(*) - Denotes that the character did not appear physically, but as a part of another character's memories.
Terms[]
Trivia[]
- Strascinando is a musical term, directing to perform the indicated passage of a composition in a dragging manner with heavily slurred notes or to perform the passage slowly. The term is Italian in origin and translates literally as "dragging."[1]
- Tremolo, also known as tremolando, is a musical term, referring to the wavering effect of a musical tone. The term is Italian in origin and translates literally as "trembling."[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 |
| 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 |