Moon Princess (route)

Moon Princess (月姫, Tsukihime^?), also known as the Arcueid Route, is one of the routes in Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon-.

The main heroine and love interest of this route is Arcueid Brunestud. Moon Princess is the first route the player will be able to play through in the visual novel, and completing it is required to access the Midnight Rainbow route.

Moon Princess is the shortest route and only has one ending.

Plot

Prologue

- A young boy woke up alone in a quiet mansion. He tried to recall on the dream he had that was narrated in a young girl’s voice: “If only, the day was cloudy; If only, it was found out earlier; If only, he didn’t become weakened; If only, I wasn’t born. And…. if only, you didn’t wake up at that moment.”

- The boy decided to leave the mansion to find others. His young and innocent mind pictured the forest outside like a curtain for a play about to start, accompanied by various sounds. Feeling someone was calling out to him, he walked deeper into the woods.

- At the open field in the forest, the boy found the others, already massacred. A mysterious figure approached him, ready to strike him down just like the others. The boy didn’t move, quietly waiting for his own pending demise. Yet the blow landed on someone who rushed before him instead: His mother. The boy was covered in freshly spilled blood. Refusing to witness more of the tragedy surrounding him, he looked upon the night sky with his now blood-soaked eyes, ignoring the approaching killer. His final thought before his consciousness faded to nothingness: “Ah, the moon tonight is so pretty.”

- Shiki Tohno wakes up in the hospital. He was able to discern he was gravely injured but the memory leading to that outcome and what happened afterwards was cloudy. A doctor with a “professional” smile approached him and explained he got a severe chest wound from a traffic accident that would have killed him if not for some medical miracle. Yet, the near-death experience didn’t bother the young Shiki that much, as he was distracted by these strange lines that appeared everywhere in his vision.

- Puzzled by what he saw, he tried to touch on those mysterious lines and quickly found out his finger can go through them. Switching to a fruit knife next to him, he used it to slice through one such line of his sick bed out of curiosity, and to his surprise (as well as the nurse witnessing the outcome), the sick bed instantly collapsed. He tried to explain his experience to the doctor, but no one believed him, even after a few other instances of demonstration. Two weeks later, he started to come to the realization it was only him who was stuck in this visual hell.

- Hoping to escape from all these, he fled from the hospital and went outside. However, his injury quickly made him collapse to the ground. This was when he encountered a mysterious woman with bright red hair, who seemed to be annoyed by the fact she almost kicked him by accident.

- The two quickly became close. The woman called Aoko Aozaki was unlike other adults Shiki had met in the hospital. She didn’t treat him like a child and took his words seriously. Out of respect, Shiki addressed her as “sensei”, because it was her who brought back a sense of normality to Shiki’s maddening world. One day, out of desire to impress Aoko, Shiki showed his ability on a tree. Yet instead of praise, Aoko slapped him. Aoko reprimanded Shiki for his action, or more accurately his attitude for such action. She then hugged the now crying Shiki and explained to him what his power entails. For whatever reason, Shiki was able to perceive the end of all things, an ultimate form of foresight. To help Shiki address the problem of constantly living in a world of death, Aoko promised a gift.

- The next day, Aoko brought Shiki a pair of glasses which she got from her sister Touko. Upon wearing it, Shiki was pleased to find out the terrifying lines had disappeared. Yet Aoko reminded Shiki that the glasses was only hiding the lines, not actually removing the power from him. Shiki would need to learn to embrace such power and determine when would be the time to unleash it, if such a moment ever comes. With that, Aoko bid her farewell and told Shiki he would be fine on his own. It was only after Aoko left that Shiki realized he never got to express his gratitude for what Aoko did for him.

Day 1

- Seven years later, Shiki, now a high school student, left for school on an early morning train. This would be the last time for him taking such a trip as he was summoned back to the Tohno household after being left to Arima family’s care after the accident. In contrast to the strict aristocratic lifestyle of the Tohno household, the commonfolk Arima family was far more to Shiki’s liking, and he was grateful for the Arimas treating him as family. As the result, rather than leaving the day before back to the Tohno mansion, he chose to stay there for one more night and left early quietly the next morning.

- Right before the train door closed at a station, a short-haired girl rushed into the train at the last possible moment. Shiki remembered her to be Ciel, who was a popular figure in school due to her friendly and helpful nature. The two had a brief chat on the train on random things before the two went separate ways.

- Shiki arrived at his classroom early and to his surprise, Arihiko actually came to school early today as well. Arihiko explained he decided to come to school because his sister was home and he got nothing better to do. With Satsuki who joined the conversation, the two briefly discussed the strange serial killing event happening downtown. To Arihiko and Sacchin’s surprise, Shiki was strangely calm about the incident and claim he would have no choice but to face the serial killer face on if they somewhat met, foreshadowing the future events.

- The homeroom teacher for Shiki’s class never arrived, and from the whispering of the classmates, Shiki learned their teacher was the serial killing’s latest victim.

- Arihiko invited Shiki to lunch at the cafeteria as he invited someone to join them today. Shiki joined him but Ciel never showed up. Shiki then asked the true reason why Arihiko came to school, and it turned out Arihiko learned of Shiki being summoned back to Tohno household and thus decided to check on his friend out of concern.

- After school, Shiki headed to the Tohno mansion that he had not returned to since 7 years ago. The building was still as grandiose, and as out of place and time, as it ever was. Upon entering the building, he was greeted by Kohaku, who with her usual cheerfulness guided Shiki to the guest room while she returned to notify Shiki’s sister Akiha of his arrival. At the guestroom, Shiki met a mysterious figure covered in black bandages, who introduced himself as Goto Saiki. Saiki claimed to be a business partner with the Tohnos and mocked him for being a coward who abandoned his destined duty as the eldest son of the Tohnos before leaving the mansion.

- Kohaku returned and brought Shiki to Akiha, who had changed alot from the little girl Shiki remembered. Akiha put on a stern face and tone about the family business and the expected role of Shiki as the Tohno eldest son, but she couldn’t hide her true concern for Shiki from her decisions to fight all the Tohno sub-families to secure Shiki’s return, as well as kicking them all out of the mansion so Shiki can live more comfortably. She also assigned Hisui to be Shiki’s personal maid going forward.

- Hisui brought Shiki to his room, which was supposed to the same room that he lived in 7 years ago, but still surprised Shiki due to how luxurious it is compared to his old bedroom at Arimas. However, the room was void of any personal entertainment device like TV, gaming console or personal computer. Upon being asked if there are such devices in the mansion, Hisui appeared to be really confused but tried really hard to be helpful. At the dinner, Shiki had a hard time due to forgetting all the proper dining etiquette, much to Akiha’s disappointment. She declared it would be necessary for Shiki to follow a strict curfew and even confiscated the “corrupting device hidden in every man’s pocket”, aka cellphone. While Shiki doesn't play mobage and worried about losing his daily login streak, he was still speechless about how out of time this household is.

- Upon returning to his room, Shiki quickly fell asleep from the exhaustion of an eventful day. However, he woke up in the midnight and entered the attic through a secret passageway. He tried to find something there but only managed to find some old bandages in the drawer. He appeared to recall he might have been in this room in the past, but eventually left the room after dropping a tear on the floor.

Day 2

- Another monologue: “One day, you will realize you can’t dream. What you see, is the replay of what has transpired; Or self-analysis, or self-accusation. Through the lucid dream, repeating the presence and the future. You can’t dream. I am not here either. Shiki Tohno can’t understand dreams. I as of now can’t understand you either. So, that’s it for this topic. The end of the unrelenting topic of dreams. Like the snow; Like the waves; Like the waning moon. Repeat Repeat Repeat Repeat”

- At around seven, Shiki was woken up from his sleep by Hisui. After quickly remembering he had moved back to the Tohno mansion, he greeted Hisui and headed to the dining room for breakfast.

- Shiki found Kohaku there, who started to address Shiki as “Shiki-san” due to Shiki’s comment from the day before (in contrast to Hisui who still calls him Shiki-sama). Facing the Japanese breakfast prepared by Kohaku, Shiki apologized in advance that he had been a light eater due to the injury, but proceeded to be utterly amazed by how delicious the food was.

- After breakfast, Shiki met with Akiha, who was already enjoying her morning tea in her Asagami Academy uniform. She remarked Shiki being waking up late (despite it being only 7am and already earlier than usual for Shiki) and asked Hisui to prepare tea for Shiki as well. Like breakfast, Shiki was mind-blown by the quality of the tea. Akiha appeared to be pleased by Shiki’s reaction and explained the tea is the affordable Esprit de Noël from Mirage, a French brand since the 19th Century. She then teased Shiki for acting like a country bumpkin with good tea.

- While Shiki was enjoying the peaceful tea time and the thought of Akiha still able to enjoy herself after all these years, the peace was abruptly interrupted by a strange foreign woman in a revealing outfit. Clearly disturbed by her presence, Akiha introduced her as Dr. Arach, an old acquaintance of Shiki’s father and now helps to manage the maintenance of the mansion as Akiha’s advisor. She appears to take great interest in Shiki and straight up burst into crazy laughter after a quick examination of him, claiming “Doesn’t this mean I am fated to be killed?”

- Kohaku’s appearance help alleviated the awkwardness left behind by Arach. The topic got switched to the news and how there is a new victim to the serial murder. In response to Shiki’s complaint about his confiscated cellphone, Akiha simply responded she can arrange having the morning newspaper delivered to him to catch up on things.

- After Akiha left, Kohaku approached Shiki and secretly returned his phone back to him (but still no use in the mansion as the signal is poor anyway), as well as the key card for the entrance.

- Shiki made it to school on time and started another day of his normal high school life, monologuing about how contrary to the boomer perspective, “modern kids lack real friends and real experience thanks to the internet”, these tools and platforms make people far more connected than ever, but the lack of unknown also makes it increasingly challenging to have dreams or ambitions. The result is the modern youth living in this bizarre mixture of being free, and not free.

- Shiki’s assumption of a peaceful school day is smashed to even smaller pieces with the arrival of Noel, the new replacement teacher, who like Arach is also a foreigner. Regardless of hints of connection to the Church in her introduction, Noel’s “neighborhood oneesan” vibe quickly grasped the male students’ attention, as well as the female students’ disgust.

- After school, Shiki bumped into Noel, who started to act extremely suggestive towards Shiki, and started approaching him aggressively. She would have had her way with Shiki if not for the attempt to remove the glasses from Shiki, who instantly moved away from her in fear of his power exposed. Noel then changed her attitude and declared it was just a harmless joke. Upon being asked what happened to the original HR teacher Ms.Toyama, she simply replied that Toyama had died and was found half-burned near the park.

- Perhaps under the influence of Noel’s action or words, Shiki found himself wandering around the city instead of heading straight back home. Eventually, he made it to the dark corner of the city as though being tempted by something deep in the darkness. He only came to his senses thanks to a mysterious girl calling out to him from behind (Mio). The girl asked for $100 yen to buy some drink from the vending machine, but proceeded to give the drink to Shiki in disappointment as it is “not a flavor she can drink”. Shiki now remembered the 8pm curfew and hurried back home.

- Shiki barely made it in time for the curfew, but Akiha was really mad nonetheless. She decreed Shiki would have no supper and his entertainment allowance would be reduced. This was when Kohaku came to the rescue once more, who secretly handed Shiki onigiris as supper and explained to Shiki that Akiha actually was excited to meet with Shiki after school thus returning home much earlier than usual, but ended up waiting for hours instead. Kohaku also used this chance to remind Shiki to address Hisui by her first name.

- As it was still too early to go to bed, Shiki decided to find Akiha to help make up for the mistake. However, instead, he found Goto Saiki there. Saiki ranted on about the strict curfew tradition of the family because the “Tohno head is afraid to see the dark” and how inefficient it is. He also revealed due to reasons he would be staying in the mansion going forward as well before leaving for more work on a city redevelopment project.

- After going to bed, Shiki kept hearing the dog howling outside and eventually felt fed up about it. He left the mansion to check on the source of the noise. Outside, he vaguely saw a mysterious figure who stabbed into a melting dog on the floor with a spear before everything went back to normal and silence.

- Upon returning to his room, Shiki noticed for the first time in 7 years, the glasses was not able to stop the Mystic Eye from seeing the lines. In fear, he forced himself into sleep.

Day 3

- Shiki remembered the conversation he had with Aoko about his power and how it reflects how fragile the world is, especially human.

- As the day before, Hisui was there to wake Shiki up. Upon being asked, she revealed Shiki was found sleeping in his school uniform, and thus Kohaku ended up changing his clothing into pajamas (underwear included).

- During the morning tea time, Shiki asked about the howling but no one seemed to hear the noise except him. In confusion, Shiki had no choice but to believe it was some strange dream (but remember the Day 2 monologue).

- Before leaving for school, Kohaku approached Shiki and handed him “a package from Arima family”. Urged by Kohaku’s curiosity, Shiki opened the package and found an old-looking switch knife in it, of which the words “Nanaya (Seven Nights)” is written on it. Shiki decided to keep the knife and show it to Arihiko in school after Kohaku mentioned it being a relic from his father.

- Outside of the mansion, Shiki noticed a crowd gathering nearby. Hisui explained a pond of blood was found there and the police had come questioning earlier about it. Shiki oppressed the thought of what he “saw” the night before.

- At school, Shiki found Arihiko in the classroom, as well as Ciel. Ciel apparently came to the classroom to look for Shiki after hearing about the news near the Tohno mansion. Arihiko also revealed (while subtly trying to cheer Shiki up) how despite his seemly calm demeanor, Shiki actually would go “berserk” from time to time.

- During lunch time, Ciel joined Arihiko and Shiki again. The group briefly talked about Ciel’s usual lunch plan (and strangely her bento is not of curry). Ciel revealed she was the type who had trouble waking up early and thus used to be scolded by her father who ran a bakery. (Pien) The topic then changed to Shiki skipping lunch. Upon hearing Shiki’s plan to control his weight, Ciel thought of something and left.

- In the afternoon, Shiki suddenly felt his anemia kicked in and would have collapsed to the floor if not for his old buddy Arihiko who recognized the look. With the teacher’s permission, Shiki decided to head home early.

- On his way home, Shiki passed by a woman in white outfit, and something was triggered by the sight of her. Driven by an uncontrollable mixture of intense impulse and powerful desire, he started to stalk her all the way back to her apartment. He heard the warning words of Aoko but they could no longer reach his heart.

- The woman answered the doorbell, and before she could react, the dagger had slashed through the 17 lines across her body. The body parts collapsed to the floor and the floor was quickly soaked in fresh blood. Shiki finally came to realize what he had done. In shock, disbelief, disgust, and body pain, he collapsed to the floor and started vomiting. He realized he had lost control; he had broken the promise he made with Aoko. He had killed her.

- Shiki remembered hearing the rain and Hisui calling out to him before realizing he had returned to his bedroom, with Hisui right next to him. To Shiki’s surprise, no one appeared to realize he was covered in blood after leaving the murder scene. According to Hisui, Shiki was simply found resting in the park, covered in mud, after leaving the school and was then brought back by Kohaku. As no one seemed to confirm the horrifying experience he just had, Shiki started to convince himself it is another dream (but remember the Day 2 monologue). Yet somehow, before he went back to sleep that night, he heard Aoko’s words once again: “You can’t tell a lie that can’t even fool yourself.”

Day 4

- After a restless sleep, Shiki woke up in a cloudy morning. Hisui entered the room shortly to bring the now washed uniform, and was surprised Shiki was already awake (6am). Hisui appeared to be a little shaken by something, and proposed to Shiki if he wanted to take a bath.

During the bath time, Shiki noticed he looked extremely terrible, and his throat was hurting.

- After the bath, Shiki met Kohaku, who was going to prepare Shiki some breakfast. Shiki initially wanted to reject due to nausea, but Kohaku got a little mad about it and insisted Shiki must eat something. (For the record, at this point Shiki had already skipped two meals)

- Shiki was dragged to the dining room by Kohaku and found Akiha there. Akiha was clearly worried by what happened to Shiki the night before and the two got into a small argument over Shiki’s decision to walk home alone under his condition. Akiha even proposed maybe sending Shiki to some lone island to reflect on his action before she dropped the subject for now.

- The two then briefly chatted about Akiha’s school. Akiha was a bit surprised how much Shiki knew about it and asked about it. Shiki responded he did some simply research on it after knowing it is the school his younger sister went to, to which Akiha was clearly pleased to hear. It was also revealed unlike all other students, Akiha was able to commute between the mansion and the campus instead of living in a dorm. While Akiha tried to brush it off as a continuation of her father’s instruction, it was clear that she did so now due to Shiki.

- Before leaving for school, the usually quiet Hisui asked about what happened the day before. Due to the narrative he had heard so far, Shiki still tried to convince himself he simply fainted in the part after leaving the school, and what had been troubling his mind was just some nasty dream.

- It appeared to be another school day as usual. However, right outside of the school gate, Shiki saw someone. Someone that shouldn’t be there. It was the woman in his nightmare; the one he “dreamed” of being brutally murdered, yet now casually sat there as though waiting for someone. She turned to Shiki’s direction, smiled and started approaching him. Shiki started to run, certain his fate would be sealed if he was in the woman’s reach.

- But Shiki’s body finally gave out near an alleyway dead-end. He collapsed to the floor, having no choice but to face the woman before him. Strangely, the supposedly killed woman was calm. She causally revealed she was indeed “killed” by Shiki the day before and somehow was able to be “revived” from that. Furthermore, she openly declared it was possible for her because she is not a human, but a “vampire”, much to Shiki’s disbelief and horror, initially saying "you're lying, it's impossible, dead people can't be alive".

- All these new developments somehow took away Shiki’s desire to flee anymore. He simply accepted his fate and was prepared for the woman’s vendetta. However, instead of showing any enmity, the woman who claimed to be a vampire simply asked if Shiki felt bad about his action. Shiki was a bit hesitate to admit he had committed a murder, but it was Aoko’s words that forced him back to track to face his own sin. He admitted his action and apologized to the vampire, who appeared to be quite pleased by Shiki’s response and proceeded to propose that Shiki should make up for his sin by helping him hunting down a vampire roaming in the city, especially since she was severely weakened by what Shiki did and would not able to fend off the enemy, left alone finishing the job. The proposition shocked Shiki and he initially tried to argue against such a crazy idea, only to be interrupted by something: A black panther that was spying on them.

- The panther charged towards Shiki, who was pushed aside by the vampire woman before its claws could reach Shiki. It was clear to Shiki that the woman before him, the one he cut to 17 pieces yesterday, was actually something far more powerful than the supposed apex predator before her. Just when the two fell into a state of standoff, something else approached them, which appeared to be some living burned corpses. When the vampire woman was distracted by the new visitors, the panther leaped towards Shiki once more. Yet, instead of attacking Shiki, it simply dragged him to some distance away from the vampire and the walking dead. From the safe distance created by the panther, Shiki witnessed how with a single blow the vampire exterminated the walking corpses. When she returned to Shiki, the panther was gone already.

- What Shiki witnessed further increased his fear of the vampire woman and was considering escaping once more. Yet after seeing her painful expression after the fight, he managed to clam down and decided to take responsibility if what she said was true. He agreed to help the vampire out, much to her delight. She happily introduced herself as Arcueid and shaked hand with the still confused Shiki.

- The scene changed into a different place. A woman appeared to be trapped in some underground space after taking on the popular dare challenge in the city. She was completely frightened by her surroundings, which was covered in spilled human organs, and dangling bodies of screaming victims too late to save. She tried to flee from this dimension, but soon realized she was already on fire. The sight of her melting form drove her into madness, before someone ended her human life and started sucking on her blood. The scene ended with its declaration of having the true ancestor’s heart.

- The two proceed to a luxury hotel and Arcueid managed to book the whole top floor of the VIP suites. She asked Shiki to be his guard at night time before she just decided on her own to take a nap time till then. Shiki was troubled by both Arcueid’s beauty and how unguarded she was before someone who just murdered her yesterday, but it appeared the exhaustion caught up and he fell asleep too. In his sleep, he appeared to see a long past memory of a summer day, where there was young and crying Akiha, a boy who was killed, and someone else who might be the killer. He was then woken up by Arcueid, who was shocked by how Shiki could just dozed off right next to a powerful vampire like that.

- Since there were quite some time to kill, Shiki asked Arcueid to explain more about the vampire, thus Arcueid created a whiteboard to quickly bring Shiki up to speed. She explained the difference between True Ancestor and Dead Apostle, and how the later, or at least the more old-fashioned ones, operated like the head of an underground parasite group that slowly but surely devoured the whole town or city before being noticed by the vampire hunters of the Church. She also explained how the common perception of the vampire came to be, like how the vampire prefer virgin blood due to its higher nutrition level, or how the beast transformation was due to the dead apostle devouring the said beast to survive and thus gaining the ability to transform, or sending the said beast as some familiar. Near the end of her lecture, she also pointed out Tokyo was already in a really bad state with all the ghouls and walking dead roaming about already.

- The two then switched subject and Arcueid asked about Shiki’s power. After a brief explanation from Shiki, Arcueid revealed what Shiki has is the Eyes of Death Perception, the ability to visualize the concept of death of all things. Arcueid pointed out it was an extremely rare ability, even amongst the vampires, which essentially made Shiki just as big a monster as she is. To prove her point, she asked Shiki to take a close look at her at night. Much to Shiki’s surprise, unlike everything else, he could only see a really vague shadow of the line on Arcueid’s body under the moonlight. She explained under normal circumstances/at her prime, Shiki would not be even able to see the line at all at night, showing how much of a damage she got from Shiki. She then begged Shiki to let him take a quick look at his glasses, of which she quickly recognized it being the handiwork of Aoko, and was glad she wasn’t in the city anymore as she clearly didn’t want to deal with a Magician on top of her current target.

- Turned out, Arcueid was a huge chatter and Shiki ended up spending 6 hours talking with her. Just about when Shiki was getting tired of the seemly unending convo, his stomach started to protest about him skipping two meals AGAIN. This changed the talking subject to Arcueid’s diet, more specifically, if she had drank humans’ blood/killed humans. Arcueid appeared to be amused by Shiki’s question and challenged him to guess. After a few wrong guesses, she revealed the right answer is actually “never”. She claimed for over 800 years, she had never drunk anyone’s blood or murdering any human, due to her fear of the act. Shiki felt relieved learning that even a powerful being like Arcueid would have such moments of weakness.

- The subtle romantic scene was interrupted by a strange sensation that assaulted Shiki. He realized he was sweating despite his watching showing the outside temperature should be chilly. Arcueid also confirmed the room temperature was actually 38 degree (despite it was nothing for a True Ancestor like her who can withstand 3000+ degree Celsius) Shiki checked on the security camera that somehow was installed in the hotel room, only to see the entrance hall was already aflamed, and a mysterious figure had entered the building.

- Shiki tried to seek answer from Arcueid, but she was only standing there in tense silence. Grabbing his knife, he decided to check on the situation outside of the room. The hallway was in total silence, in contrast to the hellish sight shown in the camera footage. Under immense pain from his eyes and premonition of incoming danger, Shiki removed his glasses and approached the elevator. The elevator door opened, revealing two black hounds feasting on the remain of human victims. He can even hear the dying scream and moan of others being massacred around him, but even those noises were soon gone. The hounds turned to Shiki and launched their assault. Yet before the first hound could sink its teeth into Shiki’s neck, the supposedly normal high school student had landed his blade through its death line by instinct, killing it as the result. However, Shiki didn’t land his second strike correctly and ended up had his arm stuck in the hounds’ mouth. He knew what must be done and how to do so, yet his humanity prevented him from ending the life right before him. After a short and intense debate in the mind, Shiki’s blade pierced through the hound’s brain and exited through the back of its head. With a swift action, Shiki sliced through its line too and dismembered it.

- Shortly after the fight, a survivor managed to make it to the top floor as well. However, she was grabbed by the intruder before Shiki could help her in any fashion. Right before him, the figure’s teeth sank into the survivor’s neck like a classic horror film scene. The figure then tossed the lifeless body aside and Shiki now saw the blue flame engulfing his surroundings. Yet strangely, the fire appeared to only work on living things, but not the building itself. Shiki also could see the line on him, and on top of that, he saw something else at the chest area. Yet simply looking at it caused immense pain to his brain.

- The figure started to move towards Shiki’s direction, and then released red flame when he finally noticed Shiki’s presence. Shiki then noticed the blue flame and the sensation he felt was not of the real fire, but just some sort of supernatural phantom pain. Yet the fire now charging at him was the actual real deal. Yet before the fire could turn Shiki to ashes, Arcueid appeared and took the blow for him instead. The figure unleashed more fire attacks, and Arcueid was only able to partially block them with her injured form, but that seemed to be enough to stop the figure. He started to approach Arcueid with his weapon, only to be halted by her warning: “Speak thy name if livestock thou aren’t, insolent one. Have thy master not taught thee basic manner?” The figure replied: “The manner I know clearly. Yet, I have no name to speak of before thee”

- Arcueid followed up and pointed out the figure must have a name or some sort, even as one who just became a Dead Apostle Ancestor. In response, the figure introduced himself as Vlov Arkhangel. As the name didn't ring a bell, Arcueid asked if Vlov’s predecessor self-destroyed as the ancestor title was clearly not properly inherited. Vlov answered that he did kill his predecessor/master. Arcueid then suggested if it is she he is after, then he should just come straight at her instead of causing all these rukus, to which Vlov refused as he planned to burn the whole city down as it was already corrupted.

- For a moment the fire became even more intense around Vlov, but he suddenly stopped and simply left. Seeing the fight was over, Arcueid also collapsed after telling Shiki to bring her back to her apartment. Shiki was worrying she might have died, but it turned out she simply fell asleep. When leaving the hotel, Shiki realized the reason why Flov stopped his advance was simply because it was morning already. They were, literally, saved by daylight.

- Quietly taking a bus, Shiki brought Arcueid back to her apartment, thus concluding a night of complete chaos.

Day 5

- Shiki carried Arcueid back to her apartment and was a little surprised by how plain it looks. After laying Arcueid on the bed, Shiki himself also collapsed to the floor out of exhaustion.

- Shiki woke up on the floor and found himself covered in blanket. Arcueid was not on the bed and the TV was on. Guessing Arcueid might be in the kitchen, Shiki decided to check on her, but was halted by the news broadcast on the hotel fire last night. According to the news, no one was found in the building and the fire was theorized to be caused by some building structure defect, or you know, gas explosion.

- Shiki turned off the TV in rage. He was angry about the 200 lives that were simply devoured as though erased from this world. Strangely, however, he was able to keep his feeling away from what needs to be done, like a well-trained assassin.. Just when he is pondering about how to defeat the vampire, Arcueid called out to him. Shiki was relieved by her seeming recovery from her injury, despite also realizing the bizarre notion of a human worrying about a vampire.

- The two then started a lovers’ quarrel over if Shiki should thank Arcueid for saving his life from Vlov’s fire, which led to Shiki pondering why he wanted to kill her at the first place. Regarding that, she simply commented that Shiki must be a born killer considering how flawless the attack was. In response, Shiki yelled into her ear angrily because he finally realized why she made all those strange requests of him. He explained she was the first ever “person” he had ever killed, much to her surprise. However, he was then overwhelmed by the belated guilt for what he did and apologized to Arcueid for killing her. Interestingly, Arcueid didn’t seem to be bothered by that anymore after realizing Shiki didn’t really take pleasure from the murder, nor really knowing what drove him to do so. She claimed the matter would be just between him, the killer, and her, the victim, and as long as Shiki will remember and regret what he did, then all is good.

- After comforting Shiki, Arcueid proposed to discuss the next step, but her wounded body gave out first. She admitted her wound from the Vlov fight hadn’t fully healed and she somewhat decided to use 100-yen store tape to “bandage up”. After scolding her, Shiki examined Arcueid's sloppy “treatment” and decided to head out to buy some proper medical supplies to treat the wound.

- After treating Arcueid's wound, the two discuss the incidence from last night. Arcueid explained the concept of Dead Apostle Ancestors and how Vlov is one of the younger one among the 27. However, despite being “young”, he is still a walking calamity that even his existence itself can massacre humans around him, and as of right now Arcueid would not be able to win against him due to the wound. Realizing Shiki was feeling guilty over the deaths in the hotel, Arcueid reminded him what he saw was just part of the natural order, the food chain. She proclaimed if Shiki really want to face such monstrosity (by human standard), then he himself would need to become a monster and overlook this level of collateral damage, thus the better, or rather more human-like, was just walk away and pretend nothing had happened. After giving it some thoughts, Shiki declared he would not face the other way. As the sole human survivor from such tragedy, it is his responsibility to defeat Vlov.

- Seeing Shiki had made up her mind, Arcueid didn’t object further and proceed to discuss the next step. She proposed that she should be able to wield 30% of her power in 3 days, which should be enough to defeat Vlov. However, that also means they would let Vlov roam free in the city during the waiting time, which Shiki naturally was not a fan of. Alternatively, they could sneak into Vlov’s lair at day and kill him there, but Arcueid cautioned that nothing is more cautious than a sleeping vampire, so such a route is far more risky. After evaluating the proposed options, Shiki asked whether they stood a chance if they lure out Vlov at nightfall and fight him together, Arcueid agreed it would be feasible and she could go with that plan, but it would be at Shiki’s own risk.

- After having a simple meal (prepared by Shiki cause Arcueid has no clue how to cook), the two discussed the detailed battle plan: Arcueid would be the bait and initiated the fight, and Shiki would strike at his Death Line from behind once Arcueid managed to chain him up. Shiki asked if he could help more by simply cutting off Vlov’s limbs first, but Arcueid angrily objected and warned Shiki that his only chance to survive the fight was to kill Vlov on the FIRST strike, to which Shiki agreed and accepted. The two then decided to execute their plan at the nearby park. However, despite the plan was set, Arcueid was still uncertain about Shiki’s involvement. More specifically, she wasn’t certain if Shiki really had the heart to land the killing blow, but at the end, she chose to trust in Shiki’s words.

- The two arrived at the park after dawn and Arcueid reminded Shiki not to come out of hiding before Arcueid nullifies Vlov’s fire. After 10pm, as anticipated, Vlov come out. However, like a fire tornado, Vlov didn’t intend to avoid unwanted attention and just cause blazing chaos on his way to his target, much to the disbelief of even Arcueid. The two started to approach Vlov instead to prevent further destruction.

- On the other hand, at his underground lair, Vlov was tormented by the pain of repeated death and rebirth. He lost most of his memory and was only one step away from total madness. He knew he was there for his last chance to get back what he had lost, thus why he left his beloved at his hometown and put in half of his wealth to secure this trip to this island nation. He had nothing but the bloodthirst now. Therefore, with his flame and the ghouls, he came to the surface of the city, and thus the beginning of another calamity. While bathing himself in blood, Vlov cursed the sight of human prosperity before him and believed the fiery end was the only befitting finale of this place.

- On their wait to the center of the fire, Shiki witnessed the chaos. On the news broadcast, the survivor screamed to the reporter what she witnessed in her half-mad voice.The road was already blocked so the two had to take a different route: “flying”. Grabbing Shiki’s hand, Arcueid leaped into the air far above the building. After landing on top of a building, they found Vlov on the road, surrounded by cops firing at him in vain. Arcueid appeared to be expecting the arrival of the Church, but no one had come. She then explained how things are, they just need to wait a little longer till Vlov runs out of blood to easily defeat him. Of course, Shiki was not a fan of such an idea and asked if Arcueid could move Vlov away from the street asap. Arcueid agreed and leaped into the air once more and then, like a manifestation of the will of this very planet, just stayed afloat there. She turned her gaze to the ground before charging towards Vlov like a shooting star, fully collapsing the road as the result.

- Upon arriving at the center of the collapse, Shiki saw Arcueid already engaged Vlov in an intense melee combat. The ballistic freefall attack appeared to take its tall on Vlov, and her nimble yet deadly strikes also appeared to be superior than Vlov’s blade. However, Vlov managed to hold his ground before unleashing the claws of flame against Arcueid. Such fire would have devoured Arcueid the day before, but Arcueid came prepared and she equipped her mystic code.

- With her fire-proof outfit, Arcueid was able to dance freely even in the rock-melting heat of Vlov. She didn’t waste such an opportunity and instantly unleashed a seres of relentless strikes. Either due to surprise or simply running out of blood, Vlov started to panic and even tried to escape, only to get pulled back into the battle by the vines summoned by Arcueid. Vlov tried to burn away the vines that had become his legcuffs, but as though running by the planet itself, the vine just keep on coming. Using this opportunity, Arcueid charged at Vlov and her hand pierced right through his chest.

- However, the battle was not over. Upon receiving the seemly fatal attack, Vlov’s power changed and unleashed a river of ice. As it turned out, this was Vlov’s true power, his true state of being as a warrior. Arcueid declared the both of them have only one strike left to end this fight once and for all. Before that, out of the minimum decency, Arcueid asked Vlov: “Answer me, my servant who is as tiny as livestock, The proof of ancestry; The root of sickness; The hole of the swirl. The child that gave birth to the new principle. Why is blood to thee?” Vlov replied: “I shall reply with all utmost respect: To me, blood is warmth. The warmth of life is the elixir of my frostbite; The very thing that turned my principle, my world. Thus, without blood, I shall be frozen by this cold.” With that proclamation, Arcueid was able to realize Vlov’s origin: He is the knight of the DAA Zaria, who had existed for millennia but chose to seclude himself and remained child-less. Vlov usurped his liege and thus gained his curse/power.

- With that, the final clash began. Arcueid charged at Vlov and his newly summoned lance. Vlov unleashed the full strength of his ice power, which somehow stopped Arcueid’s advance. Vlov instantly closed in and landed a strike at Arcueid with the lance, which shattered her outfit and pushed her 10 meters away like a rag doll. Believing his victory was assured, Vlov summoned his ghouls to retrieve her body.

- Seeing Arcueid’s defeat, Shiki went through another internal conflict between fleeing or fighting, but the answer became clear at the end: The only way to survive is to face the icy horror before him. He first ran towards the ghouls surrounding Arcueid and instantly took down 4 ghouls like cutting butter. Shiki then woke Arcueid up and asked her to support him in the next 3 minutes, before charging right at Vlov. He was hoping he would be able to land the lucky strike thanks to Vlov’s ignorance of his power, yet Vlov somewhat sensed the fatal threat and instinctively widen the distance between the two. He then fired ice at Shiki from the safe distance, but the projectiles were “killed” by Shiki instead. While bringing down the ice bullets, Shiki was able to determine that Vlov was no longer able to move freely and thus had to resort to some form of 360 defense with his power. However, even such defense has its weakness. Meanwhile, Vlov summoned the lance again and stated to fire even more ice at Shiki. Shiki was able to take down most of them, but still got injured by a few that escaped his blade. One of them even managed to hit Arcueid’s face, which led to Arcueid retaliate by throwing a giant rock right at Vlov. While the attack itself was futile, it did give Shiki an idea to close the distance between the two before the time ran out.

- With her monstrous power, Arcueid “flipped” the ground like a tsunami of rocks and earth. Vlov guessed Shiki would use it as a shield in order to close the distance and he had the choice to use his remaining power/blood to simply annihilate everything before him, but he decided not to as it will consume the precious soul that supported him this far. Instead, he simply unleashed enough power to defend the attack, expecting Shiki not able to finish his “ambush” once the rock tsunami was over, once he could see his attacker before him.

- Yet, somehow, he was not able to find Shiki in front of him. Vlov looked into the sky and here he was. Shiki was not using the rocks as his shield, but the “path” above Vlov. More specifically, he was tied to a large rock by Arcueid when flying over Vlov, and then Arcueid would tie up the rocks together to create a “slide” for Shiki to close the distance. Vlov first tried to stop Shiki with his lance, but was dodged by Shiki who was expecting that. However, Shiki was not able to guard against the ice that would pierce him even if his attack landed, nor did he care at this point. Luckily, a Black Key shattered the ice and opened the path for him. With that, Shiki’s blade cut through Vlov’s point of death.

- The temperature instantly changed back to normal as soon as the vampire’s end was sealed. Before he disappeared, Vlov said his final words, praising the sensation of death that finally returned to him. On the other hand, Shiki lay on the ground and looked into the moon that gave him a strange sensation of nostalgia. Arcueid came over and congratulated him for defeating a DAA. She also explained that she managed to block the ice power outburst from Vlov when the two had their final clash, thus at least for that attack, no human was killed. In other words, to respect Shiki’s wish to protect the city, Arcueid almost got herself killed. Shiki scolded her for recklessness, but was deeply grateful for what Arcueid did. He finally passed out after Arcueid treated his wounds using Vlov’s remains. After conforming Shiki had fell asleep, Arcueid brought Shiki home.

- On the other hand, from a different location, a few members of the Church discussed cleaning up the mess. It is clear within the organization there were multiple factions, and the stationed members were far from pleased with Burial Agency’s involvement. One of them even ranted about how they would not be able to convince the public that this is just some gas leak incident.

Day 6

- Shiki found himself in his bed in Tohno mansion the morning after the epic fight. He couldn’t enjoy the sense of accomplishment for long before Hisui entered the room. Per Akiha’s “order”, Shiki was asked to pay his sister a visit and explain his absence of the past two days. Even the usually helpful Hisui was acting a little cold towards Shiki after what he had done, but she at least informed him about how he was found sleeping on the floor of the hallway the night before, suggesting Shiki was left there by Arcueid after the fight.

- Having no choice, Shiki decided to face his imouto’s rage, but he quickly got halted by the immense pain from his leg that was injured during the fight. Noticing his pain, Hisui instantly turned concerned and even managed to quickly find a cane for Shiki’s use.

- Before meeting Akiha, Shiki made up his mind to hide the details about his engagement with vampires, but instead just sincerely apologize for his actions. As expected, the commanding aura of clearly mad Akiha was stronger than ever, but Shiki did manage to mitigate part of the heavy atmosphere with his unusually light tone and behaviors. Despite that, Akiha still asked about what had happened.

- As he planned, Shiki apologized to Akiha but also told her he couldn’t reveal the details of what exactly happened. This clearly triggered Akiha, who showcased such emotion by intentionally dropping a clearly expensive tea cup to the floor. Despite that, Shiki did not yield, but only reemphasized he was not up to anything bad. Perhaps convinced by his attitude or determination, Akiha somehow stopped pursuing the details further, and even admitted perhaps she was partially responsible by confiscating Shiki’s mean of contact, his cellphone, after all (Akiha was not aware of the said phone was already returned to Shiki by Kohaku).

- Despite deciding to drop the interrogation, Akiha still cautioned Shiki not to go out alone at night, especially since the street was not quite safe lately due to the serial murder. Perhaps out of reflex, Shiki accidentally revealed there would be no more serial murder (as Vlov was killed), much to Akiha’s surprise.

- Before leaving, Akiha noticed Shiki’s injury and asked about it. Shiki tried to brush it off, but quickly screamed in pain when Akiha, likely as some sort of payback, intentionally stepped on his wounded feet to reveal his lie. Despite the prank, Akiha still arranged to have Dr. Arach check on the injury.

- Dr. Arach, in her usual confusing manner, entered Shiki’s bedroom and started the diagnosis (she was somewhat super pleased by how Shiki addressed her as an academic doctor). She quickly determined that Shiki’s leg bone was cracked. After proficiently treating the wound, Arach expressed her curiosity to Shiki’s body structure. She explained that unlike normal human, Shiki’s body is abnormally light, almost as though it was genetically engineered through generation for a specialized purpose. In contrast, Akiha was like a monster out of mutation, a unique specimen out of ten of thousands of years. Realizing Shiki was not pleased with such description, Arach “fled” from the room, but not before she left a mysterious proposal asking Shiki to find her if he intended to be this badly injured again.

- After the treatment, Shiki decided to spend the rest of the weekend just taking a walk outside of the mansion. To his surprise, however, he found himself filled with thought about Arcueid. Whole rationally he knew the fight should be the end of his engagement with the mysterious vampire, but he just couldn’t take his mind away from her. Despite the life and death situations, he clearly enjoyed the short but eventful time the two spent together.

- After being briefly “scolded” by Akiha for basically wasting the whole weekend doing nothing, Shiki tried to catch up on some study, but he still couldn’t stop thinking about Arcueid. He finally just gave up and decided to go to bed early, hoping the memory and the associate emotions would slowly fade away the next day.

Day 7

- Shiki woke up the next day with a little fever. He initially thought it was just the usual thing, but that assumption was quickly busted upon seeing Akiha. For some reason, any contact with Akiha triggered intense reactions from his body, almost similar to how he reacted to Arcueid when they first met. To avoid things getting worsened from there, Shiki found an excuse and fled from the mansion.

- Outside of this strange occurrence, things seemed to be back to normal as Shiki made it to school. At school, Shiki bumped into Noel, who seemed to try to learn something about Shiki, but Shiki simply brushed the questions off. And of course, Arihiko was also there. The two chatted about the rumors of Tohno mansion, as well as the incidents at the hotel and near the train station (locations of the Vlov fights). It was also revealed Sacchin had gone missing around the same time of Shiki’s absence.

- Then during lunchtime, Arihiko revealed something even more shocking for Shiki: The serial murder didn’t end and a new victim appeared. This news shattered Shiki’s illusion that everything would be back to normal after Vlov’s fight and he couldn’t help but wonder what was Arcueid's role behind the new incidence, as he didn’t know any other vampire in town. Deep in various thoughts, he decided to check on Arcueid but couldn’t find her in the apartment, or on the streets.

- Without other options, Shiki decided to go home, only to find Arcueid somewhat paying him a visit and was in the living room with clearly bewildered Akiha. Before the ever innocent vampire princess could say more unintentionally misleading words (i.e. “We are just friends? Hmmmmm~ How can you call me that after what you did to my BODY? It still hurts now, you know?), Shiki dragged her out of the mansion.

- Outside of the mansion wall, the “couple” started arguing. Arcueid didn’t understand why Shiki would be this mad considering she had tried her best to act like a human, but Shiki pointed out vampire or not, just Arcueid’s beauty along would stand out greatly anywhere.

- The two then changed location and started discussing about the new vampire incidence victim. Arcueid quickly defused Shiki’s suspicion of her involvement and pointed out there was always another vampire in the city. She pointed out none of the victims who made it to the news could be Vlov’s handiwork as Vlov’s pattern is to burn the body before drinking the blood.

- The revelation gave Shiki’s a sense of defeat as the fact he was fighting/killing a different vampire did in some sense made the fight pointless; however, not noticing Shiki’s frustration, Arcueid only reassured Shiki he didn’t need to worry about dealing with the 2nd vampire as she would take care of this one herself, and she also asked a bit more about Shiki’s assessment of the situation during the Vlov’s fight. Shiki explained the assessment was simply made based on the limit of the human body, which was a surprise to Arcueid, a True Ancestor’s surprise. However, Shiki’s words on the differences between a mere mortal human and an overpowered vampire also did seem to trigger Arcueid, who started pouting and walked away.

- After catching up to Arcueid, Shiki found out Arcueid was actually on the hunt. She signaled Shiki to use his mystic eye to observe a target before her, and Shiki was shocked to find out unlike any living creatures he had witnessed, the “man” before them didn’t just possess a few lines of death, but literally covered with them. Arcueid explained that Shiki’s power allowed him to even sense the end of the dead, a truly monstrous power, before started to chase after the said figure. While trying to recover from what he just saw, Shiki noticed his power started to quickly extend to a suffocating level, and only managed to put his glasses on in time. It was also when Arcueid also returned, to whom the fight seemed to take a major toll on. It was clear Arcueid was pushing herself despite having not recovered from the injury sustained from the Vlov fight, which angered Shiki.

- Facing Shiki’s concern, Arcueid avoided explaining her body condition further but agreed to explain her action. She explained that the one that was hunted by her was a minion of the true serial killer vampire in the city, who had killed more than a hundred of people in the city with its minions. Arcueid’s plan was to annihilate the vampire’s minions in order to force the head out, even if doing so would be a huge burden to her recovering body and even she wasn’t certain if she had what it takes to defeat the 2nd vampire.

- Shiki naturally couldn’t accept such a vampire running free in city, and despite Arcueid’s words that she would make sure to hunt down the vampire responsible while minimizing the victims, Shiki was not able to simply pretend these had nothing to do with him, or more accurately, he just couldn’t leave Arcueid alone even if such intention was against any form of logical conclusions. Frustrated by his inability to convince himself to keep his distance, Shiki simply admitted that he wanted to help Arcueid no matter what, much to her delight.

- Agreed to let Shiki help, Arcueid asked Shiki to remove his glasses in order to better sensing the walking deads on the street. However, the two weren’t able to find any more roaming on the streets and Arcueid concluded the mastermind must have ordered retreated after the first one was hunted by Arcueid. When Shiki tried to propose he could do a more throughout scan, Arcueid sternly rejected and pointed out doing so might literally fry Shiki’s frame. She explained that Shiki was one of the few amongst humanity that has the power to trigger the long forgotten connection to the Root, and thus his power despite receiving no magical training. However, such power came with a major cost and if Shiki pushed his brain too far, he would end up a vegetable for the rest of his life, like most others who was blessed/cursed with similar power but couldn’t bear the cost.

- After being convinced not to use his power more for the night, Shiki decided to just chat with Arcueid, who happily accepted. For one option, Shiki would ask for a more in-depth explanation about Dead Apostles. Arcueid gave an even more comprehensive coverage on the first 6 stages/ranks of Dead Apostles.

- Outside of explaining Dead Apostle’s eco-system, Arcueid also covered their motivation: As beings who reached eternal life but lost their purpose of existence, Dead Apostles started to imitate who they used to be: humans. These ex-humans started to play various twisted and perverted game in order to pretend their existence of purpose, as well as simple pleasure. Simply put, the Dead Apostles chose to find their victim to torment because they are “bored”, and also because on Earth, humans are the only creatures who could be mentally and spiritually destroyed.

- After the chat, Arcueid suggested it was getting late and Shiki really should go home, thus the two parted ways for the day. After returning home (thanks to Hisui who left the front gate open for Shiki), Shiki was quickly overcome by his exhaustion and fail asleep.

Day 8

- The next day, Akiha naturally asked about Shiki’s relationship to Arcueid. (Starting with “Did you two have sex?”, which led to Shiki instantly spitting out his tea). As it quickly became challenging for Shiki to answer without revealing the more “colorful” details, Shiki used his identity as “unwanted family member” as excuse to forcefully end the conversation, which clearly hurt Akiha’s feelings. Even the usually friendly Kohaku scolded Shiki for his harsh words.

- After leaving the mansion, Shiki bumped into agents of the Church who claimed to be the police. The one calling himself Endo asked him about some details about Tohnos’ role with the land near the subway station that turned into the Vlov battlefield. Shiki pushed back the inquiry to protect Akiha, but instead got a warning from the other guy that he better stop what he was doing if he wants to die a “normal human”, implying they have some idea about his actions.

- In school, Shiki found himself unable to pay attention to any lecture as all his mind was on all the bizarre events he had encountered in the city. Then much to his shock, he saw Arcueid outside of the window, with her usual big, innocent smile. To prevent the vampire from doing anything silly, Shiki excused himself from the class and rushed to where Arcueid was.

- Shiki naturally asked what the heck was Arcueid doing. Arcueid explained that she simply decided to also investigate during daytime in order to minimize the need of Shiki’s help, and happened to come across Shiki’s school. After some convincing, Shiki managed to make Arcueid leave the school for now. After Arcueid left, Shiki heard some strange noises in the shadow but wasn’t able to find anyone/anything there.

- During lunchbreak, Shiki met Arihiko who finally came to school just to grab lunch. An idea came to Shiki and he asked Arihiko about nearby locations associated with dangerous urban legends. Arihiko suggested there was this hospital ruin two stations away that used to be a gathering spot of bosozoku, but one day everyone was gone and not even the homeless dared to get near since. With that as a lead, Shiki decided to check the location after school, but unfortunately found nothing there.

- Back at the mansion, Shiki learned that Akiha would not be home till late, and informed Hisui that he would be going out at night for the next few days. Hisui agreed to keep the entrance door open for Shiki and even proposed to keep it a secret from Akiha as “Shiki is my master now”.

- As promised, Shiki met up with Arcueid at 10 that night. Arcueid got a little mad because Shiki was late for 10 minutes, and she had been waiting for 3 hours before that. Even Arcueid wasn’t certain why she would start waiting this far ahead, but she just felt happy about doing so.

- After a brief chat, the two went out scouting as the night before. However, Arcueid told Shiki he only needs to remove his glasses at a few specific locations this time around, clearly actively minimizing the need of Shiki to use his power. They only ended up finding one ghoul for the first few stops. On their way to the last stop, the two chatted about why Shiki would be fine going this far with a vampire. Shiki, being a tsundere, responded that he actually felt pretty relaxed around Arcueid, mainly because things just couldn’t get worse than what he had already experienced thus far (but in truth, he is simply glad to be of use to someone who can be exempt from his twisted power).

- At the last location, even Shiki felt something was off with the place. After the parking lot gate was cut open by Shiki, the two found 20+ walking deads right within. Arcueid called the place the “cafeteria” and almost instantly took them all out. However, she clearly pushed herself too much, and didn’t even notice there was one more enemy. Unlike anything Shiki had witnessed before, the spider-like creature launched its attack at Arcueid, and this time even Arc’s claw was not effective against it. Seeing Arcueid getting injured, Shiki leaped towards the monster in a rage and then with inhumane precision and calmness, ended its life.

- After the fight, Shiki turned to check on Arcueid, who turned out to be trying not to laugh at what she just saw. She appeared to be quite impressed by Shiki’s moves and even complimented him being reliable, which made Shiki started blushing. However, such interaction with Arcueid and fighting the monster did prove to be taking a major toll on Shiki’s body, so Arcueid dragged him back to the park to rest. After Shiki recovered, Arcueid scolded him for overusing his power, and then the two started to talk about Shiki’s eyes. Arcueid pointed out that Shiki’s power might be triggered after the “accident”, but he must possess such power at the first place. In other words, Shiki’s family must have similar power as well in order for it to develop into Eyes of Death Perception. Shiki naturally didn’t buy the explanation, as to his knowledge both Akiha and his father don’t have such power afterall.

- Then all of a sudden, Shiki felt an itch from his chest, and learned that somewhat during the fight, his old injury might have torn a bit and some blood came out. The sight of the crimson fluid seemed to trigger some reaction Arcueid, who started to breath heavily and tried to keep distance from Shiki. She was clearly troubled by something, so she soon proposed to call it a day and left before Shiki could say anything.

- On his way back to the mansion, Shiki was assaulted by a mysterious figure. He quickly realized the figure could also see the lines as well and in reflex he started to fight back. As the figure before him wasn’t as strong as Vlov, Shiki managed to turn the tables. However, before he could land the fatal strike, the figure got nailed to the nearby wall by someone else. It turned out to be Noel in her Church outfit and she quickly defeated the figure with a series of smooth moves with some sort of nail-like weapons and a giant lance. The figure disappeared, but right till the very last moments the hateful eyes still stared straight at Shiki.

- After defeating the figure, Noel approached Shiki and started to attack him as well. However, Shiki managed to anticipate that and quickly counterattacked but still got thrown to the ground by Noel due to hesitating to kill her. Luckily, she was just checking whether Shiki was a vampire and let him go after the check. Noel introduced herself to be an agent of the Church and was sent here to hunt down vampires. This was also why she had been stalking Shiki for some time and observed how he spent the nights with Arcueid. She asked why would Shiki follow a vampire, to which Shiki responded that he simply wanted to protect the city with her. This answer seemed to disappoint Noel somewhat, but before departing she still warned Shiki that the Dead Apostle who took its root in the city had been around for some time and could be someone from “within”, usually of the most powerful family in the area.

- After another eventful night, Shiki slowly walked towards the mansion, but his body gave out before he could reach the gate. Before he lost consciousness, he saw the same panther that fought Arcueid previously.

Day 9

- Another flashback. It is that familiar scene of the past, the scene in the forest where Akiha was crying and another boy was killed.

- Shiki woke up in his room. He couldn’t really remember how he managed to make it back to the bedroom, nor the details of the dream that was quickly fading away. All he could think of was Arceuid. He was troubled by her bizarre action at the end, but decided to talk things through when the two regrouped.

- However, when he tried to leave the room for breakfast, his body gave out and collapsed to the floor. With the twin maid’s help, he was moved back to the bed and had to take another day off. Following Hisui’s suggestion, Shiki agreed to have Dr. Arach checking on him. The check found nothing out of order; however, as usual, Arach took great interest in Shiki’s body, this time the wound on his chest. She remarked the injury was totally fatal, yet somehow Shiki survived that, and she also added mysteriously that it doesn’t really matter as Shiki would not be able to escape anyway now that he had returned to the mansion.

- In the afternoon of the day-off, as he had nothing better to do, he decided to take a walk at the back garden. The sight reminded him of his childhood when he played with Akiha, like how they would carve “SHIKI” and “AKIHA” on trees or items to mark their contest of territory. However, the time of peaceful memory was interrupted when he found a strange message carved at a location that shouldn’t be easily reachable by kid: “Watch out for aniki”. As the writing is not that of Akiha, he could only guess this was written by him, but he had no recollection who this aniki could be. Before he could ponder further about the secret message, he saw Hisui entered into the depth of the forest.

- Following Hisui, Shiki came to an open area at the center of the forest. Initially he couldn’t recall such a place existed; but soon the long sealed memory of that fateful summer day returned, and quickly overwhelmed Shiki’s consciousness, almost as though someone stabbed through that old chest wound once more.

- When Shiki regained consciousness, he was already back at his bedroom and next to him was Akiha, who was clearly enraged and scolding Hisui over her negligence to allow Shiki to return to “that place”. Before Akiha could raise her hand against Hisui, Shiki stopped her, which greatly surprised Akiha as Shiki had been out for 10+ hours. This reminded Shiki that he would be missing his daily appointment with Arcueid. However, after seeing the depth of worry in Akiha’s eyes (who even yielded that she would no longer interfere with Shiki’s life if Shiki just rested for the day), Shiki decided to stay. Before he slept, he asked Akiha about the forest open space and the “aniki”, but Akiha claimed she didn’t recall such a character.

Day 10

- Shiki woke up the next day, feeling much better than the day before. However, upon opening his eyes, he saw Arcueid right before him. In response to Shiki’s shock, Arcueid explained she decided to check on Shiki after the later broke the promise to meet up the night before. She also added that she was so angry that even she was surprised by her own emotional reaction to Shiki’s action. However, her rage seemed to die down after seeing the “peaceful” sleep face of Shiki, thus she ended up just stare at Shiki’s face since (including at one point brainwashing poor Hisui who was checking on Shiki so she “saw nothing”). To make up for his mistake, Shiki was asked to accompany Arcueid for a whole day.

- Arcueid clearly was excited over the date and after noticing Shiki putting up different outfit for the occasion, she decided to “transform” as well and put on her own dating outfit too. The sight is too much for Shiki, but he still managed to play tsundere about it.

- Shiki naturally didn’t prepare for the sudden date plan, thus ended up bringing Arcueid to the theater. Initially Arcueid appeared to be rather disinterested in the idea somehow, but her attitude changed 180 after the two watched a rather mediocre (in Shiki’s opinion) French romantic movie. Arcueid seemed to be rather impressed by the human filming technique and even saw it on par with her projection ability.

- After the movie, the two went to a food court for lunch. Shiki was in a mood for some junk food so got burger and fries, and Arcueid followed suite after a hard decision. The two then talked about how Arcueid learned about the world (primarily for her mission), as well as about vampire’s “diet”. Arcueid explained that while for a True Ancestor blood is not necessary, the desire to eat it still exists, just like Shiki WANTING to eat junk food from time to time. From there, she further elaborated that unlike all creatures on Earth, humans are the only organism that somewhat prioritizes the “secondary benefit” behind survival actions and expanded on them to the extreme. (i.e. having sex for the pleasure but not for its supposed purpose of reproduction)

- Following up on this discussion, Shiki asked why would Arcueid detest drinking human blood then. Arcueid replied as a “half-assed” vampire, she actually doesn’t know the taste of human blood and to her, if she started drinking, she would not be able to see humans as equally sentient beings (Just like humans can’t eat a chicken if the chicken interact with them like another human). This conversation made Shiki realized that at least sub-consciously, he had actively avoided some questions that would truly highlight Arcueid's difference from him.

- However, for their mission, Shiki still inquired about the details of the vampire they were hunting. After some hesitation, Arcueid finally revealed the name being Roa. Arcueid apologized for getting emotional over Roa, but Shiki remarked such a reaction being rather “human”.

- After lunch, Arcueid proposed to visit Shiki’s school as she wasn’t able to have a proper tour last time when she sneaked in. As the campus was completely empty, Arcueid started asking Shiki to sneak into the classroom so she could see the inside. Once inside, Arcueid asked Shiki why he would “waste” half of his daily life here studying about knowledge that wouldn’t necessarily be applicable to his life. Shiki agreed the study might be “pointless” in the long run in terms of the knowledge they learned, but it might not be a bad thing, as the days spent here would become memory at the end. In other words, it is fine to do something “pointless” in one’s life. This appeared to be a new concept for Arcueid, whose life as a bio-weapon has been all about precision and efficiency; however, Shiki’s talk about living did inspire her to rethink her life and purpose, and the two promised that they would spend another “pointless” day once all was over.

- The night arrived at last. The two came to the usual park and decided to wait there till it was time when the dead comes out. Suddenly Shiki remembered the strange encounter he had two days ago and asked Arcueid about Noel and the Church. Clearly troubled by the Church’s presence, Arcueid did a quick overview about the Church and how they would see her with the same enmity as with the vampire she had been hunting. In other words, if not for Shiki’s involvement, Arcueid would be on a lonely mission where she would be antagonized by all factions.

- Finally, Shiki decided to ask Arcueid the question that has been troubling him this whole day: “Are you (Arcueid) really a vampire?” To that question Arcueid proposed a demonstration and started approaching Shiki before he could respond. Arcueid might initially intend that as a mere prank to address Shiki’s foolish doubt, but it was clear the desire of blood quickly proved to be too powerful for her. Sensing the change and approaching danger, Shiki tried to move away but found himself already locked in her tight grasp. The fear finally took hold of Shiki’s mind and he screamed in fear.

- Before Arcueid could sink her teeth into Shiki’s vein, the black keys thrown by Noel break the two apart. Noel first locked Shiki in a circle made of black keys before (unwillingly) engaging in combat with Arcueid under the order of someone else. Turned out, it was Mario, who previously approached Shiki outside of the mansion. Realizing Noel would not last long against Arcueid even with his support, Mario transitioned into battle of words and introduced himself, the newly assigned head of the Church operation in Japan.

- Mario pointed out Arcueid was unable to suppress her thirst and was serious about “killing” Shiki, to which Arcueid was unable to retort. Noel also interjected and accused Arcueid of forcing her will on humans, to which Shiki protested and declared he was working with Arcueid with his own free will. Before Noel could raise her weapon against Shiki, she was somewhat “zapped” by Mario, who strangely apologized for Noel’s unruly behavior. However, he did follow up on Noel’s accusation and brought up that her statement of “never drinking human’s blood” was actually a lie. Arcueid silently admitted to that accusation and left the scene after quietly apologized to Shiki.

- Out of impulse, Shiki wanted to chase after Arcueid, but was persuaded by Mario to stay awhile and listen. Mario gave a more in-depth explanation on who Roa is: A Dead Apostle that focused on the pursuit of true immortality. Specifically, unlike other DA who would focus on their “Idea Blood”, the unique power of a DA after ages of accumulation, Roa sought to overcome the clearly flawed immortality mechanism of dead apostle. The result was an unique ability to “reincarnate” in pre-selected candidate’s body when he was killed. More specifically, Roa was able to somewhat materialize and transmit his soul to the new host like a radio signal. The host would grow up normally as a human until he/she was old enough for Roa to manifest and take over the body. Until this point, Arcueid had been hunting Roa and had killed him 16 times already, but physical destruction would not stop Roa’s power.

- Mario also pointed out that to ensure a successful reincarnation, Roa’s host would always be a child of influential family in the area, plus of bloodline with inhuman power. In other words, only the Tohnos would qualify for such criteria in this area. Noel initially tried to point finger at Shiki being the host, but the idea quickly got shot down by Mario. As an expert of “human”, Mario was capable of quickly analyzing any human with a brief chat, and from the one he had with Shiki just now, he was able to cross Shiki out of the suspect list. In other words, the Church could leave Shiki alone, but Mario still recommended Shiki to keep his distance from Arcueid or Roa if he still wanted to live and die a normal human. But of course, Shiki chose to chase after Arcueid instead.

- After a search around the city, Shiki finally found Arcueid at a dark alleyway. There was a massacre of the living dead there and answering Shiki’s calling was the horrific golden mystic eyes of Arcueid. Upon seeing that eyes, Shiki found himself once again overwhelming by the same desire that once drove him to kill Arcueid. He quickly pushed Arcueid, who just regained her senses, to the ground, and essentially lost himself in his desire of her body. It was only until he saw her tears that he was able to keep the impulse in check.

- After calming down, Shiki was overcome with guilt on what he just did to Arcueid. However, Arcueid explained it was simply a result of her mystic eyes that could mentally enslave anyone who sees it. (Echoing with Noel’s accusation earlier) Before Shiki could say anything else, Arcueid bid Shiki farewell with a sad smile and left, leaving Shiki staring into the moon now hanging high in the sky.

Day 11

- Shiki woke up in his room the next morning and was under a conflicted emotion: On one side he deeply regretted what he did to Arcueid the night before, but on the other hand, he couldn’t overlook the intense desire he had for her. He realized this could be the end of his engagement with the vampire princess, and perhaps as others had pointed out, it should be for the best for Shiki who got himself involved in all these to restore peace to the city and his daily life.

- The school day went by like any other day, except two things: Noel quitted her job as teacher, and both him and Arihiko appeared to lose memory about Ciel senpai. However, these changes of event didn’t really bother Shiki, as his mind was still occupied by thoughts of Arcueid.

- Such thoughts led Shiki to the site of Vlov fight, where he encountered Ciel (who Shiki somehow still recognize even though not remembering their prior engagement anymore). Somewhat knowing Ciel could understand him, Shiki opened up to her and admitted that in truth, what drove him to be part of this vampire hunting ordeal is not really some sense of heroism or responsibility for the city, but simply that he had fallen in love with Arcueid.

- In response, Ciel explained to Shiki the “curse” of a True Ancestor: Despite being essentially all powerful beings way beyond humanity, all True Ancestors suffered from their bloodthirst. Unless one decided to become “fallen” and started feasting on human blood, a True Ancestor for all duration of his or her life would be in a never-ending battle for such desire, which in turn greatly reduced their power as a result. This was why Arcueid was created: To be the executioner of her fallen brethren. For that reason, Arcueid was only taught the bare minimum of what she needed to know for her missions, and never truly understood the simple happiness of living. Furthermore, after all these years, Arcueid actually had reached her limit regarding her bloodthirst, and Shiki killing her only further accelerated that. With now Arcueid clearly lost control of her thirst when with Shiki, Ciel believed it was the end of the line for the vampire princess.

- Ciel intended to convince Shiki to let go of Arcueid as there would be no future for the two, but learning about Arcueid’s origin and his own role facilitating her burden only further solidify Shiki’s determination to accompany Arcueid. He realized the seemingly clueless and innocent demeanor of Arcueid was result of ages of loneliness and he couldn’t accept Arcueid simply heading towards such conclusion of her life with such loneliness. Realizing she couldn’t convince Shiki, Ciel gave Shiki her final warning, before deleting Shiki’s last memory of her.

- Shiki returned home and spent a peaceful evening with Akiha and the maids as this could be the last night they can spend together as family. After that, Shiki headed to their usual meet-up spot at the park, hoping that despite her words, Arcueid would still keep their promise and appear. Like that, the waiting hours peacefully passed. Finally, at 3AM, Shiki couldn’t bear it anymore and called out to Arcueid, who actually had been there all along and did a poor job hiding herself.

- Arcueid came out of hiding and once again tried to convince Shiki that the two shouldn’t be together. She promised Shiki she would do whatever she can to defeat Roa on her own, even if it costs her own life. She also admitted it was Shiki’s fear that stopped her momentarily and she really couldn’t bear to witness that fear once more. To that, Shiki let go of his suppressed emotions and finally confessed his love for Arcueid. The two shared a passionate hug and their mutual feeling for each others. In the end, the two spent a night at Arcueid’s apartment so they could make the most out of this night together. When together on the bed, Arcueid confessed to Shiki how she initially hated Shiki for interrupting her last attempt to destroy Roa, however, while waiting for her killer, that hatred turned into curiosity, and that curiosity eventually turned into love. The reason is simple: She had never cared about someone this much during her extremely long life.

- Shiki woke up the next morning on Arcueid’s bed, but Arcueid was nowhere to be found and left a simple note saying “bye bye” on it. Shiki tried to find her but was not able to find any trace of her, forcing Shiki to give up and return home.

Day 12

- Like a walking dead, Shiki spent the next day repeating the usual cycle at school. He was then asked by a teacher to wait at the tea ceremony club room as some staff wanted to ask him about his recent late-night activity. Shiki waited till night, but no one arrived.

- Eventually Shiki gave up on waiting and decided to leave the school. However, at the hallway he sensed someone approaching, someone symbolizing dread and danger. Shiki quickly prepared himself and even make the first move against the figure, but got easily countered by him. The figure swiftly moved behind Shiki, took the dagger, and landed it straight on Shiki’s chest. Upon collapsing to the ground, Shiki finally realized the figure before him being SHIKI, the boy he killed years ago in his memory. However, after dealing the fatal blow, SHIKI’s body transformed into someone else. As though switching persona, SHIKI reintroduced himself as Roa and that with SHIKI’s wish fulfilled, he would now be the complete owner of this body.

- When Roa tried to retrieve the dagger on Shiki’s chest, Ciel broke through the window and shielded Shiki from Roa’s reach. Roa recognized Ciel to be his previous host body and was quite intrigued by her being still alive. Roa tried to taunt Ciel into fighting him, but Ciel clearly chose to prioritize protecting Shiki over her personal vendetta, an action Roa found pointless as he had cut through Shiki’s line of death. Furthermore, she was not alone as Mario was also monitoring from afar. Per his adoptive father’s order, Mario demanded Roa to reveal his old magecraft formula of eternal life, only to get mocked by Roa that such method (to preserve the human body from aging) didn’t exist, thus why he turned to preservation of soul instead. Disappointed by Roa’s reply, Mario ordered Ciel to retreat and the Church would take out Roa later in group. Roa didn’t try to pursue Ciel, as he still had a welcoming party for Arcueid to prepare.

Day 13

- Carrying Shiki, Ciel rushed towards Tohno Mansion, and claimed Akiha would be the only one who could save Shiki under this condition. True to her words, Shiki woke up few hours later and the wound had healed, but in exchange he wasn’t able to move any of his limbs. He found Akiha next to him, who informed Shiki she had been filled in on what’s going on. Knowing she could no longer hide the truth, Akiha told Shiki about memory long sealed by her father: Shiki Tohno is actually an adopted son of the Tohnos and he grew up with Akiha and SHIKI like siblings. However, one day, the cursed blood of Tohnos was triggered prematurely for SHIKI, who ended up fatally injuring Shiki that day. Makihisa Tohno supposedly “killed” SHIKI as part of his duty as Tohno head, but for the reputation of the family, he had Shiki and SHIKI’s identity switched as well (and in the process erased all traces of Shiki’s own past) thus the firstborn son of Tohno would still live on paper, but as Shiki is not really a Tohno, he naturally couldn’t become the next head, thus Akiha took on that burden instead. However, in truth, Makihisa also didn’t really kill his own son. SHIKI was alive all this time and witnessed how his own identity was taken away, thus for him, Shiki did “kill” him after all. However, despite all that, for Akiha, Shiki is her only true brother, even if they are not related by blood.

- After Akiha left, Shiki tried to move his body so he could help Arcueid to deal with Roa. Such attempt was caught by Ciel who decided to check on Shiki. Ciel explained that Roa took away Shiki’s life force with his attack, thus Shiki was saved by Akiha simply replenishing the missing life force. She also claimed Shiki should just focus on recovering as the Church will take care of Roa in 3 days time after the reinforcement from HQ arrives. However, Shiki knew Arcueid would not wait that long and insisted he needed to get to the school before it was too late. Ciel demanded a reason from Shiki why he would go this far for a vampire, to that Shiki revealed his feelings towards Arcueid and his wish to be with her. Unknown to him, Arcueid was actually right outside of the window listening in on this conversation. Confirming Shiki’s feelings for her, Arcueid decided to go ahead to fight Roa. This took Shiki by surprise, who in desperation demanded Ciel to help him out to catch up on Arcueid, threatening to wreck her. Ciel agreed.

- On the other hand, Arcueid was leaping across buildings towards school. Unlike any of her past hunts, she was beaming with happiness like a young girl who tasted love for the first time. Unlike any of her past hunts, she was not going to a fight because she was ordered to do so, but because she has someone to protect now. For that motivation alone, she would face any foe even if the task is essentially impossible.

- Ciel and Shiki arrived at the school. Ciel told Shiki this would be as far as she could help him as she has own plan to deal with Roa. Ciel remarked tonight being the worst time to deal with Roa as it was full moon. Under full moon, Roa would be near invincible; however, to Shiki, a night like this also means he would be able to perceive the lines PERFECTLY. We then got a glimpse of Ciel in action, who tried to snipe at Roa in stealth, but got intervened by another spider monster similar to the one killed by Shiki previously. While the foe didn’t turn out to be much trouble for Ciel, it did make her miss the golden opportunity to take out Roa. On the other hand, Shiki entered the school following the marks of destruction left by the fight between Roa and Arcueid.

- When Shiki finally made it, Roa was already winning the battle and Arcueid was not able to even stand anymore. Before Shiki could rush to her side, she used her mystic eyes to seal Shiki’s movement. Roa was confident of his victory and claimed unlike her, he has now mastered the truth of death after experiencing it so many times with his reincarnations. Because of that difference, Arcueid in her current state would not be able to defeat him. In response, she unleashed all her remaining power to create a dimension that erases all ether, thus sealing Roa from utilizing any magecraft. With that, she wiped out everything above Roa’s feet, when the latter was yelling his praise for her power. However, even such attack wasn’t able to kill Roa for good, as he had prepared a magecraft that would automatically restore his body. While he hadn't ever used such a thing before, it was possible with the buff from the full moon. With his restored form, Roa easily gave Arcueid, now fully exhausted of her power, the final blow, and proceeded to kick her collapsed body towards Shiki.

- In Shiki’s arms, Arcueid’s body was rapidly losing its warmth. Turned out, she didn’t even realize her attack failed and thought she had managed to save Shiki after all. In tears, Shiki told a white lie and thanked Arcueid for saving him. He also asked Arcueid to drink his own blood so she may live, but Arcueid refused. All she asked of Shiki was a final kiss, and with that, she happily closed her eyes.

- Patiently waiting for it to conclude, Roa approached Shiki. He declared Shiki would be no match for him, but as he was impressed by Shiki’s power, he would turn Shiki to his minion of death and would order Shiki to take out Ciel first. However, his arrogant tone soon changed as he sensed something was off about the man before him and such sensation brought him immense dread that makes his leg shaking. Calmly and even coldly, Shiki told Roa that he had failed to truly understand death. His mystic eyes were only able to understand “life” and steal them, but such power was essentially polar opposite to “control death”. If anything, the awareness of death is far beyond anyone’s comprehension, and the dread born from it could easily destroy anyone’s mind. Simply put, the power to comprehend death is a curse, and clearly not something to be proud of. To demonstrate his point, Shiki killed the hallway floor and half of Roa’s body in one single strike. “Heed my words, Roa, for this is what it truly means... to kill.”

- Amidst the rubbles, Roa tried to struggle with just half of his body left. Shiki didn’t leave him the time to do something with missing body parts, simply striking Roa’s point of death. Believing the job was done, Shiki collapsed to the ground. However, in his final desperation, Roa grabbed Shiki and tried to bite into Shiki’s neck in order to reincarnate in his body, but the attempt was stopped by a swift strike of Black Keys by Ciel from behind, who proudly claimed she was the one who finally ended Roa’s reign. After a brief exchange, Shiki lost his consciousness.

Day 14

- A month has passed since the final battle with Roa. Everything was finally back to normal, including Shiki’s student life. However, since that day, Shiki, who used to hate the dusk sunlight, would always wait in his classroom until the sun completely went down. It was a promise after all, for him and Arcueid to spend another “meaningless” day after all was over. He knew Arcueid would never return, but he would not be the one to break that promise.

- And his wish was answered, as one day Arcueid did appear before Shiki. She informed Shiki that she actually was the cause of Roa becoming a Dead Apostle and it was the action of drinking Roa’s blood that resulted in her ended up killing all the True Ancestors in the castle. However, with Roa’s absolute death, the power he took from Arcueid was able to return to her and thus she was able to survive the fight. However, the problem of bloodthirst has not gone away, thus she would need to go back to the castle to sleep (Which to True Ancestor is essentially death). Once more, Shiki offered his blood to help Arcueid, but Arcueid refused by simply saying “I love you, so I don’t want your blood.” And thus, it was a final farewell.

- Finally, Arcueid disappeared from Shiki’s sight, leaving only Shiki deep in his thoughts. It was a painful idea that he would go forward without Arcueid, as the vampire princess had become the center of his life as of late, but to respect her final wish, he would live on and live to the fullest, just so the beautiful dream of her can last forever. Shiki gave his final words of farewell as the night slowly but certainly faded away: “Farewell, it was really fun.”

Dead Ends

• Dead End 1: On Day 4, if Shiki abandons Arcueid while she is sleeping, he is approached by Mio and briefly talks with her. On his way home, he is hunted down and burnt to death by Vlov.
• Dead End 2: On Day 4, if Shiki stays in Arcueid's room during Vlov's attack, the door is eventually broken down by Vlov's dogs. Right as Arcueid takes them out, Vlov unleashes his flames into the room and incinerates Shiki's upper body.
• Dead End 3: On Day 5, if Shiki decides to hunt down Vlov immediately, he tries to infiltrate Vlov's lair in the Souya department store. He encounters a few punks on the tenth floor, and remembering a rumor floating around about a vague job that paid well, tries to ask them for a job. They accept before knocking Shiki out and taking him to Vlov's lair. Shiki is then devoured by The Dead.
• Dead End 4: On Day 5, if Shiki decides to jump down into the crater where Arcueid and Vlov are fighting, he burns to ash as Vlov's flames consume him.
• Dead End 5: On Day 5, if Shiki decides to have Arcueid throw him, Shiki freezes to death before he can get to Vlov.
• Dead End 6: On Day 5, if Shiki decides to have Arcueid pull Vlov closer to them, Vlov impales Shiki before Shiki can react.
• Dead End 7: On Day 8, if Shiki decides to lie to Hisui about sneaking out at night, he cannot go through the main gate and thus is too exhausted looking for a back entrance to fight off the shadowy attacker. Said attacker kills him with a stab.
• Dead End 8: On Day 9, if Shiki decides to investigate Makihisa's study, he finds Makihisa's diary and begins to learn the truth behind the Tohno family. Suddenly, he is killed from behind by Goto, who says he cannot let Shiki read the diary.
• Dead End 9: On Day 9, if Shiki decides to see Arcueid despite Akiha's protests, he will lie to Akiha and sneak out later. When he meets Arcueid, she scolds him for not taking proper care of his body and tells him to rest for the night. The next morning, Hisui and Kohaku hint to Shiki that he should stay home, but he does not pick up on it. After lying to Akiha again about his whereabouts the previous night, he goes to school, but is unable to think properly and faints. He is sent home in a luxury car and greeted by Kohaku (disguised as Hisui), who leads him to an unknown room and locks him in. As he wonders what is going on, Shiki again falls unconscious.
• Dead End 10: On Day 10, after Arcueid just nearly drank his blood, if Shiki decides to go to the school to look for her, he is ambushed and killed by Roa.
• Dead End 11: On Day 10, if Shiki gives into his urges, he slices Arcueid into pieces. As she begins to revive, Shiki is confronted and killed by the black panther. His last thoughts are that he is glad to have died quickly, compared to the much worse fate he would have met when Arcueid returns.