The Plot of Tsukihime (2)
Dec. 31st, 2011 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maid_to_dieIntro
With the continuation of Tsukihime, the new Ciel path shifts the focus from Arcueid to Ciel. However, many scenes remain the same with little or no change. Therefore I will condense those scenes to even less than I described in the previous writeup. Also, I'm not bothering to link the character photos again except for new ones introduced.
Ciel Route
The Prologue happens. High school age Shiki goes to school. When he's about to go to his first class, he hears someone hammering something in the courtyard. Curious, he inspects it to find Ciel who is hammering together a broken fence. Ciel wanted to fix the fence because apparently the high school maintenance staff doesn't exist. Shiki helps her fix it and starts to leave when Ciel calls him by name. Shiki is certain they never met before, but then Ciel stares at him. Shiki starts to remember he HAD DEFINITELY MET HER BEFORE and apologizes to Ciel-senpai. He runs off to class. He and his friends talk about the murders. Shiki eats lunch with Ciel and Arihiko and Shiki talks about moving into his family's mansion. School ends, but Shiki decides to stick around and talk with Ciel. For some reason, she really wants to hear about his family. He leaves eventually and returns to the Mansion. He's awoken by Nero Chaos during the night, then goes to school in the morning.
During his lunch break Shiki goes to meet with Ciel, bribing her into talking with him for curry bread. [Note: It's a thing that Ciel loves curry. An endearing character trait, if you will.] They talk about the recent vampire serial killings some more. Ciel seems to know a lot about vampire superstitions...
Shiki goes home and kills Arcueid as normal. However instead of passing out, he runs away from the scene and meets Ciel. She takes him back to the apartment she's staying in and helps him recover from shock. She lets him sleep at her place, but he wakes up in the middle of the night and sees Ciel starting to undress. He notices she has very eerie tattoos on her back.
It's morning and Ciel tells Shiki that she had Arihiko call his house and tell them Shiki stayed over with Arihiko. Ciel gives Shiki a ring, saying it's a "special charm," and he should keep it with him. He goes home to the mansion, makes some excuses to Akiha and heads off to school.
He's confronted by Arcueid, who chases him into an alley. After stopping some dogs sent by Nero Chaos, she recruits Shiki to help her fight vampires. Shiki refuses outright, saying there's no way he could do it. Arcueid says that if he's going to say that, she can make things very uncomfortable for him, and stares at him with her mind-control eyes. Shiki relents to helping Arcueid. He watches over her as she sleeps in a hotel room. Shiki explains his eyes, and Arcueid asks to see his glasses, but Shiki refuses. Nero shows up, and Shiki can see a faint outline of a human figure fighting Nero. Shiki and Arcueid flee from Nero.
Arcueid and Shiki have their talk after escaping Nero. But, Shiki says there's no way he can defeat Nero, he's too powerful. Arcueid casually threatens to kill Shiki. Shiki agrees to fight Nero. Shiki fights against Nero. It's virtually identical to the Arcueid route battle except at one point he sees Ciel fighting against a few of Nero's beasts and vaguely connects her image with the Ciel he knows from school. Shiki kills Nero and the goes home. He resolves to ask Ciel about what happened when he sees her at school the next day. Meanwhile, he has a dream in which unseen people discuss the nature of immortality and reincarnation.
Shiki awakens to an angry Akiha and an emotionally distant Hisui. He tries to apologize to Akiha, but he can't stomach eating because he has flashbacks to all the blood he's been seeing recently. He runs off to school. He encounters Ciel and asks her about last night, but she denies everything. At lunchtime, Shiki decides not to eat lunch. Ciel talks about her family, which owned a bakery apparently.
After school, Shiki's feeling weak because he hasn't eaten all day. Ciel finds him and offers him food and tea, which he accepts. They talk about things until Shiki goes home. Shiki returns to the mansion to find Hisui waiting for him at the gate, and he realizes Hisui was waiting at the gate of the mansion for him to return every day he's been gone. He tells her she doesn't need to do that, and she agrees-- to wait for him in the lobby instead of at the gate. Night falls, and Shiki falls asleep. (Yes, the erotic dream happens this path too.)
Shiki wakes up and runs out of the mansion from embarrassment. At school, Ciel looks for him and (somehow) deduces he didn't sleep well. Shiki admits he had a dream with her in it without being too specific about what kind of dream it was and Ciel leaves. Feeling like he should apologize to Ciel, he goes to meet her during lunch. He bribes her into talking with him for more curry bread. They have a nice chat, until Ciel deduces again that Shiki's glasses don't actually correct his eyesight. He admits that's true, but refuses to show them to her.
After class... Shiki goes to meet Ciel again. Ciel asks him for more details about seeing 'her' and then advises him not to go out at night when there's a serial killer running around. Shiki goes home and has a conversation with Akiha, Hisui, and Kohaku. They tell him not to go out at night, and Kohaku mentions there was a new victim found last night. Shiki is shocked because he thought he killed Nero and the killings should've stopped.
Despite having promised to stay inside, Shiki goes out searching for Arcueid. He finds her at the park, but she's fighting with Ciel. Shiki realizes for the first time that Ciel is the one he's seen at night. Ciel makes a retreat, and Arcueid starts an info-dump about the different types of vampires and how the Catholic church tries to hunt them down. She explains Ciel is an assassin from the church. Shiki tries to reject her explanation because he believes Ciel is innocent, but then he realizes that although he vaguely 'remembered' Ciel as a cute charming Senpai, he doesn't actually remember ever meeting her before he helped her fix the fence. Arcueid explains Ciel has a power to brainwash people with some simple commands, and probably has been telling all the normal humans "Don't doubt Ciel."
Shiki then puts two and two together and accuses Arcueid of being the vampire that's making the killings at night. Arcueid hits him and tells him it's a different vampire she's trying to kill. (She also tells him that she was responsible for the dream here too.) Shiki then asks why they were fighting, and Arcueid blames Ciel. She then draws a line in the sand: is Shiki on Arcueid's side, or Ciel's? Shiki responds that Ciel isn't his enemy. Arcueid gets upset and stalks off. Shiki hesitates, then follows after her. And then some zombies appear. After the zombies, Arcueid gives Shiki another info-dump about vampires that I already went over in the previous synopsis.
[Note: One of the annoying things about this game is that you end up reading the same explanations during each girl's route. You CAN skip them of course, but there are a few subtle differences in some of them as well. It's impossible to tell which will be a rehash and which will have new info without reading it all. I'm condensing a lot here: the actual game can take weeks or months to read if you let it.]
Arcueid lies about her motivations and then tells Shiki he doesn't have to help her anymore. Shiki, still feeling guilty over killing Arcueid, says he'll be her ally over Ciel's and help her until the end. They part and Shiki sneaks home. He has another strange dream about a person talking about wanting to reach 'eternity' and that to become a strong vampire he would need his blood sucked by the strongest vampire.
Shiki wakes up with conflicted feelings over Ciel and Arcueid. Hisui snaps him back to reality and tells him Akiha is waiting to talk to him over leaving the mansion. Shiki puts it together that if Hisui knows about him leaving the mansion, then Kohaku knows, and Kohaku would've told Akiha. Shiki decides it's more important to meet Ciel again than be scolded by Akiha, and leaves without breakfast.
Shiki finds Ciel. Ciel admits to lying about not being the figure he saw at night before. But Ciel mistakenly believes that Shiki was able to kill Nero because he's using some sort of enchanted knife. Ciel explains to Shiki about Roa and how he can reincarnate after he's killed, he looks for people with special powers and wealth, etc. She also tells him Arcueid created Roa as a vampire when she sucked his blood. (You learn that much later in the game in Arcueid's route.) Shiki announces he's still going to help Arcueid. Ciel says she's deceiving him. Shiki shouts about how Ciel was deceiving him... and Ciel has to agree. She disappears.
Shiki lurches depressed through the day, then sneaks out at night to look for Arcueid. He meets Ciel. They talk and Shiki keeps moving to find Arcueid, but he quickly realizes Ciel is following him. He confronts her and says he doesn't want her and Arcueid to fight. He tries to apologize for what he said earlier but she starts to move to the park. Eventually they run into an annoyed Arcueid. They argue before getting into a fight.
Arcueid gets the upper hand, but Shiki steps in between them. Arcueid warns him to back off, but he refuses. Finally she withdraws, but tells him "I don't know you anymore," and warns him Ciel is not who he thinks she is. Shiki goes to help Ciel, who looked critically injured, but she stands up completely healed. Ciel then berates Shiki for wanting to sacrifice himself to save her. Shiki gives a speech that I'm including here:
"Don't be ridiculous! What do you think your life is!? Don't you see, if you die, it's all over!"
"No matter what horrible, awful things you've done, if you don't keep on living then it will all have been a lie!"
"You have to keep on living... you have to keep on living because there's nothing else."
"So what if you're miserable? That's far, far better than not being able to feel that at all...!"
Ciel responds: "--That's right. You are someone who tasted death eight years ago. That's why you can be content with such a simple way of thinking."
[Note: It's here that Shiki really reveals his Vash-The-Stampede-like 'life is precious' side. It's a little strange, considering he's CONSTANTLY KILLING THINGS and has flashbacks to murdering people all the time.]
Ciel tells Shiki the truth: she's not a vampire, but she's not a normal human either. She demonstrates by taking one of the swords she uses and casually slitting her own throat. Blood pours out for a few seconds... before it completely vanishes and the wound has healed. More than healed, it's as if the wound never existed in the first place. She bids him farewell forever and apologizes for lying to him. Shiki shuffles back to the mansion in shock.
Shiki dreams both of murdering someone and of worshipping an elegant Arcueid. He wakes up and pines over Ciel and Arcueid for a bit. He realizes this is the first time he's woken up without Hisui there to confirm he's awake. He finds her downstairs adjusting furniture. And... here's where the infamous this chair scene takes place. Shiki accidentally trips on the chair and starts to go crazy with rage. He destroys the chair before he realizes what he's doing. He asks Hisui if he destroyed the chair. She responds: "--Yes. That is the result of you holding the chair and smashing it against the floor many times."
Shiki runs upstairs and confides himself to his room. His head starts to hurt. He decides he has to see Ciel. He exits the mansion only to find who he thinks to be Hisui (despite the fact he just saw her in the mansion picking up the chair) outside heading into the forest. He follows her, only for his anemia to kick in and he passes out.
[This is one of the first clues we have that something is up with the maids. It's never explicitly said, but it is implied that the figure Shiki follows into the forest each time could be Hisui, but more likely it's Kohaku dressed as Hisui. Maybe.]
He has another flashback to what he thinks is him murdering someone before waking up to Akiha yelling at Hisui for leading him out there. Shiki stops Akiha, and promises not to sneak out at night.
Shiki wakes up and yells at Hisui. He considers skipping school, but then decides to go if only to see Ciel. He doesn't see her and tries asking Arihiko about her. Arihiko acts like he's completely forgotten Ciel. He's shocked and thinks she's left forever... only then he sees her eating in the cafeteria at lunch. Ciel tries to convince him that they should forget about her hunting vampires and proceed as normal students, but Shiki can't allow it. He asks her more, but she tells him ordinary people can't get involved. Shiki finally demonstrates his power by taking off his glasses and cutting a nearby tree. This convinces Ciel that she can't ignore Shiki, and she agrees to accept his help to go after the vampire together! The Ciel path is written so that it still seems like Shiki will end up loving Arcueid no matter what happens, but here is the start of the true switch of affection to Ciel.
Shiki goes to meet Ciel after school, but something is wrong. The scar of the wound he has starts to burn and he collapses in pain. Roa appears out of the darkness. SHIKI/Roa goes on a rant about things we already know: that SHIKI killed Shiki, but Shiki stole SHIKI's place in society and he's getting revenge. He explains that he and himself are not connected by blood, but by their 'souls'. When Shiki is active, SHIKI must be asleep. When SHIKI is active, Shiki can't do anything either, which is why he's suddenly paralyzed on the floor. He tells him the truth about Shiki being adopted by the family and SHIKI killing him and stuff.
Shiki then looks over and see's Ciel on the floor, impaled with many of her own swords. He rants at her, and says something about how the universe reverses time itself to revive her because of a "contradiction." He stabs Ciel in the head. Shiki gets so pissed he forces himself to stand up and fight SHIKI. SHIKI tries to distract him by taunting him that they're both the same, but Shiki ignores it until he accuses Shiki of going insane like him with murderous bloodlust a long time ago. That's why he killed Arcueid. Shiki pauses, and Shiki takes the opportunity to attack. SHIKI then immediately contradicts himself by saying the reason Shiki attacked Arcueid was because he was connected to him and Roa subconsciously. SHIKI brings his hand down... but Ciel has recovered and stops his attack. Shiki cuts into SHIKI, but he's able to jump out the third-story window and escape. ...Only to immediately run into Arcueid, who kills him dead. Ciel tells him that since Roa is dead, she will be leaving the city, but she's glad she was able to be as student with Shiki and Arihiko.
Shiki returns home and Kohaku greets him. Shiki asks her if SHIKI ever existed, but Kohaku denies it. She also casually reveals that Hisui and Kohaku have worked at the mansion since they were very young. Shiki goes to sleep and has a dream of someone's past as he/she slowly turns into a vampire until Arcueid kills him/her.
Shiki goes to school and sees Ciel... again! Ciel admits she can't bring herself to leave the school while Shiki is there. Shiki's very happy. Ciel gives him her phone number. Shiki goes back to class and notices Arihiko now remembers Ciel again. They make plans to all go see a movie together after school. Shiki runs home to prepare... only to get hit with a piercing headache and collapses. Hisui and Kohaku say he has a fever and must stay. Shiki pushes Kohaku out of the way and runs out of the house. [:(]
Shiki makes it all the way to the theater and meet Ciel. He then passes out and wakes up back in bed at the mansion. Hisui tries to get him to take medicine Kohaku has prepared, but he says he'll take it later.
[Unlike before, this is definitely confirmed to be Hisui and not Kohaku-as-Hisui. However it's the first time it's mentioned that Kohaku was trained to be a pharmacist.]
Shiki has a dream he's killing some girl in an alley... until he actually wakes up and he IS killing some girl in an alley. He stops himself before he actually hurts her and runs away, getting back to his room. He wakes up the next morning and confines himself to his room, thinking he's going insane. At night, Kohaku tries to bring him food, and then forces open his door with a master key. [Foreshadowing!] Shiki grabs her and almost chokes her to death before running out of the house. Realizing he can't control himself, he desperately calls Ciel on a pay-phone and asks her for help. She tells him to wait at the school. He does, and Ciel appears. Only she's dressed like this.
Ciel reveals that Shiki is turning into the next Roa. Roa was taking over SHIKI, but since Arcueid killed SHIKI, Roa used their connection to start a hostile take over of Shiki. so she must kill him now. Shiki somehow feels Roa is already taking over his instincts: he recognizes the gun will take away his ability to reincarnate. Ciel gives another info-dump: she was Roa's last incarnation, but when Roa was killed by Arcueid, somehow she didn't die. Roa left Ciel's body, but she was still alive. The Church took her and tried doing experiments on her, but no matter what they did she would just revive. She is a 'contradiction', since she 'was' Roa, and Roa is still 'alive', if something happens to harm her or make her die, it reverses itself. Eventually she was put to work for the Church because she had a high magic potential and it was a way to get a use out of her. Her only reason to exist is to kill Roa so she can die. Shiki runs into the school. He realizes he can't escape Ciel, it's either kill or be killed...
[Note: I haven't been including all of the various BAD ENDs you can get, but I'm including this one because it's written really well.]
(Shiki takes off his glasses and faces Ciel. She almost acts relieved. They both run at each other... her weapon hits his chest, and his knife hits hers. Roa dies, Ciel dies, and before Shiki dies too, he realizes he loved Ciel.)
...Shiki refuses to take off his glasses. Ciel says she's going to kill him and her 'Ciel-senpai' persona was just an act. Shiki says even if it was an act, Shiki had fun with her and is glad she became important to him. Ciel breaks down and can't bring herself to kill him. Ciel tells him there might be a way to save him, but she'll need to leave him to contact the Church. Shiki's not sure he can last too long. Ciel says he can use her room to trap him and he may be able to suppress Roa if they have sex. So they do. (The game lets you choose if Ciel keeps her glasses on or off.)
Ciel leaves to contact the Church, and Shiki falls asleep, having another dream about something Roa experiences. Pain overwhelms Shiki until he can't take it anymore and he leaves the room. He walks to the park and meets Arcueid. She's pissed that Roa is inside him now, because she grew to like Shiki. Shiki yells that Ciel is going to save him, but Arcueid replies she can't let the Church kill Roa because she needs to kill him to get her power back. However... there's another option: Shiki just needs to become Arcueid's servant. Shiki refuses. Arcueid easily fights him and pins him down. She gives him one last chance to become her servant.
Ciel's True Ending
Shiki still refuses, and cuts the one line of death he can see on Arcueid. She starts to bleed out, trying to stay on her feet. She screams she's going to kill Shiki and enjoy every second of doing it. He runs the hell away.
Shiki meets Ciel, who goes to hold Arcueid off for as long as she can. Arcueid, who isn't bothering to hold back anymore, easily tosses her aside. Arcueid says that when she kills Roa, she'll take his power back and then Ciel can only die by killing Arcueid herself. Shiki gets pissed, but Arcueid is too strong to attack directly. He remembers that Ciel said something about Arceuid being a 'force of nature', and tries stabbing the earth he's walking on. It works, and more lines of death appear on Arcueid. He cuts one, but he's only trying to drive her off. Arcueid calms down enough to stop her attack. Shiki stabs his own line of death, thinking maybe he can kill Roa without killing himself.
[Catch the subtle difference here? In Arcueid's route, Arcueid losing her power because Shiki killed her and also losing her ability to suppress her blood instinct is the whole thing that threatens their relationship. In Ciel's route, it's never even an issue, even after Shiki kills her 'again'. Different routes will play around with your expectations like that.]
Shiki wakes up in a hospital... but something is wrong. He sees a boy that resembles him when he was younger running around. He meets Arihiko and Ciel-senpai at school and everything seems fine. But eventually he realizes this world is too happy and he must have really died. He wakes up in a hospital again and talks to his younger self. ...Finally he opens his eyes for real and discovers the real Ciel. His gambit seemed to work and Roa is gone. He looks forward to a happy future with Ciel.
Ciel's Good Ending
Shiki agrees to become Arcueid's servant. She force feeds him some of her blood. Ciel shows up, not happy that Shiki is following Arcueid's orders. Ciel suggests Shiki injure Arcueid enough to weaken Roa that he can kill him. Arcueid smiles and reveals that Shiki having her blood inside him now means that Shiki has to obey her. However, it also means that even if Shiki dies with Roa, she can bring Shiki back. They continue arguing until Shiki just stabs himself. Roa dies.
Shiki wakes up in his room at the mansion, Arcueid is hovering over him looking very pleased. He sighs, because she's been showing up at his house everyday. He leaves and meets Ciel. Arcueid and Ciel start fighting over Shiki, and he admits he loves them both. This is the harem ending.
With the continuation of Tsukihime, the new Ciel path shifts the focus from Arcueid to Ciel. However, many scenes remain the same with little or no change. Therefore I will condense those scenes to even less than I described in the previous writeup. Also, I'm not bothering to link the character photos again except for new ones introduced.
Ciel Route
The Prologue happens. High school age Shiki goes to school. When he's about to go to his first class, he hears someone hammering something in the courtyard. Curious, he inspects it to find Ciel who is hammering together a broken fence. Ciel wanted to fix the fence because apparently the high school maintenance staff doesn't exist. Shiki helps her fix it and starts to leave when Ciel calls him by name. Shiki is certain they never met before, but then Ciel stares at him. Shiki starts to remember he HAD DEFINITELY MET HER BEFORE and apologizes to Ciel-senpai. He runs off to class. He and his friends talk about the murders. Shiki eats lunch with Ciel and Arihiko and Shiki talks about moving into his family's mansion. School ends, but Shiki decides to stick around and talk with Ciel. For some reason, she really wants to hear about his family. He leaves eventually and returns to the Mansion. He's awoken by Nero Chaos during the night, then goes to school in the morning.
During his lunch break Shiki goes to meet with Ciel, bribing her into talking with him for curry bread. [Note: It's a thing that Ciel loves curry. An endearing character trait, if you will.] They talk about the recent vampire serial killings some more. Ciel seems to know a lot about vampire superstitions...
Shiki goes home and kills Arcueid as normal. However instead of passing out, he runs away from the scene and meets Ciel. She takes him back to the apartment she's staying in and helps him recover from shock. She lets him sleep at her place, but he wakes up in the middle of the night and sees Ciel starting to undress. He notices she has very eerie tattoos on her back.
It's morning and Ciel tells Shiki that she had Arihiko call his house and tell them Shiki stayed over with Arihiko. Ciel gives Shiki a ring, saying it's a "special charm," and he should keep it with him. He goes home to the mansion, makes some excuses to Akiha and heads off to school.
He's confronted by Arcueid, who chases him into an alley. After stopping some dogs sent by Nero Chaos, she recruits Shiki to help her fight vampires. Shiki refuses outright, saying there's no way he could do it. Arcueid says that if he's going to say that, she can make things very uncomfortable for him, and stares at him with her mind-control eyes. Shiki relents to helping Arcueid. He watches over her as she sleeps in a hotel room. Shiki explains his eyes, and Arcueid asks to see his glasses, but Shiki refuses. Nero shows up, and Shiki can see a faint outline of a human figure fighting Nero. Shiki and Arcueid flee from Nero.
Arcueid and Shiki have their talk after escaping Nero. But, Shiki says there's no way he can defeat Nero, he's too powerful. Arcueid casually threatens to kill Shiki. Shiki agrees to fight Nero. Shiki fights against Nero. It's virtually identical to the Arcueid route battle except at one point he sees Ciel fighting against a few of Nero's beasts and vaguely connects her image with the Ciel he knows from school. Shiki kills Nero and the goes home. He resolves to ask Ciel about what happened when he sees her at school the next day. Meanwhile, he has a dream in which unseen people discuss the nature of immortality and reincarnation.
Shiki awakens to an angry Akiha and an emotionally distant Hisui. He tries to apologize to Akiha, but he can't stomach eating because he has flashbacks to all the blood he's been seeing recently. He runs off to school. He encounters Ciel and asks her about last night, but she denies everything. At lunchtime, Shiki decides not to eat lunch. Ciel talks about her family, which owned a bakery apparently.
After school, Shiki's feeling weak because he hasn't eaten all day. Ciel finds him and offers him food and tea, which he accepts. They talk about things until Shiki goes home. Shiki returns to the mansion to find Hisui waiting for him at the gate, and he realizes Hisui was waiting at the gate of the mansion for him to return every day he's been gone. He tells her she doesn't need to do that, and she agrees-- to wait for him in the lobby instead of at the gate. Night falls, and Shiki falls asleep. (Yes, the erotic dream happens this path too.)
Shiki wakes up and runs out of the mansion from embarrassment. At school, Ciel looks for him and (somehow) deduces he didn't sleep well. Shiki admits he had a dream with her in it without being too specific about what kind of dream it was and Ciel leaves. Feeling like he should apologize to Ciel, he goes to meet her during lunch. He bribes her into talking with him for more curry bread. They have a nice chat, until Ciel deduces again that Shiki's glasses don't actually correct his eyesight. He admits that's true, but refuses to show them to her.
After class... Shiki goes to meet Ciel again. Ciel asks him for more details about seeing 'her' and then advises him not to go out at night when there's a serial killer running around. Shiki goes home and has a conversation with Akiha, Hisui, and Kohaku. They tell him not to go out at night, and Kohaku mentions there was a new victim found last night. Shiki is shocked because he thought he killed Nero and the killings should've stopped.
Despite having promised to stay inside, Shiki goes out searching for Arcueid. He finds her at the park, but she's fighting with Ciel. Shiki realizes for the first time that Ciel is the one he's seen at night. Ciel makes a retreat, and Arcueid starts an info-dump about the different types of vampires and how the Catholic church tries to hunt them down. She explains Ciel is an assassin from the church. Shiki tries to reject her explanation because he believes Ciel is innocent, but then he realizes that although he vaguely 'remembered' Ciel as a cute charming Senpai, he doesn't actually remember ever meeting her before he helped her fix the fence. Arcueid explains Ciel has a power to brainwash people with some simple commands, and probably has been telling all the normal humans "Don't doubt Ciel."
Shiki then puts two and two together and accuses Arcueid of being the vampire that's making the killings at night. Arcueid hits him and tells him it's a different vampire she's trying to kill. (She also tells him that she was responsible for the dream here too.) Shiki then asks why they were fighting, and Arcueid blames Ciel. She then draws a line in the sand: is Shiki on Arcueid's side, or Ciel's? Shiki responds that Ciel isn't his enemy. Arcueid gets upset and stalks off. Shiki hesitates, then follows after her. And then some zombies appear. After the zombies, Arcueid gives Shiki another info-dump about vampires that I already went over in the previous synopsis.
[Note: One of the annoying things about this game is that you end up reading the same explanations during each girl's route. You CAN skip them of course, but there are a few subtle differences in some of them as well. It's impossible to tell which will be a rehash and which will have new info without reading it all. I'm condensing a lot here: the actual game can take weeks or months to read if you let it.]
Arcueid lies about her motivations and then tells Shiki he doesn't have to help her anymore. Shiki, still feeling guilty over killing Arcueid, says he'll be her ally over Ciel's and help her until the end. They part and Shiki sneaks home. He has another strange dream about a person talking about wanting to reach 'eternity' and that to become a strong vampire he would need his blood sucked by the strongest vampire.
Shiki wakes up with conflicted feelings over Ciel and Arcueid. Hisui snaps him back to reality and tells him Akiha is waiting to talk to him over leaving the mansion. Shiki puts it together that if Hisui knows about him leaving the mansion, then Kohaku knows, and Kohaku would've told Akiha. Shiki decides it's more important to meet Ciel again than be scolded by Akiha, and leaves without breakfast.
Shiki finds Ciel. Ciel admits to lying about not being the figure he saw at night before. But Ciel mistakenly believes that Shiki was able to kill Nero because he's using some sort of enchanted knife. Ciel explains to Shiki about Roa and how he can reincarnate after he's killed, he looks for people with special powers and wealth, etc. She also tells him Arcueid created Roa as a vampire when she sucked his blood. (You learn that much later in the game in Arcueid's route.) Shiki announces he's still going to help Arcueid. Ciel says she's deceiving him. Shiki shouts about how Ciel was deceiving him... and Ciel has to agree. She disappears.
Shiki lurches depressed through the day, then sneaks out at night to look for Arcueid. He meets Ciel. They talk and Shiki keeps moving to find Arcueid, but he quickly realizes Ciel is following him. He confronts her and says he doesn't want her and Arcueid to fight. He tries to apologize for what he said earlier but she starts to move to the park. Eventually they run into an annoyed Arcueid. They argue before getting into a fight.
Arcueid gets the upper hand, but Shiki steps in between them. Arcueid warns him to back off, but he refuses. Finally she withdraws, but tells him "I don't know you anymore," and warns him Ciel is not who he thinks she is. Shiki goes to help Ciel, who looked critically injured, but she stands up completely healed. Ciel then berates Shiki for wanting to sacrifice himself to save her. Shiki gives a speech that I'm including here:
"Don't be ridiculous! What do you think your life is!? Don't you see, if you die, it's all over!"
"No matter what horrible, awful things you've done, if you don't keep on living then it will all have been a lie!"
"You have to keep on living... you have to keep on living because there's nothing else."
"So what if you're miserable? That's far, far better than not being able to feel that at all...!"
Ciel responds: "--That's right. You are someone who tasted death eight years ago. That's why you can be content with such a simple way of thinking."
[Note: It's here that Shiki really reveals his Vash-The-Stampede-like 'life is precious' side. It's a little strange, considering he's CONSTANTLY KILLING THINGS and has flashbacks to murdering people all the time.]
Ciel tells Shiki the truth: she's not a vampire, but she's not a normal human either. She demonstrates by taking one of the swords she uses and casually slitting her own throat. Blood pours out for a few seconds... before it completely vanishes and the wound has healed. More than healed, it's as if the wound never existed in the first place. She bids him farewell forever and apologizes for lying to him. Shiki shuffles back to the mansion in shock.
Shiki dreams both of murdering someone and of worshipping an elegant Arcueid. He wakes up and pines over Ciel and Arcueid for a bit. He realizes this is the first time he's woken up without Hisui there to confirm he's awake. He finds her downstairs adjusting furniture. And... here's where the infamous this chair scene takes place. Shiki accidentally trips on the chair and starts to go crazy with rage. He destroys the chair before he realizes what he's doing. He asks Hisui if he destroyed the chair. She responds: "--Yes. That is the result of you holding the chair and smashing it against the floor many times."
Shiki runs upstairs and confides himself to his room. His head starts to hurt. He decides he has to see Ciel. He exits the mansion only to find who he thinks to be Hisui (despite the fact he just saw her in the mansion picking up the chair) outside heading into the forest. He follows her, only for his anemia to kick in and he passes out.
[This is one of the first clues we have that something is up with the maids. It's never explicitly said, but it is implied that the figure Shiki follows into the forest each time could be Hisui, but more likely it's Kohaku dressed as Hisui. Maybe.]
He has another flashback to what he thinks is him murdering someone before waking up to Akiha yelling at Hisui for leading him out there. Shiki stops Akiha, and promises not to sneak out at night.
Shiki wakes up and yells at Hisui. He considers skipping school, but then decides to go if only to see Ciel. He doesn't see her and tries asking Arihiko about her. Arihiko acts like he's completely forgotten Ciel. He's shocked and thinks she's left forever... only then he sees her eating in the cafeteria at lunch. Ciel tries to convince him that they should forget about her hunting vampires and proceed as normal students, but Shiki can't allow it. He asks her more, but she tells him ordinary people can't get involved. Shiki finally demonstrates his power by taking off his glasses and cutting a nearby tree. This convinces Ciel that she can't ignore Shiki, and she agrees to accept his help to go after the vampire together! The Ciel path is written so that it still seems like Shiki will end up loving Arcueid no matter what happens, but here is the start of the true switch of affection to Ciel.
Shiki goes to meet Ciel after school, but something is wrong. The scar of the wound he has starts to burn and he collapses in pain. Roa appears out of the darkness. SHIKI/Roa goes on a rant about things we already know: that SHIKI killed Shiki, but Shiki stole SHIKI's place in society and he's getting revenge. He explains that he and himself are not connected by blood, but by their 'souls'. When Shiki is active, SHIKI must be asleep. When SHIKI is active, Shiki can't do anything either, which is why he's suddenly paralyzed on the floor. He tells him the truth about Shiki being adopted by the family and SHIKI killing him and stuff.
Shiki then looks over and see's Ciel on the floor, impaled with many of her own swords. He rants at her, and says something about how the universe reverses time itself to revive her because of a "contradiction." He stabs Ciel in the head. Shiki gets so pissed he forces himself to stand up and fight SHIKI. SHIKI tries to distract him by taunting him that they're both the same, but Shiki ignores it until he accuses Shiki of going insane like him with murderous bloodlust a long time ago. That's why he killed Arcueid. Shiki pauses, and Shiki takes the opportunity to attack. SHIKI then immediately contradicts himself by saying the reason Shiki attacked Arcueid was because he was connected to him and Roa subconsciously. SHIKI brings his hand down... but Ciel has recovered and stops his attack. Shiki cuts into SHIKI, but he's able to jump out the third-story window and escape. ...Only to immediately run into Arcueid, who kills him dead. Ciel tells him that since Roa is dead, she will be leaving the city, but she's glad she was able to be as student with Shiki and Arihiko.
Shiki returns home and Kohaku greets him. Shiki asks her if SHIKI ever existed, but Kohaku denies it. She also casually reveals that Hisui and Kohaku have worked at the mansion since they were very young. Shiki goes to sleep and has a dream of someone's past as he/she slowly turns into a vampire until Arcueid kills him/her.
Shiki goes to school and sees Ciel... again! Ciel admits she can't bring herself to leave the school while Shiki is there. Shiki's very happy. Ciel gives him her phone number. Shiki goes back to class and notices Arihiko now remembers Ciel again. They make plans to all go see a movie together after school. Shiki runs home to prepare... only to get hit with a piercing headache and collapses. Hisui and Kohaku say he has a fever and must stay. Shiki pushes Kohaku out of the way and runs out of the house. [:(]
Shiki makes it all the way to the theater and meet Ciel. He then passes out and wakes up back in bed at the mansion. Hisui tries to get him to take medicine Kohaku has prepared, but he says he'll take it later.
[Unlike before, this is definitely confirmed to be Hisui and not Kohaku-as-Hisui. However it's the first time it's mentioned that Kohaku was trained to be a pharmacist.]
Shiki has a dream he's killing some girl in an alley... until he actually wakes up and he IS killing some girl in an alley. He stops himself before he actually hurts her and runs away, getting back to his room. He wakes up the next morning and confines himself to his room, thinking he's going insane. At night, Kohaku tries to bring him food, and then forces open his door with a master key. [Foreshadowing!] Shiki grabs her and almost chokes her to death before running out of the house. Realizing he can't control himself, he desperately calls Ciel on a pay-phone and asks her for help. She tells him to wait at the school. He does, and Ciel appears. Only she's dressed like this.
Ciel reveals that Shiki is turning into the next Roa. Roa was taking over SHIKI, but since Arcueid killed SHIKI, Roa used their connection to start a hostile take over of Shiki. so she must kill him now. Shiki somehow feels Roa is already taking over his instincts: he recognizes the gun will take away his ability to reincarnate. Ciel gives another info-dump: she was Roa's last incarnation, but when Roa was killed by Arcueid, somehow she didn't die. Roa left Ciel's body, but she was still alive. The Church took her and tried doing experiments on her, but no matter what they did she would just revive. She is a 'contradiction', since she 'was' Roa, and Roa is still 'alive', if something happens to harm her or make her die, it reverses itself. Eventually she was put to work for the Church because she had a high magic potential and it was a way to get a use out of her. Her only reason to exist is to kill Roa so she can die. Shiki runs into the school. He realizes he can't escape Ciel, it's either kill or be killed...
[Note: I haven't been including all of the various BAD ENDs you can get, but I'm including this one because it's written really well.]
(Shiki takes off his glasses and faces Ciel. She almost acts relieved. They both run at each other... her weapon hits his chest, and his knife hits hers. Roa dies, Ciel dies, and before Shiki dies too, he realizes he loved Ciel.)
...Shiki refuses to take off his glasses. Ciel says she's going to kill him and her 'Ciel-senpai' persona was just an act. Shiki says even if it was an act, Shiki had fun with her and is glad she became important to him. Ciel breaks down and can't bring herself to kill him. Ciel tells him there might be a way to save him, but she'll need to leave him to contact the Church. Shiki's not sure he can last too long. Ciel says he can use her room to trap him and he may be able to suppress Roa if they have sex. So they do. (The game lets you choose if Ciel keeps her glasses on or off.)
Ciel leaves to contact the Church, and Shiki falls asleep, having another dream about something Roa experiences. Pain overwhelms Shiki until he can't take it anymore and he leaves the room. He walks to the park and meets Arcueid. She's pissed that Roa is inside him now, because she grew to like Shiki. Shiki yells that Ciel is going to save him, but Arcueid replies she can't let the Church kill Roa because she needs to kill him to get her power back. However... there's another option: Shiki just needs to become Arcueid's servant. Shiki refuses. Arcueid easily fights him and pins him down. She gives him one last chance to become her servant.
Ciel's True Ending
Shiki still refuses, and cuts the one line of death he can see on Arcueid. She starts to bleed out, trying to stay on her feet. She screams she's going to kill Shiki and enjoy every second of doing it. He runs the hell away.
Shiki meets Ciel, who goes to hold Arcueid off for as long as she can. Arcueid, who isn't bothering to hold back anymore, easily tosses her aside. Arcueid says that when she kills Roa, she'll take his power back and then Ciel can only die by killing Arcueid herself. Shiki gets pissed, but Arcueid is too strong to attack directly. He remembers that Ciel said something about Arceuid being a 'force of nature', and tries stabbing the earth he's walking on. It works, and more lines of death appear on Arcueid. He cuts one, but he's only trying to drive her off. Arcueid calms down enough to stop her attack. Shiki stabs his own line of death, thinking maybe he can kill Roa without killing himself.
[Catch the subtle difference here? In Arcueid's route, Arcueid losing her power because Shiki killed her and also losing her ability to suppress her blood instinct is the whole thing that threatens their relationship. In Ciel's route, it's never even an issue, even after Shiki kills her 'again'. Different routes will play around with your expectations like that.]
Shiki wakes up in a hospital... but something is wrong. He sees a boy that resembles him when he was younger running around. He meets Arihiko and Ciel-senpai at school and everything seems fine. But eventually he realizes this world is too happy and he must have really died. He wakes up in a hospital again and talks to his younger self. ...Finally he opens his eyes for real and discovers the real Ciel. His gambit seemed to work and Roa is gone. He looks forward to a happy future with Ciel.
Ciel's Good Ending
Shiki agrees to become Arcueid's servant. She force feeds him some of her blood. Ciel shows up, not happy that Shiki is following Arcueid's orders. Ciel suggests Shiki injure Arcueid enough to weaken Roa that he can kill him. Arcueid smiles and reveals that Shiki having her blood inside him now means that Shiki has to obey her. However, it also means that even if Shiki dies with Roa, she can bring Shiki back. They continue arguing until Shiki just stabs himself. Roa dies.
Shiki wakes up in his room at the mansion, Arcueid is hovering over him looking very pleased. He sighs, because she's been showing up at his house everyday. He leaves and meets Ciel. Arcueid and Ciel start fighting over Shiki, and he admits he loves them both. This is the harem ending.
