Hoo boy kiddos what a chapter. I am in awe of Mochijun's writing as always, whatever I thought I expected it certainly wasn't this. Strap in for a long ramble. Let's get into it shall we?

First thing's first: Misha has been in contact with a mysterious someone who has told him many bizarre things. An unknown person said this in reference to bringing back VotBM:

Given the style of the textboxes it's very reminiscent of Naenia, who always has warped speech. Teacher also has warped speech but his isn't stringy like Naenia's. Although I will point out that Naenia tends to look more warped than it does above. So it's possible that text is from Naenia in Faustina form or it may not be her at all.

This mysterious patron of Mikhail's also apparently saved him from either the brink of death or literally brought him back to life. If they literally brought him back to life they must be insanely powerful which lends credence to the theory that Naenia/Faustina is involved. Although if they have the power to resurrect people why not revive VotBM first? Clearly they can't do that at the moment and I suspect Vanitas is a necessary ingredient to bringing her back. At the very least whoever is behind this is cunning and almost certainly using Misha to their own ends.

I think it's interesting that he has a robot dog as a companion. This kind of automaton makes me think of Machina immediately but I'm not quite sure what Machina is after. So far the only weird thing we know he's done is try to get Dante to collect Chloe's alteration device core for him. Maybe that kind of technology could be used to bring someone (VotBM?) back. Also just going to mention I love Mikhail's dog so much. It's so cool but also I see anything dog shaped and my mind just goes pet, pet, pet, pet

The fact that Misha doesn't remember that day and the fact that Vani doesn't appear all that surprised to discover this makes it seem more rational that he doesn't want people playing with his memories. It may not be just about hiding his past, it may be to protect his identity itself. Who's to say that Noé understands the full extent of his Archiviste memories, maybe he can take memories as well as look at them? Besides, we've already seen Noé and Jeanne struggling to remember their memories from when Ruthven bit them. And Noé was found by his grandparents in the snow with no memories of where he came from. Just saying, Noé has definitely had his mind messed with. So perhaps memory stealing isn't all that uncommon? Or maybe Vanitas is just protective of his past because it is his and no one else is entitled to it. Regardless, something has happened to Misha's memories and more than likely an individual (probably a vampire) is behind it.

Interestingly, Vanitas keeps his face carefully impassive up until the point Misha reveals his goal of reviving Luna. He appears calm and although he doesn't look pleased it doesn't seem like he intended to be an aggressor at the outset. I'd go as far as to say he looked sad in some of the panels before Misha's reveal although I'd still say he looks a tiny bit distressed. But then you can see an immediate change when he hears about Luna's potential revival. He immediately tries to shoot Misha after hearing about it!

And before I move on, is the gun Dante's? It certainly looks like the same model at least and it's pointed out that Vanitas doesn't use guns. He was just with Dante too so...

Now, after the reveal Vanitas says some very interesting things. Vanitas has been working to erase her [Luna's] existence entirely. This implies that by saving the cursebearers he is erasing her existence. In a metaphorical sense I understand it, ending cursebearers would mean people stop talking about the curse of the blue moon and thus forget the vampire of the blue moon too but I don't think that's what he means. I think it's probably literal and in that case I wonder what cursebearers really are and what Luna really is if her existence is somehow sustained through them.

I could probably talk on and on about the next few pages but I'll try to be brief. Misha's ultimatum with Noé and Vanitas's reaction to it are very interesting. I know Vanitas doesn't like Domi but he barely reacted to seeing her on top of the ferris wheel. Vanitas understands it's a hostage situation yet he still asks Noé to get out of his way so he can shoot his brother regardless. This seems unusual because even if Vanitas doesn't care for Domi he despises the idea of someone dying because of him. And in this case Domi's blood would definitely be on his hands to some extent.

And Noé does a reasonable thing; he asks Vani to tell him what happened on that day so that he doesn't have to drink his blood. But Vanitas refuses him. And not just that, he does his very best to sever ties with Noé altogether. And you can see that Noé doesn't want to believe what he's hearing but his view of Vanitas and their relationship is broken. Because Noé did care about Vanitas, an awful lot. Just look at chapter 45 on the rooftops. But we also know that Vanitas cares about Noé from the previous chapters, especially when looking at characters like Dante who outright state that Vanitas likes him more than he admits. So the obvious conclusion is that Vanitas is lying and he just wants to drive Noé away because he's in a bad state of mind and isn't thinking clearly. But whether or not Vanitas really meant it he betrayed Noé in this moment. Betrayed him very badly.

When Misha mentions Louis when Vani and Noé are yelling at each other there's two interesting things. First, Vanitas's reaction. The panels of him are small but I think he realises then just why Noé cares so much about cursebearers and why Domi is so important to him. Second is what Misha says to mock them, that Domi told him she thinks Noé would prefer Louis. Noé already knew she tried to become Louis's replacement at one point, we see a flashback of him affirming her in this very chapter, but I don't think he realised she still had those feelings.

And despite his apparent surprise and perhaps horror Vanitas chooses to berate Noé over this. He basically says that he doesn't care about his personal issues and he'll protect himself at all cost. I think it's interesting that during this he won't look at Noé and he appears to be forcing a smile as he threatens to kill Domi.I can't quite understand his motivation here because what on Earth does this gain him other than antagonising Noé? Telling Noé they're strangers is a betrayal but threatening Domi right after finding out about Louis seems like a strange move. But he does appear to be doing it deliberately? So, like, what's his plan here?

And now we get to the part where Noé betrays Vanitas in turn. He lunges for him, attempting to get his blood, and we see the fear in Vanitas's eyes. Noé face is warped as he attacks, most of his face taken up by gaping jaws and we see the terror in Vanitas's eyes but we also get a message he remembers someone (who must be Luna due to the redacted name) telling him not to let anyone take his memories. So I think possibly Vanitas knows something, a secret between himself and Luna that must never be spoken or revealed. Or something like that because why else would Luna specifically ask him to guard his memories? Besides I wonder about the use of the word 'take' it could mean see but it could also mean steal/erase in the same way thatMisha has lost his memories for some unknown reason. I was going to speculate that maybe this is a similar curse to what Ruthven uses and Vanitas is bound to protect his memories but the use of 'I beg you' does make it seem like a simple request from Luna.

So Vanitas shoots Noé in the face and Noé has lost the use of his right eye. Vanitas has pretty good aim if he took an eye out on purpose. Unclear if this will be a permanent injury but it will certainly last the duration of the fight. Kind of funny to me how handicapped Noé is right now, with one arm and one eye but I imagine it would be a curbstomp if Noé were at full power. Noé seems shocked that Vanitas shot him (and babe me too) but Vanitas also has a funny reaction. He isn't looking at Noé and he's breathing hard as though he's just exerted himself. I think he just panicked and I'm almost certain the sight of a vampire lunging for him has some trauma related to it which caused this. I don't think he really thought to shoot Noé but I don't think he regrets it either. Noé tried to drink his blood and Vanitas warned him what would happen in that situation. And so the boys start their death match while Mikhail gleefully looks on.

The last two pages are interesting because the way Vanitas is speaking really seems like he's repeating something he's been told before. To the point that he switches from using Noé's name to saying "that vampire." The reason I'm sure it's something he has said/been told before is because it's all in quotes "" so it's obviously not just deluded rambling. I think either this is just Vanitas's emotional response triggered by a very harrowing few minutes that just dredged up a shit ton of trauma or it's a curse. He might have to protect his memories from any vampire that dares try to take them or maybe he just feels very strongly about it. But either way he seems to be using someone else's words.
He pulls out the chasseur drug I haven't shut up about since Dante acquired it in Gévaudan so now the real fight it on.

But yeah, if these two are going to come back from this I think Vanitas is going to have to do the heavy lifting. Up to this point Noé has done most of the emotional labour in this relationship so I do think it's Vanitas's turn. Obviously he's not heading in that direction right now but it will probably be up to him to fix this shit. I'm guessing they'll have to work together at some point in this arc (maybe begrudgingly?) and afterwards they'll have to address everything. But it will take more than just an apology to make things right again. Vani undoubtedly has to help save Domi otherwise I absolutely cannot see him being forgiven.

For someone who literally just wrote a fanfic about these two fighting to the death I sure am torn up about this chapter. I guess it's more brutal when you know it's canon haha. I am super excited though, I have kind of always wanted to see these two properly go at it so I'm stoked. Well, I've finished talking about this chapter but as a bonus I want to ramble about the anime rumours a little.

If you haven't heard a website domain was registered by aniplex for a Vanitas-anime and vnc is slated to be on the cover of Gangan Joker next month. So an anime announcement is looking very likely. There's still not much information on it but I'm going to be watching for news really closely. I really, really want a good adaptation so I care a lot about what studio is going to animate it. I'm also crossing my fingers that Yuki Kajiura works on the soundtrack, Mochijun is a fan of her and she did an amazing job on the Pandora Hearts soundtrack so I'd really love to see her involved with Jun's work again. So, yeah, we may get an anime. The prospect makes me more nervous than I've ever been about an adaptation before, I think because I care so much about the manga that if it wasn't respected I'd feel a little betrayed. And I believe Jun's storytelling deserves only the best. Kyoani is the dream studio but I will accept others especially since I know Kyoani is highly, highly unlikely. Thanks for reading :)