This was too tragic I'm so fucked. The stranglehold Mochijun has on my emotions is no joke.

How cruel of Mochijun to start the chapter with this colour page celebrating the anime when the tone of the chapter is so dark. I really miss the Vanoé friendship from times past.

Anyway, we start off with a flashback from Noé's perspective of his first meeting with Vanitas. I'm not sure if this is because it's Noé's perspective or just Mochijun's art style evolving but Vanitas looks way more ethereal than he ever did in chapter 1. That and the shoujo bubbles kind of indicate that Noé didn't dislike Vani even at the beginning. He probably at least saw his powers as something amazing that made him a very hopeful figure. Or, rather, his perspective on Vani may have changed since chapter one. While he looked mad before now he's softer and clearly someone Noé likes.

Now in the present things aren't going well. Poor Noé rightfully seems incredibly betrayed. But at least he's doing all right and isn't incapacitated. Man, he's sturdy.

Vani uses his 2nd and final dose of chasseur drugs so he can't inject more. We'll see how that goes for him.

Noé goes off at Vanitas, airing all his incredibly reasonable grievances, with particular emphasis on how Vanitas dismissed their bond. I mean Jun dedicated nearly an entire page to flashbacks of them together which... ouch. We find out through Misha that Vanitas won't respond to Noé because he's put a hypnotic suggestion on himself. So hey, looks like Vani really wasn't in his right mind!

Interesting that he did this to himself though and it wasn't someone else putting this suggestion in his head. Also curious that Misha knows about it. That means Vani probably did this to himself prior to or around the time of Luna's death. He thought Misha was dead so this isn't a recent thing. There's also a huge element of tragedy in the fact that Noé doesn't know this. Misha said it but he wasn't saying it to Noé. Noé thinks Vanitas is refusing to answer of his own will.

Honestly incredible foresight from Vanitas to hypnotise himself so he'd kill anyone who tried to take his memories because not only is it incredibly unlikely that anyone would be able to do that in the first place but he also apparently knew there was a possibility he wouldn't be able to kill them while in his right mind. This decision will probably backfire/already has backfired but kind of impressive that he was prepared for this exact eventuality.

Um, I feel like there's a lot here to unpack about Misha's mentality towards Vanitas. First off, he lowkey sounds like he wants Vanitas to kill Noé and also wants him to regret it. It looks like he wants to cause Vanitas pain. But he also wants Vanitas to be with him, at his side, and he doesn't think anyone else can fulfill that role. Partially implying that Vanitas is so bad no one else could possibly stay with him despite everything. We've seen obsessive younger brother in Mochijun works before (Vince) but this is a new flavour of that. Misha doesn't seem to care that much about Vanitas and he also doesn't seem to care if Vanitas cares about him. At least not in a traditional sense. It's hard to like Misha but he is just a kid and although that doesn't excuse mildly homicidal tendencies it does make me wonder where he picked all this up. In the flashbacks to his time with Luna and Vani he seemed like a pretty normal little boy.

Then we have Domi and holy fuck this is so upsetting. She has to follow Misha's instructions because of his Book but she cares so much about Noé that she can't just watch. She does the only thing she can. She jumps. I like that the inner voice telling her what to do is a depiction of her as a child.

I think to some degree it probably symbolises how she hasn't really been able to grow past that part of her life and move forward. But my God does Domi have an unhealthy mentality that really needs to be examined. She doesn't value her own life and feels like Noé's being hurt because of her when clearly it's because of Misha and (sorry) Vanitas. Her jumping won't make him feel better. It'll make him feel worse. I'll be damned if it isn't noble of Domi to try and protect him right till the end though.

In conclusion: PAIN

Jeanne please show up and catch Domi thanks. If not, Noé is going to go absolutely feral.