Vanitas × Noé

Your True Name

A bit of a "what if?" scenario for the end of the manga. I'm not that happy with my choice for Noé's true name so I'm sorry about that!
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"No, Vanitas! Don't!" Noé grabbed Vanitas's wrist, the one holding the Book.

"Noé, I have to do this," Vanitas said gently.

"Please, there has to be another way!" Noé shook his head to stave off tears, causing his messy hair to fall into his eyes. "I can't be the reason-"

"Noé." Vanitas took the hand off his wrist, holding it for a moment before intertwining their fingers. "I'm glad it's you. If it had to be anyone, there couldn't have been a better outcome."

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for becoming a curse-bearer." Noé's back slumped as thick, wet tears finally forced their way out in an unending stream.

"Hey, Noé, look at me."

With great effort Noé looked down at Vanitas, vision slightly blurry, and felt his lip tremble with the urge to wail even more pathetically. The blue cracks on Vanitas's face, disappearing beneath his collar and likely running along his entire body by this point, stood starkly against his pale skin, glowing faintly.

Vanitas smiled softly when he met Noé's eyes. "You know you had to take on that curse, so don't apologise for it."

"You don't have to heal me, really, I still have time, you can save the last use of the Book for later."

"No, I'm not going to listen to you. Remember? I'll do as I please, use methods I choose and, no matter what you want, Noé, I will save you, without fail."

Noé's expression crumpled and with a frustrated cry he let himself collapse onto Vanitas, head resting on his shoulder as he wept into Vanitas's coat.

"Thank you," Vanitas whispered. The pages of the book fluttered open, the sound of their turning unbelievably loud in Noé's ears. The beautiful blue glow encompassed them both, almost creating a new world just for them. "So that is you true name. 'Ammirabilis,' he who preserves the strange and remarkable. Your true name," Vanitas's voice cracked, "it suits you."

Noé felt his true name piecing itself back together, feeling more cleansed than he ever had. The name was pure again, as it should be. "Vanitas, I..." He swallowed heavily. "If I only get the chance to say it now, thank you. For everything."

"It don't have long, Noé, I'm sorry I couldn't give you more time. There's a lot that I'd still like to say... but you have to kill me before I lose the last of my sanity."

"I don't know if I can," Noé grimaced, clutching Vanitas's shoulder.

"Then, how about this, open the barrier and let me fall into it."

"What?"

"Manipulate the world formula and open a gateway. I know you aren't good at this sort of thing but it's a way to end this without violence."

"We don't know what that will do to you!" Noé shook his head. "It would be a death of a sort... even so, there's no way of knowing what a human's fate would be in there."

"There's no time. Decide now, how are you going to do it?"

Noé froze for a moment before selfishly choosing the bloodless option. He thought about his teacher, he had been able to enter the barrier at will. If Noé could just copy that! His eyes went red, the world formula all around him. He'd always had difficulty manipulating it, his eyes simply not powerful enough. But now it was important, he knew he could do it! Noé reached out and the formulas exploded into life around him, a jagged crack opening in reality, the colours of the barrier visible inside. Noé roared with effort as he forced the crack wider, until it was approximately the size of a doorway.

"I don't know how long I can hold it!"

"Then this is goodbye." Vanitas stepped forward. "It's funny, I thought I'd be more ready when the time came."

Vanitas kept going and impulsively Noé lunged for him. His hand clutched Vanitas's, just barely managing to keep him grounded. Vanitas stared back at him, surprised, all but that hand inside the barrier and angled to fall down.

"I've changed my mind, I don't want you to leave me!"

"Why do you have to make everything so difficult, you stupid vampire!" Vanitas bit his lip, eyes twitching with barely contained emotion. "Let go, please. I don't have the courage to do it myself."

"Vanitas..."

"Noé, like you said, we don't know what happens to humans who fall into the barrier. So, if that's the case, I won't die... Noé. Even if I'm no longer here..." Vanitas smiled at him. Arrogant as he ever had. "All you need to do is let go."

And he did. Noé let Vanitas slip from his grasp and watched as he disappeared into the murky colours of the barrier, hand outstretched the entire time.
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I really like the idea of Noé being the last curse-bearer Vanitas ever heals, I think it'd be poetic. Anyway, a bit of a tangent, but oh my god I bought the anime soundtrack and bro... there's one track on here that hasn't been in the anime yet that goes so hard. I am so excited just thinking about the scene it'll play during. The track is called "if you want to save her" and since it's obviously part of the amusement park arc... I think we know when it's going to play. It's like the coolest thing I've ever heard and it has some motifs from some earlier tracks as well that just makes it so much better with the knowledge of when it's going to play. So, yeah, if you haven't heard it look forward to it!