Vanoé

"Watch him ? Watch Vanitas ? You hardly need to tell me that... I've watched him. All along my eyes were witnessing..."

- Noé about Vanitas

Vanoé is the slash ship between Vanitas and Noé Archiviste from The Case Study of Vanitas fandom.

Canon
Leading up to their first meeting, Vanitas has travelled with a friend, Dante, to find and heal Amelia Ruth, who is a vampire whose True Name was corrupted. Meanwhile Noé, also a vampire, is making his way to Paris in order to search for the Book of Vanitas; a book which has the power of corrupting a vampire's True Name, the base of their entire existence, their soul and life; under his Teacher's command. The two end up fighting on the airship La Baleine as Noé attempts to protect Amelia from Vanitas, as he thinks he might be there to hurt her. Noé manages to put Vanitas away for a while, and escape with Amelia in his arms. However, later, Amelia's "symptoms" manifest completely, which makes her become a bloodthirsty killer, and drinks Noé's blood and tries to kill him and other humans in the room. After that, Vanitas saves Noé, introducing himself as a doctor that specializes in vampires, and heals Amelia in front of him, which leaves Noé perplexed and amazed.

Shortly afterwards, two police officers arrive and attempt to arrest both Vanitas and Dante. Vanitas is threatening the officers when a large piece of debris from the fight breaks loose and hits him on the head, knocking him through a hole in the airship. Noé rushes to catch Vanitas and managed to grab his ankle but they both end up falling down to the the streets of Paris. As they fall, Noé opens his eyes to see The Blue Moon in the sky. According to the legend of Vanitas of The Blue Moon, that moon is a symbol of misfortune and bad omens, but Noé remembers that he has never feared the Blue Moon ever since he was a child. In fact, the moon was very beautiful to him.

in Japanese, 月が綺麗ですね (tsuki ga kirei desu ne), translating to "The moon is beautiful, isn't it?" is a poetic way of saying "I love you". This leaves off some implications due to the similarities between Noé's and this sentence, and Vanitas's heavy link to the Blue Moon, however, it could be a coincidence, though nothing's confirmed yet.

Noé saves the two from the fall, landing through the roof of a church. Vanitas wonders how they're both alive, and Noé asks him what had he done to Amelia Ruth. Vanitas explains to him that he used the Book of Vanitas to do a reverse operation upon Amelia's True Name to heal her. Noé is amazed by what he did, saying it was "phenomenal" while acting extremely excited about the subject. Vanitas laughs at him, for that never had he seen anyone look at the Book with such gleam in their eyes. Vanitas says that he has decided that he likes Noé. They talk for a while, learning each other's names, and Vanitas explains he is just a human that wants to help save Vampires from their curse. He asks Noé to help him, but Noé refused. They head back to the ship so that Noé can get his belongings and pet cat, with Vanitas still insisting that Noé becomes his bodyguard, which he keeps on refusing. When they arrive, the security guards quickly identify Vanitas as the intruder in the airship. Noé, injured from the previous fight with Amelia, passes out and they're both shipped to prison.

At the end of the chapter, Noé states that at the end of their journey, he would kill Vanitas for reasons and circumstances yet to be revealed; as the story is a book being written by Noé from the present about the story of him and Vanitas.

On the second chapter, Noé wakes up with Vanitas in prison, and asks him why they are in there. Vanitas explains the situation to him, and tells him that Noé is in prison with him because Vanitas told the police that they were "partners in crime". Noé wonders about what happened to their belongings and Vanitas tells him that they were all confiscated by the police. Noé immediately worries about th Book, and Vanitas tells him that if he wants the book so badly, he should just join him already. Noé then comes to the conclusion that he "simply doesn't like him (Vanitas) very much". A guard comes inside of their prison cell and tells them to leave.

Vanitas comes to the conclusion that the Count has already covered up the incident on La Baleine, as they both receive an invitation to his office, to go pick up their belongings. Vanitas offers to take Noé there. Noé thanks him, as it's his first time in Paris. Noé is then amazed at the beauty of Paris. Vanitas seems surprised, and smiles at his excited face.

Bonus CD Comic

In the CD Comic Vanitas is seen talking to Noé, with a finger pressed to Noé's lip he asks, "are you that interested in kisses?" To which Noe turns away with a blush covering his face unable to respond.

Q&A with the author about Vanoé
Q: We’re fascinated by their relationship (Vanitas's and Noé's) - even though they argued from time to time, these two chose to stay together and watched each others’ back on battlefield. If I may ask, Mochizuki-sensei, what kind of relationship would you describe for them?

Mochizuki: They are not friends, and not quite comrades. They’re too different in so many ways, like oil and water, but that’s why they’re attracted to each other, and that's why one completes the other's missing parts. Vanitas was frustrated by Noé’s naivety, but he also had a feeling which was nearly admiration towards his honesty and innocence. For Noé, I think while he viewed Vanitas’s power as light - for he could achieve things he couldn’t -, was attracted by his darkness which hidden in the shadow as well.

Fanon
Vanoé is the most popular ship among the Vanitas no Carte fandom. On Ao3, the slash ship currently has nearly 5 times the amount of works than it's closest romantic het ship rival, VaniJeanne. It also far outpaces it's nearest slash rival, NoeAsto. More than 50% of the roughly 600 Vanitas no Carte works on AO3 feature Vanoé, either as a slash ship or as a friends ship. The friends ship is not as popular as the slash ship, however the number of friends only works is still roughly equal to any all other competing ships. The anime is currently still airing and so the fandom, and it's ships, are not yet fully developed.

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