Shiki Tohno

Shiki Tohno is the a hero from Tsukihime, its sequel Kagetsu Tohya, and its spinoff Melty Blood. He is voiced in the anime series by Kenichi Suzumura, while he is voiced in Melty Blood and the Carnival Phantasm OVAs by Kenji Nojima.

Role
Shiki is the protagonist of Tsukihime, and outwardly he is a normal second-year high school student with a somewhat poor constitution. Eight years before the start of the game, he was involved in a life-threatening accident, which led to anemic symptoms and left him with a large scar on his chest. Due to these symptoms, he suffers from frequent collapsing and fainting. In addition to the physical problems, the accident also caused Shiki's eyes to develop a peculiar ability, the ability to see lines superimposed on objects and people. If Shiki traces these lines with a sharp tool, the object immediately fall apart along them regardless of the force used. Upon discovery of this ability, Shiki understood how destructive it was and how fragile the world around him could be. Because his eyes would not return to normal, the realization began to gnaw at him. Fortunately, a few days after his time in the hospital, he ran outside and met Aoko Aozaki. Aoko (whom Shiki decided to call Sensei) comforted him during the next few days. Shiki was eager to impress Aoko, thus he demonstrated the ability of his eyes by destroying a tree. Aoko reprimanded him by slapping him and explained to him that what he had done was unjust. Aoko later provided a pair of magical glasses which when worn removed the lines from sight. Despite his physical condition, Shiki holds a cheerful outlook on life. More so than most of his peers, because he understands how fragile life really is. Because of his poor health, Shiki was removed from the Tohno household by his father, Makihisa Tohno, despite being the eldest son of the family. Instead, he was sent to live with a distant branch of the Tohno family named Arima. At the start of the game, Shiki was called back to the Tohno mansion after eight years of absence due to Makihisa's death, called back by his younger sister, Akiha Tohno. Although he hadn't seen his sister in those eight years, she has grown into a proper lady of a high-class family, and after removing all of the family residents and servants of the mansion except for a pair of maids, had chosen to invite him to return. Shiki is in fact not a real member of the Tohno family, is not Akiha's biological brother, and is not Makihisa's son. While the Tohno family is a family with demon blood, Shiki's real surname is Nanaya, and he is the eldest son of the Nanaya clan, a family of powerful demon-slaying assassins, it is revealed in Kagetsu Tohya that he is the son of Kiri Nanaya. The Nanaya clan lived in a secluded mansion in the mountains, but was one night destroyed by the Tohno and the Kishima (another half-demon branch of the Tohno family). Shiki was the only survivor of that attack. In a moment of amused irony, Makihisa spared and adopted the boy because his name was similar to the name of Makihisa's eldest son, SHIKI. Shiki lived in a small Japanese-style building on the grounds of the Tohno's western-style mansion for a time, learning to accept and be accepted by his new sibilings. Although he was lonely and unwilling to leave his room at first, eventually he warmed to the cheeful red-haired girl (Hisui) who would come every day to ask him to play, and in turn lead his shy and often-nervous sister outside as well. He, his sister, his brother, and the red-haired girl would play together frequently. Eight years before the beginning of the game, everything changed. Although Shiki did not know it, the Tohno family's demon blood led to inhuman urges in all its members; every descendant eventually became insane from its effects, a process called "inversion impulse". When this happens, the person loses all ability for conscious thought and becomes a monster with only the mind to kill and consume others. One hot summer day as Shiki played with his brother SHIKI and sister Akiha, SHIKI inverted without warning, and immediately attacked Akiha. Shiki managed to shield Akiha at the cost of his own life; the wound that SHIKI caused by piercing him in the chest became the large scar that Shiki would bear from that day forward. It is the duty of the Tohno's family head to police demon activity in the area, and specifically to execute any Tohno who underwent inversion so that he or she cannot do the sort of damage that such inhuman beings inevitably do. Makihisa arrived on the scene immediately and, without a second thought, killed his own son. However, neither Shiki nor SHIKI died that day. Although Shiki did not know it then, his sister Akiha provided him with half of her own lifeforce, keeping him alive. In turn, SHIKI instinctively stole half of Shiki's borrowed lifeforce to avoid his own death. It is this lack of energy that causes Shiki's anemic tendencies. When Makihisa realized this convoluted state of affairs, he concocted a ruse to deceive the outside world. As the head of a publicly important family, which held an influential position in business, he could not allow others to know that the eldest son of the family had become inhuman, died, or disappeared. To conceal this, Makihisa locked SHIKI away and hypnotized Shiki into believing that he was the Tohno's eldest son instead, erasing the details of that day from the boy's mind. After installing Shiki in SHIKI's place as eldest son, Makihisa then sent Shiki away to live with the Arima family branch under the pretext that a boy so dreadfully injured, and who could die at any time from a fragile constitution could not be the heir to the Tohno house. Despite the necessity of making Shiki believe in his new identity as a Tohno, however, Makihisa retains an antique knife inscribed with the name of the Nanaya clan, and later bequeathes it to Shiki, although the ambivalent nature of Japanese kanji causes Shiki to misread the inscription as "Nanatsu-Yoru", or "Seven Nights".

While Makihisa began grooming Akiha in earnest as the next family head, Shiki lived with the Arima family branch, which consisted of only a mother, father, and young daughter. The Arima, though related to the Tohno, had negligible demon blood, and he lived there in relative quiet and comfort for eight years.

Personality
Shiki is a fairly normal high school student most of the time. Due to his close brush with death, he is not overly concerned about dying, and instead seeks to cherish every moment of his life - 'just living is enough' is his perspective on life. He is playful with his sister Akiha and the maids Hisui and Kohaku, sometimes silly, and not at all above exchanging jibes with his best friend and classmate Arihiko Inui or pleasantries with his senpai Ciel. He's entirely capable of being serious in a serious situation, and just as often flustered or embarrassed. His personality is one of that who is slightly mean to those he loves. He is also a very, very heavy sleeper, to such a point that Hisui is unable to awaken him. He has a darker side, that of his bloodline's, the Nanaya. The instincts and skills he had learned at a young age are buried deep within Shiki and have proven capable of manifesting themselves in dire situations, such as in his battle against Nrvnqsr Chaos. Although not on the level of an alternate personality, the Nanaya side of Shiki is the highly trained killer within him and thus is much colder. Only once has his Nanaya side surfaced in a similar way to that of an alternate personality, and that was under great stress and a very difficult situation for Shiki. The other times, Shiki is merely filled with a desire to kill, and instinctual knowledge on how to do it. Sometimes, however, Shiki himself seems to refer to his dark side as "him", another person, namely when discussing with SHIKI. This would imply that he doesn't fully accept it as his own self. This aspect of his personality seems to have mostly disappeared (or at least rendered obsolete thanks to his mastery of his abilities) after the events of Tsukihime.

Despite the absense of this trait in subsequent stories, however, a remnant of his Nanaya self seems to remain in his usual personality, particularly when he is facing those he considers his enemies. He can be surprisingly cold, giving those such as Nrvnqsr only quick, curt comments while expressing his intent to erase them, or, in the case of Roa, saying nothing at all while exuding a murderous killing intent. However, in each of these scenarios, not once has he ever succumbed to his Nanaya personality, retaining his own sense of self and will, and defeating his opponents on his own terms.

Abilities
Shiki's primary weapon is a small knife, a relic of the Nanaya family named Nanatsu-Yoru (七夜, lit. Seventh Night?). His knife's form is always shifted in many ways. Normally, the Nanatsu-Yoru is a tantou(dagger) styled blade which, can be seen in the manga and Melty Blood games. Though in the Tsukihime anime and the original visual novel, along with the one Roa uses, it is instead a short switchblade with a decorated hilt. The blade can alternately be called the Nanaya, taking after Shiki's real surname. The meaning of the name is the same as well as the Kanji. Although outwardly, he seems to be a particularly frail high school student, this cannot be further from the truth. Shiki possesses excellent physical ability, capable of feats comparable to at least an olympic-level athlete. Thanks to his heritage, he is capable of two unique skills developed by the Nanaya: Flash Sheath (閃鞘, Sensa?), the ability to attack extraordinarily quickly (ex: His trademark Seventeen Divisions move is likely a result of this ability), and Flash Run (閃走, Sensou?), the ability to essentially "teleport", or move so quickly that one loses sight of him in an instant. These types of attacks are also shown to be styles branced into other attacks from the clan (such as the Hattenshou for the Sensa and the Rikuto from the Sensou), which Shiki's Nanaya persona usually shows focus on. Shiki is primarily an instinctual fighter, using relying on subconscious knowledge of assassination techniques. It is suggested in the Near Side Routes, specifically in the battle against Nrvnqsr, that he possesses detailed knowledge on the human anatomy, also likely subconscious knowledge thanks to his childhood training as a Nanaya. Though in the Melty Blood games, Shiki is usually equipped with only one Flash-style technique in his moveset(though english translated movesets prove that he indeed has no flash techniques), implying that Shiki is reluctant to fully rely on the arts of the Nanaya. Perhaps as a result of his training, Shiki possesses a rather amazing endurance, and an ability to survive near-death blows. When he is under enough mental strain, or is in dangerously close proximity to death, a "second persona" will take over, filling him with nothing more than the desire to kill that which threatens him (or whatever has earned his ire), shutting down his emotions, and even his reaction to pain, becoming a highly focused assassin. In this phase, it seems that he is even more difficult to kill than usual; however, this is merely an illusion. All he does is ignore any sense of pain or threat to his life in order to kill his target through sheer force of will; this creates the illusion that he is somehow capable of delaying his death for as long as he needs to. However, his signature ability may be his ability to see the "death" of things: the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, an incredibly powerful pseudo-magical effect. With these Mystic Eyes, Shiki is able to see the eventual fated destruction of an object or entity expressed as small points on the object or entity's body and as thin black lines that extend from those points and crawl over the body. Attendant with the perception is the ability to trace the lines without much exertion; doing so effectively realizes the fated destruction, and the victim is cut or cracked or broken along those lines. Because this destruction is destined, this method of injury ignores any of the victim's defenses; armor, magical protection, regeneration, and so forth are useless. While a line symbolizes "damage" along that part of the body, a dot symbolizes the totality of that body's damage, and by extension, "existence". When a dot is pierced, the victim's concept is destroyed. This method of killing is apparently absolute; it bypasses even reincarnation, and can even be used against a collective entity. The only entity he has failed to kill is Night of Wallachia, since that entity does not exist as an actual being, but instead as a phenomenon. Nasu has also stated that beings such as ORT are immune to Shiki's Eyes, having no concept of "death" in the first place. The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are not infallible. The human mind was not meant to perceive death in such a way, and using it is highly taxing on the human brain, causing headaches. In addition, there are multiple levels of perception; in the beginning, Shiki could only see lines on people and objects, then progressed to seeing dots on living things, then dots on inanimate objects. Each step takes the mind further from natural perception, and each step is more damaging to the brain; eventually the stress leads the brain's blood vessels to burst and death for the user. In addition, there exist in nature entities which have no fated destruction in particular circumstances; for instance, Arcueid during the point where she is strongest. In these cases, no lines or dots can be seen. Lastly, the ability to perceive and trace lines or pierce dots does not give the user any added physical capacity to perform the task itself, especially against an unwilling target. Shiki must still get in range, aim, and move his hand by himself, which is not a trivial task against the kind of enemies he faces.

Other versions
Melty Blood and Kagetsu Tohya sports different versions of Shiki, who take the name Shiki Nanaya. They are brought out of Shiki's own fears.

In Kagetsu Tohya, he is considered the version of Shiki who never experienced death or learned the value of living. This Shiki, unlike the real one, recognizes the world around them to be just a dream. The Melty Blood incarnation is the materialization by Wallachia of the rumors of the killer that strolls at night; according to this Shiki Nanaya himself, he can see the lines of death, unlike the Kagetsu Tohya version. The incarnation of Shiki Nanaya in Melty Blood Re-Act is a reflection created by White Len using the killing instincts of the 'Nanaya' that Shiki Tohno does not use. However, this Shiki gradually changes beginning to (almost) care for others around him, and by Actress Again, states that he has 'lingering affections'. This sets him apart from the previous incarnations of 'Nanaya Shiki' where he begins to be more of a physical apparation (stated has he seems to be more prone to damage), and even Kishima Kouma takes note of this change, saying that before, he felt as if he were talking to a beast but now, almost human.

A new version of Shiki would made an appearance in the as yet unconfirmed Tsukihime 2, called Satsujinki (lit. Homicidal), whose name is a wordplay on the second kanji of Shiki's name and the word for "homicidal maniac" or literally "killing demon". Unlike the original Shiki, Satsujinki's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are much more powerful and because of that his Magangoroshi glasses lost their effectiveness, so he must wear a bandage at all times to seal his eyes. He is mentioned jokingly during one of the bad ends in Tsukihime[1], but makes a full appearance in a side stories Talk (where he eliminates Forest of Einnashe) and Prelude (where he kills Louvre). Still, these two side stories aren't confirmed canon. Tsukihime manga shows that Shiki starting to wear bandage at the end of his second meeting with Aozaki Aoko during the epilogue of Tsukihime.

Additionally, some characters call the 'third' incarnation of Nanaya Shiki (mentioned above) 'Satsujinki' in the Melty Blood series. In combat, Nanaya heavily utilizes the Nanaya-style arts, and is even able to kill well without the usage of his eyes. This is notable in that in Melty Blood, his Arc Drive is different from Tohno's in that he makes a clear single cut as opposed to multiple cuts at once from reading the lines from his eyes. His Last Arc also involves him tossing his dagger at the target's heart, then using a Sensou to appear from above them to snap their neck, which is a reference to one of Tohno's bad endings in the original Kagetsu Tohya.