Shiki Tohno

Shiki Tohno (遠野 志貴) is a character and protagonist of Tsukihime, its sequel Kagetsu Tohya and its spinoff Melty Blood. He is voiced in the anime series by, while he is voiced in Melty Blood and the Carnival Phantasm OVAs by.

Background
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 (七夜) 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 (四季).

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 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. 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.

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 falls apart along them regardless of the amount of 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.

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".

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.

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.

Shiki Nanaya is a manifestation of Shiki Tohno's murderous intent and lives only for his next kill. Nanaya is smooth, confident, and treats life (and death) casually. 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.

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.

Despite his family's wealth, Shiki wishes to take up a job because he doesn't get a monthly allowance from Akiha. She only allows him what food is necessary for him, so extra spending money is unnecessary. She will willingly buy him anything else that he wishes, but he never asks her. They call him unselfish to the point it can be called a medical condition, and he would much rather work that have to ask her.

Role
Shiki is the protagonist of Tsukihime, and outwardly he is a normal second-year high school student with a somewhat poor constitution.

Arcueid's Route
Shiki will first meet Arcueid in one of the 2 "Near side of the moon" routes (Arcueid/Ciel's routes) after leaving school early one day because of an anemia attack, he spots Arcueid on the street and is consumed by an irresistible urge to kill her because of his Nanaya blood. The Nanaya were a family of killers that specialized in hunting down non-humans, and Arcueid as a vampire awoke his Nanaya blood. Skillfully trailing Arcueid back to her apartment, he rings the doorbell and in the instant the door opens, sneaks through the crack and slices her into 17 pieces in an instantaneous single strike with his knife and his Mystic Eyes Of Death Perception. Regaining his sanity and finding himself in front of her corpse, Shiki staggers to the park where he either collapses and is taken back to the mansion by Kohaku (Arcueid's route) or is found and taken care of by Ciel (Ciel's route).

The next day when heading to school, Shiki finds Arcueid waiting on a guard rail outside his school. Panicking, he runs, only to be chased into a dead alley and confronted by Arcueid. Their conversation is interrupted by one of Nrvnqsr's beasts, and Arcueid "convinces" Shiki to help her deal with the vampire in the town as she used up most of her power to re-form her body after Shiki killed her and will need time to regain the power she had lost.

The two of them are partners against Nrvnqsr Chaos, with Shiki killing Nrvnqsr by striking his "death point". They decide to again be partners to take out Roa who Arcueid has been targeting. Over the course of her route she and Shiki begin to understand one another. Shiki shows Arcueid the various things she's unaware of, such as movies, which are things Arcueid can't comprehend as important. At several points she attempts to bite Shiki, though she manages to hold herself back in time, though usually she runs until her impulses have stopped. Eventually she and Shiki have fallen in love with one another, despite her slightly unstable nature and vampire lineage. However, she attempts to take out Roa by herself and is apparently killed in the process. Enraged and in grief, Shiki proceeds to destroy the walkway he and Roa are on as a distraction and utterly destroys Roa's point, thus nullifying his very existence and preventing him from ever reincarnating. In Arcueid's True Ending, Shiki waits in his classroom for her despite thinking she is dead. Arcueid surprisingly arrives, having regained the bit of power Roa stole from her. However she can no longer hold back her impulses and decides she should sleep from now on, dreaming of Shiki. Despite Shiki's pleas, even begging her to drink his blood, Arcueid says she cannot do so because she loves him and says farewell with Shiki greatly saddened, looking at the moon as he leaves the school. This ending was the basis for the ending used in the anime, although a few details were changed. In the manga, after Arcueid left, he goes on a search for her and they are finally reunited together. It is left unsure whether this is reality or a hypothetical "what-if" situation playing in Arcueid's mind as she sleeps.

In Arcueid's Good Ending, she spends an entire week suppressing her urges and meets Shiki on his way to school, exactly at the same point where he killed her at the beginning of the story. The two then go off to seemingly spend the day together.

Ciel's Route
With the help of Ciel, Shiki successfully defeats Roa. However, he transfers the burden of his madness to him, causing Shiki to have murdering thoughts and strange dreams (one of which Shiki finds about Ciel's past before and after being possessed by Roa). After he gets out of control and gravely injures and rapes Kohaku, Shiki runs away from the mansion, afraid that he will be unable to resist the urge to kill as long as he's around people. Shiki and CielAdded by SakuraMiyaShiki calls Ciel and confesses to her that he's really a killer and needs to be away from people. She asks him to meet her at the school since there are no people there. He goes, but when she shows up she finds her dressed in her executor outfit as she carries her Seventh Holy Scripture. Ciel reveals to him that everything they shared in the past was all a huge lie, and her only purpose for being with him was to find out if he was Roa, and then kill him if he was. Shortly after, Ciel forces them to fight, despite Shiki not wanting to. Ciel quickly immobilizes him, but she is unable to kill him. She tries to convince herself that her love for Shiki was fake and it was just her mission to destroy Roa, but she ultimately collapses, sobbing onto Shiki's arms.

They later go to Ciel's house, when Shiki finds that his body has been excited after Roa transferred to his body. Ciel finds it out and tries a technique on him to calm the soul, in which they have sex. However, after they do it, Shiki is still succumbing to Roa, so he leaves Ciel's house, where he encounters with Arcueid, who was looking for him in order to kill him. She immediately blames Ciel for Shiki's current condition and tells him that she can save him if he obeys her. Depending of Shiki is given the choice to answer her. Ciel's True EndingAdded by SakuraMiyaIf Shiki tells Arcueid that he does not love her, it results in Ciel's True Ending. He attacks her by cutting the line of her neck, causing Arcueid to threaten to kill him for real. Ciel appears and drags Shiki away, before Arcueid recovers. Ciel fights against Arcueid, but she is quickly defeated. Shiki, realizing that Roa has overtook his body, tries to kill himself by slashing his throat, so Arcueid won’t have to finish him. After doing this, Arcueid returns to her senses and vanishes after saying farewell to Shiki. However Shiki manages to survive and Ciel takes him to her house to heal his wounds, ending up together.

If Shiki tells Arcueid that he is attracted to her, it results in Ciel's Good Ending. After his response, Arcueid kisses him as she tries to get him to drink her blood, but she is stopped by Ciel. Ciel believes that if Shiki kills Arcueid, Roa might get weaker. As both girls discuss how to get rid of Roa, he overtakes Shiki's body. In order to stop it, Shiki slashes his chest in order to kill himself and stop Roa. After that, he has a vision of Roa before he started reincarnating and vanishes, disappearing for good. After killing Roa, both Ciel and Arcueid "share" Shiki, resulting in a sort of harem ending much to Ciel's chagrin.

Akiha's Route
Shiki returns to the Tohno house after years. He fondly remembers the times he spent with his sister Akiha. He also feels guilty because of the strict upbringing she received after he had to left the Tohno house. Unfortunately for Shiki, his reunion with Akiha is not exactly as he had hoped it to be. She is cold and distant to him, immediately demanding that he adopt a lifestyle befitting of the eldest son of the Tohno family. Akiha scolds Shiki over everything, which causes him to believe that she might bear a significant grudge over his absence the last eight years. When Shiki goes to school, he realizes that his classmate Satsuki is gone. Later it is revealed that she was turned into a vampire by SHIKI.

When Shiki, who had just crossed ways with Satsuki, returns home he is scolded by Akiha but she later treats his wounds. The next day, Shiki decides to confront the vampire Satsuki after he promises to Akiha that he would come back home safe. Satsuki tries to turn him into a vampire to be with her forever, and it that moment Shiki realizes his feelings for Akiha and their promise. Motivated by it, he kills Satsuki, although regretfully. When he returns home, he notices that Akiha was waiting for him the whole time and chastises him for returning wounded. [Akiha_welcome_2.jpg decides to spend more time with Shiki by joining into the same school at him. Like Arcueid, she does not like Ciel. It is revealed through the route that Akiha often struggles to maintain control over her Tohno blood and resisting her Inversion Impulse, which she has difficulty with due to her also maintaining Shiki's life, to the point she also had to drink Kohaku’s blood. When Ciel vanishes, Akiha reveals to Shiki that she always knew that Ciel was different and she was unnafected by her hypnosis. Due to the recent killings in the city recently, Shiki believes that Akiha might be the vampire who did it and goes to the Tohno house. When he arrives, he sees Akiha unconscious and that SHIKI is there. He tells him that he went to take Akiha "back with him" and reveals to Shiki all the truths of their childhood. However, Akiha regains consciousness and protects Shiki. The two have a confrontation about Shiki, only for Akiha to say in his face that Shiki is her brother now and that she does not consider SHIKI as her brother anymore. SHIKI is angered of this revelation and aims to kill him, but Akiha protects Shiki and takes the attack. This causes Shiki to have a homicidal impulse and cut SHIKI’s lines. After that, Akiha and Shiki talk in her room, where she tells him that in fact, Shiki was adopted after SHIKI killed him and due to it, their minds are connected and he took a part of his life (she also tells himTsukihime.full.1021237.jpg that she believes that one of the causes of their connection might be related to the fact Shiki and SHIKI used to be best friends when younger). Then, she starts having spasms and her hair turns red. Akiha confesses to Shiki that she was aware from the begginning that he is not her real brother, but she felt that it was the only way for her to be with him. However, Shiki reassures her that he loves her as a sister and a woman and they kiss and have sex together. After this, SHIKI is filled with jealousy and reveals to Shiki that Akiha has been maintaining his life since he died eight years ago. Akiha is later kidnapped by SHIKI. Akihamonster.png, when Shiki comes to the abandoned room in order to confront SHIKI and save Akiha, he discovers that SHIKI turned her into a mindless, blood sucking creature and apparently he raped her offscreen. Both fight and Shiki manages to debilitate him. However, at the last moment, Shiki hesitates to kill him so SHIKI uses the last of his energy to return to the abandoned house and see Akiha. Surprisingly, Akiha, now a mindless monster, kills SHIKI by ripping his heart off. Shiki is given three choices.:

-To kill her to end her suffering (which she requested for him to do if she ever became like this). This gives no special ending and is considered a bad end.

- To allow her to live on as the demon that she currently is (because Shiki cannot bring himself to kill her). This results in Akiha's Normal Ending, where Shiki maintains Akiha at the abandoned room and tries to contain her blood lust by himself, by routinely letting her painfully bite him and suck his blood out of the wound, all the while hoping that someday she will find herself again.

- To kill himself (so that she will regain the life energy she gave Shiki when he died eight years ago, and then will be restored to her full strength so she can more easily resist her Tohno blood impulses and restore her mind). With this,Akiha's True Ending is obtained, in which Akiha regains her sanity and when she wakes up, she realizes what Shiki did. Akiha is able to live a normal life and returns to her old school. One day, she goes to the place whre he died and sees Shiki's Nanatsu Yoru knife. Despite the fact that Shiki should be dead, Akiha touches the knife and senses deep inside her that there still seems to be a faint heartbeat that is not her own. She recognizes this as a sign that Shiki is still somehow alive somewhere, and that as long as she feels it, she has hope, and declares that she will faithfully await his return.

In Kagetsu Tohya, a 'sequel' scenario to Akiha's True Ending can be unlocked where at the end of the scenario, Akiha receives a letter from Ciel that reveals that Shiki did infact survive.

Hisui's Route
Shiki returns to the Tohno house after 8 years. He remembers about a cheerful girl he got along with and a quiet girl who gave him a ribbon, but he cannot remember their names. After meeting with Hisui and Kohaku, Shiki mixes the the two maids up, believing Kohaku to have been the girl he always played with and Hisui the girl who stayed in the mansion. Hisui's demeanor has changed so much, that rather than being the active girl he knew as a child, she has become severe and emotionless. During the Welcome Party for Shiki, Hisui, not used to drinking but wanting to do it for Shiki, drinks only one glass and then falls asleep. Shiki carries her to his room so she could rest and then he falls asleep as he remembers that the first person he met at the Tohno house when he was a kid was a cheerful girl who convinced him to play outside with the others. When he wakes up, he finds that Hisui is sleeping on top of him, but apparently nothing happened.

Hisui, because she knows of the abuse inflicted upon Kohaku, refuses to let any male so much as touch her, the one exception being Shiki later in her path. Still believing Hisui to be the quiet girl who gave him the ribbon, Shiki gives Hisui the ribbon back. More and more about her personality and who she truly is is revealed. Rather than the stern, immovable young lady she appears to be, Hisui is revealed to be a kind, loving and emotional girl, hiding her emotions to keep her sister as she is. Becoming a daily part of Shiki's life, Hisui wakes him up every day and prepares his uniform. However, she is hiding a darker secret, as she knows of her sister's plans for the downfall of the Tohno family, and after Shiki becomes paralyzed due to Tohno SHIKI stealing his life energy, Hisui offers her ability to Synchronize with Shiki so that he can stop SHIKI. She then accompanies Shiki as he goes to the school.

In Hisui's True Ending, after Kohaku reveals that she was responsible for the deaths of Akiha and SHIKI, she commits suicide by stabbing herself in the chest to end her "doll's existence". However she has no regrets, since due to her sacrifice Hisui was never touched by Makihisa. Hisui begins a relationship with Shiki and later accompanies him on his vacations. Before going, she throws Kohaku's ribbon to the sky.

In Hisui's Good Ending, after Kohaku reveals the truth about her participation in the downfall of the Tohno family, and claims that she hated Shiki for the silent connection between them (watching each other but never talking) Hisui appears and tells Kohaku that what she is saying is not true and that she truly loved Akiha and Shiki. She also tells her that if Kohaku was genuinely attempting to take on her role, using Hisui's original cheerful personality as her own, to never hate Shiki is an integral part of it. After Hisui's words, Kohaku ingests poison in order to commit suicide. She is saved by Shiki, who cuts the "lines" of the poison within her. She later loses her memory and she is renamed "Nanaya" by Hisui, and returns as a peaceful maid to the Tohno Mansion. After that, Hisui takes Shiki to her favorite spot to see the city together.

Kohaku's Route
Shiki returns to the Tohno house, where he is greeted by Kohaku. Like in Hisui's route, he wants to give back the ribbon that the quiet girl who watched him from afar when they were young, gave him; but he mistakes that girl for Hisui. During the Welcome Party for Shiki, after drinking all night, Shiki goes out to cool a little where he talks with Kohaku about the quiet girl, the ribbon and the promise. Kohaku looks at him with concern as she warns Shiki that he will only find suffering in the Tohno house and wonders aloud why did he have to return. Noticing that Shiki is intrigued about the mysteries about his past, Akiha tracks down and kills SHIKI before Shiki even starts having dreams visions of him. Kohaku helps her in doing so.

Hisui reveals to Shiki that Kohaku is the girl who gave him the ribbon in their past. Due to SHIKI's ability of immortality and the nature of Akiha's powers, he transfers the burden of his madness caused by the inversion impulse of his Tohno blood over to her when Akiha absorbs his energy to kill him. After this, Akiha begins to slowly succumb to the Tohno blood, despite her originally being quite capable of controlling it. She synchronizes with Kohaku in an attempt to suppress this, but it is not enough, since she now has SHIKI's bloodlust itself. She begins hunting for victims on the streets at night in SHIKI's place because she can't control herself, with only Kohaku being aware of it. Kohaku reveals everything to Shiki and comments that Akiha is out of control. According to her, the only way to stop it is by reciprocating Akiha's feelings for Shiki. However, Shiki refuses to do such thing because he loves Kohaku and returns the ribbon to her. He lies to Kohaku (not revealing that Hisui was the one who told him) by saying that he noticed it because Kohaku already knew of the ribbon promise while Hisui did not. Kohaku cries and decides not to continue with her revenge on the Tohno family. She and Shiki have sex and offers her ability to Synchronize with Shiki so that he can stop Akiha. However, Kohaku then tricks him into swallowing a sedative so she could go by herself, atoning for her actions. Shiki is able to resist and goes to the school. There, Akiha tells Shiki that the Tohno family has wronged Kohaku to an incredibly degree and everyone, even him, to Kohaku, are just pawns to her revenge. However, Shiki tells Akiha that he loves Kohaku no matter what, prompting her to attack Kohaku by piercing her chest with her hair. Shiki is devastated by this and attacks Akiha, however he realizes that he cannot bring himself to kill her. At that moment, Kohaku appears, completely unharmed, telling Akiha to stop because she holds no resentment towards her and she has already forgiven the Tohno family. Akiha realizes that the reason why she did not succeed in killing Kohaku is because she was not really trying.

Kohaku is the only character with only one ending, which is also her True Ending, in which she decides to forgive the Tohno family and goes for vacations with Shiki to the Nanaya forest.

Eclipse
While he rest and relax  in a grass field.He meet with Aoko Aozaki once again at night.Telling teacher about what he experience and what he against.Aoko feel relieved that her pupil live and grow to be a good nature person.so she bid her farewell to Shiki so he reply with the same manner

Abilities
Shiki's primary weapon is a small knife, a relic of the Nanaya family named Nanatsu-Yoru (七夜). 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), the ability to attack extraordinarily quickly (ex: His trademark Seventeen Divisions move is likely a result of this ability), and Flash Run (閃走), 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 branched 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.

Shiki's fighting abilities are different in Melty Blood due to having to fit with the story and allow him to act as a protagonist that can "fight normally." The characters in the game have their characteristics either exaggerated or restrained compared to their Tsukihime selves. Shiki, who can participate in combat only by means of trump cards, a "3 of Hearts" in Tsukihime, can fight normally as a "Jack of Spades" in Melty Blood.

Other Versions
Melty Blood and Kagetsu Tohya sports different versions of Shiki, who take the name Shiki Nanaya (七夜 志貴). 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 (殺人貴), whose name is a wordplay on the second kanji of Shiki's name (貴) and the word for "homicidal maniac" or literally "killing demon" (殺人鬼). 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, 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.