SHIKI Tohno

Shiki Tohno
Normal
Japanese name:	遠野 四季
Portrayals
Japanese VA:	Hiroyuki YoshinoWP Takako HondaWP (Youth)
English VA:	Kirk ThorntonWP
Appearances
Primary franchise:	Tsukihime
Appears in:	Tsukihime PLUS-DISC (Masterpiece Theater) Kagetsu Tohya (side stories only) Carnival Phantasm
Characteristics
Species:	Dead Apostle (through Roa) Half-Demon
Gender:	Male
Height:	178cm
Weight:	65kg
Blood Type:	A
Birthday:	September 29

Shiki Tohno (遠野 四季, Tōno Shiki^?) is the main antagonist of the Far-Side Moon routes of Tsukihime. He is the true son of the Tohno family and the eighteenth reincarnation of Michael Roa Valdamjong. While Roa's persona is dominant during the Near-Side Moon routes of the game, Shiki's is dominant during the Far-Side Moon routes.

To distinguish him from Shiki Tohno, the protagonist of Tsukihime, his name is often written SHIKI Tohno in English.

Profile

Background

SHIKI as a child.

The eldest child of the Tohno family, who was feared by his sister Akiha due to his unstable demon blood and good friends with Shiki Nanaya his adopted brother from the Nanaya clan. The three would often play with together, and they especially enjoyed playing a game where they would mark territory inside the mansion by carving their names walls, floors, and pillars. He eventually fell to his Inversion Impulse, resulting in him attacking his sister. She was protected by Shiki Nanaya, who suffered from a nearly fatal wound and having part of his "life" stolen by SHIKI. As with the traditions of the Tohno household, SHIKI was to be killed by his father, Makihisa Tohno, but he managed to revive using Shiki Nanaya's "life." He regained a measure of his sanity, so Makihisa was unsure about killing him. While he was officially declared deceased to the rest of the family and officially replaced by Shiki Nanaya, he was kept locked in the Tohno Mansion's cellar. Makihisa planned to bring him back into the family after he healed, but he remained locked up for around eight years. After Makihisa's death, he was taken care of by Kohaku, who planned to use him in her revenge against the family. He is eventually released before the start of Tsukihime.

Appearance

In the Far-Side routes where SHIKI's personality is active, he is shown as a young, pale-skinned man with a loose, blue kimono. Due to his Inversion Impulse his hair has turned white and his eyes red. When he was a child he was black haired and blue eyed like his sister.

Personality

In the Far-Side Moon Routes of Tsukihime, SHIKI is deranged and obsessed with getting revenge on Shiki for stealing his life from him. He is incredibly overprotective of Akiha and tries to take her back from Shiki against her will, claiming that she should love him because he is her true brother. In Hisui's route, after accidentally killing Akiha he begins to cry and shout that he didn't mean to, before running away. Despite this he is shown to be able to function somewhat normally, having a discussion about life and people's place in the world with Shiki in Kohaku's route due to him not recognizing Shiki.

In the Kagetsu Tohya sidestory 'Drinking Dreaming Moon' his true personality is shown, said to be the version of SHIKI that Shiki most wanted to see. He is very friendly with Shiki and treats him as his friend and brother as he did as a child and is shown to be caring to the Tohno household members. He smiles widely and is pleased to hear that Akiha has grown into a fine woman, and expresses his regret for the terrible things he did to Kohaku, but he is happy to hear that she is finally truly smiling and not faking it. He laughs and chats with Shiki for a long time, and at the end of their discussion he tells Shiki that he was happy to be his friend and that he really wishes he could meet him again one day.

When he was a child he was a cheeky and playful, spending his days playing with Akiha and Shiki as the leader of the group. He was serious at times as he understood his blood and how dangerous it could be, and after coming close to inverting and attacking his siblings, he asked Shiki to kill him if he ever inverted.

Role

Tsukhime

Near-Side routes

SHIKI Tohno spends the "Near-Side Moon" routes under the complete control of Roa's persona. Despite this, Roa inherits SHIKI's memories and grudge against Shiki for stealing his life away from him.

Akiha's route

SHIKI is the main antagonist during the "Far-Side Moon" routes, the stories of Akiha and Hisui. SHIKI's inversion impulse keeps Roa from exerting his will over him, resulting in a very deranged individual obsessed only with getting revenge on Shiki for stealing everything from him. Roa doesn't have an appearance in these stories besides a brief mention from SHIKI that something in his mind wants to take over.

In the Far-Side routes, SHIKI is responsible for biting and turning Satsuki Yumizuka into a vampire, attacking her in the city at night time early in the story.

Near the climax of the route, SHIKI arrives to the Tohno mansion in order 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, but he regenerates and escapes.

After Akiha and Shiki consumate their relationship, an enraged SHIKI kidnaps her. 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. 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 out and mauling his body to pieces.

Hisui's route

SHIKI during his battle with Shiki on the school rooftop.

Near the climax of the route, Akiha fights him and seems to be capable of defeating him, until Shiki and Hisui arrive.

In Hisui's True Ending, SHIKI attempts to kill Kohaku, but Akiha protects her with her body and dies. SHIKI breaks down at the sight of his dead sister and runs away to the roof, when Shiki kills him rather easily. He takes his final moment to ask Shiki just who he is, since he was unaware who he was fighting. This serves as the vital clue to Shiki realizing Kohaku's significance in the route's series of events.

In Hisui's Good Ending, Akiha is only injured in her arm by SHIKI and his fate is the same as in the True Ending.

It is revealed that after SHIKI inverted and became imprisoned, Kohaku drugged him and twisted his mind even further for the sake of her revenge on the Tohno family.

Kohaku's route

SHIKI catches a drugged Shiki going berserk and killing some people in a back alley. Both have coffee on a park bench while discussing life and how they both fit into the world, and joking with each other like friends. SHIKI even points that Shiki reminds him of his precious childhood friend, not realizing that he is the same person. In the end, SHIKI does try to start a fight, but Shiki tells him that he's superior in a fight to the death. Surprisingly, he agrees with him, and decides to give up and leave town for good.

However, Akiha tracks down and kills him in order to protect Shiki from having to face all the pains from their past. However, due to SHIKI's ability of immortality and the nature of Akiha's powers, SHIKI is able to give Akiha one final curse before he dies. He transfers the burden of his madness caused by the inversion impulse of his Tohno blood and the evil spirit inside of him over to her when Akiha absorbs his energy to kill him.

Tsukihime manga

SHIKI being overcome by his demon blood.

Roa in the Tsukihime manga is a mix of both versions of himself from the Far-Side and Near-Side routes. He bears an appearance similar to that of Far-side Shiki Tohno, but contains the abilities, goals and the clothing of Near-side route Roa. He becomes progressively more dangerous each time as he begins utilizing continuously greater feats of Magecraft. During his first three appearances, he is always targeting Shiki so as to take vengeance for his death as SHIKI.The childhood flashbacks are also more emphazised, showing SHIKI to be a cheeky prankster boy whose only friend was Shiki and was quite prone to have outbursts due to the Tohno blood. He also asked Shiki to kill him in case that he ever inverted, but Shiki refused to kill his friend. When SHIKI inebitably inverted, Shiki not wanting to kill him but also wanting to protect Akiha, decided to shield her with his body at the cost of his life.

After Shiki remembers his childhood, SHIKI attacks him, but Akiha arrives in time. The siblings have a confrontation in which Akiha refuses to acknowledge him as her true brother, causing him to try to kill her. However, Ciel manages to interrupt him just before he kills either Shiki or Akiha. During another confrontation between him and SHIKI, he believes he has successfully killed Shiki and loses it, causing Roa to take full control of his body. Through the use of a Bounded Field, Roa manages to take control of quite literally the entire city of Miyaki's supply of magical energy, directing it all towards his final battle with Arcueid.

Kagetsu Tohya

Roa and SHIKI are presented as separate characters in this adaptation. SHIKI only appears in two side stories.

In "The Tohno Family Con Game", the whole cast plays an elaborate game of tag for Kohaku's sake. SHIKI takes part of it and he acts friendly, albeit slightly insane, wanting to win the prize of being Tohno head for a day. He and Shiki hide together in their room, but Kohaku attempts to trick them into leaving the room by having Akiha crying for help. Despite Shiki knowing that it is a trap he is moved by how much SHIKI cares for Akiha and allows him go and 'save' her, letting him act like the big brother he wants to be. Right after being tagged himself he successfully tags Satsuki, controlling her using his power as her 'parent' vampire to paralyze her. Later he tries to tag Shiki as well, only to be knocked out by Akiha, who doesn't want SHIKI to win the game.

In "Drinking, Dreaming Moon", Shiki meets with SHIKI at night and both discuss their relationship on friendly terms, sharing a bottle of sake. SHIKI asks Shiki about about how everyone is going, from the Tohno household members to Shiki's newer friends. He becomes very happy when he learns of how Akiha is doing, and even shows regret about how he treated Kohaku, but is happy that things have gotten better for her. Shiki grows suspicious of why he's able to talk to SHIKI and why he is friendly, so SHIKI explains that the the SHIKI he is talking with now must be the one he wants to see, his friend from his childhood. Shiki becomes overwhelmed with emotions and beings to cry, SHIKI hides his face but together they cry the tears they should have shed when they killed each other.

They talk and drink for a while longer, but eventually they say their goodbyes. Shiki begins to fall asleep and is unable to respond, but SHIKI tells him that he is glad they drank together and that he'll be praying that they'll meet again. Shiki later wakes up and his memories of the chat are hazy but he remembers to thank all of his friends as SHIKI asked him. He notices Kohaku cleaning up a bottle of sake and two cups, implying that everything was not a dream like Shiki believed and that he was actually talking with the spirit of SHIKI. The ending shows SHIKI and Satsuki talking together in the afterlife, with her thanking SHIKI for delivering her message of goodbye and thank you to Shiki.

Carnival Phantasm

SHIKI in Carnival Phantasm with Shiki Nanaya and Kouma Kishima.

SHIKI has short appearances in Carnival Phantasm. SHIKI has a small appearance as one of the murder victims during the Brainwashing Detective segment, as a terrified Shiki watches his corpse. SHIKI is comically exaggerated, seen in Roa's form sulking to Nrvnqsr Chaos about how Akiha never cared about him or that Shiki does not remember him due to Makihisa's spell.

Abilities

SHIKI is skilled with using a knife in close-quarters combat much like Shiki. In the Tsukihime manga he uses a knife just like Shiki, but in the Far-Side routes he uses a blade made of his own crystallized blood.

During the Far-side routes, SHIKI's original personality is dominant over that of Roa, so he makes use of the body's original capabilities and so he lacks the regeneration technique of Near-Side route Roa. He uses melee attacks from both his knife and his own claws, he also has a skill called "Immortality" which instead of simply regenerating from heavy wounds, allows his body to reshape on its own, so that he can survive even without vital organs. This also allows him to crystallize his blood, which then can be used as an extremely fine sword or thrown weapon. Additionally to this skill is he able to take in a body part of another person, by eating their flesh, and then use it as his own. This skill is called "Fusion" and is basically like an organ transplant without a limit. This ability also allows him to reattach lost limbs and to junction his Life Force on to another living individual, and continue to live on, through that method.