The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception (直死の魔眼 , (Chokushi no Magan lit. Mystic Eyes of Direct Death)^?) are an ability in the Nasuverse. Only two characters are known to possess them: Shiki Ryougi and Shiki Tohno.

Contents 1 Description 2 Acquiring the Eyes 3 Levels of Perception 4 References

DescriptionEdit

The eyes are not really different set of eyes but are a circuit (possibly similar to a Magic Circuit) that opens up in the users brain and normal eyes,^[1] allowing them to "perceive death" in the form of lines and dots. The user in question is the only one who can touch or use these lines and dots (i.e. no one can interact with the lines/dots even if the user of the eyes were to point out their location on something).

These lines can then be traced with a sharp object such as a knife or a sword which cuts the line (this can also be done with blunter objects such as fingers but this is generally less effective then a blade). Cutting the line “breaks” the object along that line and damage inflicted this way can not be healed or repaired in any way. Healing is possible if cutting the line doesn't completely separate a part of the object from the object itself.^[2] Also of note is how Arcueid was cut into a multitude of individual pieces as a result of having her lines traced but was able to survive anyway despite not being able to regenerate. She was able to accomplish this by completely reinventing the conceptual structure of her body, abandoning the conceptual structure that had been traced.

Dots can be pierced by sharp objects. Piercing a dot effectively “erases” that object from existence, in a sense that the object loses even its inherent properties such as momentum,^[3] toxicity,^[4] and generally any effect it may impose on it's surrounding.^[4][5][6][7] Living things whose dot was pierced get “stopped” and, as a consequence, die. While this death may not be instant,^[8] it is absolutely permanent, and can't be reversed or bypassed, even by reincarnation.

Note that Tohno shows signs of mental/physical strain when using this ability extensively, manifested as headaches and even temporary loss of sight.^[9] Arcueid noted that this is due him having to “connect” to the perspective of an object he wishes to see the death of and that perceiving things in a way not meant for humans is putting a strain on his brain.^[10]

It is possible that Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are categorized as Blue under the Noble Colors system. Tohno's eyes glow with blue^[11], but this may be due to the color of Shiki's Jougan. It is also the dominant color of Ryougi's irises when her eyes are activated.

Acquiring the EyesEdit

The only way to acquire the eyes is by having a near-death experience. It is possible it has do with the user in question getting close to Akasha (the root of all things) due to this experience. However, this ability is extremely rare, to the point of being thought of being no more than a myth.^[12]

Tohno acquired the eyes after nearly dying in a fight with his "brother". Shiki already had a form of jougan (Pure Eyes) from his genetic family, this may have helped him get the eyes. Shiki did not accept the eyes and later acquired Magangoroshi (魔眼殺し, Mystic Eye Killer^?) glasses (made by Touko Aozaki and reinforced by Aoko Aozaki) that removed them from his sight.

Ryogi acquired the eyes after a two year coma.^[13] Her eyes are much more advanced than Tohno's allowing her to see lines on objects more distant from human perception^[7] without any notable strain.

Levels of Perception Edit

So far, four levels of perception have been observed by various users, in order of least advanced to most advanced. All of these users are capable of seeing both points and lines.

• SHIKI Tohno (Roa): Technically speaking, these are not "true" Mystic Eyes of Death Perception; his ability is to see the life force, and it is because he sees the life force, and not actually the death, that these Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are not considered true MEoDP. Consequently, these eyes are limited to killing living things and can be used to directly damage or annihilate someone's life force. Because the flow of one's life is the same as the flow of one's death, the lines overlap, but their origins are different, and therefore the dots don't. His mystic eyes can't actually "kill" like real MEoDP users. Instead, it would just inflict critical damage on someone's life force. So, rather than dying because their "death" has been directly activated, SHIKI (Roa)'s victims die simply because they can no longer live, which leads to their death.
• Shiki Nanaya: His MEoDP allows him to perceive the death of any concrete, physical existence. So he can kill people, animals, walls, locks, Nero's Soil of Genesis, etc. He isn't suited to killing concepts like Ryougi, but rather specializes in killing living things.^[14] Basically Nanaya's Mystic Eyes attack the "point of death" and not the "point of life," so people killed by his Mystic Eyes die directly. What happens is that as soon as a death is triggered, the object's existence unravels and whatever made the object what it is (like, what makes a living person a living person or a hallway a hallway) immediately ends in the simplest way (Death for the person, and collapsing for the hallway). Those who have accumulated an exceptionally large weight of existence, like Roa or Souren, take longer to die because there is more of their existence that needs to unravel. Also, some things possess death that is too far from human perception to be understood by Shiki, such as a True Ancestor under the full moon. On a side note, Shiki has been known to kill things that have not yet fully assumed physical form, such as when he killed Arcueid's link to the world. He could also see and kill Akiha's "Plundering" or "Caging Hair" in Tsukihime, but this has been retroactively explained as being a Pure Eyes ability he already possessed.
• Shiki Ryougi: Her MEoDP allows her to perceive the death of more or less anything that exists. Whether it is a person, an object, a ghost, a disease, a thought lingering in someone's mind, magecraft, a ward, a psychic attack, etc., so long as it exists, she can kill it. In fact, she claims that if God exists, she could kill him, though Nasu states she couldn't because it isn't alive or dead.^[15] So, she basically kills whatever she pleases, although she had some difficulty with killing Souren due in part of the fact that his life force was assimilated with the Apartment Complex where he held his experiments.^[16] Nevertheless, Souren himself infers that ultimately she could perceive the death of anything, without exception, if she searched deeply enough.^[17] Contrary to what the OVAs may lead one to conclude, her eyes are permanently active, but she doesn't suffer any strain from this.
• Shiki Ryougi (Void): The hidden, third personality of Ryougi. In fact, it is this personality that is directly connected to the root of all things. Her Mystic Eyes are much the same as the normal Ryougi's, only much, much more powerful. She claims that it would be trivially easy for her to annihilate reality.^[18]

References Edit

1. ↑ Tsukihime, near side routes, when Shiki and Arcueid are speaking in a hotel. Arcueid: "A circuit must have opened in your eyes, Shiki. Were you born with eyes like that?" Shiki: "No. They became like this a long time ago, but I wasn't born with them". Mirror moon translation version 1.1
2. ↑ Ciel route in Tsukihime. Shiki cuts Arcueid's neck, but doesn't cut her head off, and she manages to heal the wound after being immobilized for a while. Note that this was a True Ancestor during the full moon, but it shows that it's at least theoretically possible.
3. ↑ Tsukihime, near side routes. Shiki kills Nero's familiar mid-air and it simply falls to the ground.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Tsukihime, Hisui route. Shiki kills poison inside Kohaku's body.
5. ↑ Tsukihime, far side routes. Shiki kills the vampire blood Satsuki injected inside him, preventing it from turning him into a vampire.
6. ↑ Tsukihime, Arcueid route. Shiki kills the hallway in the school to get Roa. Losing the ability to hold objects elevated from the ground, it crumbles. “The passageway is literally killed. The blocks which lost their meaning break apart and crumble away.” Mirror moon translation version 1.1
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Kara no Kyoukai, Remaining Sense of Pain, chapter 6. Ryougi Shiki: “I couldn't do anything else so I just killed the disease in her stomach.” Baka-tsuki translation version : [1]
8. ↑ Tsukihime, Arcrueid route. Roa was still alive and being able to talk for a short time even after getting his dot pierced.
9. ↑ Tsukihime, Hisui route, after killing the poison in Kohaku, Mirror moon translation version 1.1: “I fell into a condition where my eyes would not function in addition to the decrease in my physical body strength. Well, I somehow understood that I went blind. When I stabbed my knife into her body, the only thing I was able to see were those "lines". So when I was told I went blind, it didn't shock me that much, but then, my sight came back shortly after. The examination revealed absolutely nothing wrong with my eyes, but only problems with my nerves. Rather than my cut nerves connecting themselves, it seems that it's more like the nerves which were numb healed up.”
10. ↑ Tsukihime, Arcueid route, when Shiki and Arcueid searching for the Dead, and Shiki complains about a headache. Mirror moon translation version 1.1: ”Probably, if you want to, you can see the "death" of non-living things. But in order to do that, your brain has to open its circuits from the classification of living things to the classification of non-living things in order to understand. --- That is normally an impossible process. As a result, it overloads your brain, and you'll end up being useless. (...) You understand? If you can just see it, it won't be a problem. But stop trying to see things you can't perceive. The blood vessels in your brain will burst, and it'll all be over.”
11. ↑ Tsukihime, Kohaku route, when Shiki confronts Akiha near the end. "Bringing her hand to her mouth in disbelief, she [Akiha] looks at my eyes. '—What beautiful—blue, eyes.'" mirror moon translation version 1.1.
12. ↑ Tsukihime, near side routes, when Shiki is talking to Arcueid in the hotel. Mirror moon translation version 1.1:
    Arcueid:"I see. I thought the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception only existed in fairy tales. But, I guess there is someone who can use them, a mutated monster like you."
    Shiki:"W--what!? I don't think a vampire can call me a monster!"
    Arcueid:"A monster is a monster. There isn't anyone, even amongst us, with Mystic Eyes that can 'see the death of things'."
13. ↑ Kara no Kyoukai, Overlooking View, chapter 1: "After I was in a coma for two years after that accident, I was able to see things that were "not supposed to be there". As Touko would put it, I am not seeing them, but rather observing them. In other words, it seems that I am able to perceive at a higher level with my eyes and brain." Baka-tsuki translation version : [2]
14. ↑ Kinoko: It's not quite so much the eyes, but how (R) Shiki perceives things that has a large effect on her powers. First, Mystic Eyes and brains work as a set. For example, Tohno Shiki from "Tsukihime" normally can't cut concepts like Shiki does, but that's because the specs of the Mystic's Eye's user's brain is different. Tohno Shiki isn't suited in the aspect of recognizing "concepts". (Ryougi) Shiki touched " " and became specialized in the visualization of events, while (Tohno) Shiki became submerged in death and became specialized in killing living things. By the way, Asagami Fujino's Mystic Eyes also work the same way. In her case, she can't twist things that she recognizes as not being twistable.
15. ↑ Kinoko: "As long as it's alive", however. The thing is, God isn't alive or dead so Shiki can't do anything to him. However, Shiki can kill what she thinks to be "alive", for example, say a telephone that she perceives as "being alive because it's not broken". On the other hand, if it's broken and therefore feels it's "already dead", she won't see lines.
16. ↑ Kara no Kyoukai. Baka-Tsuki Translation. Paradox Spiral. "--- This bastard, I can't see him... ! Hiding her inner surprise, Shiki coldly looked the man over. The death she could see on people if she merely wished to, this man doesn't have any. If you felt along a human's body there were lines that put an end to the part they belonged to if they were cut. Whether those were the seams of life, or a weakness in the bonds between the molecules, Shiki didn't know. It just was that she could see them. Without exception everyone she had seen until now had possessed those 'lines of death'. But, upon this man, those lines were too faint. Strongly, harder than she had ever done before, Shiki glares at the man. Her brain may have overheated, because she observed the opponent till a portion of her consciousness went white, only then could she see it. ... In the centre of his body, she can see a hole in the middle of his chest. Going round and round like some child's scribbling the line is drawing a circle at one point. That might explain why it looks like a dot."
17. ↑ Kara no Kyoukai. Baka-Tsuki Translation. Paradox Spiral. "... Indeed, I was foolish. I should have had all the proof I needed after the events at the hospital. Whether it is dead or alive, if it moves you cut off the root of that motion. That is your ability. Even if I am a stopped organism, as long I exist like this there is a thread that permits my existence. If that is cut I would definitely die. The unique exception is this left arm, but even that can't be hidden forever. No matter which saint's bone it is as long as it functions there will always be a cause for that movement."
18. ↑ Kara no Kyoukai, Original Epilogue. "Right, that is Shikis power. Like Fujino she can see channels that normal people can't see, she is able to see the spiral of origin with her eyes. But, I can go even deeper. No... maybe I myself am that spiral."
    
    ".... Spiral of origin, its where all cause and effect begin, where everything and nothing exist, that is my true identity. Even though we are just connected, but since I am part of it, I too am an equivocal existence, right? That is why I can do anything..hmm like restructuring the laws governing atomic matter, or go back in time to change the evolution and development of all life, to reconstruct the orders and laws of this world is easy for me too. Not making change to the existing world, but rather annihilate the old one with a new reality."