Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1503835-20181219185119

Originally I posted this on a non-wiki forum, but later I realized the Wiki is probably a better place to contribute information about the new novel. Using Google Translate I was able to "read" Blood#, and what follows is my best effort to recap everything that I was able to understand about the events in the novel. It's not a complete re-telling/translation of the book by any means, but I think it covers the overall plot pretty well. I tried to leave out anything that was tough to confirm due to bad translations, and just stuck to the stuff that made sense.

I'm posting this here because I'm hoping that anyone interested in knowing more about the events in the novel will find this helpful. Also: if anybody else has managed read or translate Blood# yet and has corrections or additions to provide to this plot summary (since I'm sure I missed a few things along the way), I more than welcome it! Plus it would be great to eventually add some stuff to the Wiki pages officially!

If you are still considering waiting until the novel is translated to English (if it ever is) or planning to try translating/reading it yourself at some point, you may want to stop here :)

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MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!

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SERIOUSLY.

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The story takes place a little over 16 years after the birth of Hibiki and Kanade, Diva's twin daughters. Hibiki looks like her aunt Saya, with reddish-brown eyes and short-cropped black hair, although unlike her aunt she also wears glasses. Kanade is the one who looks like her mother Diva, with blue eyes and long black hair that flows just past her shoulders. At the beginning of the novel, we get to see the twins living in Okinawa with Kai and Lewis at Omoro, although they still stubbornly refuse to call Kai their "dad". The twins are very close, but their personalities differ. Hibiki is introverted, gentle, and thoughtful, while Kanade is social, energetic, and a tiny bit selfish. Although both twins sense that they are "different" and feel a unique connection to one another, they have not been told about their true nature, and know very little about Saya and Diva. One thing they remember from their early childhood was being strictly forbidden from having any contact with each other's blood.

As we follow their daily lives, we see Hibiki running at the track in the early morning before school, and later we see Kanade skipping class to go sing karaoke with some friends. Not long after, everything goes to hell when people at Hibiki's high school begin transforming into chiropterans and the military moves in to lock the place down. At the same time, Kanade is returning home to Omoro only to arrive just as the place is blown up by what is assumed to be a gas main explosion. Kai and Lewis are nowhere to be found.

With these events, the main conflict of the novel begins to take shape. It's a conspiracy similar to the Delta-67 plot from Blood+, in that some shady folks are performing new experiments with chiropterans and Schiff. With the help of Professor Aston Collins, they are improving upon the original work of Cinq Flèches, using newly-discovered data from the journals of Martin Bormann, one of Diva's chevaliers from the WWII era. At some point prior to the beginning of the story, Collins learned the identity of Diva's daughters, and somehow acquired Kanade's blood for use in their updated Delta formula.

Hibiki is rescued from the high school by her childhood friend, David (the dark-haired boy), who explains to her about the Red Shield and the situation that's unfolding. He believes the organization has been infiltrated and can no longer be trusted as their ally. Around the same time, Kanade is whisked away from the site of the Omoro explosion by a familiar young man named Adam (the blonde-haired boy), who is working for Red Shield and claims to be rescuing her from some "enemy organization" that has kidnapped her sister Hibiki.

David and Hibiki soon find themselves on the run from Red Shield agents, and later, a new breed of Schiff attackers as well. David reveals Hibiki's true nature to her, and explains how she can use her blood to kill the new Schiff and other chiropterans. To that end, he gives her his combat knife for self-defense. Eventually the two are chased into the mountains where they're cornered by the Schiff. With David's help, Hibiki fends off the attackers, unleashing her chiropteran "battle mode" for the first time. Unfortunately David is mortally wounded during the fight. With no other options available, Hibiki turns David into her chevalier to save his life. They are together for a while longer, until more Schiff attack them while traveling on a ferry. The two are separated and there's an explosion, sending Hibiki flying into the water. Later on we see her washed ashore on Okinawa, with David nowhere to be found.

During the same period of time, Kanade is brought to Red Shield's rebuilt cruise ship headquarters, which is outfitted more like a battleship now. For a little while she lives very comfortably in Adam's care. However, she feels uneasy, almost like she's a captive on this ship, and she senses something is "off" about Adam. The young Red Shield agent tries to reassure Kanade by showing her the full scope of the organization's efforts to locate her sister Hibiki. Eventually Adam reveals the entirety of Kanade's history and relation to Diva, pressuring her into unlocking her potential as a chiropteran Queen. In an almost obsessive way, Adam pledges himself to Kanade as her protector, claiming that he will rededicate the Red Shield to safeguarding the legacy of Diva. He then takes it upon himself to forcibly drink Kanade's blood, in an attempt to become her chevalier.

Eventually both sisters are drawn back to Okinawa in the hopes of reuniting. Adam convinces Kanade to try singing (like Diva) to call out to Hibiki and guide her back to them. This has the unfortunate side effect of causing people all over Okinawa to begin transforming into chiropterans, throwing the city into a state of chaos. Although Hibiki holds her own against the chiropterans for a while, she is eventually overwhelmed. Suddenly Lulu shows up and takes care of business, although Hibiki mistakes her for one of the Schiff assassins at first glance. They escape the city with Mao Jahana, who is driving an armored vehicle called a Marauder. This is when we meet the *real* Red Shield; they're the "resistance" that have been working with David independently from the official Red Shield. Most of the old crew is there; Mao (who apparently ended up marrying Okamura), as well as Lulu, Lewis, Julia, and Mr. David (who is using the alias "Charles"). While at their hidden base, Hibiki is finally given a proper sword with which to fight chiropterans.

It's around this time that Adam meets secretly with Collins, confirming that Red Shield was indeed compromised. Their conspiracy had been mutually beneficial in that Adam got what he wanted, namely Kanade, and Collins was able to advance his research using the Bormann Documents. However, Adam has different plans now, and decides to "terminate their partnership" by killing Collins.

Following the sound of her sister's singing, Hibiki finds Kanade and Adam at the beach near the Miyagusuku crypt, but a horde of chiropterans and numerous Schiff have also come along, drawn by Kanade's singing. The rest of the "resistance", Kai included, shows up in their Marauder to help with the fight. Together they try to hold back the combined force of the Schiff, the chiropterans, and Adam, but it's too much. Hibiki then begins singing along with Kanade, and the combined effect of their "duet" actually causes the chiropterans to become confused and attack each other. Adam tries to attack Hibiki to stop her, but David finally reappears and confronts Adam. The two chevaliers face off, but Adam appears to be unbeatable.

Hibiki joins in the fight and attacks Adam, but her blood has no effect. Now uncontested, Adam indicates he is going up to the Miyagusuku crypt to kill Saya in her sleep, seeing her as the only remaining threat to him and "his queen". Suddenly, Hagi appears in the night sky. With him is Saya, who has awoken temporarily in a way similar to the time in Vietnam. However, she's in more of a tranquil half-dreaming state, rather than a mindless psychotic rage. During this brief awakening, she and Hagi dance through the chiropteran horde with blade and claw, cutting them apart and eventually striking Adam himself. As Saya's blood crystallizes him, Adam simply says "thank you".

In the aftermath, Saya tells Kai that during the fight she dreamed she was singing. Kai suggests to Saya that she should go and get some more sleep, to which she responds that he should come and visit her more often. Hagi then flies away with Saya in his arms, in order to return her to hibernation. After witnessing all of this, Hibiki and Kanade join Kai, finally calling him "father" for the first time.

Later on, Nathan makes a brief appearance to talk to Hagi, and to check in on the twins and their new chevalier. He questions why Hagi risked awakening Saya prematurely in order to fight Adam and the chiropterans. Hagi is his usual stoic self, but does admit that he was afraid. Nathan also implies to Hagi that he is in fact the former chevalier of SAYA, the mother of Saya and Diva, and so considers Hagi his "son" in a way.

In the short epilogue, we see Julia and Mr. David reunited at the hospital (as he was injured in the final battle), Omoro is rebuilt and Kai and Lewis are back running it again. Hibiki and David are still together, and along with Kanade they plan to travel to Diva's birthplace in Bordeaux, France... to see for themselves where their family began.

'''[UNCONFIRMED: There are some *very* spotty translations in the final battle part which suggest that, despite Adam’s outward appearance, he is actually Solomon resurrected or reincarnated through some kind of experiment performed by Professor Collins. There is a specific mention of Solomon's name and something about a brain being preserved before it could crystallize along with the rest of the body. Finally, there's mention of Collins using the data in the Bormann Documents to produce antibodies that make Adam immune to Hibiki's blood.]'''  