Siêu Năng Giả

Psychic User
① An individual born with psychic powers.
② Since psychic powers are completely different than interference with nature, an individual is capable of using abnormal powers despite not having a magic circuit.

Psychic Power [other]
① People with these powers are born with the innate ability to use parts of their brain that regular people cannot. This is the source of their powers
② Counter-force born from the subconscious of a person.
③ Not the same as interfering with nature. Psychic powers are in a completely different category.
④ Currently, psychic powers generally do not compare to interference with nature in raw power and potential.
⑤ Since these powers are inborn and innate, they are usually limited to the individual who possesses them (and not passed down from parent to child).

Psychic Power [Others]
Abnormal powers. Functions that normal humans do not possess. A kind of circuitry that leads to what are commonly called paranormal activities.
Different from magecraft, inborn talents are absolutely necessary for ESP. Those possessing ESP circuits can induce paranormal phenomenons as naturally as breathing. The ESPers themselves take ESP for granted, and treat it as something they simply "can do". They only realise that they are abnormal after others (who can only comprehend "normal") have pointed it out.
In this story, Asagami Fujino is an ESPer, but since she was tampered with somewhat, her ability falls between ESP and magecraft.
ESP is normally an incidental occurrence, a sudden mutation limited to one generation.

Oni Child
① Result of sudden mutation. From the moment they are born, you can feel there is something different about them. A deviation from the norm in the family or group.
② In the world of Tsukihime, in which oni kind exist, the word oni-child doesn’t actually refer to the children of oni. Rather it is a discriminatory word carrying the meaning written above in ①. In reality it has often been used to persecute humans with special powers.
③ “Oni-child” also has the meaning of “A child who doesn’t resemble his or her parents,” the term was probably used in a similar manner to this.

Worldbuilding
In our latest work TsukiRE, the worldbuilding inherited from the previous version has been updated to be deeper and more modern.
There are a few things that are not going to be revealed yet, but I would like to introduce some things that were part of that update.

Setting
The city goes by the name of Souya.
In the old version, we used a provincial city as the setting, but now it’s been changed to an urban one. A fantastic place, neighboring a gigantic factory about four stations away, reminiscent of the Tokyo-Yokahama Industrial Area.
The protagonist’s highschool lies close to a residential area far from the station, so he does not hang out there on his way home from school. On the ends of this residential district lies a forest that has been there since ancient times, and by this forest’s entrance lies the mansion of the great landowner Tohno family.

Mystic Eyes of Death Perception
The peculiar ability possessed by the protagonist Shiki. Categorized as a psychic ability.
He can see the normally imperceivable ‘lines of death’, something akin to the point of collapse in all things.
These lines of death are like seams, which means all it takes to sever an object is to run a blade through them.
The strength and hardness of the object does not matter. No matter how hard or frail, the feeling is always the same. Perceivable = Cuttable.
In addition, as things dismembered by the lines of death ‘kills’ that specific part, no healing is possible. This is because the severed part has died on the existential level, even if it only looks like it has been cut.
 
Shiki is a living being and thus able to better understand the death of things that are alive just as he is—this is why he unconsciously perceives the lines of death of the living.
However, Shiki himself can stress his consciousness and overexert his eyeballs to visualize even the ordinarily incomprehensible lines of death on inanimate objects, through which he can perceive even the ‘death of space—death of existence’, as an ultimate locality. (Shiki’s brain is unable to withstand seeing the lines to this level)
 
In addition to the lines of death, there are the points of death, which stand above the lines.
If the lines of death are blood vessels, the points of death are hearts.
Those that have had their point of death pierced are killed in literally a single strike. Just as in the case with the ‘death of space’, Shiki has to overexert himself, or else he cannot see them.
 
An important point is that while the lines of death exist in all things, there are differences in how distinct they are.
Putting it simply: the lines of death are lifespan.
He can easily perceive the death of humans who only have the lifespan of about fifty to a hundred years, but it is difficult for him to perceive the death of existences who possess a lifespan in the hundreds or thousands of years.
Meaning, as long as he is trying to perceive the concept of death as a shape, he cannot quite so readily grasp it coming from things that are difficult to kill.
This is the reasoning behind why when Shiki is up against Greater Dead Apostles or Arcueid in the story, he has to push his consciousness to the limit if he wants to perceive their deaths.
 
(*Greater Dead Apostles are ‘hard to kill’, while Arcueid ‘cannot die’. Shiki’s murder of Arcueid in the beginning of the game made the impossible possible. In the Tsukihime world, things like Arcueid dying or Arcueid being killed were events outside of what was normal.)

Psychic Abilities
Special abilities endowed to the body from birth such as those possessed by Shiki, Kohaku and Hisui are known as psychic abilities.
They are impossible to gain after birth through either training or study.
Through successive inbreeding, it is possible to pass on these psychic abilities to some extent, even if it is not possible to perfectly reproduce the ability possessed by the parent.
Shiki, who comes from a clan known as Nanaya that have passed along a mutant gene, could be seen as an even further mutation.
(*The Nanayas’ special ability is not associated with ‘death’, but rather concerns ‘karma’. The reason this altered into ‘death’ with Shiki is because of his near-death experience)

Mixbloods
Those that have inherited the blood of ancient purebloods, like the Tohno and Saiki.
Pureblooded species are non-humans (oni-kind), or alternatively those that have strayed from being human and turned into onis.
As they have inherited the role of nature’s sense of touch (output devices), they have abilities different from those of psychic ones.
Psychic abilities are ultimately something which the human performs on their own, while the abilities gained through mixed blood is natural interference/natural contact—not something manifested by just one’s own personal abilities (one’s brain).
In addition, psychic abilities (generally) abide by physical laws, while the abilities of mixbloods often do not. Fantastic stories, folklore, tales of old—in order words, unnatural phenomena which cannot occur in reality.
Psychic abilities and mixbloods have a relationship similar to that of magecraft and magic.

Magecraft and Hexcraft
Technology used by Ciel and Roa. Known as magecraft—spatial interference and application methods based on rituals (systems).
Anyone can use it with enough training, but the potency depends on the individual’s own qualities (the number and quality of their Magic Circuits).
In the story of Tsukihime, runes, kabbalah, hexcraft, witchcraft, wonderworking, etc, are all bundled together as magecraft. Xian arts and esoteric buddhism are also included in this, but as they are part of a different faction, they are not brought up in Tsukihime.
It is basically all-purpose, but cannot make the impossible possible.
At the end of the day, magecraft is a technique for abbreviating the processes of methods possible to the individual themselves.
Even if there was magecraft that allowed one to go to the moon, it would still require preparation with costs on par with—or even exceeding—that of actually creating a rocket.
“Sure, it’s amazing being able to shoot fire from one’s hands—but nothing more than just amazing. If all you wanna do is shoot some fire, wouldn’t it be more efficient to just bring a blowtorch?”
This is the simplest explanation you can give regarding magecraft in TYPE-MOON lore.
You could say that magecraft is something which modern science can substitute for.
But you could also say that magecraft can substitute for science.
Seperate from this, that which can perform things impossible to realize through modern human technology is what is called Magic.
By the time of Tsukihime’s story, that which can be called Magic have decreased to five.

True Ancestors
Those treated as the ‘original bloodsuckers’ in the Tsukihime world.
They are the cause of the vampires who run rampant among the public, even if the True Ancestors themselves are a far cry from the common perception people have surrounding vampires.
They are few in number and exceedingly close to immortal.
Even if they are exposed to sunlight, it would only ever give them slight anemia, and they are not affected by the cleansing rites employed by any religions either.
True Ancestors are not individuals independent of the natural world like humans, but an older species still at one with nature.
That they’re often misunderstood as undying and eternally youthful is because they are the planet’s sense of touch. In the first place their time-scale is different from that of humans.
Their lifespan is naturally immense; its limits, so to speak, are only those of nature itself. True Ancestors and fairies are something akin to the planet’s white blood cells. So they possess abilities sufficient to exterminate any of the various factors which would do harm to the planet.
However, at the time of their birth, a singular error occurred within them.
Probably due to the influence of that after which they were modeled.
They turned out to possess the desire—the primordial, survival-oriented desire—to ingest the blood of intelligent lifeforms.
Moreover, because they were incarnated as protectors, their objectivity was diluted. They gained autonomy, as one of the many species living on the planet. Basically, they came in possession of a sense of values closer to that of a human’s.
 
As they have ceased to be free of self-interest—such as noncorporeal elementals ought to be—they have lost sight of their role as protectors, to the point that among them some have even become like humans, and gained independence from the natural world.
Those known as the True Ancestors have no limits.
As a result of being provided back-up from the planet, if the need should arise, they can strengthen their abilities until that need is met. (However, the amount and speed that each True Ancestor can increase it by differs per individual)
In addition, the power of their will is enough to take actual form, meaning that the thoughts of the True Ancestor becomes a weapon on its own, influencing even the world.
Fantasy Materialization—also known as Marble Phantasm—the reformulation of the world through probabilistic fluctuations.
However, they cannot directly interfere with individuals that have become independent from the world like humans or animals. Humans have weakened by distancing themselves from nature, but at same time, will not perish even if nature itself does—obtaining absolute freedom. At the of the day, Marble Phantasm can only freely exert change unto the environment and the situation.
As a slight digression, if the ridiculous situation of a castle appearing in the middle of a city at night was to occur, this is thought to be because the vampire (True Ancestor) suzerain of it willed it into creation.
 
The True Ancestors are a species which are practically gods, but they do have a flaw.
Though True Ancestors, they are still bloodsuckers. It is the very act of sucking blood itself which serves as their silver stake to the heart.
Though they are the cause that created the vampires (Dead Apostle) on Earth, they themselves have absolutely no need for drinking blood to continue living. The energy they need for that they can get through the ingestion of calories.
That said, they cannot go against their instinct as a species (to ingest and partake in the information of intelligent life = bloodsucking), which results in them sucking the blood of humans.
They execute humans in order to bring harmony to nature—though in actuality, they need them more than anything else in order to fulfill their own desires.
This contradiction causes the minds of these proud beings to collapse in on themselves. The more blood these proud elementals suck, the more they degenerate into beasts, craving pleasure the same as any human would.
 
This degeneration is rightly called ‘falling to evil’.
True Ancestors which have this happen to them forget the consciousness they have birthed for themselves and become a powerful vampire who begins corrupting the world.
As they do not have lifespans, ‘to lose sight of their values’ is the same as their ‘death of self’.
In order to prevent this death of consciousness, True Ancestors use a large part of their abilities to inhibit their vampiric urges.
The longer they withstand their desire to suck blood, the more it grows, yet they keep suppressing it—an unending battle of perseverance. By slamming the tremendous power of their will up against their own mind, they can control their desire to drink human blood.
Invariably, as they hold back on sucking blood more and more, the time eventually comes when they realize that they cannot suppress their vampiric urges any longer and so they enter into an eternal sleep by their own will. This is the activity threshold for those with an endless lifespan—one could perhaps say it is what humans would actually call their lifespan.
 
Dead Apostles
Something much like what the public at large imagines of a vampire.
Weak to sunlight, sucks human blood, transforms into beasts or mist and is immortal.
Called vampires in the game out of a consideration to make things easier to understand.
*However, the creature known as the vampire started being talked about in the 1900s. In real folklore, they are actually the monster with the least pedigree. In contrast, werewolves, who are often seen as their henchmen, are a monster passed down from days of old—in fact, parts of what the vampire was modeled after was taken from the characteristics of werewolves.
That’s why in the world of Tsukihime, they are more properly treated as bloodsuckers—the general term for things that suck blood from their own kind.
 
Dead Apostles are—just as one would imagine from their name—dead. They are divided into those that have been transformed into one by some kind of magecraft, and those that have had their blood sucked by a True Ancestor, and become its puppet.
Unlike True Ancestors, both of these kinds have to suck human blood in order to survive. Blood is considered a necessity for their vital activities.
They are also weak to sunlight, and as they are unable to completely rid themselves of the shared awareness of being human, they are defeated when faced with religious cleansing rites.

Silver
A color of the realm of the gods. Thoughts [spiritual energy] of those who approaches the realm of the gods is said to be replete with this color.
Gold
A color symbolic of demons. Arcueid’s eyes can change to this color.
Red
A color symbolic of demons. The thoughts [spiritual energy] and eyes of those connected and intertwined with demons have long had the tendency to be this color.
Blue
A color of the realm of the gods. The thoughts [spiritual energy] and Pure Eyes [Jougan, 浄眼] of those whose existence approaches the realm of the gods are of this color.

Q: Are Ryougi's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception a type of Eyes of Clarity?

A: Yes. The Ryougis and Nanayas were good friends! (A long time ago)
Although the two types of eyes are inheritable, if you consider regular Mystic Eyes as traits that modify the body..... something like the inheritance of the traits of the parents' body...... then Eyes of Clarity are the inheritance of fate and destiny......the offspring continues the parents' will and their quest.
Even though Eyes of Clarity are the parents' karma reflected in the offspring, they can only be inherited by "humans" with high spiritual potential.
In other words, Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are a type of hybrid power. The cheating powers of both Shikis ought to have a limit!

Mystic Eyes of Death Perception [Others]
Ryougi Shiki's ESP. Although it has some characteristics that are similar to the Mystic Eyes in magecraft, it is classified as an ESP.
Eyes of Direct Death allows the user to perceive the the conceptual "Death of an Existence" as visual signals. Death emerges to the surface of an existence (objects, animals, etc) as lines. Cutting along the lines will result in "Death", regardless of the constitution or properties of the object.
Ryougi Shiki acquired this power after spending two years in a comatose state and contacted " " (Kara) for a prolonged period of time. Shiki's body already had the ability to perceive the Lines of Death, the accident merely awakened this power.
Of course, Eyes of Direct Death is only one aspect of the powers of this body called "Ryougi Shiki".

Mystic Eyes of Death Perception [Unusual talent]
The eyes possessed by Tohno Shiki, that can see the death of things.
This death is expressed as black lines and points. The lines are places where a substance breaks easily, and the points are death itself. If a line is cut, then even if the main body survives, that particular part will die, never to move again. If a point is pierced, then the individual will stop functioning completely. Also, while lines can be seen without consciously trying, seeing points, the source of those lines, requires extreme concentration.
Though they are said to see the form of death, strictly speaking it's more accurate to say they're reading the lifespan of a substance – the existential limit determined at the moment of creation. Now, this was already covered in the main story of Tsukihime, but lines cannot be perceived on things that can't be killed (destroyed) in the current world. It's probably because as a human, Shiki's point of reference conforms to the limits of the humanity of his era.
Originally, Shiki's eyes were meant to "see that which cannot be seen". However, after having two near death experiences he was somehow connected to (the Root), and his brain began to be able to comprehend death itself. Or to put it in other words, it is only by virtue of his mystic eyes and brain working together as a set that he is able to perceive death.
By the way, Shiki's eyes turn blue when he intentionally tries to see death. Seeing as how blue is the color of pure eyes, it's likely that Shiki's eyes were originally of that type.

Synchronization [Unusual talent]
The ability to sympathize with other people. Putting it simply, it's giving one's own physical strength to somebody else. (Synchronizing with somebody else would be empathy.)
As Kohaku and Hisui are particularly talented sympaths, they don't just give their own physical strength, but also strengthen and support the mental and physical strength of their target.
Also, because this is sympathy and not empathy, even if the target is injured there won't be any feedback for the sympath. In game terms, it's like turning off collision detection.
The method of sympathizing varies depending on the practitioner. For some, it is possible to sympathize regardless of the target's will, while for others some sort of ritual is necessary.
The ritual is a switch on the spiritual plane passed down within a family, to control heretical abilities. It is a mental block implanted in the subconscious that prevents the ability from activating unless certain conditions are met.
…In other words, Hisui's family must have been a bunch of perverts, huh?

Spontaneous Combustion [Others]
The so-called unexplained phenomenon of human combustion.
It was the spell that Kokutou Azaka favoured. However, it was closer to ESP than magecraft. In terms of ESP, it would be called Pyrokinesis.
Spontaneous Combustion is a method of attack that causes the target to self-combust, rather than immolating the target directly.
There are many theories which explain Spontaneous Combustion, Azaka's Spontaneous Combustion can be explained by an amalgamation of the Charged Corpus Theory and the Electromagnetism Theory. The Charged Corpus Theory suggests that the human body produces electrical current during states of psychological arousal which causes Spontaneous Combustion, while the Electromagnetism Theory suggests that Spontaneous Combustion is a result of an increased release of electrons in the atmosphere.
All incantations used to activate Spontaneous Combustion were musical notes, since Azaka comprehended magecraft and combat through music.

Fujou [Family name]
As their name suggests, they are a lineage of shrine maidens. Similar to the Nanaya, they pass down special abilities to their children. However, they do not do so through blood, but rather the transmission of skills and knowledge.
The woman who inherits the Fujou name is destined to lose her sight, for being unable to see the material world comes hand in hand with the ability to peer into the world of spirits. Hisui and Kohaku both came from a branch of this family, and unlike the Fujou, this branch did pass on their abilities through blood. However, Hisui and Kohaku's mother violated a taboo and the branch fell into ruin, which led to the two children being taken in by Tohno Makihisa.
By the way, it doesn't have any bearing on Tsukihime, but the picture below is what Hisui and Kohaku's mother looked like when she was young.

Q: Did Zouken have a choice to become a Dead Apostle when he sought immortality? If he did, I'd like to know why he didn't transform into a Dead Apostle. <Pon De>

Nasu: If you become a vampire, the Holy Church will be after you all the time, so he couldn't take that risk. If his objective (goal) was to become "immortal", he may have turned into a vampire, but other than that, well, it's whether or not he had the talent to become a vampire. There are only about 27 idiosyncratic people like a certain Ms Yumizuka and her "You thought I was common? but I'm actually SSR!" in this world!
Takeuchi: What? Aren't there actually a few more out there?
Nasu: Yeah, let's say we undercounted and add about three more.