Mejiro shows up to deliver a warning: she’s only interested in vampires, so humans like Kou shouldn’t get involved. She doesn’t want to have to hurt humans, after all. In reply, however, Kou declares that he wants to spend the rest of his life with Nazuna. A bold claim for someone who still hasn’t fallen in love. At the same time, however, maybe this ordeal with Mejiro can serve as a good litmus test for what Kou really wants. It’s one thing to state your intentions. It’s another thing altogether to actually live up to your words. Ko’s a kid, and luckily enough, he’s a kid who hasn’t had to live in a world full of violence and hatred. The biggest concern in his life up until now was ennui and alienation. Maybe he never fit in with his old life, but it was a safe one. It was a cocoon, because that’s what society designed it to be. Kids should have the luxury to grow up in a protected environment away from all the harshness of reality. If Kou wants to leave that bubble, he’ll have to accept that people out often need to fight for just their survival. And sometimes, that entails killing. Mejiro just walked up to two vampires and shot them in the head. Regular bullets can’t kill vampires, but in return, they can’t ignore the real and extant threat to their lives anymore. Kou seemingly wants to plead with his friends to slow down; he doesn’t want this to escalate to violence. But violence is already here. What else can the vampires do before someone actually gets hurt? Talk things out with a woman hellbent on murdering them? Again, Kou says he wants to live in this world, but he’ll have to decide real quick if he can stomach it.
But is Mejiro really hellbent on murder? I actually wonder what Mejiro was hoping to accomplish tonight. I mean, we know the general gist of her motives: she hates vampires and wants to rid the world of them. They destroyed her family, and now she wants to destroy them. But does she really want to do this? If so, why did she reveal her hand so early? Why did she show demonstrate to everyone what their personal items could do to them? If Mejiro simply wanted to kill vampires, she could’ve simply isolated her victims one by one and strike without any warning. If she merely wanted to test her theory, again, she could’ve done it when they were all alone. Not only that, this is a theory she’s been clinging onto for years. It was the only reason she survived her father’s attack, after all. So why wait until now to do anything? From my perspective, Mejiro did warn the vampires even if this isn’t what she intended. She gave them a chance to defend themselves despite the fact that she hates them. Then tonight, on the ghouliest of holidays, Mejiro is all shock and awe and little else. She’s knows they can’t die from her gun, so it’s reasonable to assume that she’s not trying to kill them tonight. So again, were those merely warning shots? What was this all for? To intimidate and strike fear? To show them that even though they might have gotten rid of their personal items, they’re still not safe? Well, it does sort of fit: a vampire destroyed the one place she felt safe, so she’s robbing them of the same comfort.
To go even further, perhaps a part of Mejiro feels as though she needs a justification to kill. As far as I can remember, other than her father, we’ve only seen one of her victims — if she even has more than one — and it was a vampire who directly attacked Akira. I can’t recall if she’s killed anyone else. In a way, Mejiro was justified in killing back then, but that’s not necessarily the case now. After all, Hirata and Serizawa are pretty benevolent; they’re a far cry from being actual monsters. So maybe she has to make them attack her first. This way, she fuels her hatred to great enough heights where killing is justified again. Even if you desire revenge, it isn’t exactly a walk in the park to take a life (even if it is an undead like a vampire). Most people don’t want to cross that line, and I should hope not. So maybe she needs that push. Mejiro needs her victims to be the scary, bloodthirsty monster in her head — the monster that destroyed her peace and ruined her life. But if you gotta shoot them in the head first, then your logic is a bit faulty. Incitement is still a crime, and a detective should know that. Well, I don’t know what Mejiro’s really thinking. I’m just speculating, ’cause I don’t know why she hasn’t gotten rid of anybody. Maybe she is like Kou, i.e. it’s one thing to declare something, i.e. her hatred of vampires, but it’s another thing to live up to your words. She’s killed before, so she’s ahead of him on the curve, so to speak. But maybe Mejiro’s not as far ahead as she wants to be.
On a different note, I’m not sure how I want this all to play out. I don’t necessarily want to see Kou’s new friends die by Mejiro’s hand. As I get older, I find myself steering away from bittersweet stories. For example, I prefer Persona 5 to Persona 3 these days. They’re both great games with deeply affecting stories, but one of them has an ending that leaves me feeling empty despite the game’s overall message of hope and acceptance. If you’ve played them, I think you know which one. Our world sucks enough as it is, so these days, I prefer my fiction to give me a bit of sunshine to serve as a counterbalance. But at the same time, it would be silly for Call of the Night to have all this build-up just for both sides to walk away “empty-handed.” Do you need consequences to lend weight to the story? It isn’t a hard and fast requirement, but it sure is a straightforward solution. And if we do walk away from this with everyone sleeping safe and sound in their beds, then I dunno, the story verges a bit on the realm of a fairy tale. But there’s just a few episodes left, so we won’t have to wait long to see how this conflict with Mejiro resolves itself.
