A childhood accident left Shiki Tohno able to see faint lines running across everything around him, and cutting along one makes the thing fall apart. A woman named Aoko Aozaki gave him glasses that hold these Mystic Eyes of Death Perception in check. Years later, recalled to the Tohno estate, Shiki crosses paths with Arcueid Brunestud and, in a sudden loss of control, cuts her down. She revives as a True Ancestor vampire and presses him into helping her hunt the killer who brought her to the city.