After a childhood accident, Shiki Tohno can see faint lines across everything around him, and cutting along one makes the object fall apart; a woman named Aoko Aozaki gives him glasses that hold the power 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 with his Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. She revives as a True Ancestor vampire and presses Shiki into helping her hunt the threat that brought her to town.