Warning: Spoilers Off applies to Moments pages. Proceed at your own risk.
Under Night In-Birth (Original - Exe:Late[cl-r])
- Tsukuyomi's death, and Byakuya's reaction to it. He starts going through the Five Stages of Grief, but instead of moving onto acceptance, he starts going backwards and gets stuck on denial by deciding that Strix is his sister's reincarnation. The poor kid is so heartbroken that he just snaps. What's worse is that he saw her just a few minutes before she died, and didn't think anything was wrong until she didn't respond to any of his texts or calls. You even get to hear his thought process as he runs into the city to look for her and eventually finds her dead body.
- There's also the scene where he does first come across her body. Byakuya starts calling out for his sister from within a crowd, but when people in the crowd silently start to make way for him, he almost immediately starts to piece together what exactly the commotion is all about and his voice gets more and more faltered and shaky with every time he calls out for his sister. When he does see her body, he desperately and hysterically tries to pass if off as a random stranger. All of this culminates into what is arguably one of the most heartrending screams of anguish and horror ever heard in a video game.
Byakuya (In his head): "I can't stomach this any longer. Sis... You were so pretty. How ironic... It truly is. How could I ever mistake someone else for my sister? It's impossible..."- All of this culminates in Byakuya having a full on mental breakdown in the middle of a bustling street, and not once does anyone reach out to him. Instead, the most that happens is that they instead point and laugh at the poor bastard. Though given Byakuya's deteriorating mental state, this is to be taken with a grain of salt.
- "Cradle In Doom", Byakuya's Arcade Mode ending theme, comes off as surprisingly somber, consiering everything that went down prior. However, the lyrics tell a story of a person who is desperately trying to find peace, only to succumb further into despair. It's about then where it hits you that this out of nowhere lullaby is actually an Image Song for both Byakuya and Strix. From Byakuya's perspective, he's trying to use Strix to cling onto what little traces of sanity he has left, while Strix's search for Zohar is breaking her both physically and emotionally. It just goes to show that despite their relationship being nothing more than a charade, these two are certainly not so different from each other in the grand scheme of things.
- Roger's death. Gordeau invited him to come join the rest of Amnesia for their confrontation with Bankikai, only for Roger to get too close to the Abyss and turn into a Void. Gordeau tries desperately to save him, but Enkidu has to give it to him straight that Roger is already dead. He was a really Nice Guy that even Carmine got along with, taken from the world far too soon simply because he wanted to help his friends. Gordeau was so devastated by his passing that he left Amnesia out of depression.
- Gordeau's reaction to all of this is definitely worthy of a few tears too. The most notable instances are when he desperately begs Wagner not to kill Roger and when he falls unconscious towards the end of the whole ordeal. His tone of voice in that scene almost makes him sound like he's on the verge of tears.
- In the same chapter, we have Ogre's death as well. From what little we knew of him, he was a compassionate and considerate man who looked out for friend and foe alike, and ended up dying to spare someone who's supposed to be his enemy the grief of having to put down their Voided out friend. Zohar reacted quite similarly to how Byakuya did when Tsukuyomi died.
- You can't help but feel sorry for Merkava. He became a Void against his will, and almost all of humanity is out to get him for what he is. He's hardly a malicious person, and describes his situation as being forced to share a twisted body with a monster he can't fully control, and when that monster's hunger takes over, all he can do is watch it hunt and feast on its prey. And being the only sentient Void, he pretty much has no companionship, and will likely never will. One of his victory quotes has some... depressing implications."By defending myself from those that seek to harm me, I make even more enemies. These chains of enmity will bind me forever..."
- The predicaments of both Kuon and Linne. In order to keep the conflict between the two factions of the Night Blade from escalating, Kuon volunteered himself and his sister to have their very souls engraved with the Secret Arts of Eternity and Reincarnation respectively. Kuon ended up becoming completely immortal and unable to age, while Linne ended up possessing the body of a young girl whenever her previous body dies. Kuon ended up becoming so burdened by this that he left his village out of grief and to stop conflict from igniting again. Both siblings end up becoming walking curses, both truly unable to die.
Under Night In-Birth II [sys:celes]
- Waldstein's ending. Due to his old age, he dies after defeating Kuon and it's revealed that even after he betrayed her and caused her to split Licht Kreis into single-gendered branches, Adelheid still loved him and waited for him. She orders Silvaria to prepare a proper tribute for him.
- Seth's ending. Try as he might to bear the sins of his clan, his body proves to be much too weak to handle having both of the siblings' curses of reincarnation and immortality thrust upon him, forcing him to endure unspeakable agony to the point where by the time he finally managed to fight it out, it's already too late for him. His body starts giving in to Void corruption, and there's nothing he can do about it except hope someone will put him out of his misery. Fortunately, "Linne" appears before him and seems to offer him a chance at continuing on. While his story ultimately ends on a hopeful note, it's still sad knowing that Seth was fully willing to sacrifice himself just to absolve the Night Blade of its mistaes, placing little to no value on his own life.
- If you were wondering if things are going to get any better for Byakuya in this game, you'd be very wrong. In his ending, he betrays "Tsukuyomi", then reveals he knew all along her real name was Strix and that she was really looking for Zohar due to the connection they built up over time. Then, after putting both of them in Zero Vessel states so they can start over, perhaps the first and only act of kindness he ever shows throughout the series, he leaves Strix and seemingly vanishes without a trace. Now Strix wants to find and repay him for everything he's done for her, despite not being sure if he's even still alive. Given where he was at mentally before meeting Strix, Byakuya's fate looks bleak.
- Wagner's ending. She finally understands just how wrong her Knight Templar mentality was and realizes how arrogant she had been over the course of the series. Unfortunately, she realizes this much too late as she completes her mission to kill Kuon and close the pit to the Abyss, using up all of her remaining power in the process while exclaiming that she can't die until she finally overcomes Orie. Some time later, Orie, Mika, and Kaguya all look up at the night sky to witness a falling star, which is an ill omen of someone's death as seen in Waldstein's ending. All three of them joke that there's no way Wagner of all people would go down that easily. Orie is left praying for Wagner's safety, looking forward to their rematch. Sadly, her prayer will never reach its destination, as the final CG shot of the ending shows that Wagner burned herself to death completing her mission. All that remains of her are her sword...and her corpse's ashes.
- Kaguya's ending, which has her reflecting on her Dark and Troubled Past, which involved her having to shoot her own father, after which, she mostly wandered without a purpose until Silvaria bested her in a duel and put her talents to use in the Licht Kreis. She notes she practically owes Silvaria her life for that, to the point she doesn't even consider saving the world to be enough to repay her debt to her.
Kokoro ga hateru made...
