Rose Cross
| Rose Cross | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Members marching down the hallway. | |
| Known members | |
| Leader(s): |  Hiroko Takashiro Nami Kozono (unofficial)
|
| Others: |  Rie Morita Saki Shindou
|
Rose Cross or Rose Cross Society is the witchcraft club started by Academy student Hiroko Takashiro and her two classmates Saki Shindou and Rie Morita. The group, consisting of only female students, is primarily featured in the Bible Black: Origins anime series. It is named after a secret alchemist order of the Middle Ages, the RosicrucianWP.[1]
The group was formed exactly one year before all but one of its members attempt to summon the Devil on Walpurgis Night.[2] The girls initially toy with simple props like tarot cards, and attempt to imitate black magic rituals they read about in books.[3] After expanding to six members, the girls start looking for foreign books and original manuscripts from outside of Japan, eventually discovering the Bible Black.[4]
Leader Takashiro takes her club's hobby quite seriously and claims witchcraft should not be taken lightly. According to her, the power of darkness can perform miracles and she and her friends study it to learn the truth of history, as witchcraft has been part of life since ancient times.[5]
Contents
History
The girls try to become an official school club by making a request to the student council. However, their application is denied. Council member Junko Mochida scolds the girls when she informs them about their unsuccessful request, saying the school would never allow a silly club like theirs.[6]
Finding the black book
Not long after, Rie Morita presents a mysterious hand written grimoire to her fellow members after she finds it in an antiques store. The girls translate one of the simple spells inside and test it out on Mochida to take revenge. To their amazement, the spell works, forcing Mochida to strip in front of all her classmates during a school assembly. They later also help the unpopular student Hiratani make the beautiful and lesbian Nami Kozono madly fall in love with him.
After that, the girls gain significant influence and notoriety around the school. They use the spells to help numerous people seduce others in exchange for large sums of money. Rich and powerful, the group seemingly becomes unstoppable. Even the student council does not dare get in their way.[7]
In fact, council president Nami Kozono finds out they practice magic and desperately begs them to make Hiratani to love only her. Club leader Takashiro agrees, but in return wants a room in the school to practice with her club. Kozono arranges that they can use the basement. Then, instead of helping her, Takashiro removes the spell they put on her before, causing Kozono to realize in disgust what Hiratani has done to her.
Summoning the Devil
Although some members voice their concerns, Takashiro allows Kozono to join the club, amused by her change of opinion on magic. The girls prepare a ritual to summon the Devil himself on Walpurgis Night, the feast of witches and souls when the power of darkness is strongest. However, it requires a virgin human sacrifice. Kozono agrees to prepare a victim.
Before Walpurgis Night, the members try to summon something smaller first by sacrificing a small dog. During the ritual, a demon appears and viciously rapes Takashiro using several tentacles. The other girls rush to help her after he disappears, but Kozono reacts in awe of the demon's power.
While Takashiro is in the hospital with a coma,[8] Kozono declares herself the new leader of the club. She intends to proceed with the summoning ritual and has her classmate Reika Kitami kidnapped by her thugs. She allows them to have sex with the girl but tells them to preserve her virginity. Unknowingly, one of the thugs disobeys the order.
On the night of Walpurgis, Takashiro wakes up from her coma and tries to stop the ritual. She makes her way to the school's basement and urges the club members to stop using magic. But Kozono pushes her away using a spell and orders Rie and Saki to remove their former leader from the room and tie her up.
Demise
During the ritual, Kozono stabs Kitami with a sword to sacrifice her life. But nothing happens. The girls panic, but Kozono - in a crazed lust for power - starts killing all the members of the club until the gates of hell open. Before Kozono can make her appeal to the Devil, however, the mortally wounded Kitami plunges the ritual sword in her back, killing her.
When Takashiro manages to break free, she rushes down to the basement to find her friends and every member of her once powerful magic club dead.
Legacy
The basement room is sealed following the incident on Walpurgis Night, and the police and school authorities pass it off as a suicide pact.[9] However, rumors about the witchcraft club persist up to twelve years after its demise,[10] despite the club never being cited in any official school records or yearly albums.[11] Believing the rumors to be true, and most likely inspired by the members of the club, the occult-obsessed student Kaori Saeki starts a similar witchcraft club with two of her friends.[12]
Also spurred on by the rumors, student Taki Minase learns of the history of the club after breaking into the basement and finding the Bible Black spell book. He also starts performing magic charms to influence his fellow students, again attracting the powers of evil that threaten him and his friend.
Her encounter with the magic club and the contract she made with the Devil changes Reika Kitami's life forever. She becomes a gifted witch and devises a plan to trick the Devil into completing the contract and still preserve her soul.
Having learned firsthand about the dangers of the occult, Hiroko Takashiro turns to studying white magic instead. But the bodily and mental rape she suffered from the demon leaves a lasting impression. Even years later she longs for the same sensation the demon gave her.
Kitami and Takashiro eventually both become teachers at the Academy twelve years later. Kitami takes revenge on the former Rose Cross leader when she discovers her history with the club.
Trivia
- In the first Bible Black game, the club is referred to as the Rose & Cross Society by Mika Ito. Hiroko Takashiro later calls it Rose Cross, however.
- Also, in the intro of the game and in a flashback scene later, the priestess named Nami prominently featured in it has blond hair and a red robe (see image). The anime series later establishes the purple-haired Nami Kozono as being the priestess presiding over the ritual. Additionally, the members of Rose Cross all wear black instead of red robes in the anime.
Gallery
Rose Cross helps...
...the Academy students...
...for vast sums of money.
Takashiro prepares an attack...
...and blows her enemies away.
The unstoppable girls.
Kozono begs the girls for help.
Takashiro with an unknown girl.
The girls discuss Kozono...
...before she joins the club.
The girls gather in their sanctuary.
The ritual commences.
The club's leader in a coma.
Takashiro begs the girls to stop...
...but is restrained by her friends.
Two unknown club members.
References
- ↑ GAME1 | Takashiro: "It was called the Rose Cross Society. We named it after a secret organization from the Middle Ages called the Rosicrucian Order."
- ↑ GAME1 | Takashiro: "We formed our coven exactly one year before the tragedy."
- ↑ GAME1 | Takashiro: "At first, we'd just gather and imitate the Black Magic rituals we read about. It was quite innocuous..."
- ↑ GAME1 | Takashiro: "And as time went on, we found ourselves with six members. By that time, we could no longer be satisfied by the occult books we could find in Japan. So we started ordering foreign books and original manuscripts, and read them voraciously. And then one day, we acquired a certain book...the Book of Magic you found."
- ↑ S2E1 | Takashiro: "Don't take witchcraft lightly." (...) "Magic, spells, and ritual...Witchcraft has been part of people's life since ancient times. The power of darkness can perform a miracle. Isn't it fascinating? We're trying to learn the truth of history through witchcraft."
- ↑ S2E1 | Mochida: "I came to inform you that your request to form a club has been denied." (...) "Did you really think the school would let you have such a silly club?"
- ↑ GAME1 | Takashiro: "There was no one in school who hadn't heard about us. It was around that time that we claimed this basement room for our own use. The student council was terrified of us, so they were happy to let us have it."
- ↑ GAME1 | Takashiro: "Because of the psychological shock I'd sustained, I fell into a coma for three days."
- ↑ GAME1 | Takashiro: "Fearing that the truth would leak out, the school authorities passed off the incident as a suicide pact." (...) "And they locked the basement room door so that no one could ever enter it again..."
- ↑ GAME1 | Minase: "You're talking about that Black Magic Society they had here 12 years ago...the one in all those rumors...aren't you?"
- ↑ GAME1 | Imari: "Someone from the Art Club told me. It wasn't an official club, so there aren't any school records and it's not in any of the yearly albums...but I heard it really did exist."
- ↑ GAME1 | Minase: But this Saeki has swallowed that whole occult society rumor, which is still being discussed today...and apparently she regards the society members with both respect and jealousy.
