Juna Riebeluka

"Don't get in my way. This might be my last chance to meet him."

- Juna to Key Dorrikey immediately after shooting him Juna Riebeluka (ユナ・リーベルカ Yuna Rīberuka) is a reporter for ZZZ Network, and the field leader of the television crew that heads to the island of Growerth in 2005 to report on a couple murders that have taken place upon the island.

In reality, she is the perpetrator behind the murders, which she has committed in the hopes of meeting The Blue-Haired Werewolf again. Her guilt is uncovered by vampire detective Key Dorrikey.

It is implied that she has had contact with a greater sinister force, though it is currently unknown who this person is.

Chronology
Over five years prior to 2005, Juna is a newbie reporter who comes to Growerth for her first story -- a Halloween special called ''Do Werewolves Really Exist? ''At the time, she had been angry that she had to cover such an 'idiotic story.'

However, her views on the supernatural change on the island when she is attacked by a real live werewolf -- and rescued by a Blue-Haired Werewolf. The blue-haired werewolf apologizes to her, and says that her attacker was an 'outsider'. He promises to give the other werewolf a beating later, and hopes that she understands that not all werewolves are like that one.

He smiles at her - a supernatural, special creature smiles at her, and Juna falls in love. She believes this to be a 'special' love, albeit a twisted one.

Over the next five years, her love for the werewolf leads her to visit the island over and over again in search of him. In the meantime, she desperately claws her way up the career path with every trick in the book, believing that if she becomes famous he'll surely see her on television and come looking for her. She covers vampire legends as a means to an end.

No matter how much Juna tries, she is unable to reunite with him. Juna begins to think that she should try to recreate the situation from before. But what are the chances of being assaulted by a werewolf again?

She has been attacked by a group of human delinquents, however. She'd shot them dead with her hidden gun and buried their bodies somewhere on the island. Her first murder(s). Through them, she came to a realization: she must become the werewolf. If she played the role of the werewolf and attacked young women, her blue-haired werewolf would reappear once more.

With her crew with her at the island of Growerth, Juna broadcasts messages on the ZZZ Network about the murder-kidnappings (that she has committed), having killed two young woman since arrivin. After she claims her third victim that week (a young woman named Zara) she anonymously informs the location of Zara's body (she left it in a dried-out well) to the police and press. All her victims are found with grisly bite marks on their necks, and appear to have died of blood loss.

Soon after, she joins a crowd of reporters at Neuberg's city hall to hear Mayor Watt Stalf's statement on the recent killings. She's the first of the reporters to step forward and ask for his comment. His answer is perfectly practiced and political. As the reporters bombard him with more questions, Juna raises her voice and says that there have been rumors that the culprit is a vampire or a werewolf. Was this really the work of humans?

Later, she and her crew are at the Neuberg City Square when a tussle breaks out. With the cameraman filming, Juna reports the scene live -- that a young man received mild injuries, and furthermore, that they've received strange eyewitness accounts describing the transformation of a girl into a fur-covered monster. She interviews locals for the camera. She says to the camera that the island has a long mythology of vampires and werewolves, and speculates that someone is disguising themselves as one.

Sometime after the broadcast is finished, her sound recordists asks what they'll do next. Juna states that they will keep chasing leads - and they can't forget what happened at the square, that a girl transformed into a werewolf and was taken away by another girl (Hilda Dietrich). One of the crew members comments that Juna's first story was located in Growerth, and as Juna flips through documents she recalls her past.

She states that she's experienced enough now that she can tell that there's 'something' on this island. And a feeling in her gut tells her that the mayor knows something. Juna orders the cameraman to guard his camera with his life, and declares that though this story is dangerous she thinks it is worth the risk -- and that it could change the very way the world thinks. And isn't that exciting?

That night, Juna and her crew (of four men) are subjugated by Dimguil Sunford (their cameraman) and head for the slopes of Mt. Wasserspitze, the biggest mountain on the island. There, they find Hilda and Watson (the werewolf girl), and ask Hilda if she wouldn't mind answering some questions. Dimguil points his camera in their direction. Juna physically stops Hilda and Watson from leaving, and assures them that this isn't a live broadcast and that they'll be perfectly happy to respect the girls' privacy and blur their faces. That is, if they are really human.

Juna points out that Hilda was talking about vampires and werewolves just now, and that they've recorded her statement. She asks the cameraman to turn off his camera, and informs Hilda that she is on the girl's side. Supposing that vampires and werewolves exist, all she wants to do is let everyone know that they aren't enemies of humanity.

At Hilda's inquiry, Juna explains that she received help from the supernatural once - back when she was attacked, she'd been saved by a non-human creature with blue hair. Juna proceeds to interrogate Hilda about where she was heading, and Hilda uneasily realizes that she and the crew members are all snickering, that the reporter is talking as if she knows about Relic, and how their eyes are looking at Hilda but vacant).

Juna and the crew members wait silently as Hilda and Watson whisper to each other. When Hilda and Watson make to run, one of the crew members grabs them as Juna affirms that the two do know about vampires and Relic. By this point, Juna's tone has done a complete turnaround, and it is obvious that she and her crew are being controlled via subjugation.

The men (minus the cameraman, who is filming) hold down Hilda; Watson transforms into a wolf and knocks them away. A flock of bats emerges from the darkness and chase after Watson, and Hilda runs off the other way with the reporter and her crew at her heels. Hilda is easily captured, and the subjugated group take her up the mountain and into the castle's parking lot. They bind her limbs with cables and shove her into the back of the ZZZ van.

Before Hilda loses consciousness, she is rescued by Relic himself. Relic transforms the cables into bats, and the van, Juna, and the men into fog. The fog lifts up into the air and reforms into the van at a slight distance away. A moment later, Juna and the television crew reform too - they materialize leaning against the reformed van. Hilda floats down to the pavement. Relic and Hilda embrace; meanwhile, the television crew and Juna come to their senses. The men are shocked when Relic transforms into a flock of bats and takes to the skies.

As soon as he is gone, Juna excitably approaches Hilda and asks if she saw what just happened. Hilda sighs, only to silently realize in alarm that there are five crew members surrounding her now - but there were only four around when Relic took off. Hilda turns to the cameraman - Dimguil - with the suspicion that he is 'still under subjugation.' He asks if something is wrong with his camera, and in the next moment the sound recordist and the two other crew members collapse.

Before Hilda can react, Juna inserts a medical syringe into the girl's next and injects her with some sort of tranquilizer. She too collapses.

Over the next twenty minutes, Juna takes the van to a small, ruined church on the western side of the island. She drags Hilda's body inside, attaches an explosive device to her chest, and with it blows up Hilda's heart, leaving a gaping wet hole. She leaves the body slumped against the half-burned altar. The killing of Hilda is entirely motivated by jealousy, and entirely spur of the moment - how could some country bumpkin girl be friends with something special like a vampire?

Juna returns to her fallen team and wakes them up. A moment later, the ground starts shaking, and the team spot a humongous black pillar of bats in the distance, emitting a strong wind. The sound recordist asks Juna what the hell is going on, and she sternly orders him to get to work -- they're witnessing history in the making, watching logic itself fall to pieces. She warns them that if they want to run, that's fine. She'll just take the camera and get the footage herself.

The crew members are suddenly accosted by a terrible raw emotion that enters all their hearts, Juna's included. The emotion (as the sound recordist understands it) is a reaction to the decision they'd made to run: '' 'I won't let you escape. Not you, not anyone.' ''Unbeknownst to Juna, the other crew members have also received mental images of her murdering Hilda.

Relic (the black pillar) advances towards the crew, intending to destroy them and everyone else. He is stopped by the arrival of Watt Stalf, who places himself between Relic and the others with the intention of stopping the literal pillar of destruction. At Watt's arrival, Juna quickly orders her crew to get him on camera. She pauses at the coldness in her subordinates' eyes, but then orders them once more to act and adjust the mic.

The sound recordist hesitantly informs her that he has just witnessed how the girl in the parking lot died. Another crew member says they saw someone murdering her. Well, at least, they saw the killer's arms and legs. And then, another voice finishes his sentence: "The serial killer who drove the island of Growerth to terror... is you!"

The voice belongs to Key Dorrikey, and Juna asks what he is talking about. Dorrikey reveals his investigation into the ZZZ crew's comings and goings, and the messages record at relay stations across the island. The group is joined by Watson, who immediately announces that she smells blood on Juna. She denies his accusations, but when she turns to her crew for support they apologize and say that they "saw it."

Empty laughter escapes from her lips. One of the men cries out that: "We saw your leg stepping on that weird machine and carving out that girl's heart, Juna!" Several seconds of silence pass. Juna wipes her face clear of all expression, and nonchalantly confesses that she really is the killer after all. Several more seconds of silence pass, and Juna confidently grins.

"And so what?"

She launches into a rant about the sight in front of them - how they are destroying logic with their own hands. This is no time to debate whether killing is right or wrong. Morality will not help them now. Dorrikey says that he'll escort her to the nearest police station, and Juna shoots him in his head before he can even finish his statement. The crew members scream, and then scream again as Dorrikey's head transforms into a flock of bats and reforms.

Juna is surprised, and asks what he is. He says that he is like those beings causing the commotion nearby (the vampires), and as such, lead bullets do not work against him. He rolls the crumpled bullet in his hand, and advances towards her. Juna mumbles "why...couldn't you have been him?" and despairingly wonders what is wrong with the island. She had been so sure that the blue-haired werewolf would come to see her, that she'd finally meet inhuman beings, but...why not her?

As Dorrikey concludes that he'll have to mildly subjugate her, the group is accosted by a gust of wind. The crew and the detective are flung off their feet from whatever has just occurred between Watt and the black tree (formerly the black pillar) and Juna realizes that countless arms branching from the tree are lunging straight for her. Furthermore, the "silhouette resembling the mayor" is fighting them off to defend her.

Juna and the tv crew run off during the battle, and are separated. Juna ends up lost in the deep woods, knowing that she cannot return to the city. Tears of frustration roll down her face as she ponders what she lacks, why the blue-haired werewolf would not appear before her. She reminiscences about their fateful meeting, and the years that followed.

A voice is narrating her thoughts and movements as she walks through the forest (the voice belongs to Mirald Mirror). When the voice calls her love 'twisted,' Juna retorts "who are you calling twisted?" before returning to her memories. Eventually, she asks the voice who he is and why he is talking into her thoughts.

Mirald steps out into the open and reveals himself. He is impressed at Juna's calm acceptance of a disembodied voice narrating her actions. Most people are surprised when they hear him talking inside their heads. She asks if he is a vampire, and he claps his hands together and acknowledges that he is. Juna is slightly disappointed - yet another inhuman creature who was not the werewolf.

Juna wonders if he was the one who told the other crew members about her, and he sidesteps the question and informs her that no matter what she does, the blue-haired werewolf will not come to her today. The werewolf in question is out of town -- on a business trip in Southern Germany. Juna is delighted; the werewolf hasn't abandoned her after all. She thanks Mirald (assuming he is on her side) and asks him to help her escape the island.

He says that there is an easier way to meet the werewolf, but in order to pull it off he needs a small bit of her blood in exchange. He wants to suck her blood...just enough to leave her standing. Juna immediately exposes her neck to him. Mirald transplants the pain and suffering of each of her four serial victims into her head. The entirety of it is ten hours long -- but he compresses it into three seconds. Ten hours' worth of agony...in three seconds. For a moment, Mirald thinks she's 'lost it' completely from the experience, but he next uses her memories to recreate the meeting with the 'man of her dreams' in her head.

She revives somewhat, and he takes her to the police station and leaves her in front of the building. She is a little anemic from the blood loss, and not in a particularly stable mental state, but Mirald is certain that since her mind is not broken, she will not be found "criminally not responsible" for her crimes.

Mirald later informs Dorrikey that he plans to have a word with Gerhardt von Waldstein and have the blue-haired werewolf visit Juna in prison, so he can fulfil his promise to her.

Trivia

 * Dimguil states that Juna had 'no idea' about him. He is correct: while Juna had realized the presence of an invisible accomplice (for example, she knew someone else had put the boulder over the well with Zara's corpse for her), but chalked up the supernatural help to the blue-haired werewolf.
 * According to Mirald, the device Juna used against Hilda was not made by her or Dimguil. No, there was someone in the shadows, egging her on. He says that the voice of the human who gave Juna her device is the same voice of the human who told James Sutherland about Mirald's soirée.
 * It is possible that this human might be the human that Loa says is her superior, though this is pure conjecture. It is clear, however, that there is something sinister and powerful behind the scenes -- something that the reader has yet to be introduced to.