Story of Sin, also titled Tsumimonogatari (罪ものがたり) note , is a crossover fanfic between Limbus Company and Bakemonogatari written by NepetaLeijon27.
The story is written in Second-Person Narration and follows Dante, an initially mundane but inquisitive student who has their head replaced by a clock before the story starts. The amnesia that this causes and the fact that there are only 12 people who can understand Dante draws them into strangeness that surrounds their classmates. Every chapter centers around a certain classmate of Dante, and the 'Oddities', creatures that prey upon the emotions of humans, that surround them, and Dante eventually getting caught up in them, whether they want it or not.
The story can be read here
and is updated as the main story of Limbus Company goes along and is thus expected to run as long as that story runs.
This story provides examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: Happens to Sang Yi, at least initially. Curiously, this also applies to him in-universe; Sang Yi was, like in the original, the imagined ideal version of Yi Sang, but once the Unchanging Crow got a hold of Yi Sang, it took the form of Sang Yi and manifested itself as a Split Personality of his.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Rodion goes from a brunette to...a brunette with light blue tips. This example is justified in that this is caused by her Oddity, the Unloving Spirit.
- Adapted Out: A lot, but primarly the romance elements (including the Incest Subtext, as Dante has no siblings) and the implication that the protagonist has to help girls.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Applies to most of the character designs; most invoke some type of Animal Motif while possessed by a monster which is removed once the possession is resolved. For example, Sinclair wears a white jacket around his shoulders to symbolize the bottom half of an egg; which he loses at the end of his chapter.
- Call-Back: Several, too many to list here, but one example is that the school uniforms that are worn by the students are modeled after their Sinner uniforms, with a black vest and pants, a white shirt underneath and a red tie.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Oddities come into being because people believe that they exist, and are directly shaped by their continued perception.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: If a reader has read the story where Heathcliff originally comes from, it will become obvious to them that Heathcliff being implied to be a wolf in a human shape is a metaphor for him being derided as one. The Oddity that he has in this story is just a metaphor for the long-standing internalised verbal abuse, racism and classicism he has from others not considering him to be human.
- The Fashionista: Rodion is known as the fashionista of the school and has an online channel wherein she shares beauty tips. She comments that she has started a series about nail art lately. This status also helps her cover up her light blue hair tips and her having to dress for winter as a fashion statement.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every story is named "[focus character's given name] [the adjective of their chapter in the original game]," i.e. "Gregor: Outcast," "Rodion: Unloving," et cetera. This adjective is also the first part of the names of the Oddities that haunt them; i.e Gregor has the Outcast Bug, and Rodion, the "Unloving" Spirit and directly refer to what the creatures do - the Bug turns people into outcasts, and the Spirit makes it so that Rodion will eventually feel no passion.
- Image Song: Each story ends with a snippet from a song (which are, interestingly, all by KAF) that directly connects to the chapter and the character. To wit:
- Gregor: "Devouring the Past", which describes Gregor's struggles surrounding his 'mom' and the way she affects him, and his wish to break free from what has happened to him.
- Rodion: "This Lifetime", which describes Rodion's wish for her own life to have meaning to others and to devote herself to those that deserve love.
- Sinclair: "Fledgeling", which describes Sinclair's journey towards adulthood and leaving Kromer and her influence on him behind.
- Yi Sang: "Confused Telepathy", which describes Yi Sang's relationship with Sang Yi in a remarkably intimate manner as it implies that he loves Sang Yi.
- Ishmael: "Becoming the Ocean", which describes Ishmael's inner turmoil as she ultimately decides to just wait for Ahab to come back instead of searching for her and is a Sequel Song to 'Devouring the Past'.
- Heathcliff: "Thread", which describes the way that he has become tied up in all the intentions of the people around him and his mixed feelings towards Cathy.
- Light Is Not Good: Sang Yi, or, more specifically, the Unchanging Crow posing as him.
- Mr. Fanservice: Sang Yi runs around in a Labcoat of Science and Medicine, a long black shirt and...nothing else, which also implies he's a Barefoot Loon.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Everytime he appears, Sang Yi has a tendence to stand really close to Dante. Rather obviously, it unnerves Dante a lot.
- Not Brainwashed: Yi Sang in his chapter. The Unchanging Crow might have helped but all the decisions were from Yi Sang himself.
- Residual Evil Entity: Like its source, this series has a recurring theme that simply defeating evil or malevolence will not get rid of it unless the very root of the problem is cured. And in many cases, a problem rooted that deep in the first place is far beyond the understanding of your typical human (supernaturally gifted or not) to deal with.
- Rule of Symbolism: The story doesn't make a great deal of sense or will at best be badly misunderstood if viewed literally or without any knowledge of the original game. For example, Ishmael being followed by a Space Whale who turns the houses she sleeps in white is fantastical and crazy, but is basically symbolic for her being so obsessed with finding Ahab that it continuously follows her wherever she goes and never stopping. Dante muses that its behavior is symbolic for the person it plagues. Almost every supernatural incident is similarly related to some kind of psychological problem the characters face, which is reinforced by Dante not really knowing what to do at first - the characters need counseling, not a knight in shining armor who beats up the monster plaguing them.
- The first chapter has Gregor, a student who would look normal, were it not for one of his arms having mutated into a life-sized bug limb. This gets explained by him being affected by an Oddity that also somehow took away his memories of the event. Should one think about it, it will become clear that the reason why doesn't really make sense until you realize that the real point is that Gregor is denying his past and repressing his feelings of grief and betrayal towards his mother figure. It isn't until he confronts them that he can actually start to heal for real. Killing the Bug would possibly have restored his arm to normal, but that arm was never the thing that mattered.
- Heathcliff, the local delinquent, turns out to be a wolf that hops bodies and lives out its life, shunned by everyone else and also coming to shun them, falling in love with one person only and dying a terrible death of broken heart syndrome as they Did Not Get the Girl, at which point it then reincarnates into the next body and repeats the cycle. Set aside all the weirdness here: What matters is that this is an extensive metaphor for internalised verbal abuse causing Heathcliff believing that he's inhuman and cursed to never love again. Even if the person who explained this was telling the truth, it's no one's business at all. The only person who has a right to say anything about it is Heathcliff himself - and as far as Dante and their friends are concerned, he's their classmate and nothing else, no matter what anyone says to the contrary.
- Yi Sang spawns an Oddity that represents his repressed stress and trauma. You can't be hurt if you refuse to feel strongly about things. Dante, however, treats it as though the Unchanging Crow is a literal monster and that just putting it on non-active it would make the problem go away, causing them to suppress the Crow with a pill. Dante refuses to acknowledge that he has these kinds of negative emotions because they and their classmates put him on a pedestal and expect perfection from him, and Yi Sang is afraid that he lets his group of friends fall apart again. But he's human like everyone else, so trying to live up to people's impossible expectations is exhausting and unhealthy. Just suppressing the monster with a pill and continuing on as if nothing was wrong would eventually lead to it resurfacing again sooner or later, meaning he needs to actually address the serious problems in his life if he wants to get better - which he luckily does, as he now speaks to Sang Yi as a seperate being.
- Screw Yourself: If "Confused Telepathy", the song that ends chapter 4, is to be believed, Yi Sang really loves Sang Yi.
- Space Whale: The Evil Defining Whale, the Oddity that plagues Ishmael takes the form of a transparent white whale floating in mid-air.
- Weirdness Magnet: Even if you got your head replaced by a clock and you try to be a normal student, you can't count on having a normal life again. This is obviously a leftover from the original game where instead of on a journey, Dante is just a student who happens to run into everyone's issues.
