In this extra episode airing between the end of Nademonogatari and the next arc, we learn the origins of the vampire Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade, AKA Oshino Shinobu. Six centuries before she met Araragi Koyomi, she had neither of those names, but is merely referred to by the narrator (Sakamoto Maaya, also Shinobu’s seiyu) as “the Beautiful Princess.”
The princess’ beauty was in fact so great that there was a portrait of her in the home of every one of her father’s subjects. Musicians and artisans came from all over the kingdom to offer her works inspired by her peerless beauty. The princess grew weary of all this, for she believed that none of them were actually seeing her, or cared about the princess beneath the beauty.
In a decision that would alter her destiny forever, the princess met an old witch who told her she could cast a spell that would eliminate her skin-deep beauty and bear her heart and soul to all around her. But this spell turned into a curse, as every single person who saw that soul believed that the only way they could express sufficient gratitude was to kill themselves in various awful ways.
Once everyone around the princess and most of the kingdom had passed away by their own hands, the head of the witch, who had beheaded herself shortly after seeing the princess’ soul, tells her that the only thing she can do is isolate herself from others, lest those others take their lives.
This is what the princess does, and it eventually leads to her becoming a vampire, jumping to Japan and creating a lake about two centuries later, and four centuries after that, being saved by a plucky high schooler in the subway.
