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In the Arcueid and Ciel routes, Roa appears with long black hair in "Western"
clothes.

[![Roa.](https://i.stack.imgur.com/a52NC.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/a52NC.png)

However, I'm currently playing the Hisui route, and I've seen that the
original Shiki Tohno appears in Japanese clothing with short white hair at the
very end. (For what it's worth, the adopted Shiki in this route doesn't know
about Roa, but _the player_ does since she must have had to complete either
the Arcueid or Ciel route first to play this route, and the information
appears there.)

[![Original Shiki Tohno in Hisui
route.](https://i.stack.imgur.com/IVTi9.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/IVTi9.png)

Yet regardless of the route, Roa and the original Shiki Tohno (which some
translations name SHIKI) should be the same person. (The identity of the next
reincarnation of Roa should have been decided by Ciel years before any of the
different choices leading to different routes were made.) If so, why is there
such a discrepancy between the appearance of Roa in the "Near Side of the
Moon" routes and the Hisui route (and possibly other "Far Side of the Moon"
routes)?


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2015-10-09T04:28:14.167
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2015-10-17T18:10:20.210
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question
tsukihime
Why is Roa's appearance in the Hisui route different from that in "Near Side of the Moon"?


It's because Roa is inside the body of SHIKI Tohno, Akiha's blood-related
brother, from before the start of the game as SHIKI was locked away inside the
mansion after his Inversion Impulse

> until Kohaku released him knowing he would kill his father, who sexually
> abused her as a child.

It is not true that:

> Yet regardless of the route, Roa and the original Shiki Tohno (which some
> translations name SHIKI) should be the same person.

Roa is in love with Arcueid while SHIKI is in love with Akiha. This shows that
between the "Near Side of the Moon" and "Far Side of the Moon" Shiki is
confronting a different person. The Near Side Roa is after Arcueid while in
the Far Side SHIKI is after Akiha.

The discrepancy between the two is caused by who the dominating will of the
two is. In the Far Side routes, SHIKI's will dominates (while in the near side
it is Roa's that dominates).

> SHIKI is the main antagonist during the "Far-Side Moon" routes, the stories
> of Akiha and Hisui. SHIKI's inversion impulse keeps Roa from exerting his
> will over him, resulting in a very deranged individual obsessed only with
> getting revenge on Shiki for stealing everything from him. Roa doesn't have
> an appearance in these stories besides a brief mention from SHIKI that
> something in his mind wants to take over.

Source: [Roa - Akiha's Route (1st
Paragraph)](http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Roa#Akiha.27s_route)

The appearance change would probably be related to who the dominating will is.
For instance, in his previous reincarnation, Roa styles his new body to suit
himself as with Elesia, who looks different from Ciel today.

On the Type-moon Wikia page you'll also notice that Roa and SHIKI share the
same page in much the same way [Saber/Saber-Alter/Saber-
Lily](http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Saber_\(Fate/stay_night\)) do.


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answer