At 1500
As you exit an elevator, Hitsugi says these rooms are so pretty and huge, to build it under Vegas, what capacity does Earth Guide have? The room is nicely appointed, with wood paneling, carpets & fancy glass elevator doors. It's on the 6th floor (I guess under ground) as the elevator indicator arrow shows.  There’s a large executive style desk with hologram monitor, paperwork, and a chair. Behind the desk, through a large glass window, workers in suits can be seen working at computers and carrying papers around. It's a busy place below. Xiera says after entering the casino, we went further underground, and changed 2x elevators before getting here. It's a caution to prevent specific pinpoints. Enga's not sure how much it'd help with widespread Ether infrastructure. Things are getting lively, says a yellow hair man in a white suit. He has yellow eyes to match, and 1 hair grows out of the top of his head and sticks up, away from the rest. He has a purple...tie? & white pants. There are a few ear-edge earrings in one ear. He seems elegant.

He says its an honor to meet you He's Ardem Sacred, there are those that call him sir but that’s a title he holds. Correct, he's currently the leader of earth guide, and he'll shake Hitsugi's hand, and look forward to working with her. He's heard rumors about you, but is sorry to invite you to a place like this. (Not that it is badly furnished, but that it is a bit of a bunker)

Many Rumors?
Don't Worry About It.

If you try to get him to talk more by saying Many Rumors? He says didn't you hear from Enga? For some time now EG and ARKS communicate in secret. This view reveals that he has two bodyguard types who guard the elevator. They're in black suits with sunglasses and an ear-piece each. The things he's been told are that you're powerful, righteous, and have a kind heart. And, when he thinks that everyone came from an alternate dimension, it has him deep in thought. Hitsugi then says PSO2 not a game, its a window to the alternate dimension so technically your char is a space alien. She has trouble coming up with a label. Because of all the commotion, but it's actually a pretty big deal huh? Enga says it'd make scientists' heads spin. Now that he's gathered you all here for a reason, and that’s the current situation here on earth. The increase in MC activity is noticed by ARKS too. On Earths' side the EG has suffered losses, and the situation is grim. Enga fills in that previously many situations there was a stare-down, but now they've stopped caring, they're aggressively trying to destroy us. Maybe they were waiting until ready, or they needed to rush now, there's no way to know but the situation is bad either way.

Hitsugi wants to know what's MC's real motive though? What would they do after they destroyed EG? Ardem answers her with if they do, they'd be able to completely conquer Earth, EG is the last bastion of hope. In many ways their control of Ether infrastructure helped with wih that goal. But, that doesn't explain why they made PSO2 to try and infiltrate ARKS/Oracle.

Are they planning to take over our world too?
Is there something in our world they need?

Both of these are really good choices, but it should say 'dimension'. If you suspect Is there Something In Our World They Need? He says perhaps, there must be. Enga then says, so Ms. stupid younger  sister, former member of MC, what do you think? She commands him to stop talking to her like that but ponders his question anyway. It's been a while since she joined, and was told she was invited because she 'had experience'.

*Look at him crapping on her here too. As soon as someone new is in the room, who has not met her before, he’s right on top of calling her stupid in front of them, just as quickly as he can. Then, he outs her as a ‘former Mother Cluster’ right in front of the leader of it’s foe, Earth Guide. What if Ardem wanted to lock her in a cell as a spy? Asking a worthless question too, as if she could make a good guess at what Mother is seeking in the PSO2 dimension, it’s an impossible thing for a grunt like her to answer, so it sets her up to fail and look stupid/low/underling in front of his boss. It is entirely on purpose by Enga.

Naturally, Enga cuts her right off after her ‘unsatisfactory answer’ that he set her up to give. Enga says that likely refers to her ability to enter PSO2, which is an Ether ability in and of itself, so they're gathering people with an aptitude for it. Ardem feels they're looking to find people with high potential for learning different abilities of Ether would be like mastering technology, if you understand how it works, and devote yourself you'll get more powerful. Hitsugi wonders (logically) if it's something that can be mastered with hard work and practice, like manifesting a wep?  Ardem says the more your aptitude with Ether rises, the more you can do with it. (So, not exactly)

What's ill-explained here is for instance, Bethor. His weapons were 'dynamite' made of ether, but because he was so good at aptitude, he could do not only that, but make himself fly, levitate a camera, summon phantoms to do his bidding, summon fans that blow wind, and make himself to teleport/dissappear. So, it's more like adding skills in varying areas, rather than hard work at doing only one vocation. And, the more your aptitude goes up, the more widely varied things you can figure out to do, like what Bethor had done.

People without ether can go on pso2. But Mother is always collecting data, even if they don’t have the ether ability. The other role of the game is to scout aptitude people. If we use levels to show aptitude someone with low is 1. But diving in, you merge with the avatar and use your own body. Level 1 is discovered by mother and asked into the cluster. Level 2 can dive without an avatar. You can cross with your own body. Embodiment of weps becomes possible. So according to that Enga and Hitsugi are already level 2. Those that reach it become core of MC. Enga says that making use of MC gives them the ability to become successful in society like Hagith and Bethor. Ardem says among the core members, the 7 with the best abilities are known as Apostles, treated as Mother's closest aids. The benefits in society gained from being an Apostle must be something grand. Hitsugi understands that her and Kohri were invited because they got to level 1. While bringing in those who have experience, they hope that even if a fraction makes it to level 2, it'll be worth it. She's surprised EG figured it all out. He says they have a lot of influence too. Enga doesn't know what Ardem did, but he's got a real court rank, he's really Sir Ardem.

This part is all explained with simple graphics on the screen, rather than the people talking. The “Levels” here are ether levels, not like your level in the game. The part that still throws so much confusion around is the ‘dive’, and the ‘avatar’. No one ever says what it is, how it is created, how it works, and it still opens about 99 plot holes that’ can’t possibly be fixed with anything.
 “Oh yes your whole real body goes into the other dimension, with all your own powers so………please just jump up 9 ft in the air from a standing start and then start floating around shooting fireballs because that’s a thing you could always naturally do on earth. Then pick up 200 kilo sword as an 8 year old normal earth child using their normal body and do a 5 foot jump up then start levitating while throwing off energy blasts.”

You can easily see why they’re always glossing over it as hard as they can, it’s because with more than 2 seconds of thinking about any of it—it just does NOT WORK AT ALL and NOTHING MAKES SENSE. The PSO2 dimension does not turn people into super-heroes OR IT DOES and that they can’t figure out which one ruins the plot. Again, star-trek teleportation here and magically nobody’s amazed and nobody knows except the people who play the game by the 10s of thousands yet nobody cares or even thinks twice about it when their children vanish for hours at a time, then pop out of thin air in the living room going ‘great game hur dur’.

We now learn that this isn’t supposed to be ACTUAL Earth but ‘magic fiction Earth’. Or ‘earth-like place but magic was always real’. So, it’s another one of those really stupid universes where magic is real and always was, and there’s lots of clear evidence for it but most people just don’t believe in it anyway because we need to have plot points.
Like those “Santa Claus is real OMZGSZZ” movies where ‘the kids believe!’ and then the parents  NEVER wonder where all the extra, real gifts under the tree keep coming from, when both of them, one of them/whatever knows very well they didn’t buy them, or it’s tons of expensive stuff and both parents know they didn’t have the money / its impossible---yet they still deny Santa even when it goes on for years / their own childhoods were similar with genuine magic gifts appearing.

This next part is conveyed via a kind of fresco type animation rather than the characters talking. He confesses that before the existence of MC, they did have something close to weapon embodiment. To the general public it was called magic, a supernatural phenomenon kept secret for generations. Enga offers to show if she wants, but it's so tedious with magic circles, talismans and more. Earth Guide wasn't originally formed to fight MC. In the past, those with abilities formed earth guide to solve the mysteries of earth. Sorcerers and magicians, exorcist in Japan. Angels, devils, ghosts and more… it was to deal with normally unseen things. That said, they weren't common, EG had no problems controlling and concealing such things. *So, maybe a little like the magic version of Men In Black (MIB) , keeping the rare genuinely supernatural phenomenon under wraps…but why?

But that all changed 12 years ago. Hitsugi says, that's when Ether was discovered, ESCA got popular and MC formed. All over the world paranormal phenomenon became more frequent, and people awakening to their abilities increased. Enga confesses to being one of them.
But, even if people's abilities don't awaken, their fears of the people, a general image can take shape and form in their mind. Hitsugi concludes that if a Embodied Wep is a manifestation of will, then a phantom is a compilation of fears? Ardem confirms it. And now MC is controlling the phantoms to turn them against us, to ease conquest of Earth. Since ancient times, we protected the people from those that aren't human, and this is no exception. But MC's strength is great and with only their own power....So, he begs you, please let us borrow the power of ARKS and defeat Mother and return Earth to its proper path.

Suddenly an explosion/boom sound and shaking hits, and red lights flash. Alarms begin to go off all around the room and the work area below. Xiera says excessive ether readings detected! Alarms are blaring. Enga says they've come sooner than we thought, what do we do? Show them the will of Earth Guide. This is where the joint battle begins.  Enga says we're hard workers to take them on, head on. Here we go!

Now, you have to go out into Vegas Proper, under another of those ARKS isolation domes to fight off the phantoms that have been set loose by Mother Cluster.

In Vegas under the street that has pretty much a giant LED screen arch covering the whole thing, and all around on other streets and roof-tops are evil clowns. There are jugglers, but they’ve got knives and chain saws they’re not afraid to throw to you. Circus carriages are pulled by clown horses (yes the horse is dressed as a clown too) and will charge around. Sometimes, despite the carriage being about the size of a small car, an elephant head will pop out one side, and try to vacuum up a character with its trunk. (See, it’s wacky, and nothing makes sense!)
A clown with balloons (that attack you) rolls around on a ball (to attack). It looks like everyone in Las Vegas was afraid of clowns, because that’s all their phantoms manifest as. There are also birds sprinkled into the mix, the crows that you have encountered before (will throw sharp feathers, dive-bomb) and now vultures, which are larger. If you anger these, they’ll….turn their face into a giant bird foot and rush at you from the air. Because…..? Feet? Scary? Ok.

Ardem asks to destroy all phantoms that are causing destruction, and the quest begins. Xiera will highlight places on the map and you run to them to defeat the phantoms.  So, this is a guided spawn quest. It’s graded for time, so just rushing to each yellow highlighted area will make a set number of birds and clowns to appear and just run and gun till they are done. In big groups, they can actually be fairly dangerous, because they’re projectile-heavy and can sling a lot of fire from all directions.

The Devils Trailer appears at the end. This is a large, red semi-truck. The active part is the cab, with it’s metal-plated-over windows. It can change what it carries by manifesting different trailers. If it becomes a car-carrier (double decker) it’ll sling sedans at you. A tanker, and it’ll spill something cold that glasses the entire area to ice. It can blare the horn (create stun field) charge to run you over (it’s heavy)…but, being a very large truck cab, it’s turning radius is rather poor.

If you can defeat it,  Enga says we didn't find out who set all this off, so let's just go back for now.

The scene ends. 

This was quite a large scene that answered some things but created more questions.

Phaleg is lying – She’s not ‘a normal human’. Those don’t teleport on their own. She may not be using Ether or photons, but she’s using something.

We still don’t know what Mother needs out of PSO2 dimension.

IS Ether “Magic” that was ‘always present’ on earth? Hence, wizards and other bs?
What’s the point of Earth Guide making sure everyone thinks magic isn’t real? Why keep wizards a secret from the general public? How useful was it, even if Enga said it was hard to do? The EG would be badguys if they were suppressing healing 'magic' away from the public, but they would be fine if the only things 'magic' could be used for was creating weapons to hurt others, or making ghosts/phantoms to do your evil will/fear of the people and excorsize it for money later on. Their 'good guy bad guy' factor would be determined by what all 'magic' could and couldn't do.

How does defeating clowns in the street stop the earthquake from bothering EG HQ?

Unlocked by doing Aika's CO quest for 'extreme quest'.

When you return to find Aika after you did the Xtreme quest...
She's talking to someone already in her little area at the bottom of the bridge. The 'vice commander' voice will confirm that either photons or ether, its strongly influenced by emotions. But, it'll remind her to keep collecting more accurate data just like this.

What Are You Two Talking About?
What An Unusual Pairing.

Suddenly, those 2 options are presented. How would you 'hear' her ear-based conversation with the female voice? If you pick What Are You 2 Talking About? She is shocked and asks that you can see the Vice Commander? Just who ARE you?? Suddenly, Quna appears. She tells Aika it's all right, because you already know about 'us'. Aika is still surprised, how is it possible to see Quna? She doesn't answer her, instead, feeling nostalgic to the first time she encountered you. Aika wishes that she'd have informed her first.
Quna says she's still got her secrets, further jabbing at her with 'her time down on Earth'. She glares a bit, saying if she refers to Itsuki & Rina, then it's not worth keeping that secret. (These are the Anime characters, Genericboy & Genericgirl) Quna reminds her that during her stay, images of her in a waitress outfit began to circulate. Casra had it...she waves a green brick at her, probably to show that's where the photos are. This makes Aika upset that someone would have it, so she immediately claims duties elsewhere and runs off.

Why is this embarassing for her? It clearly IS, but what's the reason? Is it considered humiliating or 'low-brow' for a fighter to go into a service based industry for work? (If so, that insults service industry, which is wrong. Different jobs are important for different reasons.) Is it because the anime paraded her in a 'Hooters-esque' outfit because teen-tiddy fanservice & she's embarrased about putting her body on display for perverts in order to get something she needed (done/happen/money/spying/etc) because she was commanded to get it at all costs? (This is still a crappy reason for Quna to bust on her--following an order against one's will isn't something to be insulted about even if it's led you to do something out of character or zany.)

Why does Quna want rid of her that badly in this situation? Again, a simple single line 'oh YourGuy sees me because they always could, we can't explain it--I was shocked too' would 100% get rid of her without aggrivating her. Quna apologizes for the trouble, telling you that Aika's feelings for Earth are strong and she believes she pushes herself too much. This was supposed to be a good breather for her. Additionally...if that mischievous 4-eyes gets blamed along the way then that’s 2 birds with 1 stone, she scowls. (Meaning, of course, Casra)

Josephene Gets Found- guessed title

In the shops area, Io is in her usual place, but she is having a conversation with a Trim bird. She says you've come at a good time.  (Reminder that nobody ever confirms how smart the pets are. Are they really-smart-dog level like some border collie that knows 300 words and commands, or are they that plus like a dolphin or chimp that signs what they want? Or is it somehow almost like a person where if it could talk, it would, and understands a whole lot?)

Josephine?
Where Did You Find Her?

If you ask Josephine? (Is it? They all look the same.) She asks if that's the name of this creature. Io guesses that she's a pet from the SU clas, the ones that are devoted to the masters. She asks if its your pet, but you shake your head. Io asks it if it's really ok to be here and leave the master alone.

The bird makes a noise at her.
So, she says it's pretty friendly toward people and tells it 'good girl'.

From across the lobby, comes Pietro. He talks first to Reda, who shakes his head. Sadly, he looks around, ready to run off again but he sights Josephine. He yells her name and goes dashing over.

Io skeptically asks if he's the master.
He introduces himself, asking if she's a friend of his friend? (meaning you) She says you could say that but really it's upperclassman/freshman style, but nice to meet you Mr. Pietro. The bird turns to her, so she says nice to meet you too, Josephine.

This bird type has no resting animation...ever. It flaps its wings slowly, constantly, but not nearly fast enough for it to hover like it does, so it has sparkle glitter around the feet to indicate something else going on. The thing is probably 5 foot or so from wingtip to wingtip, with a body the size of probably a regular cat. It's a bit of a distracting creature with its levitation and constant flapping.

He says its time to go back home, so don't cause too much trouble. When he extends a hand to it, it bites him instead. He is sad (as always) asking if he doesn't show it enough love? Io wonders if he shows it too much love? She tells it that it needs to return to Mr. Pietro, this isn't where you belong. (In the lobby) It makes a bird noise at her, so she says to not look at her with such a face, she'll always be here so just come over when she wants to meet again. When it gets close enough to him, he is so happy he grabs and hugs it, making it flap more. He promises to never let it go again. Io shakes her head because 'maybe he'll never learn'.

And maybe nobody will ever learn why the pets hate him because this stupid plot point just won't quit.
What is this, like the 27th iteration of "Pietro love pet but pet hate Pietro & everyone just comments the same way?"

The scene ends.

In the office Ardem is on the phone, and he says he’ll go in person next time. Don’t worry, he can’t leave the issues alone so he’ll see them next time. As soon as he’s hanging up, you, Hitsugi & Enga all walk in to the office. She asks if anything has happened related to MC. He says its unrelated, he’s mediating disputes in the middle east. The leaders there are making unreasonable demands on each other and asking if we could step in. Hitsugi wonders if its like the ones in the news occasionally, does Earth Guide really get involved in that too? Enga answers her instead, saying EG was mainly to resolve conflicts and lay the foundation for peace. The actual oddity is the MC fighting.

Ardem cuts in, saying if you look at EG’s history the dealings with other countries affairs is strange too. It was founded to guide the world to the right path behind the scenes. (Yes, the ‘right’ as defined by who exactly?) Back then we investigate and deal with the paranormal, so it never took off. Only recently that people fought among each other so we deal with people now. (Only recently??? Is he serious? I guess World War 1 & 2 don't count, and they DID happen on this planet, remember Boaty n' Friends who the green man summoned a long time ago that the plot has seemingly forgotten about...that's a WW2 thing so his 'conflict is only recent herp derp' is...just patently untrue? Why lie like that?) Its said in the history of man is the history of conflict but that’s depressing. With his hands and influence he hopes to change things. Even just a little, but it doesn’t seem to go well.

Why must people fight each other?
He looks sad and introspects at this.

Xiera cuts in with phantom and people readings detected. Ardem tells Enga to be careful because he can’t change his mind, as Enga says it’s time to move out. Enga feels this isn’t honest encouragement though. Hitsugi begs to go too, so he explains it’s a fight against people, it’s different than Bethor. (Yes Bethor was a person but he relied on summons a lot so Enga is correct here) It’s a real fight, can you do it, cut down and kill another person?

She says of course, she’ll take down every MC member, and storms off to the elevator, you and Enga exchange a look and follow her in.

2028 4/15 at 1200

There are bat wing flying eyeballs roaming the sky, clowns in the streets and circus carriages on the patrol. Up on a roof, you can see Och, Ophiel, and the hooded figure that never really says anything. They’re all floating on their symbol-shelves.  Och stands over a hairy pink monster on a roof, lamenting she’s bored. The monster has horns, tiny bat wings, is rather fat dumpy, and hairy. It’s big, maybe 15 ft tall or so. It has pointy teeth and a constant ‘grin’, but it’s more like a child’s drawing of a monster than anything that's supposed to be reliably scary. The 'bat wing eye' is literally a sphere with small bat wings on the back and an 'eyeball like symbol' pattern on the front. It also has an 'eyelid like' exterior of leathery looking black skin.

Och is 100% bored. (Remember, this is the one who uses percentages in her speech all the time, and has long light reddish-purple hair) Ophiel says to know her place, remember the objective. Instead of this troublesome thing, we’d be fine with her and Phul. But pluhl needs to prepare something else.

She tells him to "Stop being 70% stuffy old man, but mother is a worrywart right Laplace?" The hairy monster nods. If Phaleg just blew everything away it’d work great, instead of this boring mess. Lets just ask her? He says she should Phaleg….but she says no way. (So, this means that even the MC officers or whatever these are don’t get along with Phaleg, and don’t want to fight her. This does match up with her earlier encounter & what was said about it.)

Opheil asks the hooded figure if its breathing and heart rate are high, is it ok? Well then you two, until the time is right he’ll leave them to it. At this, he opens up a rectangle portal and walks into it to simply vanish. Och laments working with a gloomy kid. But Enga shoots down her flying eyeball from a position behind them, as your team of 3 has reached the roof.

This upsets her, saying a sneak attack is rude, one of the Maxwells just got destroyed, so don’t you feel at least 40% sorry for it? (So, the bat wing eyeball is called Maxwell) Enga says he was raised crudely he’ll use every trick in the book, so he materializes a trap and tosses it at the demon. It explodes into flames and he opens fire on the fluffy pink demon Laplace. Ophiel does a bunch of fancy blocking with her blue force-field....rectangles and the Laplace isn't phased by the attack. However, the hooded figure was also in the general area, and loses the hood in the scuffle, because it wasn't well attached to the Mother coat outfit.

This reveals…Kohri was under the hood. Hitsugi tells her to stay away from the demon, as soon as she sees who it is. Hitsugi fears that the Laplace will attack her (irrational, it wouldn't attack someone in Mother clothing). Instead, Kohri chooses to run away by ducking past the Laplace and jumping off the roof. (The building is about 5+ stories high, it's not shown with fire escapes or ladders....because it's simply...not shown. She somehow gets down safely because she probably can summon the 'mother symbols floating shelf' which you saw her upon before at least twice.) Hitsugi jumps off the roof after Kohri. This leaves yet ANOTHER ginormous plot hole which is how does Hitsugi get down safely? She does, and it's NEVER EXPLAINED. This whole stupid episode is all about how normy-normal earthy-folksies are so noooormal and isn't it cool to have TOONTOWN on EARTH GUYS??? Such CONTRAST but then like.......they pull stupid-ass stunts like this every other minute with indestructable main characters and people doing outrageous things and no one bats an eye. It seems "nit-picky" to single out this one incident but it's like....they're doing it all the bloody time! If the world has flying people and always has-had, then they're normal. But if nobody's ever seen a winged man before having everyone be like "oh how ordinary" when the dude takes off is stupid. If these earthlings are supposed to be normal, make them normal. They won't though, because whoever wrote this bit doesn't care. Och says the 60 percent sexy guy will die 100% if he looks away from the demon. (This criticises Enga for watching Hitsugi jump off the side of the building) She instead address you, as 200% dangerous. That’s why I, Och Miller, came to deal with you personally. Her pink symbol appears, and she says the fight is 100% hers, so lets’ go. She jumps onto her floating pad, Enga says bring it on over his gun, and 2 eyeball things spawn.

Now, you have to fight the Laplace demon and the Maxwell demons. The maxwells will flap around and try to get close to you before doing an 'eye ray' at you. They can also cause explosions. The Laplace initially is able to manifest a force-field around itself of 'mother like' pattern. Defeating the maxwells either drops or lowers this defence, and you can hit it. It can do physical swipes, jump up and crash down, and produce a large eyeball on its chest area which shoots out a ray to try to get you. Over-all, this bunch isn't too difficult to defeat, though, more maxwells will keep appearing no-matter what unless you focus totally on the big monster.

If you beat it....

4/15 at 1200 This is a simultaneous event. This event happens WHILE you battle the Laplace on the roof.

Kohri manages to not get away from Hitsugi, who has run after her asking that she’s safe. She thanks her for making up the excuse at school, but why are you here, why are you with them? All this while, Kohri won't turn around to face Hitsugi, which gives a definite vibe that something is wrong.

Kohri says stop and won’t turn around.
Hitsugi says details don’t matter, she’s just glad she’s ok. Kohri says just shut up and stop talking, she's really mad now, because Hitsugi has rambled at her in her thankfullness-speech. Kohri says she’ll free her, return her back to normal. She’s being manipulated, Mother told her so. She looks sad. Hitsugi denies it of course. Kohri doesn’t believe her, there’s nothing to worry about because she’ll save her. She protected her, she was always there, and she rescued her. At this, she summons a big dark sword with a web in the base. It’s an embodied weapon that dusts off sparkling purple and pink energy that floats up/off. Hitsugi is shocked to see this sinister looking weapon. Kohri tells her with some disdain that it is Gram*. How can you not know Norse? You’re being controlled by someone else and this is proof, because you were always so into mythology. This is the power that exist to save her, strength to rescue her. She was rescued by Hitsugi, so…this time she’ll save her. She just keeps repeating this.

*Gram is a famous fictional sword, and its name means 'wrath'. It was used to kill a dragon named Fafnir, in old Norse mythos. However, it’s likely it didn’t look like that because this has a gothic crown near the hilt, bat wing...apparatus near the handle that would be nigh-impossible to hold, a knuckleduster arch also on the handle area, is about probably 6 feet or so long and maybe a foot plus wide at the base, and has a big spider web of metal wire in the center of the base. You can kind of see why nobody would guess this as Gram upon first sight. This thing is over the top & if it wasn't embodied, nobody'd be able to lift it properly unless it was like Goku or something, which Kohri here...is not.

Kohri’s outfit also changes when she summons the sword. Before, she had the usual white/light blue Mother coat outfit and the hood, but because the hood flew off during the Laplace reveal, her hair is out. This also changes her hair, so it has weird…strips…ribbons? Of it across her face so you sort of can’t see parts of it. The new modified outfit shows she’s wearing a corset with exposed lace up front (belly shower), garter belted up white leather thigh highs, and 2 separate round boob cups at the top of the corset (think zany coconut-bra gaggy costume) that are hitched together by 1 leather strap. She also has on a dog collar with metal loop lead on the front. (The loop lead is a mother symbol and the collar has holes like a belt.) The coat has changed to a festoon of criss-cross….belt…straps that are stiff & form a long skirt like shape.

The whole thing is kooky and like….super unfitting for shy Kohri? Like, a dog collar? Really? And we tie the boobies together because? This is probably meant to illustrate that 'shes off her rocker' and so is doing everything opposite of how she usually would like 'messy' hair and 'sexy outfit'.

Now, she dashes at Hitsugi.

At 1230
Och jumps down once you defeat the demon. Something’s wrong, that’s 100% impossible, what’s wrong with you? Enga says that her reckoning is at hand, as he draws down on her with his semi automatic ether gun that he always manifests. She swears and portals out in a rectangle. Enga aggravates at her dissappearance, but is disrupted immediately by Ophiel appearing behind, but still on the roof. He’s in the air. Now, you can see that he wears a stethoscope, for some reason. (His earlier heart-rate comments & the stethescope, plus is age (clearly an adult maybe 40s? man) suggest that you're supposed to think he's a doctor of some kind)

Ophiel says that’s what happens when you underestimate someone.
She tells him to shut up, she didn’t need him saving her. (So, perhaps the portaling out wasn't her own doing) He’s aware of that, but he didn’t come to save her because the time is at hand. They both vanish in ether cubes while Enga is shocked. Xiera cuts in saying there’s an emergency because Hitsugi is—battling.

They’re duking it out at at the base of a rollercoaster with the embodied swords. Yes there's a rollercoaster in the courtyard of this builidng. For reasons. Because they got off the top of the building without stairs….somehow. Hitsugi says Kohri is being tricked. She denies it (still,), and says Hitsugi is the tricked one. But, this weapon and the strength are all attained because she desired it, and Mother had nothing to do with it. She’s here of her own free will to save her. Hitsugi questions it, but they clash again. Kohri pushes down on the blade and Hitsugi has to crouch to counter her. Kohri asks why she’s in a different place, on a different side? What does she hope to accomplish? Hitsugi throws the blade off, and says ‘I am…’.

Kohri takes that as a ‘can’t answer’, and this is further proof she’s tricked and controlled. Hitsugi claims she’s finally decided for herself, why she fights, why she uses her strength. Kohri asks why she’s lost then. (Kohri interrupts her here, she doesn't wait for Hitsugi's claim sentence to finish speaking.) She’s said it before though, she’s someone who keeps moving forward without hesitation (true) but doesn’t want to see this lost version of Hitsugi. If you’re not tricked or controlled, then strike her down! She drops gram. She opens her arms, just like Phaleg did that day. Hitsugi brandishes the katana at her but, of course, won’t stab her.

What’s wrong, move forward without hesitation and it’ll be ok to be slain by her so just do it. At this she remembers Phaleg doing the same thing, in a sepia-tone memory. Now, Kohri says its confirmed that it’s not real Hitsugi so she’ll Kill hitsugi to save her. This is just here to show how off the deep end Kohri really is, because 'murder me to prove you are my best friend' is 100% illogical, to borrow from Och.

With renewed vigor, Kohri attacks again, breaking Hitsugi's blade. Gram gets a hit across her shoulder that makes her roll on the ground screaming. Kohri tells her that it is a weapon created from lies so it broke so easily. She’ll kill the fake Hitsugi now, so just wait and it’ll be ok. She aims Gram at her, and says don’t be afraid because it only hurts now, at first and then she’ll return to normal, Mother will make her normal again. Hitsugi begs her not to come closer but she’s walking up with the tip still aimed, so Kohri says it’s not really her and then stabs her in the gut with the sword. Purple goo comes blasting out of her back, and her hair bow falls off.

Kohri says it won’t be longer now that she’s done it, just a little longer and she can return to normal. She laughs and laughs at what she’s done, but the sparkle goes off the sword as she holds it, laughing at the sky. Hitsugi’s cuts now have that darker dust coming out of them, and she just lays on her back on the ground. It seems whatever badness power the sword had, has been transferred to her, and will kill her in short order.

At 1300

Xiera sees that Hitsugi is struck down and yells at you to get there, or she’ll surely die. Aru frets that she’s crying. (She is not, and has not cried the entire time, he must be seeing an emotional state or a mental state she's in as 'crying') He says to hold on, he’ll come to rescue her. He changes in an orb of light into a black outfit of short-shorts, vest, and ….kitty cat ears with crystals in them. The outfit has the fancy shoulder-bits & collar that resemble the outfits of Falz-helper people & actual Falzes like Gettemhart & Apprentice. The jacket flares at the bottom, but big surprise, he’s in thigh high boots too because….everybody has to be in thigh highs. The outfit even comes complete with a kitty cat tail. He then vanishes from Xieras’ room. He appears over Hitsugi. Kohri sees him and asks why he’s here. He (rightfully) ignores her, or even doesn’t hear her as his focus is Hitsugi only.

He says please don’t cry or be sad. It was you (your char) and her that saved him from the darkness, he won’t let her die! He reaches a hand to her and a big blast of blue light comes out, towering up to the sky. All along, someone has suspected she’s right. She’s been waiting him to wake and show his strength. This is another woman, with dull blue hair, somewhere else, also wearing a Mother style clothing. She’s up high again, and watching the scene for who knows since when. Is this the person who was up way high in silhouette earlier making comments?

Enga and you then arrive, Xiera asks how is this possible. Her wounds are being healed as Aru helps and Hitsugi regenerates as his photons help her. As this blue blast is going on, the purple/pink dust and lines from Gram-stabs are fading away.
Och and Ophiel portal in, unaware of what’s been going on down here 100%. Ophiel says he doesn’t know why some kid is here, either but he understands why they were sent now. (They were pretty surely sent to observe or lure out Aru, or you & Enga, and now that Aru is doing a fancy trick, they’re getting what they wanted. They were sure he would do something fancy, or you would...and either way they'd know about it.)

Aru says no need to cry now, he made it better. But he slumps over and appears to sleep. Ophiel says it’s time to capture the target, so Och makes a bat to get him and Enga shoots it. Ophiel says he’ll separates the target Aru with his blue cube, but you whack the cube with a sword and his summoning of it breaks down. He uses hand gestures to manifest the cubes and portals where he wants them. He then summons it again and steals Hitsugi instead, making her vanish. Its not ideal but it’s the secondary goal, and all they can do for now. He then takes Kohri too, who has fallen over for no reason. Enga opens fire on them, but they vanish too quickly from their point in the sky.

Xiera says all readings are gone, Enga flails his guns and curses them all. Aru mumbles that he’s here by her side and it’ll be ok.

The chapter ends.

Most of the dialogue in this one boils down to “No U!”
Kohri’s outfit change, wacky hair and strange way of talking plus her repetitiveness all pile up to give the idea that she’s probably either possessed or crazy somehow. She can’t seem to decide if stabbing ‘fake Hitsugi’ will somehow free the real one, or if stabbing this real Hitsugi will somehow let Mother reset her to ‘normal’.

Of course Hitsugi’s not going to murder her, and not fight her in 100% earnest (to borrow from Och) because whatever this is, looks like her best pal. Hitsugi was always going to lose this one because of the simple fact that she isn’t actually crazy and won't murder someone who's after her like this.

Why does Aru’s outfit look so Falz-ey?
What is he really that he can manifest on Earth too, without Xiera’s help in teleporting?
Why would he dress as a kitty cat boy? (Is that creepy?)
Is he an Ether construct and that’s how he can do it? But he’s got photon too…
Healing Hitsugi by drawing out the bad dust is logical/within a power-set that someone would have, even Matoi or someone doing a resta could be similar.

Hitsugi is the better 'catch' here because they won't murder her on the spot like they would Aru. Mother probably doesn't consider Aru to be alive, so they'd take him apart right away upon capture to see how he worked.
They'll use Hitsugi as bait to draw everyone into more fights though, that's for sure.