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PSO2 Story Guide Episodes 4-5
The story of PSO2 has many chapters & is very long.
This isn't meant to be a substitute for the game, or as a transcript of the entire script/plot, but rather a way to understand, read-up-on, speculate, analyze & get a really good idea of what's going on in the game.
This section is for Chapters 4 and 5 ONLY. For all the plot before this, see the Story Hub. Because the game is divided up over these sections, the plot will be as well.
Character Guide
Planets/Areas Guide
Special Quest Mission Write Ups
Color key
Green Text: Speculation or opinions
What You Do/The official "Party Line" appears in RED TEXT
Bold Text: Important information
Choice Options: Blue Text
Dates & Times (Story is time travel related) Purple Text
Story Guide HUB

Hitsugi’s Wehereabouts
241 4/17 at 1100
Xiera can’t track Hitsugi despite gesturing at her screens. Aru looks sad, and Enga thanks her for trying. You stand by and an option appears

Enga I’m Sorry…
I’m Sure Hitsugi is OK

Neither one of these are optimal choices, because the 2nd one is just placating because no one could know her status, and the first one is just an emphasize that the situation is bad. If you say Enga…I’m Sorry…He says it’s not your fault, its his idiot sister that rushed in, it sounds terrible but she got what was coming to her. Wow really guy? Aru is sorry she got taken instead of him. He tells him he didn’t do anything wrong, if he hadn’t been there she’d of died. Xiera confirms this, her biometrics showed that for a brief time she was actually dead. She did confirm the vitals returned to normal after Aru helped, she wasn’t able to get another signal afterwords. He asks if she’s ok (rhetorically, gloomy) Enga says that the target is Aru, they wouldn’t throw away a pawn like Hitsugi easily…so they’ll use her as bait to lure Aru in. (very true) Like a hostage exchange. Aru swears if it’ll save her, he’ll do anything. Enga corrects him about making dumb choices, he’s Hitsugi’s savior, and his little brother now, he won’t just hand him over.

Xiera says that the decision anyone makes will be based on what MC does. It’s irritating waiting, she wants to get her back as soon as possible but…Of course Enga won’t sit around and do nothing, don’t you agree, Ardem? Ardem phones in saying that they do know the location of the MC base. It’s existed since ancient times, it was said to drive people insane and was avoided for that reason but it is still close to us. The base is on…The MOON! It’s impossible to go there with our own technology, but with ARKS backing us, it would be a different story. Ardem is sure that Hitsugi is there, but it’s the enemy’s big base. It sounds harsh but if Enga goes there, he will die. Enga knows, he has no intent of dragging anyone with him, he’ll rescue her by himself. The logical thing to do would be to abandon the stupid sister, and it’s absurd to ever think of handing over Aru. That’s why he’ll go himself, he’ll go right into the base and get her back. Aru worries, so he pats him on the head and says not to, he’ll def. bring her back.

You step forward. He asks what then? Is his lecture on selfish actions running too long?

There’s Two People On This Rescue Mission
You Needed The ARKS Strength, Right?

(Of course, you’re stepping up to the plate here, which is the right thing to do) If you say You Need The ARKS Strength, Right?
He asks what do you mean? Xiera clears him up with that the condition of us transporting you to the moon is that you’ll go too. She chides him that the older brother is like the younger sister when it comes to rushing off. After all we’ve been through, he can’t leave us behind now because we’re all worried about Hitsugi. He laments that his stupid sister, he’s jealous about how much people seem to like her. If you’re really going to tag along, he’ll rely on your full support. You nod. Aru wants to save her too. Enga can’t promise his safety on the enemy base, he’ll bring her back, so just you wait. Enga yells at Ardem to not think to stop him. Ardem asks if there’s nothing he can say to change his mind? Not a chance, not even the threat of firing him. As an EG, protecting the people since ancient times…he believes he’s doing the right thing here. He’ll send over the coordinates, so you & Xiera, please take care of Enga. Enga looks out the window, and tells Hitsugi to wait for him.

The scene ends

There’s a good bit to unpack here.
Why is the moon “Impossible to Get To”?
Yet the moon base “Makes People Insane”?
Either you CAN go to the moon but go crazy, or you can’t go to the moon at all. You can’t have it both ways that people never got there but then they also did and went crazy. And how did anyone sneak off to the moon? (MC is using her cube ability to cube people up there, that's how) Rockets from anywhere are really big and really obvious. You’re not going to send up a manned crew and a lander without anyone knowing.
And if this is supposed to be Earth, how was there 'a base there in ancient times'. Cave men didn't go to the moon. This is more fantasy-stupid-fluff where they want "earth and normal people wow!" but they ALSO want "funky magic land with wizards and BS and ancient aliens, and ghosts are real, and superhero x-men are real." It doesn't work! Why make it 'Earth" at all then? There's no bloody point in it if it's magic-fantasy-town without rules.

Of course, the inter-galaxy-faring ARKS would feel that a simple moon trip is easier than pushing a pebble along the ground. You’d HAVE to have them, and their teleport ability to get there.

Enga doesn’t/didn’t pay ANY attention to Hitsugi’s life AT ALL
He has no idea Kohri was ‘her best pal and only friend’ and that they were ‘saving each other from loneliness and nerdyness’. You can absolutely see it in how he hates on her for running off after Kohri and completely has zero understanding of why she would. So he screams ‘stupid stupid’ all day and never looks into WHY she would do anything---and to really pile on abusive/ignorance he never even asks her, when he gets any chances. It’s just yell, lecture and blame.
Socially isolated smart kids like that, if they get even 1 friend that thing becomes like family and they’ll go absolutely bonkers to protect the friendship. It’s basic math, but Enga probably doesn’t even know who Kohri is because he pays no attention.

It’s unsurprising that Aru was able to bring her back.
She was infested totally with the red dust, and he was able to undo it with his super resta powers or whatever. This is a thing that shouldn’t be too outstanding to ARKS because…well…resta.

“Got what was coming to her.”
Aru should’ve punched him for this. Xiera should have punched him in the head for it right after. Xiera KNOWS (shes a spying perv busybody) how close Hitsugi & Kohri were and how much both of them had no friends before each other. A single line after to crush him should have been “Look, you punk, Hitsugi had ZERO friends before Kohri, who she thought of like a sister but you never paid any attention, so what you’re feeling right now is what Hitsugi was feeling on that roof-top for Kohri so of course she’d go try to save her just like what you’re doing now. If standing up for a friend is getting a death that’s coming to her, you’re the villain here.”

Huey in: The Right People in the Right Places
Huey explodes out of a rocky cave in the ice region of Naberius. He says it’s good to see you here. Claris he hears from occasionally, but it’s different meeting in the field like this, you got a genuine feeling.

What’s Up?
I’m Glad You’re Doing Well.

If you ask What’s Up? He says nothing in particular, he’s just doing a periodic stroll through Naberius. He ended up in command of the Combat Unit, but that doesn’t matter because this is the supremacy in the action. You called it Earth? Because of our response to that planet in another dimension, our response elsewhere in this dimension, our dimension…has become insufficient. Thus, he and Claris will patrol whenever they are free. He understands the issues that are on Earth but ARKS has lingering darker problems. There is no way about what we should prioritize, it’s being the right person in the right place.

With an elaborate series of gestures, he exclaims you are here! He is there! When required we help each other that’s what comrades are for! That’s why he’s happy and reassured about your return. He believes he’s heard a voice calling for help, and thus jumps away into the sky. The scene ends.

Huey is refreshing to see again.

The Heart’s Whereabouts
Time static 2028 4/17 at 1200
What does the time-static (thing that would usually appear if Xion was showing you something you couldn’t possibly see, or was changing the time period you’d appear in) here mean? It shows you something you would never, ever be able to see as a character. So, it is literally ‘a plot happening’ which is required for the story to make sense, but can have no explanation with how the story is set up. So, it’s kind of the plot breaking the 3.5th wall at you.


The setting is a dome of transparent hexagons.
You can see the blackness of space outside, and some stars. The ground is rocky and gray, with other domes in the background. This is clearly meant to be the moon. Several people in the white Mother type outfits are gathered around Hitsugi, who is on a white operating-table like thing in the middle of the room.

Ophiel is running bright rings of light over Hitsugi on the bed. (His gesture based ether-use)  Kohri asks how is she doing? Do you know why she won’t wake up? Och says impossible she was 100% dead, stabbed in the stomach its really disturbing. Phul says there could be zombies, that is what is really, actually disturbing. But…She’d love to see one, and turns to Kohri to ask “does the sword make them?”
This question is insensitive…
But Kohri doesn’t seem to hear it at all. She frets and sways, lamenting that Mother said it was the only way to save her. Mother says that she did indeed tell her that, only she didn’t expect the level of power to be in Kohri.

Mother is A PERSON!
There’s someone sitting on a large/tall chair at the head of the room. It’s an ordinary looking beige woman with dark blue hair. She has on ruffle top thigh highs (because thigh highs!), a double ruffle skirt that buttons up, and a long sleeve jacket. The jacket has a higher collar in back with more ‘mother symbol’ glowing blue. This is VERY likely to be the person you kept seeing from behind perched on tall things and contemplating the action. She seems older than a teen, but younger than one might expect. Her eyes are blue. This one calls herself MOTHER.
This is pretty surprising. The story was kind of leading on that it’d be an ether-alien thing, a computer program, or something weird like Xion, but nope, normal lady. Kudos to the plot on this one for making a surprise.

 She goes on to tell Kohri you have the apologies of Mother, she has allowed her friend Hitsugi to be hurt by her own hands she’s sorry. What exactly WAS Mother's real intent setting Kohri after Hitsugi like that then? For them to just battle evenly until Aru rushed in so they could snatch him? Mother doesn't seem THAT bad that she'd have a kid go kill another upon one of her lies, but really, what was she expecting?
Korhi says its not Mothers fault at all. Ophiel completes his ether based analysis, everything’s normal there’s no reason she should be comatose.

Mother says the problem is in her heart.
Kohri wonders at this, so she explains that the embodiment of ether is the manifestation of will. She embodied her weapon with an unsure will, and because of that it broke so now she’s heartbroken. Weapons can be created over and over, but only because of your will power. However, if your will gets crushed…Ophiel says that she lost the will to live? It sounds too poetic for him, but…somehow logical.

 Kohri asks mother can return her to normal right? Opheil gets in her way (As she looked to Mother, he literally jumps right in front of her face very close and at an odd angle—it’s creepy—because up until now he’s been the most normal-acting and speaking one out of all of them.) Asking to eliminate those who deceived Hitsugi? …she says yes it was the ARKS and your char who have broken her heart, just erase them, right? Exactly, he confirms, then, if you do that, Hitsugi will return to normal like before. Mother closes her eyes at this. Kohris says to just wait and see, she’ll save her…no matter what, she’ll never have to suffer again. She slumpily goes forward, picks up her Gram-Sword, and, leaving the blade on the floor drags off with her sword and everyone watches her go.

Mother says to manipulate a child like that, even for her sake, she doesn’t approve of such things. Ophiel tells her that he does understand her discontent…however, it’s all for our objective. Please don’t let it bother you, if someone must dirty their hands I’d rather the role fall to me. He leaves, and as soon as the door closes…

Och speculates ‘yeah right’ to his role, she wonders how he really feels, maybe he’s a pervert that likes young women? Phul asks Och if she’s upset that Mr Ophiel rescued her? This angers Och…which with a stutter lends credibility to Phul’s accusation. In any case, the real danger is that Kohri kid because loving someone too much is really dangerous, she had her 50% shivering. Phul says they’re yandere types, it’s good reference material, so she’ll take notes.

The Conclusion and speculation here are stupidly off base. Ophiel's role is to lie to Kohri to set her out to murder people who stand in Mother's way over the false-pretense that killing other people will bring Hitsugi back to life. Mother feels guilty about having a clearly brain-washed teen set out to kill people on her behalf.

It seems like a habit among girls here to false-flag literally everyone as a pedophile who they don’t like, or is doing something that’s annoying. That, in itself, is super wrong because the accusation is so serious that crying wolf on literally every male who does something displeasing is horrible to do. It ruins everything for actual victims, and makes the false-accuser look like the worst scum.

What is a yandere?
The word is a mash of 2, but you get love struck or love sick out of those two words. However, it doesn’t mean that when describing someone. It’s more like ‘a love obsession person’ where their target or people around it are in danger from them because they’re ‘crazy in love’ and will harm others who ‘get in the way of the love’ or harm the love interest if it doesn’t reciprocate or things don’t go their way. It is not a desirable trait.

Och asks Mother(Who has ignored their pettiness right here) is she really ok? She felt 80% dangerous since the beginning. Phul says that there’s established evidence that a Yandere is hard to deal with whether it is friend or foe. Mother gets up out of her chair, saying all that doesn’t matter. Her heart won’t be broken so easily…Kohri is trying to save Hitsugi with all her own will, obtaining power to do so. She’s sure Ophiel has a hand in it, but her desires are pure. (Remember, she IS ACTUALLY psychic) Meaning, Ophiel sweet-talking her into setting off after ARKS is fine, but not what motivated her.

She then calls both by name Och Miller & Phul Janice Lasswitz, she’s sorry the duties placed upon them were so tough, please forgive her cowardice. Phul says no need to apologize, Och assures her that they 100% understand it’s their role, she’s the one who did the calculations for it, after all. Phul restrained herself on the last mission, but all preparations are complete for the next so leave it to us. This is something only they can do, so they’ll do it 200% to Mothers wishes.

They nod, and Phul says Mother saved them and Och tells her that age has nothing to do with ability-- only mother understood and acknowledges that fact and also us. Thanks to Mother, Phul can advance her writing, Och can her calculations, we learned all kinds of things we never could have otherwise. They then put their hands together to team up. That’s why we use all power for mother, even if throwing away our lives we’ll have no regrets.Mother is who saved them, who were on the verge of being excluded from society, so they’ll never forget her kindness.  Let us repay our debt, “for treating us like people” that’s the first reminder-note she ever made. Mother is so proud to have met both of them. They nod.
The Scene Ends

So.
Mother knows how to get a hold of people. Approach nerdy kids in school who are bullied and just be nice to them and make them feel valuable. Kohri and Hitsugi were exactly the same situation as these two. So, the bigger question here is were these two suicidal? Did they have clinical depression? Or were they just angsty teens. It seems more serious than angsty teen, perhaps Mother can cure actual mental illness issues with her pshycic-ness whether she knows it or not.

What’s NOT apparent until now:
Phul and Och are supposed to be huuuge nerds, social failures, repulsive girls. The problem with this is: they are not. They’re both beautiful, even by game standards. One says percentages a lot, the other takes silly notes and that’s supposed to equate them to Steve Urkle or TIMMAY from South Park or something where people just dump on this character for being so bizarre/different/nerdy/unsocial or obnoxious. (Urkle was obnoxious and even slightly self-aware--go wiki look-up the character, that's literally what these 2 are supposed to be, Urkle wasn't shunned because he was 'super dorky looking' (though that was part of it) it was because of how he acted/snorted/hit on girls always/ruined things) With how they designed AND wrote these two, it’s exceptionally hard to believe ‘everyone in school, town and their family hated them for being so gross/nerdy/and bad’. You CAN make poorly looking female characters in the game, but as a trope that’s so boring, “females are not allowed to be unattractive, ever, unless it is their personality that is bad”. So, it follows this trope because of course it does, since this whole section of the game is off its rocker.

Take a bet: Mother can’t fix Hitsugi, they’re just lying to Kohri because they know she’s off her nut and in a daze/trance when she’s like this.

Hitsugi in: I wanted a place where I belong
A time static
2028 4/17 at 1230

On the moon base, in a hangar, some purple wall of swirls appears. Hitsugi is still on her hospital style bed, but she’s alone in the big hangar like area. Now, she feels she’s in the water. Where am I? She wonders, then remembers she was cut down by Kohri. This is a dream like state, with sparkles, squares, and the feeling of under water or sitting in water. She appears here with her hair down, and curled up (knees to chest, fold arms) maybe without her clothes.
Did she die? But then…Why did she hear Aru’s voice? (It says he wont let her die) She thinks it doesn’t matter, she doesn’t matter, why should she care? She still feels she didn’t know what she wanted to do, needed to do, she was just following the flow. (No, in that instance she wasn’t, she was super duper determined to save Kohri that she’d throw caution to the wind. Kohri only got her with the ‘ok kill me I’m unarmed’ trick) She feels its all her fault and doesn’t want to do anything. She has no worth, her weapon was broken when she lost, she’s no use to anyone. She was never meant for this kind of thing, she never wanted it, she just did it because people told her to. Joining the council, helping MC, saving Aru was just…SHE was the one who wanted to be saved, father and mother went away and big bro would never look at her, everyone left her behind and she was scared she kept trying and trying, even trying her best….but

No one protected her, no one was by her side. She cries, tired, no more, sick of being a good girl. She hates being scared and pain and suffering and alone and doesn’t want to feel it any more. She shakes her head, upset. What to accomplish? What are her intentions she knew the answer all along…She wanted a place where she belonged, she wanted to protect the things she loved, that’s all she really wanted but…Why? What did she do wrong/where did she go wrong? Someone, tell her! She’s sick of it all…she calls to Kohri, bro, Aru, & you. She then folds up more, glooms harder, and the scene ends. A tear comes out of her eye on the hospital bed.

This further paints Enga as a villain.
Yeah sure he's so self absorbed with 'being the man of the house' in the absence of the parents & earning money from EG that he neglects Hitsugi....in his own mind 'helping Hitsugi' by 'stepping up to the plate' and being the big earner & role model. HE thinks he's the big helper here & she should be grateful he's so amazing.
However: he never saw beyond his own nose in that every word he has for her is "bad, stupid, immature little sister doing wrong", and why every interaction they have starts and ends that way, or with her yelling at him. He also seems incapable of listening to her, specifically. He's shown clearly listening to other people, but never her. And nobody puts him in his place over it! Hitsugi IS RIGHT, nobody ever stands up FOR HER. Not in front of Xiera, not in front of Ardem, not ever. That's why your character is included in her sad rant, you don't stick up for her vs Enga at the numerous opportunities he gives you.

No one told her to save Aru
Look back: they didn't. She instinctivly helps him, it's 100% her.
But all the rest, yes. Student Council=peer pressure, MC=mother AND peer pressure, so yes that was being told. But saving Aru, hiding Aru at her own risk, all that was her. She wasn't happy with it...but she also never quit either. It's no wonder she won't come out of the funk she's in.

Chapter 5 Because I have Decided So:  Resolution

A shuttle ship takes off for the moon. It clearly finds some place to land unmolested, because you & Enga get out of it and into a large/wide hallway hanger type place. It has big windows & the ceiling is also transparent.
 Enga marvels MC built something so giant on the moon. Xiera says that Ardem says it was used to spread Ether across the earth. Under the cooperation of various nations, even after Ether was dispersed the transpiration of raw materials to the moon continued to take place & the reason why is unclear. Enga says everyone’s wasting money on this. Not only is the air normal but gravity is fully controlled. (Remember, the moon has only 1/6 of Earth gravity, but it appears normal here) Advanced tech is indistinguishable from magic they say…but I wonder which one this is…

It’s Clearly Science.
Perhaps it’s magic?

It can’t be magic, because every time when you boil stuff down in this entire multiverse, it suuuuper rarely is. The ARKS control gravity in space without spinning their ships, so it’s clearly do-able. MC just figured it out and didn’t tell anyone. If you say It’s Clearly Science, he’ll agree, saying only MC could be up to such a task but really…did they invade ARKS dimension to steal this tech? We’ll worry about that later, we’ve got to save Hitsugi first. Xiera phones in with that her scanners are jammed so it’s not going well on the Hitsugi search. Enga thinks if they’re interfering, then there’s sure something they don’t want anyone to see at the heart of it. So lets go.

2028 4/17 at 1400
You nod, and run off through the abandoned facility. It’s one huuuge long hall. It is so long, that you can’t see the end of it. Because Xiera can’t use her scanner, your map also displays NO DATA because she is what generates it.

Suddenly, clowns appear. Enga shoots them after calling them ‘small fry’ and that we are in a hurry. Moving on from them, you’ll reach some dullahan riders, the T-rex, some vultures and dogs. Killing these will let you move on (there’s a mother-based ether barrier up ahead always while enemies are present) Running further you reach a point where there’s a vague purple flash. Passing this field will cause more clowns to appear in the same formation, but Enga will call them ‘small fry’ again, and everything will proceed just as it did before. This repeats itself several times! You can’t stop it!

Passing the barrier again, (enough times) your character will stop.
Something’s wrong…
Time Is Repeating Itself?

If you ask Time Is Repeating Itself? Enga is confused, did something happen? He hasn’t seen any enemies yet. You nod…and he gets more confused. You clearly tell him you’ve already fought several batches of enemies. He tries to call Xiera, but can’t get through. Phul appears before everyone to call him useless and tell you that it’s her playground of time. Och says too bad you didn’t stay oblivious or it would be 70% easier. But, it’s too bad they figured it out earlier than expected.

The prep for the field took so long, to figure it out so fast is strange. Now that they are here, you can see various purple swirls, & filigree in the air as panels in the tunnel that reach from wall to wall. Phul says did you experience something like this before? If you did Och is right about you being a weird person.  (She means a time distortion, and she is right because of Xion’s shenanigans earlier)

Enga blames these two for carrying out such a farce, but they don’t seem the type to remove the trick because they are such show-offs. Phul says if you want to stop it, use your power, but she won’t let him. Och is 60% tired of watching so she will crush them herself. Especially you because you’ll be 100 percent in Mother’s way for sure. That and laplace and Maxwell need revenge. Phul says you give her a bad feeling, and Och summons back her pink hairy demon and its eyeball bat wing…helpers. They won’t forgive anyone in mother’s way, they remove all her obstacles, it’s obvious and doesn’t need to be noted. They re-introduce themselves as apostles are apparently wont to do: Sun Apostle Och Miller, Moon Apostle Phul! This also manifests their unique weapons. One has a triangle, the other a book. It’s 200 percent for Mother. Phul says if you turn the page of a book the story repeats until Mother smiles.

*The triangle is a literal triangle. "Triangle" is the name of the tool. It’s a flat/clear ruler used in school, (Generally for math and arcitecture) but it’s a pretty big one. They’d of probably had her with a slide-rule, if anyone would have been able to recognize it in this day. Which they wouldn’t because as a mathematical tool it is too old and nearly extinct thanks to calculators and computers being pretty much everywhere. These are probably meant to be comedy-like or ‘gaggy weps’ for ‘the huge nerds’ to use.

Now, you have to fight the two of them, plus the Laplace & the Maxwells. Phul uses her book to float around in a crystal shape of beams so you can’t hit her. Och can’t be hit either. They shoot projectiles out once in a while, but they both really hate Enga. Fight the Laplace first and kill it, because neither one will be able to re-summon it. The Maxwells will probably die in the fight too because they support it. However, both girls are still invincible to your & Enga’s attacks.
But…..they are NOT invincible to the explosion of Maxwells. Any time a Maxwell runs out of HP, it doesn’t just disappear into cubes like everything else, it sets off an explosion instead. Because they (feebly) chase you to try to catch you inside of the explosion (like a sparzyle) you can repeatedly lead them onto Phul & Och because the girls will just keep summoning more to try and get you. They never catch on that the Maxwells are doing them in.

If you can beat them…
Phul says her story is done, is Och ok? They both fall on the ground of the tunnel floor.

At 1530
Once they have fallen from the battle, her book vanishes and so does the odd purple wall. It turns out the tunnel wasn’t super long at all, it was actually pretty short. When it disappears, it reveals Hitsugi on the bed. Enga rushes over. They obviously just parked her wherever. Och tells him that her heart is 99 percent dead, she won’t ever move. Even though we took her she’s just a burden. While Kohri gets angry she’ll get over it, we don’t need her any more. So, they are continuing to sass from the floor where they have fallen and can’t get up.

Enga asks her heart is dead? What’d you bastards do? Phul says we didn’t, she got like that because you left her behind in your story. This girl, her heart was fragile, so ####. ##@@@@@FIXTEXT In the end we managed to lure you here anyway, so she has served her purpose.

Lured us here?
Hitsugi Served Her Purpose?

Both of these mean the similar thing…of course it was a lure…but they were likely hoping for Aru. If you ask Hitsugi Served Her Purpose? Phul will explain that her purpose was to draw out ARKS best weapon, to be bait. The battle and talking even now is 100% a way to stall for time. Enga is outraged, but Xiera cuts in, glad to finally be through to you. There’s an emergency on the ship! Without going through the game (note: never explained how) the enemy is invading and taking over control. They sent an army of phantoms onto the ship, and they’re in it right now! But how’d they pass the barrier, they’d have to be greater power than Xiao.

Phul compliments Och’s plan. Och makes sure to tell you you’re stronger than others but too naïve. If we took a prisoner you’d come with a small force. (So, they’re just going by ‘feel out the good guys, they’ll send a strong one to rescue another) 100% correct, the genius Och Miller mathematician. Phul asks Och how long have you been planning? Och says from the very beginning the brother who wouldn’t look at the sister was her cue, so now we’re 80 percent done.(Probably Mother found out from Hitsugi that no one was giving her any moral support, and Enga was actively dumping on her, which created some emo turmoil for Mother to use and this is them confessing it.) Phul agrees, counting the time looping, she wanted to make mother more happy though. Och feels the same and they reach out to hold hands upon the floor. When they do, blue cubes come out and the moon begins to quake. Enga asks why they’d go so far? (It can be assumed that they’re causing the moon-quake to break the dome/tunnel combo everyone is in, so that everyone will surely die here.)

Och says 30 percent sexy guy won’t understand, only Phul would. Phul agrees and says mother gave color to the world, and there’s no reason besides that, it’s enough for us. Enga throws down a card, intending to open a portal. He drags Hitsugi from the bed, and you race to him, and vanish into it. It opens in the track and field area on Earth, back at the high school. He lays her down. Enga says they hadn’t time to test it but…it seems to have worked!

Transportation magic through the portal. You can only warp to the place where you put the exit, so it’s a one time emergency escape. He says it was supposed to be used to send stupid sister back after she’d of course, demand to stay and help but, here it was unexpectedly useful. Enga sepia tone flashes back to Och saying he won’t understand. He says out loud to not give him that sort of crap, it was the apostles that refused to understand, they’re the idiots.

He moves on to thinking of finding a way back to the arks ship. He calls a phone, and blurts out that the ship has disappeared? Suddenly, in space, a large diamond shape (made of lasers) appears over the ARKS ship, and makes it vanish. It then appears faced toward the large part of the ARKS fleet, including its ‘xiao planet’ thing.

At 1530
Xiera feels a quake on the ship. The end coordinate puts it near the mothership. Looking out the window screen confirms it. Admin controls are messed up. She needs to respond but can’t, and communication to other ships is blocked. She flails at her screen control panels. The limiter on the ship is active, we can’t fight against intruders with it on. No codes, no interrupts are working. How to do it? How to disrupt it so easily? Aru thinks about this as he watches Xiera frantically work to fix anything.

In the shops lobby area, Aratron & Ophiel suddenly appear walking out from their blue cubes. Emergency lights are flashing everywhere as Aratron says it’s strange to come here in person, though he’s been in pso2. Ophiel says its all thanks to coming to the moon, once they had the coordinates, it was easy to get into the ship. Aratron marvels at the materials for construction of the lobby, and everything is intriguing but distracting him. Ophiel reminds him to remember why he’s here, so he says that if we elders don’t make sure everything goes as planned, he can’t face Och & Phul.

So, their little conversation reveals how they got the ship coordinates. Someone had to leave a trail right back to the ARKS ship to somewhere they had total control of: The Moon. So putting Hitsugi on the moon was no mere coincidence, it too served a purpose.

Aratron has super shouting ability. Waves come out of him as he yells, to all people (on the ship? Then he’s psychic too) who can hear him, and those close to see him. He introduces himself as Aratron Tolstoy, the apostle of earth, those who don’t fear death may come before him. Some do, and he summons a giant stone hammer to bash the floor and hit them away. It creates shockwaves when he bangs it down. Opheil summons phantom clowns and various zombies to invade the lobby. Someone strikes down Ophiels phantoms though, and Matoi floats down from the ceiling. She says it was a warning, will you leave peacefully?

Aratron calls it a warm welcome, but wasn’t there supposed to be a limiter on the ARKS within the ship? (That’s why you can’t draw your weapon on the ship, this tech was always in every iteration of PSO, so this fits with cannon) Ophiel tells him that there are those with strength enough to defy the limiter. One of them is you, the other would be…Clarissa 3, owner of the Genesis weapon, Matoi….I presume? She asks how they know her name. Aratron defies her, saying she’ll have to use her power to learn that answer. He levels the hammer at her, and she faces him down.

At 1530
Xiera tells herself to don’t lose focus, don’t panic now, find the “why”. We were easily infiltrated…the master key…looks like Xiaos data but it’s not his…no…the data is…Xion! (But that’s impossible because she is really dead)
Suddenly, the door is blown down. They actually crack apart this quite thick metal door, so that’s particularly surprising to see happen. There’s two people there in the hall beyond, and it’s Mother who is with Khori who is still dragging Gram.  Mother calls Xiera “Grandniece” and steps through. Xiera says it all make sense, the uncontrolled copy of Xion by photoners-- it reached the earth, took on the name “Mother” and that’s it. Mother says no further explanation is required.

This doesn’t actually make sense.
Where is the MOTHER planet? The thing was the size of Xion too, a whole planet worth of thinking water goop, so where’s that bit? Then, it only says the Photoners “sealed her” or “banished her” when their evil deeds/thoughts/problems made the Xion-alike not work. Xion herself even helped them build it for whatever reason. She says she was lonely in the story, but she could also do time travel and could guess that it wouldn’t go well. How is this thing down to the size of 1 person? Where’s she hiding her planet?

Mother is angry, and begins to rant at the Photoners. Selfishly crafting her, then selfishly abandoning her, they taught her heart what revenge is, so where are the photoners hiding now? She demands answers from Xiera. Xiera tells her she’s too late, they were destroyed so there’s no target for her revenge. (Xiera could have phrased this better to diffuse her, like ‘oh, the photoners were so bad that they destroyed themselves in horrible darkness and they went completely extinct & we’ve been busting on the darker remnants ever since while cursing their name)

Mother decides so, well then that’s what’s left is to destroy everything they left behind. And to get the power necessary she’ll need the catalyst for the fusion of the photons to destroy all of ARKS. And that means Aru. Xiera gets in front of Aru, she won’t hand him over, so Kohri swings Gram and strikes down Xiera, knocking her all the way across the room. Aru faces down Mother, who steps up to him.

So, Mother is just as corrupt as the Photoners knew she was. She’ll kill innocent people who have nothing to do with any of the people who wronged her just to ‘get back at them’. This motive is nonsense because the badguys are dead, and killing random strangers won’t upset dead people because there is no afterlife/deathdimension that they could look on from and fret. Even if she was rampaging to murder all of ARKS just to calm herself down over Photoners being mean to her…its still a corrupt motive that makes no sense because she wouldn’t feel better after doing so.

She says he’s unexpectedly mature, catalyst. You’re not going to cry like people who look your age do? Or will you resist? Aru just says he believes that big sis will come. If he cries she’ll cry. That’s why he absolutely won’t. Mother tells him it’s useless she’ll never awaken. He argues that she’s his big sis, she’ll come for sure. She then strikes out at him