No matter how much you kill... Or how much you lie... Or how much you drink... Or how much you steal... Or how much you fornicate... Really, no matter how worthless you are... I'll still love you, even if you go to hell. That is the proof of my love. Whatever you want to do, I'll accept it unconditionally and love you anyway...
—Kama/Mara
Full title: "Tokugawa Restoration Labyrinth, Ooku".
While getting ready to attack Wodime's Atlantic Lostbelt, everyone but the protagonist, Mash, Sion, Parvati, and Kiara has disappeared. They trace the cause to mid 17th-century Feudal Japan under the domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate. When they Rayshift, they find the sex chambers of Nobutsuna have been turned into a massive multi-layered labyrinth, with an even darker secret waiting for them within. This event serves as a prelude to the fourth chapter of Cosmos in the Lostbelt, and while it originally debuted as a limited event, it was later made available as a Main Interlude.
Watch the trailer here
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Tropes found in this episode:
- Arc Villain: An AU Kama/Mara, who seeks to manifest as Beast III/L in order to cause societal decay. However, her actions only came to be thanks to Arjuna Over Gods, who merged with the Indian Pantheon of his world, allowing her to manifest in the first place.
- Arc Words: "Tokugawa". Kama/Mara has a very specific Authority over it and redefines it as those who break Buddhism's Five Precepts, while Lady Kasuga comes to grips with her role in this Japanese dynasty and what the family means to her.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Kasuga idly wished on her deathbed that she could undo some certain actions, resulting in Kama/Mara latching onto her and starting the entire event.
- The Corrupter: Kama/Mara's entire end goal has been to corrupt the protagonist into a "Tokugawa" by getting them to pass through the labyrinth and break the five precepts while collecting the pillboxes of the other Tokugawa shoguns. She comes the closest of any antagonist to utterly breaking the protagonist as a result.
- Cruel Mercy: Kiara suggests a defeated Kama to become one of Chaldea's Servants, and while she decides to do so, Kama calls her out on just wanting to prolong her torment.
- Difficulty Levels: Similar to the Karmaphage mechanic in the Fate/Extra event, the difficulty of the final battle with Kama can be adjusted via Hanafuda cards that you can collect while traversing the Ooku. White cards will lower the difficulty while Black cards can raise it. Done right, you can potentially make the fight more than manageable.
- Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Kiara's other half, Beast III/L Kama shows up in the event as its Big Bad, however, she doesn't like her one bit, despite being the other half of it.
- Evil Is Petty: Kiara's Heroic Sacrifice isn't motivated so much out of altruism but rather her spite towards Mara.
- Genre Shift: The focus is shifted from battles as the main story tissue to Dungeon Crawling through the Tokugawa Ooku.
- Gotta Kill 'Em All: The only way to go further within the Labyrinth is by killing 15 monsters called the Lynchpin Maids.
- Hates Everyone Equally: Kama/Mara zigzags about this. She claims she hates everyone, but that she also loves everyone. The only exceptions would be Parvati (who she hates due to what happened with Shiva) and Kiara (who she hates as the other and "inferior" half of Beast III).
- Heel–Face Turn: Posthumously, this event is this for the Arc Villain of the third GUDAGUDA event, Akechi Mitsuhide. Since in his latter life at least in the Nasuverse he became Nankobou Tenkai, then his small role became vital to Chaldea's victory.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Would you believe that Kiara stays behind to keep Kama/Mara at bay long enough for the protagonist to escape? Of course, she comes back at the end of the event.
- Kill It with Fire:
- Kama was originally incinerated by Shiva in myth, then gets incinerated again by Parvati at the end of the event. Apparently, the incineration has left such an impression on her that when Kiara visits Kama's mindscape at the end, Kama actually forces herself to experience that immolation, which Kiara muses is extreme even by her tastes.
- Kiara herself is immolated by Kama via Heroic Sacrifice.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Kiara pulls this on herself when she realizes that the dolls littered throughout Ooku are not only so easy to destroy, but the fact she feels nothing when destroying them, which is a huge red flag since she's usually all about Interplay of Sex and Violence and should feel some sort of pleasure while fighting. As such, she requests to the party (while not revealing her true reasons) that they limit their destruction of said dolls.
- Power at a Price: The Inrou Skills are incredibly powerful but also raise the Tokugawa meter that will result in a harder Final Boss fight. However, this can be mitigated by collecting the Hanafuda cards that depower Kama. Of course, with sufficient Hanafuda Cards you can potentially use the skills freely while completely ignoring the Meter.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: Those inrou/pillboxes the protagonist keeps collecting off the Lynchpin maids that give incredibly overpowered bonuses to their Mystic Code? Those are the condensed souls of the Tokugawa shoguns Kama/Mara seduced in order to gather the power to create her Ooku and gave to the maids as "batteries", and by using the Mystic Code the protagonist has been accelerating their own corruption into a Tokugawa to be thralled by Kama/Mara.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kama gets one at the end from most of the cast, lambasting her for how selfish her plan was, how she wasted the second chance she was given, and how her admittedly Dark and Troubled Past doesn't at all excuse the atrocities she committed.
- Sequel Hook: Parvati explains that she personally cannot provide assistance for the protagonist in the next Lostbelt, but is sure there will be someone else to help investigate why exactly Kama/Mara was allowed to go on the rampage like this.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Tenkai's presence is miniscule (he's only mentioned by Kasuga and Nobutsuna in backstory dumps), but without his quick intervention to save Kasuga and tell Nobutsuna his current plan before the Ooku was completely hijacked, Chaldea would've had absolutely no way to win.
- These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Holmes is very disappointed that he was out of the action for the event and didn't get to see Kama/Mara because he's created a device to analyze Beasts. Da Vinci opines that this trope is in effect and he should be more wary of being corrupted by a Beast. Said device does wind up being used later, in Olympus.
- Trap Is the Only Option: The party quickly realizes Kama wants them to make it to the bottom of the labyrinth, breaking the five precepts along the way, though they don't know why she does and they have no other option if they want to try and save everyone. Though they resolve to bend the rules to minimize the precept-breaking, in the end the only reason they survive Kama's revelation of her Beasthood and the protagonist doesn't end up Kama's willing thrall is because Kiara makes a Heroic Sacrifice to send everyone back to the surface so they can plan out another strategy for Round 2.
- Villainous Breakdown: Kama has one after being defeated by Chaldea. She breaks down crying just before being disintegrated by Parvati, and she's barely recovered by the time Kiara visits her.
- Wham Episode: Just like how the "BB Strike Backs" crossover event turns out to be the Pseudo-Singularity SE.RA.PH. with the manifestation of Beast III/R, this event features the manifestation of Beast III/L and is revealed to be a prelude to Lostbelt No. 4.
