A three-car act that focuses on the supporting cast. While the Windchasers and Red Lotus Uprising relax, White Gestalt get ready for their return, and a new darkness emerges.
This arc contains examples of:
- 13 Is Unlucky: Tiffany finds a kid passenger whose number is 13 (later revealed to be much larger than that). She ends up being tricked, kidnapped and then brainwashed in short order.
- Airplane Arms: Lantern performs these when she talks about wanting to fly with one of the Apex harpoon-packs.
- Ambiguous Situation: When Specter starts destroying his heart pillow in front of Pandor, is he doing it intentionally or was it more just to get her off his back (given the remorse he feels after she leaves)?
- And Then What?: One-One asks the Apex leaders what happens once they get their high numbers. Simon only answers that he'll be at the top forever.
- Armor-Piercing Question: As they walk through a path of lily pads in the Pond Car, Simon has no answer when Grace asks if he would've saved her if she was a denizen.
- Awful Truth: In the Pond Car, Kisaragi spells out to Tuba what the Apex are truly capable of.
- Bound and Gagged: Tiffany ends up like this in a cabin, her mouth stuffed with a towel and handkerchief, unable to escape.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Tiffany becomes the recipient of this and it turns out George Gore is one too.
- Breaking Old Trends The titles usually go [Song title]/[Car], but this one instead has [Car]/[Song Title] to highlight how the three cars are part of one individual arc.
- Breather Episode: The Routine Arc is a much more relaxing affair that focuses on the White Gestalt's return and revealing what the Apex is going through.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Lantern is a hyperactive cuckoo of a korai but she uses that to her advantage to get information and is working with a figure who's ready to test both Chloe and Sycamore for something.
- Call-Back: White Gestalt has to go through Shion's cooking, just like Sycamore did when he first entered the Monster City Car.
- The Cameo: In the Lumberjacks Car chapter, Chloe and Amelia appear in a scene singing karaoke with Tobe, Netto and Hewie cheering them on.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- The Nurse Joy who came to check up on Tokio back when he had his Freak Out? She appears and she's part of a cult with a warning that she and her fellow members will save Tokio from his despair of being traumatized by Kisaragi.
- The author reveals that the boy that Lantern describes (a boy in blue and yellow with a crazy swooping hairdo) will have an important role after this arc.
- Continuity Cavalcade: The strange text messages Specter receives reference three key cars he went through: Toy Brick, 400 Rabbits and Fog Car. However, astute readers of Orange Lily will notice that there are some mistakes found. For example, the entry for Toy Brick Car states that Specter picked up his shield before he left whereas he didn't pick it up and Gladion decided to deliver it for him (and he won't get it until the Fog Car).
- Continuity Nod: When Specter snarks how Chloe as a "Demon Lord" isn't all that frightening, Rimuru just shows her destroying the Mirage Army while she was Marchosias.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Victor states that all Tokio had to do was just ask his parents to call Goh's parents instead of wishing for Celebi to rewind time. In other words, the only thing preventing Tokio's trip and Goh from being flaky with his promises to Chloe was a single phone call.
- Creepy Child: The Berrybaker kids act and sound like brainwashed cult members as they try to make Mairin go on the Train.
- Cry into Chest: Easter does this when they meet up with Specter, apologizing for their behavior.
- Did Not Think This Through: Sara smugly tries to break Chloe down by showing off pictures of Goh having fun with the phrase "Your friends have moved on, why not you?" Chloe notes that Sara was stalking Goh and, given that Sara was sending this to her personal number, she can instantly text Goh about Sara's misdoings and then blocks her.
- Didn't See That Coming: One-One notices that something is seriously wrong when he learns that Queen hadn't been processed normally, with her body lingering on the train and her soul nowhere to be found.
- Exact Words: Sycamore tells Chloe not to send a recording of one of their performances to anyone in Kalos. Chloe promises not to...she just sent them to everyone she knows in Vermillion.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When Specter tries to logically deduce the denizen who was involved in Queen's death, he has to bring up that they have to also know about the Earth Ignis. He then realizes in fear that the only denizen who would know that secret is the only one he had to reveal this to, Alex Shepherd.
- Fate Worse than Death: Whatever this new cult is, they have the capability to send souls to this...Queen's soul is explicitly stated to be tortured without any chance of redemption after reincarnation.
- For Want Of A Nail: Victor spells it out point-blank that if Tokio asked his parents to call Goh's parents and help explain that he never meant to break their promise, he would've 1) saved himself the trouble of getting on the Train, 2) saved Goh the heartbreak of thinking he was betrayed and 3) would've helped Chloe with her problems because Goh wouldn't be constantly breaking his promises to arrive on time and cherish his friendships.
- Fusion Dance: Specter and Easter gain the power to do this, forming into a new figure dubbed "Harmonious Storm" by Rimuru.
- Get Out!: Tokio tells this to Nurse Joy after she mocks him for using excuses to not better himself.
- The Frog Denizens spell this out to Simon and Grace when they leave their car.
- Horrible Judge of Character: The Apex think that Lantern is cuckoo and won't give them the information needed, with Lucy thinking that she tried to deprive them of well-needed supplies. Too bad; she was actually as she claimed herself to be.
- I Hate Past Me: Specter is disgusted on re-reading his old self's actions towards Easter.
- Internal Reveal: Many of the characters in Den City now know of Queen's death.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Nurse Joy is being smug about it, but she's not wrong when she notes that Tokio likes making excuses for himself instead of confronting his problems head-on.
- George Gore doesn't feel sorry about his actions with Earth, but he points out that Specter is being hypocritical: he's only sorry for one Ignis, not the fact that the Tower of Hanoi was planning to destroy all of VRAINS to eradicate six AI and that they were fueled with the digitized minds of thousands of people (one of them being his friends) nor did he feel sorry for the time he Mind Raped Blue Angel or how he broke her down because he could. Specter has to mentally note that George isn't wrong.
- Grace's mom is hysterical but she's 100% in the right that Grace is in a load of trouble for creating a cult and brainwashing kids to do her bidding and that there is no way in Hell that Grace or her parents could explain this without going crazy.
- Karaoke Bonding Scene: Chloe and Amelia are singing their hearts out through karaoke in the Lumberjacks Car chapter.
- Literal Metaphor: Hazel thinks that the Black Market Car is a market that sells everything in black. Kisaragi doesn't bother to correct her.
- Mind Rape: Kisaragi is forced to go through nightmare thera—sorry, "mental dive torture" at the end of the Night Garden Car. He ends up a broken drooling mess.
- Mushroom House: These are found in the Toadstool House that Grace and Simon enter after finally leaving the Pond Car.
- Non-Indicative Name: Lantern comments how even though her name is "Lantern" she doesn't carry one, instead carrying a tablet.
- Noodle Implements: We have no idea what Chloe's original performance plans had except for a diagram that had something involving "fashion zombies".
- Not Helping Your Case: Grace trying to explain to her mother that she's not killing people in her cult doesn't help at all. If anything, it just makes everything worse.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Specter's reaction when he hears the audio file given to him and he immediately calls London for a talk.
- Tokio reacts this way when Nurse Joy states that Kisaragi was captured. And the fact that Nurse Joy knows way too much about his Infinity Train trip.
- Akira Zaisen and Risa Hayami have this look when they see the photo that shows Queen dead.
- Grace and Simon have this throughout the Pond Car, from Grace seeing the giant catfish about to eat her, to Simon seeing that Grace's mother is calling...
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Pandora is absolutely surprised to see the 180 Specter has put upon himself since he's smiling and humming a tune compared to the traumatized Knight she's taken care of for months.
- Simon actually shows genuine concern after Grace gets the damning call from her mother that she's being disowned.
- The Reveal: Where do we begin with this?
- The villain team of this story, Elipzo, has agents outside the Train from a Nurse Joy to George Gore.
- Not only is Queen dead, but it turns out that she was already dead for two days and her soul is missing so she can't properly be reincarnated. One-One is terrified because he should've been informed about this.
- The Apex has the old weapons of White Gestalt — two brick shields and the Gale boomerang.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Tired of Lantern's eccentricity, Lucy and the rest of the Apex decide to head off to a cabin. If only they stuck around long enough to learn that she was an informant who could've given them everything they asked.
- The Cerise family ultimately decide to leave Vermillion for good, since there simply aren't any good memories there.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Kisaragi's answer when Hazel assumes the Black Market Car is a place where black-colored items are sold.
- Swallowed Whole: Grace nearly avoids this fate from a giant catfish in the Pond Car.
- Tranquil Fury: Tuba's expression upon learning about why Grace and Simon decided to take Hazel with her and how they're cult leaders ready to kill Tuba and corrupt the girl to their twisted philosophy.
- Trigger Phrase: Elipzo has one for George Gore that makes him suggestible to their orders.
- Verbal Tic: Lantern draaaaaaws out her woooooords quite frequently.
- Villain Has a Point: Lucy and the Apex are terrible, sure, but you can't say they're completely wrong for disregarding Lantern. One of their members is missing, which already puts pressure on them, and they're separated from their leaders, which only adds to it. Couple this with Lantern's jokey behavior not meshing well with them and her trying to get the Apex to give her their only means of defense and you really can't claim they were completely in the wrong for ditching her. The next chapter does reveal they have the old weapons of Gladion, Specter and Tokio — two brick shields and the Gale boomerang — but there's no indication they were carrying them when they met Lantern.
- Was It All a Lie?: Simon is not happy to learn that everything he did as part of the Apex was because Grace lied about "knowing about how the Train works".
- Wham Episode: There's a new villainous group on the Train called Elipzo and they have agents outside of the Train ranging from the Pokémon world to even Den City. They also are capable of develop a Mind Rape so powerful it shatters Kisaragi.
- Wham Line:
- The Nurse Joy who helped Tokio with his Freak Out arrives with a message involving key information that she should not have.Tokio: I-It’s just my condition and my past. It’s fine. Very fine. Nothing to worry about. Besides, my past is in the past and I would rather...not revisit it.
Nurse Joy: Oh? Not even for your dear Utahoshi and Kisaragi? - The final line of the Lumberjack Car chapter that showcases there's a new villainous group in town.Figure: Welcome to Elipzo.
- The final conversation George Gore has with a mysterious figure is essentially this. But in particular...George: For the hope of the train...
???: And for the hope of Elipzo.
- The Nurse Joy who helped Tokio with his Freak Out arrives with a message involving key information that she should not have.
- Wham Shot: Tiffany meets up with a kid who has a number reading 13. It's later revealed to be 20135.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: How Tiffany gets captured; she thinks a kid is lost and his denizen partner is trapped by one of the fallen trees. Turns out the "partner" was a dummy covered in a cloak that unleashed a sleeping gas.
