Written by Kinoko Nasu.
Chaldea has detected a Singularity at a Japanese hot springs in 2001 with absolutely zero magical elements in it. Normally, they would just let this collapse on its own, given the lack of abnormalities, but da Vinci decided to let Mash and the protagonist go there as a nice way to test Rayshifting. As they travel to the hot springs, they get lost, but a nice man named Shizuki Soujuurou directs them to the path to the inn. The two get lost again as SHEBA updates its analysis of the Singularity, proclaiming there will be no future where humanity survives. They're then attacked by a monster, only to be saved by wandering tourist Aozaki Aoko. She recognizes the protagonist being a summoner who uses Servants and explains herself to also be a mage, with the two agreeing to let her tag along.
At the inn, they discover it's been reputedly haunted for over two years, with the owner thus creating a policy where only exorcists and mediums can check in so the place can be purged of its evil spirits. The three pass a test set by Doctress Kuonji Alice to prove their credentials so they can stay. When Alice asks to see Chaldea summon a Servant after being informed of how they operate, Mash inexplicably summons a teenage Soujuurou from 1991, much younger than the adult they already met in this Singularity. Soujuurou believes being a Servant is just another part-time job for him. Chaldea will have to unravel the mystery of this haunted inn and how the world ends here with only the support of Aoko and their new Servant, Shizuki Soujuurou.
Cut to 2001, with Chaldea rayshifting in to deal with a small Singularity in Mt. Kumano. Only Mash and the protagonist are sent in since every other Servant was incompatible, but according to SHEBA, this is a safe Singularity that would normally sort itself out on its own with no problems. Chaldea is mainly here to determine why there's a Singularity and collect data. Thus, Da Vinci advises them to treat the trip like a vacation and tells them to check into the nearby Kumano Hot Spring Inn. Mash and the protagonist get lost on the way, but are found by Shizuki Sojuurou, who for some reason mistakes them for spirit mediums and offers to guide them on the right path. Along the way, Soujuurou tells the Chaldeans about a rumor that there are five secret hot springs that only show up once a year, one at a time in a row, and that if you bath in them, you get a specific wish granted. Tomorrow is the day the Rejuvination Spring, is said to appear, and the other four springs are set to appear, in order: the Love Fulfilled Spring, the Male Reincarnation Spring, the Family Prosperity Spring and the Shoulder Pain Exterminator Spring. Soujuurou accompanies the Chaldeans untilt he inn is in sight, then returns to the forest since he's looking for something there.
A few minutes later, Chaldea is somehow lost again despite the inn clearly being straight ahead. Mash decides to check her compass and finds that SHEBA suddenly changed its observation of the Singularity to be one where there's "no future where mankind survives". The duo are suddenly attacked monsters, including an enormous spider-like monster surrounded by black fog. The fog makes it impossible to fight, and Mash is about to try to use her Noble Phantasm backed by a Command Spell to clear the fog when all of a sudden Aoko suddenly rayshifts into the Singularity and helps the duo drive off the monster. Aoko immediately takes a liking to the duo and asks to join Chaldea in checking into the nearby inn, claiming that she lost her ID somewhere.
At Kumano Inn, Aoko decides to disguise herself with a paper bag over her head and tells the protagonist to claim that her name is "Suse Ritsuka" and that as part of her spiritual training, she cannot speak more than one sentence per day. Inside the inn, Chaldea finds that the current guests all resemble Servants that Chaldea is familiar with, but that they're all flesh and blood humans with no prior association with Chaldea. The owner of the inn, Kumanoin Yoshisuke, claims that the inn is booked, but Ishtalyne, an identical stranger to Space Ishtar, convinces the owner that the heroes are spirit mediums and to let them stay. Yoshisuke explains that for the past two years, the inn has been plagued by ghosts and that he's currently only allowing exorcists or spirit mediums who can deal with the hauntings to stay at the inn, with payment ready for every ghost busted. While Yoshisuke prepares a test for Chaldea's exorcism skills, Ishtalyne introduces the other exorcists in the lobby: Bazett, Caren, Mrs. Ryougi and Fujinon. When Yoshisuke returns, he tasks the heroes with exorcising a cave full of evil spirits and zombies called Hell Hall. However, the catch is that Chaldea must compete against another exorcist staying at the inn: a certain "Doctress Kuonji".
At Hell Hall, Aoko warns Mash and the protagonist that if they want to win against her old friend Alice, they'll have to clear out the majority of the spirits before Alice even makes her first move. The heroes manage to clear out 51% of the spirits, just in time for Alice to deploy Diddle Diddle and take out the remaining 49%. Alice confirms that "Suse Ritsuka" is indeed actually Aoko, but her competitive pride demands that she win in a contest of magecraft, even if it means killing the heroes. However, Aoko defuses the situation by declaring a tie, they won in a contest of exorcism, but Alice won the contest of magecraft. Alice accepts the compromise and returns to the inn with the heroes.
After returning to the inn, Yoshisuke congratulates the group and sets down some base rules: they're free to explore the inn and exorcise any spirit they find, no murdering the other guests (dying to haunts is an occupational hazard, but murder will require that Yoshisuke call the police) and since there's no cell signal, the only calls can be made through the local landline. He also talks briefly about the local ox-god diety, Wanwan-sama. Chaldea is then checked into the Sky Suite, the VIP room on the 8th floor, where they brief Aoko and Alice about Chaldea's mission, Singularities, and why they're here. Aoko reveals that she also came to investigate the Singularity, and Alice decides to help as well since Aoko is involved. Before they set off to search the inn for the Holy Grail though, Alice asks to see a Heroic Spirit Summoning in action. The Chaldeans oblige and Mash sets up the FATE system with the Round Shield, summoning a Saint Graph local to the region, which summons...Shizuki Soujuurou circa 1991, much to the disbelief of everyone in the room. According to Mash's readings, apparently Soujuurou is a Servant who can be exclusively summoned within the Kumano Hot Springs area. Aoko agrees that Soujuurou will be a big help, if only as a bodyguard rather than a detective, but she forbids Servant Soujuurou from leaving the room for the day while she implicitly goes to get rid of the present day Soujuurou and head off any complications from there being two Soujuurous in the same place.
While Aoko deals with Soujuurou's present self, and Alice returns to her room, Mash and the protagonist decides to explore the inn and question the other guests. They first run into Bazett, who lets slip that she's in Japan hunting for a Sealing Designate and that she's interested in one of the wish-granting secret springs. She also explains that each secret spring randomly affects one person who bathes in it, and that people might be motivated to kill other potential competitors in order to be the only one to get the wish. As they make their way to the bathing area, they meet Muramasa look-a-like "Mr. Shirou", an old art dealer who confirms that most of the guests aren't exorcists by trade, even if they are capable of dealing with spirits. In the bathing area proper they meet Sugitani Zenjubou look-a-like Sugitani Rei'inbou, who reveals that the rumors about the secret springs only started when Yoshisuke took over the inn, making it apparent who spread the tales. Apparently Yoshisuke was formerly a famous TV comedian who quit his career at the height of his popularity in order to take over the inn from the previous owner. However, his reasons for doing so are unknown to all but the man himself.
Later, Mash and the protagonist investigate the archive, which is displaying Mt. Kumano's main cultural relic, dolls. There they meet Kashinko, who pranks the duo with the classic "doll was actually a human" prank. Kashinko is staying as insurance for the inn, an experienced exorcist who's on standby in case a sham comes and can't finish the job. She advises the duo not to visit the archive at night, telling them the tale of a man who got cursed to be so absorbed into making the perfect doll, that he ended up building the doll out of his own body. Terrified, the duo quickly leaves the archive while Kashinko makes vague comments about how their deaths will be easier if it's one per day. At last, the Chaldeans end up in a strange room with a sealed door, where Yoshisuke meets them and explains that the door is unopenable, but he suspects it to be related to Wanwan-sama. According to Yoshisuke, the Wanwan-sama is a Kudan, a youkai known for being able to see into the future. However, Wanwan is special in that instead of seeing the future itself, it shows other people their future, metaphorically granting wishes by allowing people to reach their desired future. He also explains that he inherited the inn since he and the owner hit it off and his name was similar to the place, but he brushes off answer questions about his career. Before leaving, Yoshisuke warns the duo that that there's five particular nasty hauntings that no medium has survived so far. In addition to the unopenable door, "Wanwan-sama's Way Home," he also warns to stay away from "The Endless Hallway to the Old Building," "The Devil's Classroom," "The Writer's Noose," and "The Inverted Mirror".
That night, the group gathers at the Sky Suite, where Chaldea relays their findings to the others. Aoko clears Soujuurou to join the investigation tomorrow and asks that he stay in the Sky Suite with Chaldea, while she shares Alice's suite. Before she turns in for the night though, Aoko makes a shocking statement: "Mankind will perish if you don't resolve this Singularity. It was a wish upon a star." Everyone is confused by Aoko's declaration, but decide to question her about it tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, the morning of the second day, Mash wakes up the protagonist with shocking news. There's been a murder in the bathing area, and the victim is Aoko.
After a brief cut back to May 1999, where Aoko is fighting the Star of the End and failing, the scene cuts back to 2001, where the everyone arrives at the hot spring to confirm Aoko's body. Yoshisuke is confused upon hearing the victim's real name, but accepts that the name given his background in TV entertainment, where stage names weren't uncommon. The cause of death is confirmed to be blunt force trauma to the head, and the body was found outside the Rejuvenation Spring. Luckily, although the police aren't here yet, the last guest at the hotel turns out to be a private detective, a certain Tsukiji Tobimaru, who's interested in uncovering what it was that could have killed someone like his childhood friend. It turns out that he came to the inn with Soujuurou, and upon seeing his younger 1991 Servant incarnation, he assumes that the Rejuvenation Spring works, and it's highly likely that Aoko was murdered by one of the guests. Most of the guests are dismissed for now, save for Soujuurou, his assistant, Alice, the current prime suspect, and the Chaldeans, since they came to the inn with Aoko. As they inspect Aoko's corpse, they determine that Aoko didn't come to use the baths since she came fully dressed, but for something else. Also, Tobimaru confirms that there's no cameras in the inn, let alone the bathing area given the obvious problems. However, their investigation is interrupted by a second, living Aoko suddenly arriving and asking for an explanation.
Back in the Sky Suite, the new Aoko explains that she came from the future to investigate the Singularity since she picked up on the first Aoko's death. As it turns out, since this is a Singularity, Aoko's death hasn't been properly recorded, meaning that so long as the Singularity doesn't take root, every time Aoko dies, a new Aoko can come to take her place, so the heroes need not worry about Aoko's wellbeing. Sadly, this Aoko has none of the first Aoko's memories, and she can't travel to an event she was present for since that requires factoring in parallel worlds, so she has no idea what the first Aoko was up to or how she died. Alice however notes that she confirmed with Aoko yesterday that the first Aoko was not from this era and seems to have come to the Singularity looking like she was trying to save the world. With Aoko's "revival" established, Tobimaru take charge of the investigation into both Aoko's murder and the location of the Grail. Aoko is ordered to stay in the Sky Suite for now to avoid "dead man walking" fears, while everyone else splits up and questions the other guests.
Shirou claims to have went to sleep after working on a project, but puts forth his belief that no human could have none since something like murder requires an emotion that only comes from having some sort of past together, and everyone at the inn are complete strangers. Sugitani claims to have passed at drinking, and also expresses disbelief that any human could have killed a gunner of Aoko's caliber and believes that it was some sort of monster or curse. Caren states that she fell asleep after her nightly prayers, and believes that the death was an accident. Finally, Fujinon admits to not having an alibi, but confirms that she was watching the Ryougis' Mirage Suite and never saw them leave last night. All in all, the common thread is that everyone doesn't have a good alibi and nobody believes that there was a human culprit. As the heroes meet in the lounge to share their findings, Tobimaru asks Yoshisuke where the police are only to hear that for some reason the police can't enter the mountain. Their conversation leads to Tobimaru addressing the idol poster plastered over the inn, which leads to a brief debate between the detective and the innkeeper about whether entertainment should focus on something with a lasting impact, and something fleeting that the public will easily eat up.
After moving the first Aoko's corpse to Hell Hall for preservation, the hero's reconvene at the Sky Suite to rejoin Aoko and deduce the killer. The protagonist has figured out that the most likely suspect is whoever used the Rejuvenation Spring, since Aoko was last found around there. Soujuurou wasn't the one who used the spring since he only looks younger since he was summoned by Chaldea, but there's one other person who looks younger than they did before: Ishtalyne. The group goes to confront Ishtalyne at her room, where Aoko shoots the lock after her poor attempt at pretending she's not in. Shocked by the sight of Aoko, she attempts to shoot her, but her gun shoots popcorn, to Aoko's amusement. A panicked Ishtalyne runs from the heroes, but in her panic heads to the Endless Hallway to the Old Room, where she's surrounded by evil spirits. The heroes attempt to cross to rescue her, but the curse of the hallway reverses time before they can reach the end. Luckily, time is Aoko's specialty, and she's able to use her Magic to time shift the group to a point after they've made to the end, breaking the curse and allowing them to rescue Ishtalyne.
Now cornered, Ishtalyne confesses that she's responsible for killing Aoko, but by inaction. She's not a real exorcist, she hunts crooked people, not crooked spirits, but she came to the inn to use the Rejuvenation Spring. She hid in the bathing area in order to be the first one in, and saw the spring start to fill at arround 4 AM. However, she heard the door, so she quickly dove into the spring and hid underwater. She saw to figures, but no distinct faces since she was underwater and hid inside the spring until she ran out of breath. When she surfaced, the only thing she found was the first Aoko's corpse. Given the short timeframe and lack of destruction, the second Aoko concludes that Aoko managed to warp the killer away at the cost of her life, meaning that Aoko's killer most likely does not have the Grail since they're not arround anymore. With Ishtarlyne's name cleared, she leaves the inn with her associate Jane now that her business is concluded. Before she leaves though, she shares that she heard the first Aoko say "The user kills everyone." and "I can't let anyone have their wish granted."
That night the heroes relax in the hot springs and have a discussion about getting younger and about the first Aoko's last words to Chaldea. Second Aoko unfortunately has no idea what the first meant, but can find out in two days once she synchronizes with the first Aoko's memories. Unfortunately, the next morning Cock Robin arrives and announces that Aoko's body was once more discovered in the bathing area. This time Alice found the body with her face caved in by something. With her face caved in, the heroes are able to convince Yoshisuke that the victim was just a burglar who happened to be wearing the same clothes. A few seconds after he leaves, a new Aoko shows up, killing the mood about her own death, and the heroes fill in the replacement back in the Sky Suite. The third Aoko advises that everyone ignore investigating her killer for now and focus on getting everyone's accounts, figuring out everyone's real motives for coming to the inn and finding the Grail, pointing out that if her killer is the one with the Grail then it'll come out all the same. Once again, everyone except Aoko sets off to question the guests, Alice, Soujuurou and the protagonist on one time, and Tobimaru and Mash on the other.
At the souvenir shop, where Alice is the temporary employee, Ryougi shows up to buy some presents and answers the heroes' questions while Alice packs her purchase. She doesn't talk alot about herself or her motive for coming, only that she's from Mifune, but she does point out that none of the guests likely came for the exorcism money since no real exorcist would come to such a remote place for such an obviously impossible job. As she leaves after Alice returns with her purchase, Alice expresses relief that she won't have to deal with someone so skilled at killing spirits. Later, the group saves Caren from some spirits chasing her, earning her gratitude for saving her in place of her current partner. While she refuses to disclose the motives of any others at the inn and how they relate to herself, she reveals that she's currently working on exposing fake exorcists and that she's looking for a hidden sixth secret spring that can grant any wish. At this point, Soujuurou spots someone watching from the older building and Caren excuses herself to investigate the archive while the heroes pursue the eavesdropper.
The heroes arrive in the attic of the older building, where they find they're unfortunately too late to catch the eavesdropper. Yoshisuke shows up shortly afterwards and urges the group to quickly leave since the attic is where the Inverted Mirror is kept. He tells the story behind the Inverted Mirror and how it works, warning the group that while the mirror is safe while the sun is out, it's best not to risk a stray cloud blocking the sun and activating the curse. While he's here, the group takes the chance to question Yoshisuke about the rumored sixth spring. He confirms that the previous owner told him it exists, but he's searched the entire inn and never found it himself. He suspects that it might be behind Wanwan's Way Home, but everyone who's tried to open the door failed and ended up cursed with Wanwan's wrath. He does mention that one monk told him that he would need a wish-granting chalice in order to open the door.
The heroes reconvene at the Sky Suite to share and discuss their day's findings. They come to the conclusion that the sixth spring, if it's real, will fill on the sixth day, but it's probably not the Grail causing the Singularity, given that it needs a Grail in order to access. They eventually conclude that 1) someone's wish led to the world being destroyed wherever the first Aoko came from and Aoko came to 2001 because she thought that she's find a solution there, 2) the Singularity was most likely created by someone using the power of Wanwan, and 3) the killer is someone who wants the sixth spring and killed Aoko since they thought she was competition. With the discussion about the protagonist's findings done, they move onto Tobimaru's findings. He questioned Shirou and Sugitani and learned from the former that he hear two people fighting by the hot spring, one of which was Bazett, and from the later that Bazett has been sharing a room with Caren. Bazett is clearly their best lead here, but with her whereabouts unknown, the heroes split up to locate Caren, hoping it will lead to finding Bazett. Mash and Tobimaru go to block their room in case either comes back, while everyone else heads for the archive in case Caren is still there.
At the archive Yoshisuke warns the group that the Devil's Classroom curse is active and someone is likely possessed in there. When the party affirms that they're going in to save the victim, Yoshisuke warns them not to break any dolls. Inside the archive, Caren's spirit magnetism has caused her to be possessed by the curse (albeit with the curse debatably in control given Caren's nature), and she attacks the heroes with poltergeist dolls. Alice attempts to deploy Diddle Diddle, but Caren has already preemptively declared as a rule that Ploys cannot work inside the inn. In the ensuing fight, ten dolls are broken, and the heroes are cursed with a desire to make dolls that will only subside if they make ten identical dolls to replace those that they broke. However, the dolls need to be exactly identical to the one its replacing, right down to the motions carried to create it. Luckily, Soujuurou is able carry out the necessary motions and makes all ten dolls, breaking the curse. One fight against Caren later, Caren is back to normal and reveals to the party that Bazett has been hiding from everyone the whole day. Learning about her argument, she proposes that Bazett was the one who killed the second Aoko, the proof being that the way her face was caved in matches Bazett's fists, and that she's at Hell Hall sobbing over what she's done.
At Hell Hall, the party does find Bazett, who assumes Aoko is here to get revenge and engages the party. However, despite deploying Fragarach, the heroes win and Bazett prepares to submit herself to the whims of Aozaki...Touko. It turns out that Bazett came to Japan to hunt down Touko and mistook Aoko for her sister after hearing her last name. With the confusion cleared up, Bazett confesses that she wasn't the one who killed Aoko, but she was the first one to discover the body and assumed that people would suspect her, and thus decided to hide in Hell Hall until everyone forgot about her. It turns out that Bazett camped out late at night to try to use the Love Fulfilled Spring, but ran into Aoko and fled in embarrassment about being caught. She then decided to wait in the lounge until morning and at five, went into the bath, found Aoko's body, and then fled since nobody else showing up while she was in the lounge meant that fingers would immediately be pointed at her. She also confirms that Aoko wasn't there to use the spring herself, given that she was still dressed when she was in the bathing area.
With their business concluded, Bazett and Caren take their leave. Before they leave though, Bazett tells the heroes that she had a briefcase of investigation documents that went missing, most likely stolen. She gives the code to open it and advises that they find it and look at the documents themselves and see if they can make sense of them. With the suspect list shrinking, the heroes make plans to settle everyone's motives tomorrow. Alice notes that while the Devil's Classroom was exorcised, Caren's rule is still in effect, so Alice decides that she'll be staying safe in her room until her Ploys can work again. The next morning though, a fog has settled over the inn, and two gunshots ring out from the bathing area, and sure enough, Aoko is found dead once more.
This time, Sugitani immediately confesses to being the one who shot Aoko, seeing that Aoko very obviously died by gunshot and checking the bullet would obviously lead back to her own gun. Her story about what happened though, reveals something stranger at work though. Sugitani had been planning on using the Male Reincarnation Spring and woke up early to use it. However, when she arrived, she found Aoko in a standoff with none other than another Sugitani. When Sugitani arived, the copy fired at the original, causing Aoko die getting in the bullet's way. Sugitani immediately fired back, but the copy turned to dust. The heroes reassure Sugitani that they don't blame her for Aoko's death, especially since a new Aoko arrives a few seconds later. They have no time to discuss the case beyond filling Aoko in again though, as Alice recognizes that the fog covering the inn and its hallways is the work of Alice's most dangerous Ploy, Wandersnatch.
At this point, Yoshisuke runs in screaming about seeing the fog devour Kashinko. It turns out that the fog produced by Wandersnatch will devour anything that touches it, and it appears that Alice has been possessed, most likely by Wanwan-sama, and forced to deploy it. Fortunately, it appears that it's been weakened, as Yoshisuke and Sugitani confirm that they had been touching the fog for 10 minutes without harm, meaning that they at least have that much time to dash through the fog and get to safety. In order to stop Alice, the Chaldeans form one search party while Sugitani and Aoko form a second to search the inn, while Tobimaru and Soujuurou stay in the bathing area to review the case and wait for the others so that they can attack Alice together. While they search, Sugitani shares with the heroes that she actually came to the inn looking for Kashinko. Sugitani used to be a male exorcist, but due to a failed job the Kumano back in early 1999, Kashinko had to make a new puppet body for them. However, Kashinko made the new body female, and Sugitani wanted to ask if it was posible to reclaim their original gender.
As the heroes search the inn, they find no sign of Alice or any of the other guests. Strangely, they all disappeared despite none of the guest rooms having any fog, despite all indications suggesting that they never left their room. In addition, Aoko suddenly disappears despite not touching the fog for too long. In the Sky Suite, Mash takes the chance to share with the protagonist some unusual behavior and observations she witnessed from Tobimaru. He complained about the lack of cell phone signal the first day, only every investigated the old building with Mash as his partner, and at 6 PM would use the landline to call someone to reassure them that their buisness would be done soon. However, Mash suddenly disappears herself. Back in the bath, Tobimaru deduces that Aoko dying is part of the first Aoko's plan since her repeated murders indicate that she's somehow interfering with the killer's plans. However, he suddenly disappears as well when he goes to wash his face, and Soujuurou also finds that Yoshsuke has disappeared as well.
The protagonist, Sugitani and Soujuurou all unite at the lounge where they try to figure out why everyone disappeared. They realize that Aoko had gotten the rule wrong, and what actually happens is that you disappear whenever you're the only one looking at a mirror. Cock Robin shows up and confirms the heroes' hypothesis and reveals that Alice got possessed by the curse of the Inverted Mirror, having went there early before sunrise. At this point, the Inverted copy of Alice created by the cursed Mirror shows up and applauds the trio for surviving so long. The copy is supposed to be a reflection of Alice's darkness, but it turns out the Alice is too dark even for the spirit, so she toned it down and changed Wandersnatch's rule. However, now that she's been exposed, she threatens to change Wandersnatch back to the old rule if they don't come to the attic, where she'll be surrounded by mirrors and easily be able to trap the party, especially since Soujuurou suspects there's some special rule about the attic. Fortunately, the heroes are able to get arround the curse by having the protagonist and Soujuurou charge in and open all the shutters while Sugitani shoots all the mirrors down from outside the room, allowing the heroes to safely confront and exorcise the Inverted Mirror, returning all the people trapped by the curse.
Several apologies by Alice later, the heroes meet again in the Sky Suite. Though they weren't able to investigate that day, it turns out that the day isn't a complete loss, as Alice found Bazett's briefcase in the attic under the floorboards, having remembered the eavesdropper Soujuurou spotted. Inside, they find coded documents from the Clock Tower's Department of Lore assigning Bazett and Caren to investigate an annomally that occured from the 1st to 6th of May 1999. From this, they assume that 1999 is where the first Aoko came from. They also find a background check on Yoshisuke among the documents. The documents confirm that Kumanoin Yoshisuke was indeed a TV comedian until 1997, when he quit and started working at the Kumano Inn. However, it turns out that Kumanoin Yoshisuke was not his birth name, but rather his stage name which he changed to his official name after taking over the inn. His real name turns out to be one Aoko, Soujuurou, Alice and Tobimaru are all familiar with: Kinomi Hoshsuke.
Down at the lobby, the heroes confront Yoshisuke about his real identity, which confirms by taking off his puppet disguise and revealing that he is indeed Kinomi. With his secret exposed, Kinomi reveals that he's been genuinely looking for exorcists to get rid of all the haunts from the inn. However, the first exorcist turned out to be a fraud who took advantage of Kinomi's poor poker face, so he had Kashinko construct a disguise for him to both hide his expression and hide from loan sharks. He also reveals that he made up the legends about Wanwan-sama, having mixed the local Kudan legends with the Holy Grail, but he can't remember where he had heard about the Holy Grail. Nevertheless, Kinomi is cleared from the suspect list since there's no way someone like him would intentionally wish for something that would cause the end of the world.
In the open air bath, the gang once more discusses about the case, particularly about Kinomi. Alice reveals that she's not too surprised, as she already met him as an employee during a previous visit, but didn't realize he would be in disguise. Also, it turns out that Tobimaru's reason for being at Kumano Inn was to look for Kinomi, having been hired to do so. Soujuurou had suggested that Tobimaru look for him in Kumano. The conversation then leads into a discussion about the Male Reincarnation Spring, which leads to Soujuurou warning Aoko to stay away from the hot spring so he doesn't have to carry her corpse again. It seems to work with Aoko and Alice showing up to invite the others to breakfast. However, Kinomi shows up and announces that once again, Aoko's body has been found dead in the baths.
At the hot spring, the protagonist questions Aoko why a fifth Aoko has been found dead despite the second Aoko's explaination that there can't be more than one Aoko at the same time. The fourth Aoko clarifies that it's only prohibit if she intentionally does so, and most likely this fifth Aoko made a calculation error, hence why she's been found cut down by someone. The method of death, plus the fact that Kinomi had given the key to the bathing area last night to Ryougi since she put a huge down payment to reserve the Family Prosperity spring, points to her at the prime suspect this time. When Ryougi is questioned about the events of last night, she explains that she was planning to use the family bathing spring, but she was sidetracked by urgent buisness, and ended up handing the key to Aoko, whom she found trying to find where the "wish-granting place" was. When Ryougi asks to see the body herself, she confirms that this latest Aoko was killed by her own katana, albeit with less skill than if it were actually her who wielded it.
With this new information, plus Sugitani's testimony from yesterday, the heroes are finally able to deduce why Aoko has been dying every night. The secret springs conjure a copy of whomever wanted to use the hot spring, and Aoko dies to that copy. Ryougi correlates the situation to the legends about the local Kudan that she heard about from Shirou. Kudans are said to be able to see the future, but die 3 days after doing so. What the spring is doing is most likely some sort of twisted version of that legend, where the springs grant the wish of whoever tries to use the spring, but then summons a copy of the person from 3 days into their future in order to kill them. At the mention of Shirou, the heroes question her relationship with him, Aoko even throwing out the assumption that she's committing adultery with him. Ryougi clarifies that she's a regular customer of Shirou, buying black market art from him, and that they had agreed to complete a sale for a particular piece during her stay at the inn. However, the urgent business last night was that Shirou had suddenly decided not to sell, and in response, Ryougi had sent Fujinon to ask for more details.
Tobimaru and Sugitani reunite with the others after trying to look for the other guests and reveal that Fujinon, Kashinko and Shirou are missing. Kinomi confirms that Shirou had requested a room change from the Hollyhock Suite and put him in the Camelia Suite, where the Writer's Noose curse is. When questioned about why he was put in a cursed room, Kinomi explains that Kashinko had told him to use the room from time to time to see if somehow it could be used without triggering the curse. The heroes head to the Suite and decide to try to circumvent the curse from trapping them inside the room by leaving someone outside to hold the door open for them so that they can leave. Unfortunately, the curse triggers as soon as someone touches the doorknob, and after a brief fight against the manifestation of the author rumored to have died in the room, the heroes find themselves trapped inside the Camelia Suite with Fujinon and Shirou.
Inside the suite, the two explains that Fujinon, who's confirmed to have been hired as a bodyguard for the Ryougis, had come to the Camelia Suite to question Shirou about his refusal to sell a rare Kasaneda katana. It turns out Kashinko had outbid Ryougi and Fujinon happened to arrive just as Shirou was about to hand over the katana to Kashinko. However, as soon as she came in, Kashinko stole the katana and ran while the two were trapped by the Writer's Noose curse. Ryougi manages to free everyone by cutting down the Bounded Field trapping everyone, at the expense of her sword breaking due to accumulated wear, hence why she was looking to by a replacement katana. Shiki's demonstration, plus Shirou's comments about the importance of a katana's ability to cut down anything, clues Fujinon in to Kashiko's purpose in stealing the Kasaneda: to cut down the seal on Wanwan-sama's Way Home.
The heroes hurry to the sealed door to stop Kashinko before she gains access to the sixth spring and its wishing power. There, they find Sugitani holding the line against Kashinko. Sugitani reveals that Kashinko is a living puppet and that she's been possessed by a Kudan influenced by the legend of Wanwan-sama, who's trying to turn Kashinko into a proper vessel. Wanwan-sama proceeds to transform into the monster that attacked Chaldea when they first arrived, and starts rambling about looking for a pure wish that's "number one" and "only one." The heroes can't make sense of its ramblings, but nevertheless, charge into battle with Wanwan-sama, eventually emerging victorious. Wanwan-sama's defeat frees Kashinko from its possession, where she clarifies that she's a doll made by a sorceror who was studying the Kudan's future-sight, but abandoned her after the research hit a dead end. Kashinko's studies into the Kudan ended up forming a link between her and the Kudan, allowing it to use her body help trigger all the other curses when the heroes passed by them.
With Wanwan-sama vanquished and the sealed door open, the heroes decide to investigate beyond the door. Inside, they find hidden sixth spring and confirm that it has no magical energy. With the spring confirmed safe, and the worst of the hauntings vanquished, the heroes are safe to assume that the other hauntings will eventually subside and Kinomi will be able to return to regular business soon. The Ryougis decide to continue their vacation, Sugitani decides to wait for Kashinko to recover before they settle their buisness, Fujinon decides to train in Hell Hall due to her own inadequacy, and Shirou decides to take off now that he's finished his sale. The heroes enjoy one last night in the open air bath, talking about the future and the nature of hopes and dreams. However, despite this sense of finality, the discovery of Aoko's corpse in the bathing area once more indicates that this Singularity is not yet resolved.
Tropes featured in this story:
- All for Nothing: Aoko #1, the first one to die, had a clever plan to invoke Never Shall The Selves Meet to weaken Shiny Star... that utterly fails because even weakened, the Shiny Star still has its Ploy Kickshaw-mandated invulnerability that can only be revoked by following or negating its function. Though it's quickly subverted because Aoko unwittingly brought someone back in time with her that could negate the invulnerability...
- All There in the Manual: Nasu stated on his blog that the Mr. Shirou who appears in this event is actually meant to be a Shirou from a timeline where he was born long before Fate/stay Night and lived to old age, which is why he has No Full Name Given to maintain the mystery of Emiya Shirou's life before the Fuyuki fire.
- Artifact of Doom: The catalyst of the event is Only One/#1 Shiny Star, a rogue Ploy Kickshaw made by Alice based on "Wish Upon a Shooting Star" that can grant any wish, with the exception that it's the only wish of its kind in the whole world (hence the "Only One" in its name). Because this is a ridiculously specific condition, Alice deemed it a failure and was going to dismantle it... and then it was stolen, and then someone actually gave it a unique wish. The activated Ploy gained power by hearing and rejecting the wishes of all of humanity except for the #1 wish, which would've eventually ended humanity by destroying their ability to wish and dream (and thus their drive to progress).
- Autobots, Rock Out!: After a whole event of its looming threat and curbstomping of the cast, the Grand Battle against Shiny Star where things finally turn around is serenaded by an instrumental version of Hoshi ga Matataku Konna Yoru ni, the song used for the credits of Witch on the Holy Night.
- Beneath Suspicion: The heroes realize early on that all the guests at the inn have hidden reasons for coming, and they need to figure out those reasons in order to narrow down where the Grail is. However, much later, after the heroes have pretty much established everyone's motives for coming to Kumano, they realize that they never established why Alice was in Kumano. It turns out Alice is here because of a missing Ploy, which she manages to deduce is a failed wish-granting Ploy that became the Grail.
- The Cameo: Shiki mentions that her husband and daughter are staying at the inn with her, though we never see them since she flexed her vast wealth to rent out an entire floor of the inn to themselves. Sounds like an excuse not to show them on-screen... but then Mikiya and Mana show up at the very end.
- Canon Character All Along: The innkeeper Kumanoin Yoshisuke turns out to be Kinomi.
- Central Theme: The idea of being "one of a kind" and how rare that trait actually is in such a big world. The guests at Kumano inn all resemble Servants that Chaldea are familiar with, Aoko keeps dying and being replaced by a future self, Soujuurou ends up being summoned as a Servant while his adult self is walking about, the secret springs conjure a copy of whoever tries to get a wish granted on them in order to kill the wish recipient, and Shiny Star only works if it can grant a wish that can truly be called one of a kind.
- Chekhov's Gun: The idol poster in the hotel lounge, along with the conversation about consumption culture it sparks between Tobimari and Kumanoin. It turns out to be related to both the cause and solution to the event's plot. It turns out that the plot was kickstarted by Kinomi making a wish that the idol on the poster would become number one. Due to the idol dying before their career took off and being forgotten by the public at large, it turns out that Kinomi is the only one in the world with that wish at the time. However, thanks to Aoko pushing the event back to 1999, Tobimaru would get involved due to being hired to track Kinomi down to return the fan letter he sent to that idol. He got interested in that idol due to his investigation, and so, when he ends up with everyone in 1999 confronting Shiny Star, that means he can have the same wish as Kinomi, invalidating the Ploy's power since the wish isn't the "only one of its kind" anymore.
- Continuity Nod: When Tobimaru asks Aoko if she has anything she wants him to pass onto his wife, Kojika, she tells him to note that their cassettes vs cds bet is now a draw. This is a reference to how Kojika thought in the original VN that CDs were just some trend that would die out in the 80s for music playing compared to the superior cassette while Aoko bet on the CD... only
to be hit by digital streaming making CDs obsolete in the future. - Cosmic Keystone: A living one. It's not a Holy Grail that maintains the Singularity — it's Aoko herself, having set everything up as part of her plan to stop the Shiny Star from ending humanity. This is why she's so dramatically weakened during the event.
- Crossover: With Witch on the Holy Night.
- D-Cup Distress: The fourth Aoko attempted to use the Shoulder Pain Extermination spring, and died due to its curse. The heroes are polite enough not to say outloud why she tried to use it, but it's clear this trope was in play.
- Death Is Cheap:
- Played With. Aoko keeps dying in the morning, but another Aoko from the future Time Shifts in response to learning about the previous Aoko's death. She mentions that this is possible due to the previous Aoko dying in a Singularity, which means that so long as they resolve the Singularity before it sticks, her death shouldn't stick, and another future Aoko can take her place if she dies again. She also doesn't know whatever the previous Aokos learned during her day investigating, and she says it will take two days for her to sync their memories, which of course is rendered moot by Aoko dying again.
- Also discussed. Alice and Aoko reveal to Chaldea exactly why the Nasuverse's Powers That Be go out of their way to defy this trope, making true resurrection impossible even through a Holy Grail. It's not the dead person themselves, but the fact that a successful resurrection sets a precedent for the world to start following, gradually becoming less and less rare until we get a Zombie Apocalypse. They don't reveal how they know this with certainty, but a reader of Witch on the Holy Night will know Aoko abused her Fifth Magic to resurrect a dead Soujuurou, and that miracle was quickly followed by bad things. Aoko only gets away with doing it similar stunts here because, as mentioned above, this event takes place in a Singularity where history can't properly record that she died.
- Debut Queue: Aozaki Aoko (SSR Foreigner) launched along with start of the event, with Shizuki Soujuurou (SR Berserker) as the welfare. Kuonji Alice (SSR Caster) was added a week later.
- Epic Fail: The Inverted Mirror's countermeasure is to simply not look at any mirrors without having someone with you... which Alice ignores, going off to investigate the attic by herself. Not only is she possessed within seconds, it gives the Inverted Mirror access to Wandersnatch.
- Fog of Doom: The Wandersnatch, or rather Wandersnatch Alter, which is unleashed when Alice falls victim to the cursed Inverted Mirror. The normal Wandersnatch would just kill you if you touch the fog. However, the spirit of the mirror found the regular Wandersnatch too gruesome, so it changed it so that instead you get trapped in a Mirror World if you're the only one looking in a mirror. The spirit reverts Wandersnatch to normal for its boss fight.
- Forbidden Zone: The inn manager warns the protagonist and Mash about five dangerously haunted areas in the inn that they're advised to steer clear of if they value their lives. They pass by "Wanwan-sama's Way Home", which is where the areas are explained to them, and he explains that there's also the "Endless Corridor to the Old Building", "The Devil's Classroom", "The Writer's Noose" and "The Inverted Mirror". Naturally, Chaldea tackles each mystery over the course of the next few days and the mission interface already puts up missions for solving these mysteries.
- Foreshadowing: Despite every other Suspiciously Similar Substitute sharing all the personality and quirks of the Servant they're based on, Kashinko lacks Kashin Koji's broken speech patterns. It turns out that Kojiko had been possessed by Wanwan, and Kinomi notes in hindsight that it was weird that Kashinko was speaking normally the past week.
- Gameplay and Story Integration:
- Chaldea is hired on by the inn as exorcists and promised payment for their services at the end of each day. This translates into the event's mission system having 5 missions that are cleared once you've reached that part of the story where the reward is 10 million QP.
- Soujuurou, unlike most event reward Servants, is permanently available without having to complete the event when you first acquire him. This is because Soujuurou was properly summoned using the FATE system as a demonstration to Alice and Aoko.
- Soujuurou being a Servant in the event is justified because he died in the Singularity's timeline, having launched a Suicide Attack on the Shiny Star to give Aoko a chance to fix things. That suicide attack is his Noble Phantasm.
- Aoko is weakened for most of the event due to maintaining the 2001 Singularity, which manifests as NPC Aoko having a permanent NP seal on herself, preventing her from using her Super Mode, and leaving her serviceable, but much weaker than she could be. During the final battle, now that she no longer has to maintain the Singularity, she removes the NP seal and gains a whole slew of permanent buffs that ensure that between them, her Super Mode, and the Foreigner class's weakness to itself, she can easily wipe out the boss on her own.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: A slight mistake exists in Alice having access to Flat Snark, which had been destroyed in Witch on the Holy Night. While this holds no bearing on Servant Alice, actual Alice as seen in the event still has access to it for her Noble Phantasm.
- Genre Shift: From the more high-action fantastic adventures of Fate to the more subdued Urban Fantasy of Mahoyo, with a murder mystery mixed in much like with Mahoyo's Extra Story. While there is still fighting and action, it serves more to break up the slower parts of the story than serve as its focus. This even extends to the cast, as the only Servant Chaldea is able to summon is Soujuurou, and the rest of the cast is either the Mahoyo cast, or Suspiciously Similar Substitute living humans rather than Servants.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Aoko's many deaths turn out to be these. The secret springs are cursed to kill whomever makes a wish on them in order to power up Shiny Star. Aoko had been preventing people from bathing in the spring and dying in their place in order to weaken the Ploy and protect innocent lives from being taken. She manages to save four of the other guests, but she couldn't stop Ishtalyne from from bathing in the first spring, and the fourth Aoko let her guard down and bathed in the fifth spring herself, giving Shiny Star two "stars" worth of power.
- At the end of the event, it turns out Soujuurou was the one to give Aoko the opportunity to kick Shiny Star into the future by making a decisive suicide attack on it. This is why he's able to be summoned by Chaldea in Kumano.
- Hope Spot: At the end of the fifth day, the heroes have purged Wanwan and all the other major horrors of Kumano Inn, the rest of the haunts are expected to disappear soon, the other guests have more or less concluded their business and the secret sixth spring has no magic power, so Kinomi can market it to get business rolling again. It seems everything has been resolved, but the next morning, Aoko is once more found dead.
- Hot Springs Episode: Given that it takes place at a hot springs, the cast eventually has a scene relaxing there with special art of Soujuurou and Tobimaru in the men's bath and Alice and Aoko in the women's bath for Fanservice. Which scene the player gets depends on their Protagonist's gender. Later, Bazett gets a sprite of her in just a towel during her flashback to when she tried to use the Love Fulfilled Spring.
- Jackass Genie: The Kudan kills the people whose wishes it grants. While the Shiny Star didn't have this feature initially, it gained it from the Kudan's influence.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When discussing how she plans to depower Shiny Star, Aoko describes the Shiny Star in 1999 as having a power rating of "five stars", while the Shiny Star in 2001 has "two stars". The Protagonist outright does away with the subtlety and describes 1999 Shiny Star as an SSR.
- Lighter and Softer: After the Gut Punch conga that was Id and the difficult boss fight with Aqua Marie, this event borrows Slice of Life and Fanservice elements from Witch on the Holy Night to help us wind down.
- Mythology Gag: Before she leaves, Bazett gives the heroes the password to her missing briefcase: 20051028. When converted to a date in year/month/day format, it's the day that her debut game, Fate/hollow ataraxia, released.
- Never Shall The Selves Meet:
- Due to being in a Singularity, if Aoko dies, another Aoko from the future can take her place so long as the Singularity doesn't connect to Proper Human History. However, she can't travel to where the previous Aoko was and learn what happened to her, as that would require factoring in Parallel Worlds, which is not her field. However, this raises questions when an Aoko turns up dead when the Aoko that's with the party is still alive.
- Aoko has a near panic attack when Mash summons a younger Soujuurou as a Servant, because a still-living adult Soujuurou is still present in the Singularity. Aoko very pointedly tells Servant Soujuurou to wait in his room for a couple of hours, after which Adult Soujuurou isn't seen again, Aoko implicitly having done some Fifth Magic-assisted damage control to remove him from the premises.
- This ends up being weaponized to deal with Shiny Star. It was too powerful for even Aoko to defeat back in 1999, so her plan was to hurl it two years forward to 2001 where it could be weakened, then rewind it back to 1999 so its stronger and weaker versions would fuse together. It works... albeit only after its Ploy Kickshaw invincibility is revoked.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- A multi-layered one. Alice had been using Kumano to dismantle her Ploys since it was too dangerous to just leave them lying around in more populated areas. However, one of the Ploys that she wanted to dismantle, a wish granting Ploy called Shiny Star, was stolen by the local Kudan and Alice's memory of the Ploy was erased. The Kudan then empowered it and gave it to someone who just happened to have a wish that fit its strict and vague requirement of being your "number one and only one" wish, which was Kinomi. The result was that Shiny Star became a humanity destroying device that Aoko had to kick to 2001 in order to try to weaken it, which ends up causing the Singularity that gets Chaldea involved.
- After everything seems to be resolved during the fifth day, Aoko decides to guard the hot spring again just in case, and decides to try out the Shoulder Pain Extermination spring herself, thinking it would be safe enough. It turns out the spring is still cursed and not only does Aoko die once more (and just as she was almost synced with her previous selves memories to boot), but it makes the real threat the heroes were looking for a notch stronger.
- Now You Tell Me: Robin, literal birdbrain that he is, only thinks to tell everyone that Alice had been possessed by the Inverted Mirror, and changed how her Wandersnatch works and unleashed it after it's abducted all but three people.
- Plot Tailored to the Party:
- The Endless Corridor to the Old Building rewinds time if you try to cross it. Aoko simply needs to time shift to a point where they've already crossed.
- The Devil's Classroom forces you to remake any broken dolls exactly as they were originally built, right down to to the method of construction. Only Soujuurou is capable of such machine-like precision.
- The Inverted Mirror is a tricky curse that abducts people for simply looking at a mirror while in the attic, later extended to every mirror in the building. Sugitani is the answer to this one, Soujuurou and the Protagonist rushing into the attic and opening the windows so she can shoot out all the mirrors from outside.
- The Writer's Noose is cursed so you can't escape from it. The heroes try to cheat it by having someone outside keep the door open, but the curse triggers upon touching the doorknob. Shiki cuts the curse keeping everyone trapped at the cost of her current katana.
- The final battle with Shiny Star looks grim, as even with Aoko's efforts, it's still invincible because Kinomi's wish in 1997 that activated it is still the "only one" of its kind... initially. The one who turns this around ends up being Tobimaru of all people, revealing he had the same wish as of 2001, but now he's present in 1999 because of Aoko. The contradiction revokes Shiny Star's protection and allows Aoko and Chaldea to destroy it.
- Real After All: "Wanwan-sama" was just a rumor that Kinomi made up... except there is something resembling it that is haunting the inn, and is in fact responsible for the entire plot. It was a Kudan, a Youkai said to invoke prophecies. When Alice came to the inn four years ago to dismantle some unneeded Ploy Rickshaws, the Kudan stole Shiny Star as a vessel for itself and erased Alice's memory of it, then tricked Kinomi into activating it.
- Red Herring: It wouldn't be a mystery without any. Some particular ones:
- Bazett implies that she hunting for a Sealing Designate, and expresses familiarity when she hear that an Aozaki died. However, it turns out that she confused Aoko for Touko and she's actually at the inn to investigate an anomaly before going to hunt down Touko.
- Alot of attention is drawn to the innkeeper Kumanoin, making him seem suspicious, especially sense he seems to recognize Aoko's name when she first turns up dead. It turns out that he's actually Kinomi. Turns out he still has no poker face and got horribly scammed in the past, so nowadays he's using his stage name and puppet suit to run the inn in disguise, as well as stopping his fame from making trouble for his family.
- Kinomi was telling the truth about wanting exorcists to deal with the many hauntings plaguing the inn. He was, however, lying about the number of hauntings: "Wanwan-sama's Way Home" turns out to be a tall tale he concocted by conflating local rumors with the story of the Holy Grail, simply using the press to attract more customers... unfortunately, it turns out there is something adjacent to Wanwan-sama haunting the area, so Kinomi telling the truth ends up being the real herring.
- Mash mentions during day four that for some reason Tobimaru split the party so that only Mash would accompany him the previous two days, would only search the old building and would dismiss her at around 6 in order to call someone. Turns out he was just using the landline phone to call his wife because cell phones don't work here.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Ryougi Shiki bypassed the inn's current guest policy with her family's wealth and then reserved an entire floor to herself solely so she, her husband, and her daughter could have a nice vacation at this specific inn. She also put a down payment to reserve the family prosperity spring for herself.
- Simple Solution Won't Work:
- While Chaldea could just destroy the weakened Shiny Star in the Singularity while it's still in 2001, Aoko has been trying to avoid this outcome — because it killed Soujuurou in 1999, and if they don't go back in time to defeat Shiny Star before that happened, his death will become permanent. This is the whole reason Aoko used the Fifth Magic to kick Shiny Star into the future in the first place. Soujuurou suggests to the Protagonist in private that they go through with it in 2001 if they can't defeat Shiny Star in 1999.
- When it turns out even that wouldn't work because of how Ploy Kickshaws work, the simple solution then becomes for Kinomi to reject the wish that activated Shiny Star... which he vehemently refuses. Said wish was about a hard-working idol girl who died on-stage from a frail constitution, simply wanting one of her songs to be #1 in memory of her, and no one else in the world cared about that. Forcing Kinomi to take back his wish is both impossible and unfathomably cruel.
- The Teaser: The story begins with a short section outlining the world ending in Japan on the year 1999 before going to its proper introduction with Chaldea.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Aoko keeps dying between story sections, prompting an Aoko from another timeline to take her place.
- They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason: Even after it's revealed that Kinomi's wish was the one that set off Shiny Star, he is very, very pensive about revealing what it was. He's only forced to confess it when push comes to shove against Shiny Star, and this being Kinomi, everyone expects it to be something ridiculous and vain... only to get a Somber Backstory Revelation in response. Kinomi's wish involved a now-dead idol girl whose only fan was himself, wanting one of her singles to top the charts in her memory. That Shiny Star would activate from this simple wish meant no one else in the entire world cared about that girl or her passion for music. Kinomi was rightly angry. Everyone quickly apologizes for their wrong assumption and resolves to find a way to stop Shiny Star without rejecting Kinomi's wish.
- Tourism-Derailing Event: When Chaldea arrives at the inn, it turns out that the inn has been haunted for two years, and the manager is restricting guests to spirit mediums and exorcists who can handle the problem. Chaldea is let in since they're mistaken for spirit mediums, and Chaldea decides to just roll with the assumption.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The cause of the incident in 1999 that leads to the extinction of humanity turns out to be Kinomi being tricked into making a wish that a minor idol that recently died would be number one. That wish turns out to fit the requirements for Shiny Star to work.
- You ALL Look Familiar: Various characters reuse preexisting Servant art. Unlike past events and stories, where it was explained the art reuse came about because the Protagonist was trying to process people in a dream Singularity via the people they already knew, it's affirmed that everyone here are genuine flesh-and-blood humans who are strangely identical to Servants. In addition, Caren, Fujino, Bazett, and Shiki are the actual characters circa 2001, who have all ended up here for one reason or another.
- The Worf Effect: To Aoko, several times.
- The Fifth Magician, one of the most powerful beings in the whole franchise... becomes a plain murder victim. Repeatedly.
- There's also the... thing that Aoko is fighting in the flashback scenes that is devastating the area around it just by existing. Aoko is actively fighting back against Shiny Star, Fifth Magic included, and it doesn't care.
- You Can't Fight Fate: After three separate instances of Aoko dying at one of the inn's hot springs, Soujuurou wisely forbids the fourth Aoko from visiting the next one. The next morning, Aoko #4 is fine, but somehow a fifth Aoko has gotten herself killed at the hot spring instead.
