A thief has unleashed a challenge for the Windchasers and Red Lotus Uprising while in the Fog, a prisoner has hit the highest peaks of Despair.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Asher laughs at the incident of the Noir Princess CarExplanation due to how the video was doctored. He clarifies that he's laughing at the editing, not the subject matter.
- Adaptation Expansion:
- The Apex and their actions in the Noir Princess Car was mentioned in passing in Voyage of Wisteria. Here, Amelia shows a video of the scene in question.
- Huxley and Cecilia Monroe get more time to expand on their characters and proving they have learned nothing for the past eight years.
- Ryan and Min-Gi's adventures outside the Train are revealed: their first album The Train to Nowhere was also a helpful guide for those who ended up on the Train and they married about a decade prior to the story.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Vaillant and Yuri open the door to the hotel room to tell Augustine to get ready, they are horrified at seeing him with his sword glaring at them...only to have Asher command Augustine to wake up and it turns out it was all a training session to increase Augustine's mental defenses.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Huxley wants his daughter to be punished for her reckless behavior and creating a cult. Emile reveals that she'll get the worst punishment possible — exectuion.
- Big Damn Heroes: Just before Tony and Yuri get hit by a "Lord of the Vermillion" spell, Chloe knocks Indigo over the head with her donut holer.
- Big "NO!": Tony shouts this when he assumes that he can't call his family on his MPCOM. Thankfully, Amelia gives him her tablet for communication purposes.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Paul screamed this to his brother during their last conversation before he was taken onto the Train.
- Big Word Shout: Both Windchasers and Red Lotus Uprising shout "THREE DAYS?!" when Omar reveals how long it will take to reach Iram through the Cyan Desert Car.
- Black Comedy: Asher forced the Apex to play the Dalgona game...and made them wear green tracksuits along with it, clearly referencing Squid Game.
- Breaking Speech: Walter lays one out to Paul, stating that he's a weakling at heart and that no one truly loves him.
- Buffy Speak: Ryu calls the Alice in Wonderland version of croquet "flamingo hammer ball" abd Vox is called "TV head guy".
- Call-Back: When the Boutique Street Police approach Augustine, Vaillant notes that Garchomp has been in her Poké ball the entire time, referencing how the Ninjala Police arrested Garchomp when they arrived.
- Calling Card: One from the thief known as "Indigo" is in the Boutique Street Car, revealing that he sealed the door out and requests both Augustine and Chloe to stop him from stealing a valuable gem at a certain time.
- Continuity Nod: When Yuri makes a remark of having watched a show involving three secret agents named Sam, Clover and Alex, Tony remarks that those names are the same from the spies that his siblings met, meaning that Tony was taken in after Episode 40 of his show, Operation: Dude Ranch Disaster.
- Didn't See That Coming: Indigo tries to attack Amelia...but he instead attacks her sound-based barrier.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Why is Paul such an asshole? Because his brother lost once to Pyramid King Brandon. Walter can't believe how pathetic and petty it is.Walter: The train has picked up even worse scenarios. Those who were bullied, on the verge of suicide, aided a megalomaniac…but you froze your heart because your big brother lost once?!
- Dope Slap: Hakurou knocks Gladion, Specter and Tokio on the noggin with his wooden sword multiple times.
- Dramatic Irony: Chloe assumes that London is somehow the prisoner and last Flauros component due to his first name being "Paul", the despair he felt in being alone and thinking that prisoner was more symbolic than literal. He isn't; it's Paul Drangea who is Despair.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Amelia is pissed when she hears Asher laughing at the video that had the Noir Princess burned to death. Asher clarifies that he is horrified at what happened to the Noir Princess; it's the editing that made it seemed the Apex was the one who killed her was what made him burst into laughter.
- Engineered Public Confession: Emile had Huxley and Cecilia's confessions about their feelings of their daughter posted on a livestream that is uploaded onto the Infinet, revealing how they are responsible for Grace's behavior and have now condemned her to die.
- Everyone Has Standards: The Noir Princess Car reveals that even Simon, the most sociopathic of the Apex was horrified at what happened to said princess, stating that there's nothing they could do to save her.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- Inspector Ganmard tells Vaillant to apprehend Indigo, but specifically calls them "Vale". Thing is, Ganmard doesn't know Vaillant's nickname...but Sycamore does.
- The car that the groups are about to enter at the end of the arc is a sea of blue sand. Cue Omar revealing this is the fabled Cyan Desert Car...
- Groin Attack: Walter kicks Paul in the groin in order to open up and eat something.
- Happily Married: Omar in the Cyan Desert Car reveals that Ryan and Min-Gi tied the knot a decade before the story began.Explanation
- Harmless Freezing:
- When one Apex kid tried to cheat in the Honeycomb game by eating the edgesg of the cookie instead of using the needle, Asher had a shadow freeze him. Thankfully it was only until the rest of the Apex finished the game properly.
- Indigo traps numerous members of the Red Lotus Uprising, Yuri and Tony in an Ice Trap. Thankfully, the ice started to melt due to the flames from Chloe's cloak.
- Killed Offscreen: Ryu mentioned some "TV head guy" (Vox) has been killed off.
- Love at First Sight: Tony becomes awestuck at Chloe and asks her on a date.
- Manipulative Editing: Whoever made the video that insinuated the Apex of the crimes of the death of the Noir Princess (revealed to be Vox) in order to make the Apex seem like absolute monsters.
- No Fair Cheating: When the Apex had to go through the Dalgona game, one kid tried to break the cookie apart instead of using the needle. He ends up frozen for his troubles.
- Now You Tell Me: During the training with Hakurou, Specter both tries to psyche him out by claming that Pyramid Head was more dangerous and then tried to fuse with Easter for a fair advantage. It ends up with Hakurou bulldozing through the former and knocking Easter out with the latter. Before Chloe ends her phone call, she passes on a message from Augustine that using either mental games or magic will make Hakurou ramp up the difficulty of the training. Gladion, Specter and Tokio are not amused.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Elipzo has already killed Vox, a very powerful demon lord.
- Oh, Crap!:
- When Chloe tries to go through whoever Despair is, she only knows that the person was named "Paulie". She then remembers that London's first name is Paul and hastily calls him.
- During his training with Hakurou, Tokio has this look when Hakurou accidentally takes one of his detonation cards. Cue explosion.
- Once More, with Clarity: The fight with Indigo and Augustine had Augustine use Kouha before trying to slice at Indigo to get the Black Heart's gem. When it's replayed, Augustine had summoned his Persona Card, used Kouha to blind Indigo and then slashed the card while he reached out for the gem.
- Red Herring: Indigo plants a decoy of himself to distract the police and the Red Lotus Uprising as he gets the Black-Heart's Gem undetected.
- The Reveal:
- Indigo is both the denizen who saved Asher but also Victor and Gloria's former denizen partner.
- Tony has been on the Train for two weeks.
- The Scapegoat: The Apex are being framed for other crimes, one of them being the tragedy of the Noir Princess Car.
- Shout-Out:
- Asher made the Apex wear green tracksuits and cut out cookies with a needle once. One kid even tries to use Ali's tactic of just biting the edges of the cookie, only to end up frozen instead.
- Chloe's new outfit from the Boutique Street Car is a puppeteer that has the seal of Belial on her hat. Yuri asks if her interpretation of Belial wasn't from a manga.
- Emile the butler is named after Chuggaaconroy, whose first name is Emile. Emile says his farewells to the Monroe parents with "See you guys then!" which is how Chuggaa usually ends his videos. Moreover, the co-author says that Emile's nickname is "Chamomile", referencing how Chuggaaconroy named his Skitty character in his Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Let's Play.
- Training from Hell: Gladion, Specter and Tokio are subjected to this, courtesy of Hakurou. The narration even uses the trope name.
- Uncanny Valley: Invoked. The Boutique Street Car has living mannequins as denizens with no mouths which Yuri notes that "somehow came out of a horror movie".
- Wham Episode: As expected from the penultimate chapter of Arc 1.
- Part 1 reveals that the Apex have been framed to be even worse monsters than they usually are, Paul Drangea is being told that he can bring true Despair by someone not Walter and Elipzo appears in front of Reggie's doorstep.
- Part 2 has Asher and Augustine realize that Indigo is both the denizen that saved Asher and Gloria and Victor's former denizen partner, Grace's parents are now kidnapped by Elipzo agents and the heroic groups have entered the Cyan Desert Car, meaning that one of the darkest arcs of the original trilogy is not far behind.
- Wham Line:
- After Amelia calls out how Asher is apathetic over the death of the Noir Princess, he makes this remark:
Asher: Hmph... I admit that the car's predicament under their hands in that footage was no laughing matter. However, I just can't help it since all the Apex did there was stand and jaw dropped at the chaos.- What's the plan after Kisaragi was broken?
Avery: I think the boss wants something more than an Alice in Wonderland reference. Namely a brainwashing chamber and his successor... - The Worf Effect: Just before Harmonic Storm can be used for the first time, Hakurou pokes his wooden sword at them, splitting them to Easter and Specter.
