Chapter Summaries

Tōko Aozaki confronted memories of her grandfather and Fumihito Eiri inside the mental world created by her memories, then used Rune Script to break free. She left Aozaki Aoko behind in the dream and woke in the Clock Tower library, where she soon grew drowsy over her studies again.

• Tōko Aozaki recognized the mental world as a prison woven from her memories and reflected on her resentment toward her grandfather and her estrangement from Aozaki Aoko.
• Tōko Aozaki rejected her grandfather's efforts to make her a chess piece, smashed her treasured orange half-rim glasses, and left the memory scene.
• Tōko Aozaki comforted Aozaki Aoko by teasing her, then summoned a Rune Script likeness of Yggdrasil to dissolve the dream world.
• Aozaki Aoko woke in the Clock Tower library, remembered dreaming about Touko, and returned to studying Celestial Magic before becoming drowsy again.

Ryūnosuke Kitahara found himself at his wedding to his younger sister, Yūko, and reflected on how their bond grew from family dependence into love. After Yūko nearly died in a serial murder case, Ryūnosuke stopped hesitating and chose to face his feelings for her.

• Ryūnosuke recognized the Bridal Chorus and realized he was standing at his wedding with Yūko as the bride.
• Ryūnosuke recalled how he had resented his stepmother and stepsister before growing close to them as a family.
• After their parents died in a car accident, Ryūnosuke comforted Yūko when she cried alone in her room.
• Ryūnosuke became a police officer while Yūko became the heir to the local shrine, and their feelings for each other gradually deepened.
• A serial murder case nearly claimed Yūko’s life, and seeing her fighting for survival in the hospital made Ryūnosuke realize he could no longer deny their bond.
• Ryūnosuke chose to stop hesitating and accept his feelings for Yūko.

Ryūnosuke Kitahara and Yūko grow old together, recalling their shared life before Yūko dies beside him. As Ryūnosuke’s memory fades, he sees Yūko again and joins her in the light.

• Ryūnosuke and Yūko marry and kiss before the pastor.
• In their old age, Yūko tells Ryūnosuke about their childhood and the ways he had protected her.
• Yūko falls asleep against Ryūnosuke’s shoulder and dies, leaving him grieving.
• Ryūnosuke later wakes among his children and grandchildren, who tell him Yūko has died.
• Ryūnosuke sees Yūko coming toward him and walks with her into the light.

Senka Kiritsugu pursued a kind of specialness beyond grades or recognition, and her growing distance from her family led to her adoption into Kiritou Kaguya’s home. Though she despised Kaguya’s ordinary nature and kindness, he continued to take her home, and she left their relationship unchanged in her mind.

• Senka Kiritsugu finished studying at the library, where Kiritou Kaguya waited and took her hand to lead her home.
• Senka recalled that she had long wanted to be one of a kind and had treated knowledge as a way to become different from other children.
• Senka’s pursuit of specialness distanced her from her teachers, friends, and parents, and she was adopted into Kiritou Kaguya’s family.
• Senka avoided the neighborhood children and spent time alone, while Kiritou Kaguya repeatedly came to take her home.
• Senka regarded Kiritou Kaguya as painfully ordinary and dismissed his steady kindness as something he would show anyone.

Senka Kiritsugu learned that their elderly neighbor had died after giving her fruit candies the day before, and she struggled to understand Kiritou Kaguya’s sorrowful refusal to cry. On the balcony, she realized his restraint came from a gentleness that kept him from wanting to make others sad, and she found the special quality she had been seeking.

• Senka Kiritsugu and Kiritou Kaguya greeted their neighbor, Uncle Inoshita, who failed to recognize them before giving Senka several fruit candies.
• The next evening, Senka learned that Uncle Inoshita had fallen and died, and she grieved for the lonely life he had endured.
• Senka noticed that Kiritou Kaguya looked deeply sorrowful but did not cry, and she wondered why he held back his tears.
• On the balcony, Kiritou Kaguya told Senka that even when he wanted to cry, he could not because crying was something special.
• Senka understood that Kiritou Kaguya avoided crying because he did not want to spread sadness to others, and she smiled as she recognized his hidden gentleness.

Michael escaped the Artist’s living labyrinth and confronted him in the theater, where the Artist revealed his devotion to a performance called the Human Heart. The Artist was nearing the dissolution of his soul, but insisted that he pursued art rather than the Root.

• Michael broke through the false mental space and entered a labyrinth that could not adapt to his thoughts.
• Michael smashed through a dead-end wall, erased the labyrinth’s magical attackers, and returned to the theater.
• Michael found the Artist on the stage and recognized his body as Tōko Aozaki’s puppet and his mask as a Mage’s Garment containing his soul.
• Michael told the Artist that his soul would soon dissolve, and the Artist explained that his final performance was called the Human Heart.
• Michael compared the Artist’s pursuit to Izeluma’s research, but the Artist insisted that art—not reaching the Root—was his ultimate goal.

The Artist’s Inherent Domain collapsed, freeing those trapped in its mental spaces and ending the Katori Town murder case. Ryūnosuke Kitahara and Yūko Kitahara awoke with memories of a shared lifetime, while Senka Kiritsugu chose to keep her ordinary life rather than enter the hidden world.

• The Artist’s mask shattered under the backlash of the Inherent Domain, and Michael crushed the final mental space as Tōko Aozaki found the doll and identified its alchemical mask.
• Ryūnosuke Kitahara awoke at the theater and reunited with Yūko Kitahara, and they revealed that they had both dreamed of marrying and raising a family together.
• Senka Kiritsugu asked Tōko Aozaki about her abilities, but chose not to enter the hidden world after learning its dangers and the cost to her peaceful life.
• Tōko Aozaki gave Senka Kiritsugu a Garan no Dō Architectural Design Office business card and explained that the office offered more than detective services.

After returning to Kanbōzi City, Ori struggled with her desire to live independently from Shiki and asked Tōko Aozaki to make her a doll body. Tōko agreed to finish it in two weeks, and Michael revealed that he had overheard their conversation.

• After Ryūnosuke Kitahara and Yūko Kitahara's wedding, Michael and the others returned to Kanbōzi City, where Ori became increasingly quiet and withdrawn.
• Ori asked Tōko Aozaki whether she could make a doll capable of housing a soul, then admitted she wanted a body of her own because she did not want to lose her freedom when Shiki awakened.
• Tōko told Ori that she was an independent person rather than something belonging to Shiki, and reassured her that wanting something for herself was natural.
• Ori asked Tōko to make a doll identical to her current body, and Tōko agreed to have it ready in two weeks.
• Ori asked Tōko not to tell Michael, but Michael appeared on the sofa and said he had accidentally overheard a little of their conversation.

Michael asked Tōko Aozaki to create a new body for Ori, and the documents he provided sparked new ideas for her. Back at her apartment, Ori struggled to write Shiki a farewell letter, while Kiritou Kaguya followed a drifting paper airplane to a flower shop.

• Michael gave Tōko Aozaki documents on the human body and asked her to work on Ori's new body, prompting her to develop new ideas.
• Ori returned to her apartment and reflected on her feelings for Kiritou Kaguya and her wish to avoid hurting Shiki.
• Ori tried to write Shiki a letter but gave up and threw the blank page, folded into a paper airplane, out the window.
• Kiritou Kaguya watched the paper airplane drift away, crossed the street, and entered a flower shop.

Kiritou Kaguya brought a bouquet of Persia to visit the hospitalized Utou Kirie, whose family had died in a car accident. The chapter ended with Kirie mistaking Kaguya for Mikiya as she greeted him warmly.

• Kiritou Kaguya bought his usual bouquet of Persia from Miss Maki and said he was visiting a seriously ill female friend.
• Nurses discussed Utou Kirie’s family tragedy, rumors about a curse, Dr. Souren Araya paying her hospital fees, and Kaguya’s visits.
• Kiritou Kaguya reached Utou Kirie’s room on the third floor and knocked.
• Utou Kirie welcomed the visitor with a warm smile and asked whether he was Mikiya.

Kiritou Kaguya visited his friend Utou Kirie in the hospital and listened as she described seeing the world from an unseen vantage in the air. Kirie quietly longed for a future with him despite her worsening illness, and Kaguya went to sleep after failing to find information about her experience.

• Kiritou Kaguya brought cosmos flowers to Utou Kirie and recalled how they had become friends through his university volunteer program.
• Utou Kirie described her failing health and said she had recently been able to see the hospital surroundings from above, as if another version of herself were floating in the air.
• Kiritou Kaguya suggested her brain might be reconstructing familiar scenery, while Kirie said she was glad to be able to see more.
• Utou Kirie asked Kiritou Kaguya whether he liked the sky and said she hoped there was a world in it that she would not hate.
• Utou Kirie silently longed to spend her life with Kiritou Kaguya, though she feared she might die at any moment.
• Kiritou Kaguya searched online for information about Kirie's experience, found nothing, and fell asleep dreaming of a dragonfly and a butterfly.

Two weeks later, Ori saw the new body made for her and prepared to transfer into it. Tōko Aozaki began the procedure, but Michael intervened and quickly separated Ori from Shiki, leaving Ori’s personality in the new body.

• Ori examined her new body and learned that Tōko Aozaki had helped Michael create it.
• Tōko Aozaki put Ori to sleep with anesthetic gas and prepared to separate her personality from Shiki’s.
• Tōko Aozaki discovered she could not interfere with Ori’s soul because the body connected to the Root protected it.
• Michael appeared, separated Ori from Shiki, and placed Ori in the new body in less than a minute.
• Tōko Aozaki was stunned by how easily Michael completed the transfer.

After gaining a body of her own, Ori set out to travel and sort through her feelings about Shiki. Michael caught her before she left, and she boarded the train carrying his amulet and a letter for Shiki.

• Tōko Aozaki confirmed that the separation of personalities had succeeded, and Ori examined her new body.
• Ori decided to travel to Hokkaido without telling Michael and left a letter for Shiki.
• Michael found Ori at the station, encouraged her to rely on him, and gave her a gold amulet.
• Ori handed Michael her letter for Shiki and boarded the train for a new world.

After waking in a military camp as the disgraced Young Marquis Qin Hu, a modern special forces soldier realized he had been framed and exiled to the front. As the freezing patrol threatened his and Qin An’s lives, Qin Hu decided to use his remaining silver to seek help from centurion Li Xiaokun.

• Qin Hu woke in a tent and learned he had taken the place of the wastrel Champion Marquis, who had been accused of molesting Princess Chang'an and exiled to the front.
• Qin Hu recalled that Chen Ruoli had impeached him and suspected that the Duke of Chen, Princess Chang'an, and others had conspired against him.
• Qin Hu and Qin An went out into a freezing snowstorm for patrol while the departing sentries extinguished their fire.
• Qin An feared they would not survive, and Qin Hu resolved to protect him and return to the capital to settle the score.
• Qin Hu asked how much money they had left and decided to approach centurion Li Xiaokun with their remaining silver.

After transmigrating into the disgraced Young Marquis Qin Hu, a former special forces soldier realized that powerful enemies had framed him and were trying to kill him in the army. Stranded in a freezing camp with his sickly servant Qin An, he decided to seek help from centurion Li Xiaokun.

• Qin Hu woke in a military tent and recovered the memories of the marquis whose title and fortune had been put at risk after Chen Ruoli accused him of crimes.
• Qin Hu concluded that the Chen Family and others had conspired to exile him, then arrange his death through brutal treatment in the army.
• Qin Hu and Qin An were ordered out to patrol in a fierce snowstorm, and the sentries extinguished their bonfire before retreating into their tent.
• Qin An collapsed in the snow, and Qin Hu resolved to keep them both alive and return to the capital to settle accounts.
• Qin Hu learned they had only twenty taels of silver and chose to approach Vanguard Camp centurion Li Xiaokun for help.

After awakening in the body of the disgraced Champion Marquis Qin Hu, a modern soldier realizes powerful enemies have sent him to the front to die. Struggling against the freezing cold in the Vanguard Camp, he decides to seek help from its centurion, Li Xiaokun.

• Qin Hu wakes in the Great Yu Dynasty and learns he was framed for molesting Princess Chang'an after his fiancée, Chen Ruoli, impeached him.
• Qin Hu recalls that the Chen family and his cousin had motives to eliminate him and take control of his estate.
• Qin Hu and his page Qin An are forced to patrol through a blizzard after the relieved sentries extinguish their warming fire.
• Qin An weakens from the cold, and Qin Hu resolves to keep him alive and return to the capital to settle accounts with his enemies.
• Qin Hu asks Qin An for his remaining silver and decides to approach Vanguard Camp centurion Li Xiaokun for help.

After awakening in the body of Qin Hu, a disgraced Young Marquis exiled to the front, Qin Hu realized that powerful enemies had conspired to ruin him. Facing deliberate abuse in the Vanguard Camp, he resolved to keep himself and Qin An alive by seeking help from centurion Li Xiaokun.

• Qin Hu learned that he had transmigrated into the disgraced Champion Marquis, whose fiancée Chen Ruoli had impeached him and whose exile followed a palace scandal.
• Qin Hu understood that the Duke of Chen, Princess Chang'an, and others had joined forces against him to seize what they wanted.
• Qin Hu and Qin An were ordered to patrol through a freezing night, while off-duty sentries extinguished their warming fire.
• Qin Hu saw that the soldiers' harsh treatment and exhausting labor were putting Qin An and himself at risk of dying.
• Qin Hu decided to use the twenty taels of silver to seek help from centurion Li Xiaokun.

After awakening in the body of the disgraced Young Marquis Qin Hu, a former special forces soldier realized he had been framed and sent to the front to die. Stranded in a freezing camp with his servant Qin An, he decided to survive by seeking help from the centurion Li Xiaokun.

• Qin Hu awoke in a military camp and recovered memories of his transmigration into the exiled Champion Marquis, who had been accused of molesting Princess Chang'an and charged with seventy-two crimes by Chen Ruoli.
• Qin Hu concluded that the Duke of Chen’s faction and Princess Chang'an’s allies had conspired to remove him and claim his family’s estate.
• Qin Hu and Qin An went out to patrol in a brutal snowstorm after the sentries extinguished their warming fire and left them exposed.
• Qin Hu recognized that he and Qin An were being worked and mistreated until they died, and vowed to return to the capital and take revenge.
• Qin Hu learned they had only twenty taels of silver and decided to seek help from Li Xiaokun, the centurion in charge of the Vanguard Camp.

Qin Hu woke in the body of a disgraced Young Marquis exiled to the front, where conspirators tried to kill him through brutal military service. He resolved to survive with Qin An and decided to approach the Vanguard Camp’s centurion, Li Xiaokun, for help.

• Qin Hu learned that Chen Ruoli had impeached him, leading to his exile after he was framed for molesting Princess Chang'an.
• Qin Hu and Qin An were sent into a freezing night patrol while the relieved sentries extinguished their fire and returned to shelter.
• Qin Hu realized the camp’s soldiers had been bought off to make him freeze or suffer to death.
• Qin Hu learned that he and Qin An had only twenty taels of silver and that their family property had been sealed.
• Qin Hu decided to bribe Li Xiaokun, the centurion in charge of the Vanguard Camp, to protect himself and Qin An.

Shiki struggled to catch up on her studies while enjoying a peaceful summer with Michael. Senka Kiritsugu, desperate to find out why her brother Kiritou Kaguya had fallen into an unexplained sleep, went to seek help from the Garan no Dō Office.

• Shiki complained about studying, but kept working to catch up on university material as Michael brought her strawberry ice cream.
• Michael and Shiki discussed Tōko Aozaki's trip to a Tokyo auction and enjoyed a quiet summer day.
• Senka Kiritsugu learned that her brother Kiritou Kaguya was unresponsive despite the hospital finding no medical cause.
• Senka concluded that Kaguya's condition was connected to the mysterious world she knew about and decided to seek Tōko Aozaki's help.
• Senka followed her business card to the Garan no Dō Office in Kanbōzi City's industrial district and entered the abandoned-looking building.