As the episode opens, Haruka and her friends are all gathered at the wedding of Ai's mother. It's a joyous occasion, though things take a bizarre turn when Ai asks Haruka who she is. Haruka's confused at first, and becomes even moreso when Miho, Isami, and even Yu state that they have no clue who she is.
Not surprisingly, this turns out to be in Haruka's head as she had what she refers to as a vivid daydream. Everything seems back to normal, until Yu asks an oddly specific question about the nature of Haruka's dream. Time seems to freeze as Yu reveals himself to be Noein, and he taunts Haruka saying that she has no way of telling dream from phantom reality. Haruka than wakes up again, this time in her own bedroom.
Even though she wakes up, she still finds herself questioning reality. She rummages through some old photos to assure herself that she does, in fact, exist. During her dig, she comes across an old cassette tape, though she keeps referring to it as a video for some reason. She says that it won't play on her video player (probably because it's a cassette tape) and turns to Atori and Tobi to try and help her access whatever's on the tape.
As they don't know enough about past technology, Haruka goes to Yu, who explains that it's an 8 mm tape, but he doesn't have a deck for it either.
In La'cryma, Kuina finds a tube of lipstick and freaks out. He is then confronted by Noein, who says that Kuina has been betrayed again. Kuina asks to be taken to Shangri'La, but Noein refuses, saying that Kuina hasn't fulfilled his part of the bargain. Kuina says that the dragon torque is growing more powerful and Noein concurs. Noein than elaborates, saying that the dragon torque can get to Shangri'La on its own, thus he no longer needs Kuina. He terminates their deal and leaves a distraught Kuina, who begs to be taken with him.
While Haruka continues to hunt for an 8 mm tape player, Kuina plots to get to Shangri'La on his own, using a portal to try and jump dimensions.
Uchida and Koriyama go to Haruka's father to try and gather more information about what's going on. Koriyama isn't sure about dragging Haruka into it, but Uchida suspects she's already in it. We see that the idea of a multiverse is still overwhelming and he says it feels like a long nightmare, possibly foreshadowing a future revelation.
Karasu, meanwhile, is being stalked by Kosagi, who insists on watching Karasu fade from our dimension. Karasu quickly loses interest and leaves. Soon after he departs, Kuina appears to confront Kosagi on leaving him. He tells her of his desire and she labels him a traitor. He knocks her out, but leaves a device with her so that she can survive.
Uchida and Koriyama meet up with Atori and Tobi where they drop some exposition about the multiple realities and how the dimension was only supposed to be an imaginary coordinate to the residents of La'cryma. However, once they set foot in the reality, it became real. Tobi still denies this, saying that the whole thing is a computer simulation. Even so, the world is still being affected and the revelation that the Magic Circle project is attempting to generate Reizu particles does not help matters.
Kuina confronts Karasu and the two throwdown. It seems like Karasu has Kuina beaten, but when Karasu has his back turned, Kuina attacks and renders him immobile.
A portal from Shangri'La opens and several massive ships, that Tobi and Karasu refer to as Destructrons, appear. Everyone looks on in horror as the vessels appear in the sky. Isami, while awe struck, still makes a point to take pictures of the vessels with his cell phone.
Haruka and her friends, having just found an 8 mm tape player, are accosted by Kuina. He grabs Haruka and calls to Noein to be taken to Shangri'La. Yu tries to help, but is promptly knocked aside by Kuina. He somehow sends out a psychic S.O.S. to Karasu, who teleports to join them and demands Haruka's release.
He attacks Kuina, but Kuina flees to one of the destructrons, hoping to be let into Shangri'La. Noein appears and reiterates that he has no use for Kuina. Even the claims that Kuina fulfilled his end of the bargain fall on deaf ears and Kuina vanishes. Noein is then confronted by Karasu, who aims to avenge the death of Fukuro. Noein toys with Karasu, but the dragon torque activates and Haruka transports on top of the destructron with Noein and Karasu. The torque erases the destructrons from existence, forcing Noein to flee. The portal vanishes as well, restoring everything to normal.
With nothing to stand on, Haruka starts to plummet to the Earth below, luckily, Karasu is there to catch her. She reappears in front of her friends as they try to figure out what just happened. Isami is horrified to see that the photos he took no longer have the vessels in them, leaving him with a photo of the back of Miho's head. The episode ends as the group ponders whether or not the whole thing was just a dream.
Anime fans in the local Wichita area can purchase the series in its entirety on DVD at their local Best Buy or order it online through sites like Amazon.












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