Part 99: Rimi Route Summary

The final NoAH OP, for the final Route Summary:
Chaos;Head NoAH Opening - Fetishism Ark

In addition, if I might bring your attention to this short story prologue:
Short Story Video - Delusion of Zero




Technically speaking, Rimi's route is one of the earliest you can unlock. In the first Delusion Trigger, you must choose Positive (seeing the delusion where Rimi appears) and then answer a series of questions such that Takumi gets the vague feeling that he knows the girl he saw. I chose not to post this earlier because I felt this would be more appropriate as the final summary, rather than Kozue.

Immediately after unlocking this route, there's new scenes. The first takes place in Shogun's room in the hospital. He and Rimi have lived there for over a year without anyone noticing. They're having yet another argument about Shogun's plan. Rimi wants to do everything herself, feeling that she owes a debt to Shogun. She also doesn't want to force Takumi to awaken through fear, treating him the same way Nozomi treated her. Most of all, she doesn't want Shogun to die.

Shogun, however, will go through with the plan no matter what. If Rimi erases Takumi, Shogun will just remake Takumi even if it means another year in a coma. Shogun was ready to die from the start, and he feels like he deserves it for pushing everything on Takumi's shoulders.

Rimi then remembers that, according to Shogun's visions, the next New-Gen Murder (the Staking) is about to begin. She leaves for the scene of the crime, intending to keep Takumi away. After arriving there, and chasing off a Porter, Rimi arrives at the crime scene. Initially, it doesn't seem so gruesome. Only ten stakes, and very little blood. But then Rimi takes a second look, and her perception changes utterly.



Suddenly, the corpse has countless stakes impaled in it, and the blood is everywhere. Rimi is suddenly wearing a school uniform she's never seen before, as opposed to the causal attire she had before, and she's carrying a blood-covered stake in her hand. Rimi is seeing a delusion. It hasn't been real-booted yet, but it's visible to Giagalomaniacs. Initially fearing what someone capable of creating such a violent delusion might be doing to Takumi, she is relieved to hear his voice behind her. Takumi runs off screaming.

After reading Takumi's reaction to the Staking, we get a new scene. Hazuki is in the hospital, on a phone call with Suwa. She got a backlog of the chat between Shogun and Takumi (after she left). The conversation between them is proof that Shogun has come out of hiding. However, just as she's about to send the transcript to Suwa, something strange happens. The time no longer adds up. The log has suddenly been altered to make it look like Takumi was talking to himself. After informing Suwa, he tells Hazuki to be careful, as they're probably being watched.

A bit later, we see Rimi's first day at school. After walking in the front door, everyone is wondering who the new girl is. But she uses a delusion to create a shared recognition that 'Rimi is, and always was, a member of this class'. After that, she further alters Misumi's memories to use him to get close to Takumi. Everything went smoother than she had thought it would, but she feels guilty for the manipulation.

A bit later than that, we get a scene of Rimi sneaking into Takumi's house (while he's heading to the O-Front for the Rescue Quest) to take Nanami's hand and store it in one of the hospital's freezers. Rimi had planned on heading to the O-Front to help Takumi, but the people in the way and Shogun's request for her to recover the hand prevented her. After returning to the hospital and giving the hand to Shogun, she checks on Takumi while he's in the hospital, and apologizes to him while he's sleeping, for not being able to help.

The routes finally diverge after Sena and Kozue find out about Takumi's authoring of the Ir2 formula. After the fight breaks out between Sena and Rimi, we get a scene from Rimi's perspective. Rimi's fighting style, rather than slashing with her Di-Sword, focuses on taking the delusions sent at her (usually involuntarily), and reflecting them at her opponent. In this way, Rimi gives Sena what she wants (or fears) most, sending her towards a delusion of her father (standing at the edge of the roof).

Unfortunately, Takumi starts yelling that Sena and Kozue were enemies after all, and that Rimi should kill them. Whether Takumi truly meant that or not, Kozue takes his word seriously. Excited that she'll get to kill 'bad people', she jumps down and joins the fight.



Kozue is easily able to overwhelm Rimi using her monstrous Di-Sword, but Rimi is able to use her technique to surround Kozue with mirrors. Just then, Rimi realizes that Sena is still walking towards the edge, but it's already too late. Sena falls before Rimi can reach her.

Kozue, crushed by her worst fear and in the grip of a mental breakdown, attacks the first person she sees: Takumi. Rimi rushes to help, but between the guilt, the shock and the panic she's no longer thinking straight. Before Rimi even realizes, she's already thrusted her Di-Sword in Kozue's back. Having killed both Sena and Kozue, Rimi falls unconscious.

Takumi carries Rimi inside, waiting for her to wake up. After a few hours with no change, Takumi realizes that he should probably do something about the bodies before the police get involved. But when he goes outside, the corpses are nowhere to be found, though the blood is still there. As he turns to head back inside, he finds himself face-to-face with a newly awoken Rimi. The first words out of Rimi's motuh are "Where am I? Who... am I?"

Rimi is not the Rimi Takumi knew. Like so many times before, she 'killed' herself and created a new personality. The new Rimi is cheerful and childlike, with no memories. As the day passes, Takumi takes care of her. As night falls, Takumi gets an email from Shogun. Fearful, he opens it.

The email contains no text, but his speakers relay Shogun's message (the real Shogun). The Third Melt is soon, there is no more time, Takumi must awaken now. Only a minute after Takumi recieved the email, the Third Melt hits Shibuya.

As Takumi lies unconscious, he finds himself in a world with only blue sky above and water below. Rimi floats by his feet, pale, still, dead. As he reaches for her body, it slips beneath the surface of the water to the black depths below. Takumi dives beneath to bring her back. When he reaches the bottom, Takumi sees a spotlight in the darkness and countless dead Rimi's surrounding it. As Takumi realizes that these Rimi's are her former personalities, he starts to see their memories. The first memory is a car accident, Rimi being the only survivor. The next was an operating room, Norose telling Rimi that he would use her to research awakening a Gigalomaniac's powers, and torture. One after another, memories flash by, all involving torture and ending with the 'death' of one personality and 'birth' of another.

Having seen enough Takumi grabs a hold of Rimi and brings her to the surface. In the process, her will and his delusions combine. All the other Rimi's slowly fuse with each other until only one remains. As Takumi breaks the surface, this Rimi, being a singular Rimi and a culmination of all other Rimi's before her, opens her eyes and kisses Takumi.



They both wake up in Shibuya, after the earthquake. With all her memories back, and her resolve hardened, Rimi decides to handle everything and puts Takumi back to sleep. Heading for the Planetarium, she encounters Shogun along the way. Shogun tries to tell Rimi that there's nothing she can do, but after seeing her resolve, and realizing that it's too late for Takumi to awaken his powers, Shogun decided to give Rimi all of his power to help her fight.

When Rimi reaches the planetarium, she finds Nanami bound on a strange cross. Rimi takes Nanami down, but just as she's about to escape Rimi is stabbed in the back by Norose. After a short and one sided fight, with Norose slashing at her while Rimi tried to defend herself, Rimi uses a delusion to transform her Di-Sword into a pair of wings, attaching them to Nanami and flying her out of there. But now she has no weapon to defend herself.

As feathers from the wings softly flutter down, Norose decides to test Noah II. He's going to kill Rimi with a delusion of thirty years of torture. But Norose has played into Rimi's hands. Taking a delusion and sending it back is her specialty, and she has the power of the strongest living Gigalomaniac behind her. Suddenly, all the feathers turn into something else.

Whose eyes...



...are those eyes?



Surrounded by constantly falling, constantly multiplying eyes, Norose screams "Don't look at me!" It is the last thing he ever says. Rimi takes the stake, the stake that was put in her hand at the Staking, and buries it in Norose's heart.

Norose is dead, but Rimi's wounds are too great. She spends her last moments wishing for the safety of Takumi and Nanami.

In the last scene, Takumi (having woken up) encounters Shogun. Sogun tells Takumi that he is free. The people after him are dead, thanks to Rimi, and Shogun himself would be dead soon. Nanami is safe in a nearby hospital, but Rimi won't be coming back. Shogun disappears, and Takumi watches as Noah II explodes in the distance. As Takumi reflects that his time with Rimi was the brightest point in his empty life, he decides that it's his time to be there for Rimi. His time to find Rimi.

And so, he picks his way through the rubble, headed for the planetarium....