Is that right?
So Raetsel is making her way there now.
Understood. Keep a close eye on her.
This wound up taking quite some time.
But it should be over before much longer,
Lovushka.
Soon our puzzle of vengeance will come to an end...
What did you need to tell us, Principal?
Yeah! Why’d ya randomly summon us to the boonies?
Did you find some clues leading to Raetsel and Jin?
This island used to be the home for a POG training institute.
Are you tellin’ us that
you and Jin have trained here on this island?
That’s right.
That grave...
By any chance, did you and Jin-Jin lose a friend here...?
She was Jin’s rival.
Jin’s...?!
She was a Solver who loved puzzles and died for them.
Lovushka...
I Want to Make a World with Full Bellies
I’ve heard that deciphering ancient script can be akin to solving a puzzle.
If we could just discern the key principle...
Are you thinking about Kaito?
It still... isn’t over yet.
The Book of God, the Puzzle of God...
Not to mention the Armlet of Orpheus.
Is the principal going to tell Kaito?
I imagine he will.
It’s yet another sad story created by the Puzzle of God...
Lovushka?
Upon graduating from Root Gakuen, Jin and I entered the POG.
That is where we met her.
What is it, Jin?
Thank you for the meal! I appreciate it!
Welp, now that I have a full belly...
Nice!
5.68 seconds?!
Wow!
I see! You must be Lovushka.
I’m sorry, but who might you be?
How do you know my name?
I heard that one other Solver had joined...
As expected, she’s good!
Yeah, she scored around the same time as you.
The same time?
Ah, then does that mean you’re Jin Makata?!
And that’d make you Baron Kaidou?!
How did you know it was us?
I heard that we just got an incredible new
Solver along with his Giver partner!
I’m Lovushka! It’s nice to meet you.
Yeah, the pleasure’s mine.
Nice to meet you!
It’s a pleasure!
Just like Jin, she was one of the few Solvers in the POG.
In which case, that woman...
Yeah. She was one of the Phi-Brain candidates hand-selected
by Count Pythagoras.
But back then,
we were still oblivious of the Count’s devious schemes.
When it came to puzzles, Jin was one step ahead of her.
Between Jin having to run to keep ahead of Lovushka
and Lovushka running to catch up to Jin,
the two pushed each other to greater heights.
They grew to become wonderful rivals.
You sure love those things!
I never had it until I came here, but rice really is good, isn’t it?
Salty rice balls! Just salt and rice! How simple!
Okay, I get it!
You see, my homeland is so poor
that I never got to eat good food like this.
The only toys I ever had were some handmade puzzles.
I see...
You know, I’ve got a dream!
A dream?
I will assist the Count, solve the Puzzle of God and
obtain the Book of God.
All because I want to make a world with full bellies.
A world with full bellies?
Yep! Everyone will get to eat yummy food until they’re full.
That’s the type of world I want.
Yeah? That’s a good dream.
Plus, I wanna try ALL the delicious food this world has to offer.
How about you? What’s your dream, Jin?
Me? Mine’s pretty obvious!
It’s to become a Phi-Brain and solve the Puzzle of God.
And what will you do after that?
After that? What do you mean?
If you get the Book of God, isn’t there
something you’d like to ask for in return?
Not really.
Isn’t the Puzzle of God the hardest puzzle in the world?
I’ve just gotta solve it!
Puzzle-loving idiot.
You’re not one to talk!
“Just gotta solve it,” huh? That’s so you, Jin!
Thank you for the meal!
I appreciate it.
But your dream won’t come true.
I’m the one who will become the Phi-Brain!
I’ll take that as a challenge!
However, with the passage of time, the gap in their abilities only grew.
Lovushka was unable to keep up with Jin’s remarkable progress.
And then...
Jin!
Is that the Armlet of Orpheus?
You actually got it!
Yeah! This brings me one step closer to becoming a Phi-Brain.
The journey’s still long and I haven’t admitted defeat yet!
Yeah!
But then Jin saw a future where Count Pythagoras destroyed the world.
You know what happened from there...
And what became of Miss Lovushka?
I’ve heard that when she found out Jin went missing,
she took the news very hard.
No! Jin’s missing...?
That can’t be true...
After that, she began challenging the Puzzles of Fools.
Dead?!
Lovushka’s dead?!
I’ve been told she lost her life in a Puzzle of Fools.
Why did she push herself so hard?
It was to become a Phi-Brain, huh?
A world with full bellies...
I bet all she wanted was to make her dream come true...
I wonder if that’s truly all there was to it.
Lovu-Lovu was a good girl,
but her dream may have gotten twisted somewhere along the line...
Her dream got twisted?
So why are you telling all of this to us?
Yeah. You’ve got a bad habit of draggin’ out the prelude, Principal.
The prelude? That was the prelude?
The meat of the story’s coming up.
I have no idea where this is going, but let’s hear it!
Miss Lovushka just so happened to have a fiancé.
Upperclassman Jikukawa?!
You’re tellin’ the story?!
He was a childhood friend from the same country as Miss Lovushka.
Supposedly he had been making puzzles as her personal Giver.
After Lovushka died, I caught word that he perished in a car accident.
But he survived the accident!
He made it look as though he died in the accident,
erased his own existence and began a new life as a different person.
Why would he do that?
Around the time Miss Lovushka died,
her motherland began mining rare metals,
which created sudden economic growth.
He took advantage of the chaos to sneak into
the heart of the country’s government.
Eventually, he climbed his way to the very top.
The top?
No way! Is he...?!
Lovushka and this man were both from the Republic of Amgine!
Enigma!
No...
Zagadka...
Correct. I am Zagadka.
And Lovushka was the love of my life...
Enigma, what are you doing here?!
I noticed you were snooping into my affairs yet again.
Remember what I said? I won’t keep any secrets.
It would seem I’ve made a pest of myself.
I’m sorry.
So you figured it out after all, Baron?
Amgine is a nation that tightly controls all information.
Although the corroborative investigation didn’t run smoothly,
Mr. Jikukawa did a splendid job.
This photograph is what served as our conclusive evidence.
If you zoom in...
Isn’t that some sort of scar?
Zagadka had an old scar in the exact same spot.
I heard that when he was young,
he got it by protecting Lovushka from some falling rocks.
The two of us had relied on each other to survive in our poor, barren motherland.
How could I bring myself to get it removed?
Even though you were willing to change your face and name,
you were unable to erase the bonds you shared with her.
So everything was part of one big lie?
Including how you said Jin hated puzzlers?
And how he asked you to gather up the Master Brains?
Everything?!
Yeah, those were all lies.
What the hell?!
Was this all for Lovushka?
Huh?
Are you avenging Lovushka since a puzzle took her life?
Yes, this is all for Lovushka.
Becoming the President and destroying all of the puzzlers...
Everything I’m doing has been for Lovushka!
But didn’t Miss Lovushka love puzzles?
There is no way she’d be happy if she saw what you’re doing!
Shut up!
How could you children possibly understand how Lovushka felt?
You have no idea how much agony those puzzles put Lovushka through!
Aren’t you going to eat, Lovushka?
Hey, Zagadka...
What is it?
I... To be honest, I’m thinking about giving up puzzles.
What?
Jin’s been chosen by the Armlet, but I haven’t...
The more I work with puzzles, the more I see that I’m falling behind Jin.
He’s not like me, not Jin...
He has something that I lack!
I... I don’t have it. I’m missing something...
That’s not true!
There is no way your dream could lose to that man!
Let’s keep at it, Lovushka!
I assume you’ve heard the news regarding Jin Makata.
I have.
He is working to obtain the Book of God
so that he may bring his ambitions to fruition.
No! Jin isn’t that type of person!
Then why did he go into hiding?
Well...
Your dream will never come true.
If he beats you to the Book of God,
you will be unable save your motherland or your loved ones.
Become a Phi-Brain!
Become a Phi-Brain before Jin Makata does!
Let’s go for it, Lovushka!
But...
If Jin steals the Book of God, your--
our dream will be over.
I hold your dream of the utmost importance!
I’ll do whatever I can to make it come true.
Zagadka...
Let’s protect our dream--our shared puzzle--Lovushka!
Lovushka!
You need to eat some! This isn’t healthy.
Don’t lose heart!
It’ll work out.
Knowing you, I’m sure you’ll become a Phi-Brain.
Let’s keep at it!
A world... with full... bellies...
You can do it, Lovushka!
Lovushka?
Lovushka!
She can’t be... No!
Lovushka!
I know the truth now.
The Count had merely been using Lovushka.
Her dream got twisted...
Aren’t you doing the exact frigging thing to Raetsel?!
The Count used Lovushka.
And you’re using Raetsel.
And here Amgine became a wealthy country...
Lovu-Lovu never got to see the people she loved
become happy, did she?
That is precisely why I made her dream come true in her stead!
I have built Amgine into the type of country she dreamt of.
That doesn’t make sense.
Amgine began developing due to the rare metals just
before Miss Lovushka passed away!
Then you didn’t have anything to do with its growth!
So that means even if Miss Lovushka didn’t push
herself to solve all those puzzles...
Don’t tell me... You never told her?
You were aware of your homeland’s imminent boom,
but didn’t inform her.
That’s preposterous! Why didn’t you tell her?!
Lovushka was going to save our country.
Allowing someone to beat her to it...
That was NOT an option!
That’s horrible!
It was you! You’re the one who killed her!
It was the puzzles!
The puzzles were to blame for everything!
Zagadka, you’re the one who drove Lovushka to her death!
You killed her with your own two hands!
Mr. Principal...
If puzzles didn’t exist, Lovushka never would have died.
The Count never would have been blinded by ambition!
Wh-what’s wrong with him?
He’s taking the sadness of having lost his fiancé out on puzzles.
He’s blaming puzzles for everything...
He’s got some nasty resentment problems!
Kaito Daimon!
Your parents never would have died!
Rook and the other Phi-Brain children never
would have endured such cruel fates!
The Orpheus Order wouldn’t have been manipulated by Klondike!
Puzzles! Puzzles are to blame for everything!
Shut up!
The puzzles didn’t do anything wrong.
There isn’t a single puzzle that was born
with the desire to hurt someone or take lives!
The problem... is with the people who made them!
If you... If you’re a Giver, then can’t you hear them?
Can’t you hear the puzzles’ cries?!
I can’t believe it...
After all they’ve put you through, you still believe in puzzles.
You’re a fool beyond repair.
What?!
But that is what makes extending this invitation worth my while.
What invitation?
Wait, Zagadka!
Raetsel is waiting for you in Hell’s Valley.
Hell’s Valley?
She’s waiting to face you in one last puzzle battle.
It’s a trap, Kaito!
After coming this far, I won’t set any traps!
It doesn’t matter to me one way or the other.
I don’t care if you win or if Raetsel wins!
What?!
Regardless of who wins, one of you is destined to die.
Admittedly, it would be ideal if you destroyed each other,
ending with both of you meeting your respective deaths.
Solve this puzzle, Kaito Daimon!
Kaito Daimon is on his way here?
Yeah. Apparently the POG managed to pinpoint your location.
What are you going to do, Raetsel?
I’m done with running and hiding.
This is where I’ll defeat Kaito Daimon!
Doesn’t she sound reliable?
She’s no longer a kitten. She’s a fierce wildcat.
Now let’s move out, Lovushka.
It’s time to complete the puzzle we shared.
I won’t let anyone take Jin.
Raetsel...
Fight.
Put your soul--all of your passion--into that puzzle.
I had noticed the truth all along...
There never was a Jin who hated puzzles and transpired
to destroy all of the puzzlers...
Even so--No, that’s why I went on a journey.
I’m going to tell you.
This is the real reason why I went on a journey with Jin.
The Journey Ends
Next time, “The Journey Ends.”
I won’t let you have Jin.
Puzzle time, start!
Fin Art: Akeru Otsuki