returner

welcome back, Ovan

The episode begins with several characters from G.U. and Roots appearing at ΔHidden Forbidden Festival, a forested field where a summer festival is being staged. It is assumed that Ovan hacked this area for his own purposes, even going so far as to place a row of masks sporting his face in direct sight. A little creepy, but you can't say Ovan never had flair. Or maybe that's just a strange sense of humor.

Many characters from the anime series and video games appear, including Shino, Atoli, Tabby, Sakisaka, and Endrance. Surprisingly, characters like Tohta show up, too, but even the shrewd merchant isn't quite sure what's going on or if Ovan has really returned.

Some of the group finds an AIDA-infected Chim Chim deep in the woods. Atoli, now suddenly fluent in Chimmish (get your online degree today!), translates his message. Apparently, AIDA was originally a benevolent being created by anomalies and errors in the Internet, presumably when Aura disappeared. Most AIDA were harmless, though the Tri-Edge strain would eventually evolve into a violent entity. It was this aggressive strain that would cause The World such trouble.

Originally, Haseo doesn't care if this AIDA Chim is friendly or not: it's goin' down, baby. He states that he can't forgive AIDA for what it did to all of his friends, and despite Atoli's protests is prepared to shoot it. It is at that moment that Saku, who was trailing along with the group, becomes Bo. Bo pulls the adorable kicked puppy routine and convinces Haseo that the good AIDA is just scared and lost -- and wasn't he scared and lost once, too? Haseo finally relents, as all good, newly compassionate heroes do.

At that point, the AIDA Chim begins to change, and soon a word is written in the sky above them: Returner

Remember, in Japanese versions of the games and series, the Lost Ones were originally called Unreturners. It's assumed that the message and Chim were both sent from Ovan, which begs the question: has Ovan returned?

As if answering our question, the viewer soon witnesses the reunion of Ovan and Aina. Simultaneously, Haseo, sensing his friend's awakening, says, "Welcome back, Ovan."