Ristaccia (PV)

**Ristaccia** is the third PV in the story by order of release ; however, it serves as the prologue of the story, giving snippets of most of the major events from Prologue to *Chapter IV* and introducing much of the main cast from said Chapters. The song used in this video is a slightly modified and shortened version of Overture - Ristaccia, the third track from the first music CD, composed by Shigesato with lyrics by goro. Its vocalist(s) are unknown ; its VJ is MAYA. Its first music appearance was in Beatmania IIDX 15 DJ TROOPERS.

## Events

The events depicted in this PV serve to narrate the prologue and give an overview of the events narrated in the Ristaccia CD.

First comes Ana, followed by Kumatora, Hinawa and finally Paula Jones. All of them only show their face, have their eyes closed as if they were sleeping, and are depicted against what looks like a static background. Meanwhile, a solist female singer is heard lamenting.

After Paula's portrait has been shown, the screen is dyed in fuschia, Ristaccia's colour, and soon transforms into one of its hexagonal vortexes, as the music transforms into a modern, rapid beat. The vortex is very short. It then explodes and a seemingly infinite flow of number patterns and complex equations form a vortex of their own, as a choir rises. At the end of this second vortex of numbers, it is this time Earth that can be seen.

The camera then plunges down on Earth, where the remains of the Ouroboros Ark are visible. Seven hands then grab the melodies, symbolizing the acquisition of the gem by the eight races. These hands quickly fade out, and their shadows form the shape of a girl that now sits on a throne, right in the remains of the Ark, with her face veiled, and a sword that looks like Trisagion held in her hands.

The camera then travels slowly up into the clouds. All of a sudden, a quick vertical ray of fuschia light appears and dyes the entire screen in that colour once again. Then, a massive crowd is pictured, standing before what seems like a palace, as the screen quickly flashes to let us see Claus descending on the land. Claus suddenly grows four pairs of angelic wings. What follows is an almost subliminal depiction of Ness with that same constant fuschia, with a real close up to his face. The scene then changes.

From left to right, we can see Tyrfing, Paula's frying pan, Jeff's gun, and Ness/Ninten's baseball bat. Afterwards, Ness appears in between them, as clouds quickly run through the sky, and the swords all fade to black and evaporate, with the scenery being cut by black lines drawing Kumatora's face once more, before she collapses back to reveal a mural painting.

This painting serves to sum up all of the events from Chapters I through IV ; first, Maria is shown commanding the Flying Men; followed by her great-grandson who is looking at a fly floating from a burning stone. Then, Ninten is looking at his two younger sisters, Mimmie and Minnie, and is followed by Paula and Ness meeting, with Paula stuck in her cage and Ness trying to save her. What follows is a depiction of Lloyd and Ana. Lloyd is inside a trashcan while Ana is praying. Ninten, Ana and Lloyd see the fallen E. V. E., followed by a portrait of Ness' Nightmare. Finally, Poo is pictured "floating" above Master Belch, using PK Starstorm to him, followed by a portrait of Maria singing her lullaby to Giygas, and the final portrait depicts a group of Saturns.

A quick "realistic" image of Hinawa is shown, after which the camera plunges right into her eye, revealing a sort of round mirror. Around this mirror slowly spin the ever-present Ninten and Ana, and inside it, some of the events from earlier are told to us again, except using more detailed images instead of a simplistic mural. Hinawa is thus seen with blank eyes and her face stained with blood ; the twins' faces show signs of despair, joy or surprise. Each time, an eye transitions us to the next image ; and the scene ends with a close-up on Lucas.

The next scene focuses on Claus only. He screams (although he cannot be heard), holds his face with wide eyes, convulses in all directions, brutally removes his mask, and finally falls to the ground. Claus then vanishes and Nox Catorce appears. As Nox just lies on the ground without a sign of life, both his sister, Matin Catorce and Hannes Farrugia approach him. The former intends to grab him, but is too slow ; and the latter instead wraps her arms around him, and as he wakes up, rests her head on his shoulder before floating up with him in the air, and falling back down.

The next image comprises Nox on the right and Hannes on the left. Both of them vanish at the same time and Kumatora and Paula appear. Microscopic fuschia particles are carried around in the air, as if flown by the wind.

A very fast transition brings us to a very quickly changing scene, with a camera that rapidly travels all over the depicted characters, and where the fuschia particles continue to float in the air. First, Lucas is seen, acting like he is dancing in front of our eyes ; as we observe his stick, it spins around to reveal Tyrfing, and we can see Claus swinging in and closing his eyes. A zoom on Tyrfing transforms it into Ness' baseball bat, and Ness performs a fast swing, before another swing turns his bat into Lucas' stick and reveals Lucas fighting with it, his face showing guilt and sadness. The characters loop back around, with different moves, and at an even faster speed. As Ninten is showed again, he raises Trisagion up in the air, and the camera travels up its blade, finally transitioning to the video's final image.

This last image shows all of the characters from the PV, as if to bring together all of the scenes witnessed in it. The center column is comprised, from bottom to top, of Ninten, Maria and Ness. Lucas is on the left, with Paula above him ; Ana is on the right, with Claus below her. The characters from the front row either look at the viewer, or, in Ness' case, have their eyes closed. Those on the left look in that direction, and those on the right look to the right themselves. This picture transitions into the credits with the same static than the one at the start of the video.