Part 3

**Part 3,** split into **Part 3: Iluna Illuminate** and **Part 3.5: A New Sun Rises,** is the third part to Nijime. Like Part 1 focused on the first three waves Lazulight, OBSYDIA, and Ethyria, and Part 2 focused on Luxiem and Noctyx, this part focuses primarily on the Group of Prophecy of Iluna and XSOLEIL.

In-universe, the wave Iluna is referred to as the Iluna Six, the six protagonists of this part: Maria Marionette, Kyo Kaneko, Aia Amare, Aster Arcadia, Scarle Yonaguni, and Ren Zotto, while XSOLEIL is referred to as XSOLEIL Council, consisting of Zaion LanZa, Hex Haywire, Kotoka Torahime, Meloco Kyoran, Doppio Dropscythe, and Ver Vermillion.

## Primary Characters

While all Nijisanji-EN characters up to XSOLEIL appear in some form in the story, the following are those that play a somewhat important role.

### The Iluna Six

Maria Marionette

Kyo Kaneko

Aia Amare

Aster Arcadia

Scarle Yonaguni

Ren Zotto

### XSOLEIL Council

Zaion LanZa

Doppio Dropscythe

Meloco Kyoran

Hex Haywire

Kotoka Torahime

Ver Vermillion

### Instructors/Mentors

Shu Yamino

Uki Violeta

Millie Parfait

### Allies

Alban Knox

Elira Pendora

Petra Gurin

### Villains

Reimu Endou (Demon Lord Reimu)

Enna Alouette

Vox Akuma

Selen Tatsuki

Nina Kosaka

The Headmaster

Darkness-controlled Lucie

Tex Zotto

Octonians

The Rose (Satan)

The Darkness

## Arcs

### Part 3: Iluna Illuminate

Arc 8: Found Family. *Six students at the Iluna Institute of Mystics from very different backgrounds must band together and learn to work as a team and a family when a new demon threat emerges.*

Arc 9: Lost Souls. *The destabilization of the underworld has caused a massive displacement of souls. Can the Iluna Six restore cosmic balance while also stopping those from exploiting the heavenly crisis?*

Arc 10: Love and Darkness. *The demons return to conquer the surface world, and the only thing that stands in their way is the power of Love! Can the Iluna Six find it in time before the world as they know it comes to an end?*

Arc 11: Here be Dragons. *Earth is invaded by dragons, threatening the veil of secrecy that has separated the human and magical worlds for centuries. The Iluna Six must balance the threat from above with the threat from within to succeed.*

### Part 3.5: A New Sun Rises

Arc 12: Lucky Lucky Us. *As the demon war rages, mysteriously lucky monsters begin to cause massive trouble in XSOLEIL City. Only XSOLEIL's mysterious student council, handpicked by an even more mysterious Headmaster, are equipped to stop it.*

Arc 13: Shift in the Wind. *Still reeling from the revelations about their origins and the collision of the human and magical worlds, XSOLEIL's student council is barely given any time to process before mysterious dimensional disturbances begin to wrack the city. Could these be related to Zaion and her apocalyptic prophecy?*

Arc 14: Invaders Everywhere! *The alien armada from Ren's home planet finds Earth and aims to conquer it while Zaion sees this as a sign of the forthcoming apocalypse. Caught between his past and present, Ren must also find a way to get the Iluna Six and their rivals, the XSOLEIL Council, to work together before everything falls apart.*

Arc 15: The Stars Wink Out. *A cosmic force of darkness has begun to threaten the order in the cosmos. But could this new threat relate to Kyo's own struggles to find the answers he seeks about his existence?*

## Plot and Structure

Part 3 consists of eight arcs which all take place during 2022, the beginning coinciding with the start of Iluna's school year in April. Each arc with Iluna characters focuses on one character of the Iluna Six. While all six participate strongly in each arc, one character of focus is able to become the primary protagonist of that arc. In XSOLEIL arcs, multiple characters can take center stage in any given arc.

Arc 1 (Arc 8 overall) primarily focuses on Aster Arcadia and how the Iluna Six come together from a mixture of different individuals from different backgrounds into a family. In the process, Aster learns about the concept of found family, which helps him on his arc of recalling his memories as well as getting over the loss of his mother. The main antagonist is Queen of Souls Reimu, a version of Reimu that has been corrupted by the Darkness upon her rejection from her own family, that of the demons. There are parallels between Reimu's own story of trying to recover her long lost memories and Aster's, and how they handle this similar crisis differently.

Arc 2 (Arc 9 overall) primarily focuses on Aia Amare as she takes the lead during the Soul Displacement Crisis that has affected her former home of Heaven (which she had been kicked out from). She eventually realizes there is a threat to Heaven seeking to exploit this crisis to their own advantage, but nobody listens to her (due to the Boy Who Cried Wolf and all that). Aia is able to redeem herself through her actions in the crisis, showing herself to be capable and with people's best interests at heart, even if she doesn't always show it. The primary antagonist is Enna Alouette, who has become corrupted in her own way and seeks to corrupt Heaven, being revealed thanks to Aia's efforts.

Arc 3 (Arc 10 overall) primarily focuses on Maria Marionette as she learns more about her origins as well as the force of Love in the universe. The primary conflict is in Maria seeing the goodness in all and her wish to avoid harming others conflicting with her responsibility to aid in defeating the demon threat, led by antagonist Vox Akuma. The primary parallel deals with conflicts between duty and desire faced by both Maria and Vox in their struggle.

Arc 4 (Arc 11 overall) primarily focuses on Scarle Yonaguni and her struggle within herself induced by her past and her previous actions. This occurs while dragons descend onto Earth and begin to erode away the barriers between humans and magic that had existed since the witch hunts hundreds of years earlier. The conflict within Scarle mirrors the conflict humanity has within itself that forms the primary conflict of the arc, as well as the conflict within the Dragon Restoration Movement between Selen and Elira on how to best integrate human society with dragon society.

Arc 5 (Arc 12 overall) turns the attention to XSOLEIL, the rival school of Iluna, and what has occurred there while Iluna was off saving the world in the first three arcs. There, a student council full of humans with unique powers gathers together under the supervision of a mysterious Headmaster, who directs them to solve crime and stop harmful supernatural occurrences within their city, as well as work to help prevent apocalypses. Mysterious demon creatures with extraordinary luck have been recently rampaging through the city, with XSOLEIL being sent to deal with many of them, but with most of the conflict happening within their group rather than with any demon. To throw a further wrench in their plans, the one giving luck, a down-on-her-luck Nina Kosaka, isn't the villain they are looking for! This season deals with themes of manipulation and when/if it is right, and how it can alter a team's ability to get along and work together.

Arc 6 (Arc 13 overall) primarily focuses on the fallout of Arc 5 and the continued looming threat of the big alien apocalypse. XSOLEIL has just been devastated to learn that their pasts were overwritten as part of a crazy experiment by their Headmaster to determine if destiny can be controlled, and that coupled with changed due to the recent dragon-human reveal gives them a lot to think about. Then, mysterious time portals and a frenzied witch with a mysterious cat begin to cause trouble over town. This season focuses on destiny and whether it is right to impose our will over it, both as reflections of the revelations and due to the circumstances of XSOLEIL's journeys through countless alternate histories.

Arc 7 (Arc 14 overall) primarily focuses on Ren Zotto as his armada comes looking for him and seeks to conquer Earth in the process. Ren is then torn between his past, represented by his brother Tex Zotto, the primary antagonist and leader of the armada, and his present, represented by the Iluna Six and his time with humanity. He must also deal with pressure from XSOLEIL, given that Iluna cannot defeat the aliens on their own and it seems that members of XSOLEIL Council have inner knowledge into the situation, plus a vested interest in the situation as per their mission of trying to stop an alien apocalypse. Ren must act as a leader in bringing the two bickering groups together to collaborate effectively in order to stop his brother- and any other possible alien threat- that may be coming to set the stage for Earth's eventual destruction. The team must also grapple with the question of whether all their efforts to prevent the apocalypse may in fact be hastening it!

Arc 8 (Arc 15 overall) is the final arc and culmination of all that has come before, with Iluna and XSOLEIL banding together, the opposites complementing each other and amplifying each other in the process, to defeat the Darkness once and for all. It primarily focuses on Kyo Kaneko and his struggle to find the meaning behind his life, paralleling that of the XSOLEIL Council following the revelation in their debut arc. Kyo's purpose seems to come in the form of some intrinsic relationship with The Darkness, an ancient anomalous entity associated with both Earth and the Moon. The Darkness seeks to consume the multiverse into itself, and Kyo seems to be its only weakness, given whenever Kyo is hurt, the Darkness is hurt as well. The Darkness materializes in the form of its avatar, The Rose, which has taken over Rosemi and is the primary antagonist of the arc before the finale when the Darkness itself must be faced. The primary themes of this arc are meaning and purpose, with Kyo and XSOLEIL seeking theirs while the absence of meaning itself rages on in its mission to consume all.