Mentioned Characters: Marisa, Remilia, Flandre, Sakuya

*Bwah hah hah! The Armstrong! It's the Armstrong, Sakuya! This is the moment I've been waiting for!* "Pipe down, you stupid cape." Marisa Kirisame saw it happen. Somehow, she sensed this wasn't how things were supposed to go. A cold sweat ran down her spine. Having shamelessly swiped an item from the Kirisame Magic Shop, the shadowy figure leapt out the window with the Moon at her back. There was no doubt the thief was Sakuya Izayoi. But why did it sound like she was talking to herself? And in such a strange manner, no less...

Prolonged Incidents Some incidents have been known to drag on. They're not the only things that drag on, but they're certainly one of them. There are many proposed explanations as to why, but one thing is certain: whatever would normally bring them to an end wasn't doing so. In some cases, that meant the incident resolvers weren't stepping in, and in others, it meant the natural order wasn't correcting itself. This leads us to a second "Why?" Every prolonged incident likely has its own mastermind. The problem is that there are often multiple suspects for each one. Who are the true culprits? Are they among the suspects? Does it vary between parallel worlds? Or are these all the machinations of some as-of-yet unknown figure?

Prolonged "Scattered Case Files" Incidents That's a mouthful. Perhaps "Omnibus Incidents" or "Anthology Incidents" works better. Regardless, it refers to a type of incident in which multiple cases are linked by a mysterious underlying principle. That means each case must share something in common... right? A mysterious vampire who refers to herself as the Great Scarlet Devil Duchess is obsessed with the Armstrong. It's as if it's the Holy Grail, and she's a knight on a quest to find it. It seems her body has already perished, leaving only her spirit. Even if that weren't the case, it's exactly how Sakuya Izayoi would choose to imagine her.

EX Beings Apparently, the "EX" in EX doesn't stand for "Extra," but "Extended." In other words, they are extensions of the 20th century that have lingered into the 21st. Every world affected by a prolonged incident shows traces of the so-called EX Factor. That raises an obvious question: Does the EX Factor cause prolonged incidents? Or do prolonged incidents produce the EX Factor?

Sakuya Izayoi is the Scarlet Devil Mansion's head maid. She also acts as Remilia's closest confidante. When an incident occurs, Sakuya is almost always the one dispatched to deal with it. On top of that, she is said to handle every aspect of the mansion's housekeeping herself. In many ways, she is less of a maid and more like a mother. The Great Scarlet Devil Duchess claims to be Remilia and Flandre's mother. It's possible that's the reason her spirit and Sakuya are so compatible. Then again, maybe they just both happen to be motherly figures and are doing this on a whim. Who's to say?