After conquering Urd's temporal domain, it's time to move on to Belldandy's Ima wo Omou AREA ("Thoughts of the Present Area"), which I've dubbed the Present Zone. The intro scene shows us that the main characters are no longer able to recall how they came to be living with each other in the first place. That's not good.
Skuld (to Keiichi): Sheesh, it's always "Belldandy", "Belldandy" with you!
Time to enter the first stage.
Ima wo Omou AREA - Stage I:
The girls (well, Urd and Skuld) are hungry. Keiichi asks them if they want him to look around for some wild fruit, but they say that that's not what they usually eat. Belldandy starts to say "then, I'll..." before realizing that she's forgotten what it is she usually does about food. A fragrant (and familiar) smell wafts over from somewhere and the gang takes off after it, sure that it will lead them to a stolen memory...
The first negotiable object you see is a mirror mounted on a pedestal. There's a beam of light shining right into the mirror and being redirected. You can use wind magic to shift mounted mirrors like this one so that they face a different direction, but leave this first mirror alone -- it's pointing exactly where we want it to. Look for two iron-bound gates. Extract the hiraku action from the gate to the north and give it to the gate to the south (this one is already equipped with the kaze condition).
Shoot a wind gust at the gate to open it. You see another mounted mirror to your left. The beam of light is shining right into it but not being redirected because the mirror is facing the wrong way.
Use wind magic on the mirror and a cutscene will play when the redirected beam opens up the door at the end of this section. Go back through the iron-bound gate (use wind magic on it to open it) and extract kaze and hiraku from it. Give both the condition and the action to the iron-bound gate to the north.
Use wind magic to open this gate and go through it. The next gate already has hito and hiraku, so go right through. You'll see a water pump contraption to your left.
Shoot a wind gust at the device and it will drain the water below, allowing you to make your way across to the open gate with the sun emblem engraved on it. Do so and keep going until you pass through the retry gate. Follow the hallway to the end and you'll enter a large atrium. Step on the red swap pod to summon Skuld.
Turn left and you'll see some pits with sprouting plants in them. Shoot water balls at each one until you have a clear path to the water pump device. Backtrack towards the red swap pod.
Lob a water ball at the pit with plants to bridge the gap between you and the blue swap pod. Tag in Belldandy. Go back to the water pump.
Activate the water pump with wind magic. Walk down the stairs and turn to your left.
Turn to your left again and you'll see an item hiding in the shadow of the staircase. Grab it. Go all the way across the floor and go up the stairs to the northeast (check your mini-map). You'll see a mounted mirror and a purple swap pod.
Hit the mounted mirror with wind magic to turn it. Tag in Urd at the purple swap pod and look for a robot with a hammer. Walk into its large, circular activation radius and this kishido-kun (騎士道くん/"chivalry-kun"/"knight bot" is what I shall call it) robot will use its furu action. You need to somehow deactivate it.
Have Urd throw a delayed thunderbolt at the knight bot to stun it, thus allowing you to retrieve furu from it. You should now be able to reach the bridge motor mechanism. Exchange your furu action for its mawaru action. Go back, give mawaru to the knight bot, and activate it for an encyclopedia entry. Now stun it again with a thunderbolt and extract both hito and mawaru from the robot. Go back to the bridge motor.
Hit it with a bolt to unlock its furu action for your encyclopedia. Now exchange your mawaru action for its furu action and look for a second knight bot to the north. You can't reach it, but you shouldn't need to (it's in range for condition/action swapping). You'll notice that its hammer is blocking the light beam from striking the mechanism that opens the gate with the sun emblem on it.
Give hito and furu to this robot and you should be able to activate it. The swinging motion of the knight bot allows the light ray to strike the door mechanism and open up the sun gate. Go back to the bridge motor.
Strike the bridge motor with lightning to rotate the platform. Do it a second time and you should be able to cross over to the sun gate. Pass through it and head across the retry gate and the blue swap pod. Run past the bridge motor at the center of this new area (if you activate it, you'll see that the rotating pillar device on the bottom floor is blocking the bridge platform from realigning). Head toward the closed sun gate and you'll see a heart hiding in some shrubs.
Grab the heart and look for an iron-bound gate. Extract hiraku from the gate and give it to the rotating pillar nearby. Activate the pillar for an encyclopedia entry. Extract hito and hiraku from the pillar and give hiraku to the bridge motor. Activate the motor for another encyclopedia entry. Give both hito and mawaru to the iron-bound gate and activate it (for... you guessed it... another encyclopedia entry). Extract mawaru and return it to the bridge motor. Now take your hiraku action and swap it onto the iron-bound gate.
Step into the gate's activation radius to open it and use wind magic on the water pump mechanism. Go back through the iron-bound gate and extract hito and hiraku from it. Use the purple swap pod at the southeast corner of this area (according to your mini-map).
Go down the stairs to the bottom floor and look for an item in a corner near the water pump device. Grab the item. Now run across the floor until you find a knight bot. It has the mono condition and the susumu action. Give the knight bot hito and hiraku (give it the action first to prevent it from walking away) and activate the robot (to unlock an encyclopedia entry). Head to the rotating pillar on the bottom floor and give it susumu.
Activate the rotating pillar to unlock an encyclopedia entry. Now exchange your mono condition for its hito condition and extract its susumu action. Walk up the stairs to the east and look for the iron-bound gate. Give the gate hito and susumu and activate it to unlock an encyclopedia entry. Extract susumu from the iron-bound gate and give it to the bridge motor. Activate the bridge motor for another encyclopedia entry. Now locate the blue swap pod and use it.
Go back down the stairs and give mawaru to the rotating pillar on the bottom floor. Go back up the stairs, extract mawaru from the rotating pillar on the upper floor, and give it to the bridge motor (you should now be equipped with susumu). Make your way back down to the knight bot.
Use wind magic on the knight bot to rotate it. Go back to the purple swap pod for Urd. Hit the knight bot with a bolt and exchange your susumu action for its hiraku action while it's stunned.
Stay in the activation radius of the knight bot's hito condition and it should walk slowly toward the rotating pillar. Keep it moving.
Eventually the robot should step into the rotating pillar's activation radius (for the pillar's mono condition) and stop it from rotating back up. You can now realign the bridge platform -- but first, head back up the stairs leading to the retry gate and use the blue swap pod. Head for a mounted mirror in the northwest corner.
Hit this mirror with wind magic to redirect the light ray. Make your way back to the bridge motor mechanism.
Step into this device's activation radius to rotate the platform. Rotate it again and you'll finally be able to access the second-floor platform to the northeast. Head for an iron-bound gate with a red swap pod behind it.
Give the gate the hiraku action and activate it. Go through and tag in Skuld. Backtrack and follow the light ray to a dirty mirror. A cutscene will play.
Toss a water ball at the dirty mirror to clean it up. Now go back toward the iron-bound gate and look for a pit with seedlings in it to your right.
Lob a water ball at this pit and the one beyond it to make canopy platforms. Go tag in Belldandy at the blue swap pod. Head back onto the bridge platform and activate the motor three times. The mounted mirror on the bridge platform should now be the recipient of the bouncing light beam.
Use wind magic on this mounted mirror to rotate it and open the sun gate. Go activate the bridge motor twice more. Walk through the open sun gate to clear the stage.
The stolen memory turns out to be Belldandy's handmade bentou (弁当/"box lunch").Tamiya, Ootaki, and even Hasegawa Sora show up to eat your lunch. Literally.
Sora: Yum! Belldandy-senpai's bentou is always so delicious!
We're off to reclaim the next stolen memory.
