Founder's Gate (sneak preview)

When Saito emerged from the gate on the other side, he could only gawk. He was standing on a sort of metal ramp in a huge room. He saw opposite him a sort of balcony filled with seemingly human personals. He looked around him and saw many soldiers with what looked like AK-47s kneeling all around, poised to strike.

Suddenly a little box next to him blared out sounds – voices. Saito looked at it and with a jolt recognized it as a loudspeaker. Some one was speaking to him in a strange language – and yet it sounded very familiar. Still Saito couldn't understand. The person speaking through the loudspeaker repeated his command – or was it a question…it sounded like a question.

Derflinger popped up. "What's wrong partner?"

The soldiers shouted in shock and recoiled.

"I don't know," Saito looked at the soldiers curiously, "I can't understand a word they say, and yet it sounds so familiar."

Derf inspected the people around him, "well, whoever they are, I think it's safe to say that they're not used to talking swords, eh?"

"Hai"

Suddenly, the speaker turned on again; this time it was a different guy.

"Hello, please introduce yourself to us. (Huh Saito gasped) Who are you, and where did you come from."

Saito's eye's boggled. He understood!! That guy spoke Japanese!!!

The boy babbled for half an hour before he could speak straight.

"I-I-I'm H-H-Hiruka S-S-Saito," he stammered in Japanese, "I-I have know idea what world I came out of, and I'm not sure where I am right now. C-can y-you tell me where I am?"

The addressed chuckled over the speaker. He seemed to be a nice fellow.

"Well, I can't tell you exactly where you are, but I can tell you that we are right now somewhere in the middle of a continent called North America."

North America! Saito's eyes fell on a soldier's uniform, and noticed a patch on its upper arm. It had a blue rectangle speckled with white five-point stars (pentacles) surrounded on two sides by stripes of red and white. He recognized the symbol and stared at it as though he'd seen a ghost. He turned to the speaker, who stood at the balcony – a middle-aged man with glasses who looked much younger, and spoke calmly "S-so, this is the United States?"

A grey haired man behind the speaker mumbled, "Smart kid."

Saito's calm began to strain even more "S-so, am I on Earth right now?"

"Yep"

Saito suddenly felt light-hearted. Tears welled up in his eyes.

"I'm back!" he whispered, "I'm really, really back!"

What happened next brought bafflement to the spectators: the boy dropped to his knees and prostrated a hundred times, each time exclaiming. "Arigato! Arigato! Arigato! Arigato! Arigato! Arigato! Arigato! Arigato..."

Suddenly two other figures emerged from the bluish gate: a middle-aged man (also with glasses, and also looking much younger) and a sixteen-year-old girl with pink girl came out. It was Colbert and Louise.

"Saito! Saito!"

The two stopped and looked around their new surroundings. Saito continued prostrating.

"Saito, what is going on?" Colbert tried to raise the boy up.

Saito, tears streaming town his face, looked at the teacher with a radiant look. "Well Mr. Colbert, we've done it! We've found the way into my home-world!"

"What?" Colbert's and Louise's eyes grew wide.

Saito nodded and spoke again, "Now I see. The founder and I – we're from the same world. His realm is my realm too!" Ere he fainted, not knowing that his conclusion was erroneous, and that he had just traveled through a Stargate. But he'll know soon enough.