Momiji considered the sword in her hands. It was a fine blade, like all tengu craftsmanship. The edge glowed softly in the light of the candles showing that it had been used often. Occasional bright lines or dark blotches caused by tiny cracks showed sign of the wolf tengu's harsh training. She imagined this blade might serve her for another century. Perhaps two.

This was her second blade. Unlike the human warriors below then, the tengu had never become obsessed with their swords. Probably because even in peacetime, a tengu would outlive all but the finest artifacts. Still she had been sad when her first weapon had broken. And she would be sad to see this one break on the day it finally did.

With a sigh she looked away from the blade and turned up the electric lights. The answer she was looking for couldn't be found in the sheen of a blade. She sheathed her sword then stared into the room's mirror.

Her reflection stared back, and she had to fight down the urge to flinch. She had never imagined that she would ever wear the matte black jacket and pants of a lone wolf. To don those clothes was to become an exile in all but name. Even if she could discard them later, merely wearing these clothes told all the other tengu that she was casting aside her duty and position to follow her own whims.

Of course her fellow tengu would mostly forgive her. To seek revenge for the death of a fiance was an honored tradition as well. In this time of peace, when the services of one patrol tengu weren't needed, it would be considered almost an act of devotion rather than an an abandonment of her post.

Now if she could only convince herself.

Was she doing this because Kaikou's spirit would gain some comfort from it? Was she going to hunt this woman down and kill her to finish her fiance's work? Perhaps to apologize for avoiding him so often?

Or was the truth that she wanted to kill that woman because her own life had been irrevocably changed?

Momiji had always 'known' she would one day get married and have children, just as she'd always known she would serve as a patrol tengu. It wasn't something she really looked forward to or something she hated. It was something everyone did, and every wolf tengu built their lives around it, just like you built your day around meals.

Now, for Momiji, that certainty was gone. All she had left were questions and a life plan filled with holes.

A knock on the door drove her thoughts to the winds. "Momiji. Are you there?" It was her commander, Kaede. "I know this isn't the best time, but we're tightening up the patrol line while we replan our defenses. We could use every warrior."

Momiji's hands twitched. Defense? Tightening up the line? She felt her lips curling into a snarl of anger.

Perhaps her choice was easier than she thought.

She took a deep breath then walked to the door and opened it. Kaede's mouth shot open in surprise, then the older warrior's eyes narrowed. "I'm afraid no one here can help with that," Momiji said quietly.

Kaede stood there for a long moment, then nodded coldly. "That's unfortunate. Do you have any business here?"

"No."

The older tengu's eyes closed and she stepped aside. "Then be on your way, stranger."

Momiji bowed in response and began walking down the path down the mountain. Heads turned as she passed, and a crowd began to form, but Momiji forced herself not to look, not to react as the cameras flashed or when the whispering turned into open exclamations. At least none of the crow tengu were so gauche as to try to interview her. Still she felt a strange sense of relief as she exited the village and left her former fellows behind.

She felt eyes on her again as she reached kappa territory, though the skittish youkai would never openly stare at a lone wolf. Momiji occasionally looked around for her friends among the kappa, but the forms darted away before even her vision could focus. It was too bad. She wanted to apologize to Nitori for missing their game.

Just as she reached the edges of Tengu territory a violent wind swept up. For a second she thought a crow tengu had decided to annoy her, but the voice dispelled that idea. "Momiji!"

She stopped in her tracks. "Sanae."

The wind priestess fluttered to the ground in front of Momiji with an angry expression on her face. "What the heck is going on, Momiji? Nitori came to me in a panic saying you were leaving the mountain, and when I went to your house there was a whole flock of crow tengu acting like you were the biggest story in Gensoukyo. But none of them wanted to admit you lived there!" Sanae brandished her gohei. "And what's with that outfit?"

Momiji sighed. "Do you know what happened yesterday?"

Sanae's expression softened. "Yeah. Um... I'm sorry for your loss." Sanae looked down at her feet. "I shouldn't have been so accusing but..."

"Nitori was right," Momiji said.

"What? But, why? No one blames you for this, right? Why would you need to leave?" Sanae gripped her gohei tightly. No doubt the young priestess was already planning to beat down those who had offended her sense of righteousness.

Momiji closed her eyes. "I need to leave because I owe it to my fellows. To Kaikou."

Sanae shifted uneasily. "How does that make any sense?"

"You know what the tengu are doing right now?" Momiji jerked her head back towards the mountain top. "They're gathering their defenses. Trying to learn more about their enemy. Keeping their villages safe from harm. All good military doctrine... But it lets the enemy run free," Momiji growled.

"What if they don't care about our villages? What if they don't even care about us?" Momiji felt her ears twitching and forced herself to calm down a little. "We've pulled back our defense line and left the non vital points of the mountain open, meaning if they aren't planning an attack on the tengu they can just do whatever they want and get away with it. Right now anyone can enter the underground, kappa territory, or even break through to your shrine if they're careful enough." Sanae's eyes opened wide at that comment but Momiji pressed on. "Even worse, if this attack was merely a feint to distract us, they can finish whatever they're doing while we wait blindly for their return."

Momiji stared at the priestess. "No, I can't allow that to happen. She killed one of my people. She stole his future, destroyed mine, and left his family to grieve as they wait for their line to die out. I won't let her gain anything from that. I won't let her do that to anyone else. And I won't wait around for the other tengu to decide it's safe to act. I'm going to find her and kill her. Now."

"Momiji..." Sanae reached out a hand, then hesitated. "I understand a little now. But your future isn't destroyed. I still... there are people who still hold you dear. Even if you leave the tengu I'm sure-"

Momiji slowly shook her head. "Ten years, maybe twenty. Then you'll end up the same as I would have. The Moriya shrine isn't ready for a half youkai priestess. Not yet. Gensoukyo isn't ready for it."

Sanae flinched, then raised her gohei again. Momiji almost thought that the wind priestess might attack her, but instead the green haired maiden just slowly deflated, her arm falling to her side. Momiji almost reached out to comfort her, but she forced herself to stay stoic. She couldn't show her feelings here. It wasn't right to do that right now. Or safe. They were both trapped by who they were.

"Swear something to me."

Momiji started at Sanae's words. "Huh?"

Sanae stared at her with rekindled flames in her eyes. "Swear something. Swear you'll finish this and come back. Swear you won't lose yourself in your revenge."

Momiji blinked then smiled softly. She knelt down before the wind priestess. "I swear on my honor that I shall return to the mountain. I ask you, the living goddess Sanae Kochiya, to call upon the gods of Suwa to give me what aide I may need."

Sanae turned away, but Momiji could see the woman was wiping her eyes. "You've never prayed before. Not seriously."

"Because I never had anything I needed so badly I would be willing to ask a god for help," Momiji replied.

The wind stirred again as Sanae stepped off the path. "You should go."

Momiji closed her eyes and began walking again. "Please tell Nitori I'm sorry that I have to delay our game."

"Be careful," Sanae whispered.

"I promise," Momiji said.

As Sanae took to the skies Momiji continued on to the base of the mountain. There she could take to the skies again and start her hunt in earnest.

Yuri stretched to try to work the final kinks out of her back as she walked out of the visitors' house she'd been given. Hammocks were nice, but she was looking forward to a bed at some point. Especially since this one had been oni sized. Still it was a good sight better than the ground.

The earth spiders' village was both impressive and strangely human in its design. Yuri was constantly reminded that, as terrifying as the tsuchigumo had become, once they were considered as human as she was. Everything that could be found in the human village seemed to be here as well. Even shrines dotted the village. And despite the fact that all of the tsuchigumo could fly, every building could be accessed by ladders and stairs.

She stood there for a moment watching the bustle of the wakening village, partially out of nostalgia, partially because she didn't have a clue where to go.

Fortunately Yamame and the elderly tsuchigumo who was the village's chief arrived after a little while. "Ya have a good rest?" The chief asked politely.

Yuri bowed in response. "Yes. Thanks for allowing me to stay. I understand it's not common."

That was something of an understatement. Yamame had argued quietly for the gate guards for a good fifteen minutes before they let her in. Even after the elder approved her presence Yuri had gotten an occasional glare from a passerby, though she took heart that curious whispers were more common.

"While some of my fellows might disagree, I always reckoned it was best to be cautious with humans rather than pickin' fights," The elder nodded his head. "And Yamame here seems to think you've got a good chance of figuring out why there are things wanderin' round our tunnels."

"Yeah, Yumemi and Chiyuri can work something out. I'm sure." Yuri smirked. "After all they managed to make devices that can match my magic. I think Yumemi's might even surpass it."

"Good." The chief looked down at Yamame. "And you are willing to go up ground to make sure she keeps her promise, Yamame?"

"Sure thing chief!" Yamame hopped to attention. "I got this incident all webbed up!"

The old man nodded. "Good good. Well then I'll let you and Yamame go trap a meal. Swift journey to the surface. And of course..." The tsuchigumo elder suddenly leaned forward with glowing eyes and Yuri felt herself shrinking back. "If you tell anyone 'bout our little city here you'll catch ebola and die horrible like!"

Yuri had barely processed the threat when the man smiled. "Nah, just kidding." He gave her a nod, then a frown. "But seriously, don't tell no one."

"Right," Yuri nodded emphatically as she took a few steps back. "I promise."

"Anyway we're off chief!" Yamame chirped as she grabbed Yuri's arm. "I'll get back to you when we figure things out a bit more."

"Good luck to ya," the chief said with a wave.

Yuri let Yamame drag her along for a bit before reclaiming her arm. "So how are we getting breakfast? And what's our selection?"

"There should be a cart or two up round where the path to the surface starts," Yamame replied. "As for selection... I reckon the fish might be best."

Yuri wondered at the pause until they had floated up to where the carts were. The first one had such delicacies as cave moth on a stick and giant mosquito. She did her best to ignore the cart as she searched for something that wouldn't kill her appetite.

Fortunately the next cart was much more palatable. A wide array of grilled and smoked fish were on display and the old woman running the cart greeted the two with a smile. To Yuri's surprise there were river fish as well as the local cave fish. She wondered if they were from areas of the river that ran underground or if the woman snuck out to fish.

Still all that was secondary to their main purpose. "I'd like the horse mackerel. Grilled please."

"Sure thing missy. And what do you want young gal?" the woman asked as she tossed a fish onto her grill.

"Two more of the same," Yamame said as she held out some gold coins.

Yuri breathed in the wonderful scent of cooking fish as the cart owner tossed on more stock. Still she felt kinda bad about how much Yamame had paid out over the meal. "Is everything down here so expensive?" she asked the spider girl.

"Expensive?" Yamame raised an eyebrow then smiled. "Oh right! Those were the small coins round these parts. The underground's got way more gold than up top. The greed spirits make it after all."

"I see." The thought of that much gold lying about seemed pretty impressive, but she'd learned in Yumemi's world about inflation first hand, so her dreams of a gold rush died quickly. Besides it'd probably end badly if a bunch of people ran into the underground looking for gold. Given the history of the people involved, probably very badly.

After a few quick minutes the woman held out the skewers. "Here ya go. Careful not to burn yourselves now."

"Thanks," Chiyuri said carefully grabbing the skewer.

Yamame grabbed hers and immediately bit into one. "Great as always. See ya round!"

The two bowed then flew up towards the hole that lead to the surface. After a few minutes of cooling Yuri bit into her own fish and found that Yamame was right. It was great. Not the finest fish of all time, but she wouldn't mind going back.

"So how'd these friends of yours figure out 'bout those strange machine thingies?" Yamame asked.

"Er..." Yuri considered how best to explain it. In the end she decided to stick with the simple explanation. "Well... they're from a different realm that has more machines."

Yamame scratched the back of her head. "So one of them artificer magician realms or something? Must be pretty powerful."

"They are, but not magically. And it's less of a magician realm and more a place like Makai. Er, well it's still pretty different, but it's another world. Not a place people set up." Yuri shrugged.

"Huh." Yamame floated along for a bit thinking. "So there any tsuchigumo in that world?"

"Not really. The world's kinda magic poor. I haven't really seen anything but humans," Yuri replied. "It's kinda boring in that way, though there's a lot of other interesting stuff."

Yamame frowned. "Well, how hard did ya look?"

"Eh?" Yuri looked over at the question. "What do you mean?"

Yamame gave Yuri a look before returning her attention to fight. "Humans ain't the best at seeing things they ain't looking for. Betcha if you asked most of the humans outside the barrier, they'd say we didn't exist. Heck most humans have a hard time seeing other humans. Maybe you didn't find 'em because they didn't want to be found."

Yuri fell silent as she considered the matter. Yamame had a point. Was there a Gensoukyo out somewhere in that alternate world that Yumemi and Chiyuri hadn't found? Perhaps one with a magic more accessible for their universe? She didn't really know. She didn't actually understand how magic really worked on a deep level to begin with. All of her abilities came from the magical talent innate to her family and a small bit of training.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a flash of light as they came around a bend. Daylight! Yuri immediately perked up. "Finally!" She rounded the final corner then burst free from the stone cavern out into the glorious sunlight. She took a deep breath of the fresh air as she slowly spun in place. After the greys and browns of the underground, the simple green of the meadow she'd emerged in were a godsend. The riotous noise of a healthy forest only added to her happiness.

Yamame popped up a little after her, stretching as she did. "Welp, we're out. So how are we gonna get round to finding those friends of yours?"

"Hm..." Yuri thought for a moment. "They should be able to find me now." Yuri tapped the mantle of her sailor uniform. "There's some of their high tech devices sewn into the lining, so they'll be able to pinpoint where I am. At least that's what Chiyuri told me. Also gives me another layer of shielding, but not much."

Yamame tapped her chin. "Huh. So ya think we should just look around a bit then, or stay put so they can track ya easier?"

Yuri's reply was cut short by a blood curdling howl.

She barely had time to spin to face the sound before the black clad figure slammed into her sword first. Yuri felt her shoulders heat up as the automatic wards in the clothing deflected the attack. She fell on her backside, then raised her hands along with a magic shield to defend herself.

The wolf woman's attack nearly jarred her arms out of her sockets, but the blade scraped off the shield to Yuri's side. She forced herself to push off the ground and fly backwards as her attacker twisted the blade to the side and swiped again. As the sword tore up the earth where she'd been lying Yuri unleashed a barrage of bullets and lasers. The wolf woman snarled and leaped away from the attack.

Yuri reinforced her wards, while the tengu in black set up into a guard position. She tensed as wolf woman shifted her blade to attack again, then started in surprise as her attacker let loose a body wracking sneeze.

"What th' heck is wrong with all y'all! Three days and three random attacks! Can't an earth spider go anywhere in peace?" Yamame yelled as the black clad wolf tengu continued sneezing violently. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't give ya three different types of bird flu, and chickenpox for good measure!"

The woman staggered back, and fell to her knees, still sneezing. Yuri slowly stood up and backed away as the assailant tried to regain her breath. Finally after a few sniffles the tengu managed to spit out. "She murdered my fiance. I-achoo!"

Yuri stared at the woman. "Uh, I've been away for some time, and I'm pretty sure I haven't killed anyone since I got back."

"She's telling the truth ya know. She's been underground this whole time." Yamame said.

The wolf tengu's eyes narrowed, then she sneezed again. Finally after blowing her nose several more times the woman held her hand out to signal parley. Yamame hesitated a moment, then waved a hand. The woman's sneezing quickly subsided.

Yuri took another step back as the wolf tengu woman's frosty gaze returned. "The mountain was attacked yesterday by someone who looks exactly like you. Everything barring the clothes. Are you sure that this woman was with you in the underground at all times, honored tsuchigumo?"

"Yeah. Certain," Yamame replied.

The wolf woman blew her nose, then fixed Chiyuri with a glare before sniffing the air deeply. "It seems you have been underground. And your scents are slightly different. I apologize for my error." The wolf woman bowed her head. "I am Momiji Inubashiri. Please forgive my impertinence in questioning you so soon after attacking you, but given the circumstances I wonder if you might know a little more about this incident."

Yuri sat down to steady herself. She knew there was someone who looked exactly like her running around, but there was no way Chiyuri would attack the entire mountain, much less kill someone in the process. "I don't know what's going on. But I know I don't like it. Maybe you can tell us your side of the story."

Momiji nodded. "Very well. I shall try to be expansive in my detail as well. It seems our paths are intertwined for now."

As the wolf woman began her story Yuri felt her unease continue to grow. Someone who looked exactly like her breaking the spellcard rules? Briefly she wondered if it was Chiyuri, but the idea of her murdering anyone in cold blood seemed far fetched. Either way, this was going to be a serious problem. Someone with her face was wandering around spreading trouble, and trouble in Gensoukyo always came back home with a vengeance.

Yumemi paced back and forth along the single path through the messy room. She hated having to wait on others for experiments. Waiting in general was nerve wracking, but waiting on someone else's work was worst. With your own work you could trust things had been properly put together. When you were dependant on someone else you were vulnerable to any screwups that existed.

It didn't help that she was relying on Marisa in this particular case. And that Marisa was spending most of her time drawing chalk lines on a round table. There wasn't even a crystal ball or anything. Sure crystal balls were tacky, probably expensive, and from Marisa's mutterings on the subject actually inferior for this type of spell, but Yumemi knew what to expect with one of those. Circles and lines that looked like an art project gone wrong didn't seem properly magical to her.

Marisa looked up from her work and chuckled. "You aren't gonna learn magic with an attitude like that."

"What are you talking about?" Yumemi replied as she forced herself to sit. "Don't give me some nonsense about magic coming from a calm mind. I've spent enough time around you to know better than that."

"No. I'm talking about your thoughts." Marisa pointed at the lines on the table. "You were thinking these wouldn't work."

"I didn't say that." Or at least she hadn't said that out loud, Yumemi admitted mentally.

Marisa shrugged. "But you thought it. I could feel you blocking the spell." The witch smiled broadly. "Fortunately being a good witch is all about ignoring those minor details. Still if you want to learn magic on your own you gotta believe in your own power."

Yumemi waved the comment away. "First I need to use the power we have to figure out who's blocking my searches and why. The Chiyuris come first."

"Fair enough," Marisa replied. "Then let's do this." The magician pulled out a bag and held it over the table. "Place your thumbs on the circles there, then focus on the two of them. Do your best to picture them both, as if they were standing side by side."

Yumemi took a deep breath then did as she was told. To her surprise getting the images of them side by side was easy enough. Then again she had seen the two together quite often. Still the differences that made each of them unique were missing. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on those subtle things. The difference in their smiles and their sighs. Their natures, both carefree, but one anchored by society and another by caution. The little differences in how they worded things...

"That's good. You can open your eyes now. Just don't move your hands."

Yumemi opened her eyes to see Marisa pouring sand out of the bag onto the table. At first she looked to try to find patterns in the whirls that were created as it fell. Then she gasped as tiny grains stopped falling in mid air and began to softly shine under the table lights. Marisa smiled as she upended the bag, leading to a shimmering whirl that settled into a miniature sphere of constellations, each little sand star twinkling merrily.

"My magic uses stars and the night a lot. So when they aren't available I just make my own," Marisa bragged.

"So what do you see?" Yumemi asked.

"Hm... I'm also being blocked," Marisa muttered.

Yumemi deflated. Another failure. With this she-

"But!" Marisa held out a hand. "I can detect one of them. There's a woman matching your thoughts near the border between the Forest of Magic and Youkai Mountain."

Yumemi leaped to her feet. At last she'd found one of them. "Great! Let's get moving! How long does it take to get there?" She took to flight immediately and flew over the junk towards the door.

"Eh?" Marisa yelped. "Hey watch the backdraft!" Yumemi heard one of the book piles collapse but she didn't have time to worry about that. She flung open the door and headed into the sky. Then she paused.

"Bloody..." Marisa was out a little bit later, taking the time to glare at Yumemi before hopping on her broom. "You know you don't have to run that fast. They aren't likely to move that far, and it'll be easy to track them when we're close."

"There are killer robots hunting me down. I do need to hurry," Yumemi replied tersely.

"Then why'd you stop?" Marisa asked with a dark look.

Yumemi sighed. "I have no idea where to go. The mountain's kinda big, so 'between the mountain and the forest' doesn't really help me."

"Heh, fair enough." Marisa chuckled, her good humor restored. "Fine then. But don't complain if you get tired trying to keep up." The witch grabbed onto her broomstick then took off. Yumemi nodded then called upon her power reserves to follow as best she could. She probably would get tired, but that didn't matter.

She was going to find whichever Chiyuri was there, no matter what stood in her way.

Chiyuri hesitated in front of the elevator.

She knew instinctively it was a bad idea. She'd only been with this woman for three days. She shouldn't be breaking into the sealed decks of other-Yumemi's ship just on a whim. Especially given the woman had been polite enough to give her food and lodging.

On the other hand the woman was claiming they were still stuck "out of phase." And that, quite frankly was impossible. This was her major after all, and quite simply, dimensions weren't like planets. You couldn't sit orbiting one, you either were pulled into their reality or you were pushed out. Managing a holding pattern for a day was possible with damaged engines. Two days was theoretically doable, though not with any technology in her world.

Three days was impossible according to every study Chiyuri had conducted. And with the other Yumemi's increasingly distracted mood swings, Chiyuri was beginning to get worried. Just because the woman wasn't a shape shifting monster out to eat Chiyuri didn't mean that Chiyuri was safe.

Finally she stabbed the call button with her finger. Her Yumemi had always overlooked her 'spontaneous research experiments.' Or at least had just settled for yelling at her. If this Yumemi was anything similar she should merely be angry. If her worst suspicions were right on the other hand... well she wasn't planning on getting caught.

The elevator doors slid open with a hiss and Chiyuri dashed inside. She smacked the button for the research decks then held down the close door button. Each second that the elevator took to close and start moving seemed like an eternity, but eventually the machine did as it was told and began its descent. Chiyuri did her best to look calm and composed as the lift went down. This was actually the safe part. If the other Yumemi was there she could simply claim she'd hit the wrong button and be on her way.

When the doors opened however there seemed to be no sign of life at all. It was just a hallway like the others. It didn't even have the decency to be dimly unlike the halls that led to her room on the ship, this one had larger doors spaced further apart. She picked the first door on the left at random. She grimaced when she saw it was a hydraulic door like all the other ones on the ship, and thus hardly stealthy, but she'd gone this far already. Chiyuri stabbed the button to open it and walked through.

The lab behind the door was fairly normal looking. Other than the holo keyboards it seemed almost like one of the college labs back home. The tables were large, but obviously meant for notes and laptops. There were a few fume hoods, but no series of evil bubbling beakers or questionable equipment. All in all it was fairly dull. Chiyuri moved over to the computers to try to get more information.

She cursed as the screen flickered on to show a password entry request. She typed in her Yumemi's default password, hoping the other woman had similar feelings towards 'security.' The machine beeped nicely and Chiryuri gave a sigh of relief as the machine opened up. Even better the menus had all been shifted to Japanese, though they still had the erratic edged font native to whatever world the other Yumemi had borrowed it from. She scanned over the files and quickly found one called "Operations Data." Figuring that was as good a place to start as any she opened the file.

The file looked like an ordinary spreadsheet. Each 'unit' had an identification number, status of three different system and, most importantly, a current location. Most were in 'storage bay' or 'maintenance bay' But one on the first page was listed as "infiltrating Youkai Mountain." Chiyuri did a bit of searching through the spreadsheet programs commands and found the cell had been changed yesterday.

It seemed her suspicions were right.

She had the urge to immediately run out of here and head back to her quarters to continue pretending to be a good little ignorant prisoner, but she forced it down. She needed to learn more about what the woman's plans were.

Chiyuri decided to take the direct approach. She shut down the machine and headed back towards the corridor. A quick peek into the maintenance bays would be more likely to give information then trying to search through all of the files on a computer. She could play hacker more later when she had a better idea where the other Yumemi would be.

She moved across the hallway and stabbed at the button to open that door. It revealed a room filled with storage boxes. Chiyuri closed the door and walked quickly to the next door down. The door hissed open at her command.

As the faint green light from the inside of the room washed over her she froze. She'd been prepared for a lot of things, but this... this wasn't one of them. She stepped towards the mesmerising scene, horror and fascination warring in her mind.

On either side of the room sat robots. Machines of war. Their silent forms however were uninteresting compared to the cylindrical tank in the middle of the room. The tank that held a different unconscious Chiyuri in it's glowing green depths. The only difference Chiyuri could see between herself and her double was that this one had a cut on the left arm. A cut that revealed circuits and steel instead of bone.

"I'd say you were too nosy for your own good, but you suspected something like this didn't you?"

Chiyuri spun to find the other Yumemi standing in the doorway, dressed in her full uniform and mantle and smiling. It was the smile her Yumemi always wore right before failing an arrogant student. A smile of contemptuous power. Chiyuri desperately turned her head both ways to find an alternate escape, but the walls all seemed solid.

"I'm afraid that this ship uses magic teleportation instead of standard doors to get in and out, though I'm hurt that you aren't interested in my hospitality." The other Yumemi shook her head slowly. "Your counterpart from the universe I visited wasn't as touchy about accommodations.. Though I admit she's a little less there than you are. Death tends to remove a lot of higher thought."

Chiyuri started scanning the junk next to the robots for something that might help her out. Still she had to buy some time. "Why? Why me?"

The woman's smile faded. "It wasn't really intentional. I simply picked up whoever I could. I really would have prefered to get my Chiyuri, but the best laid plans..."

A gleam of white paint brought Chiyuri's attention to the item she'd been seeking. It was her old ray gun set down alongside some staves. She opened her mouth as if to speak again then leaped for the gun. The other Yumemi blinked in surprise as Chiyuri picked up the weapon with a roll and fired off two shots. The white beams seared the air.

"Magic Screen."

And slammed into a crimson barrier before they hit the woman.

The other Yumemi smiled that terrible smile again. "A good try, but I fear without your augments it's just not good enough." Chiyuri began looking for cover as a staff appeared in the woman's hand. "Lovely Ada, Sacred Blast."

The staff flared. "Aye aye!"

There was nowhere to dodge. Chiyuri flung herself through the air hoping the woman might miss, but it was futile. The blue beam slammed into her like a truck, washing away her thoughts in a blaze of pain. She felt the impact against the steel deck, but her body was too busy hurting to care.

The last thing she heard before she blacked out was the staff's voice stating "Struggle Bind."