"I don't believe it. I must be dreaming," Chibiusa stammered as she stared at the massive torii gate stretching out across the forest path before them.

"What is this thing?" Fakir stared up at the gate.

"Torii," Chibiusa replied. "They're gates you walk through when you enter a shrine. It's said walking through them will purify you in the eyes of the kami."

"That's... that's a little unsettling," Duck frowned up at the gate.

"I've walked through them dozens of times," Chibiusa shook her head. "And this one looks like the one I've visited in Harajuku. It's the biggest one in the area, but that doesn't make sense why it's suddenly here."

"It's almost as if elements of your home are suddenly being merged with Gold Crown Town," Fakir reasoned. "Like your friend, Momoko, who had appeared suddenly, but this is a much grander scale. Whatever is spinning this story must have an understanding of both our worlds."

"Do you think he's more powerful than Drosselmeyer?" Duck worried.

"Not sure," Fakir shook his head. "Drosselmeyer had knowledge on our town but not outside of it. Whatever spinner is at hand here has a knowledge of both our homes, and he has experience. He's unwound most of my attempts to steer the story in a particular direction. The only one he hasn't unwound is the story of Princess Tutu."

"That's... that's because you can only write about me," Duck stammered a bit as she pointed it out.

"That's super cute," Chibiusa giggled.

"Don't make this awkward," Fakir huffed. "Anyway, we need to figure out who or what could have such knowledge of both our lands that he could start adding elements of each. Even the stories that have come to life so far are ballets and legends from Tokyo."

"Well first," Chibiusa stepped forward a bit, "I want to see how much of my home is being merged. If we can find specific aspects of Tokyo being merged, maybe it'll tell us more about who or what is causing this." She stared up at the giant torii gate as she passed through it. She turned around. Nothing unusual happened, so she beckoned the other two to follow her. Fakir had no problem approaching though Duck clung to the back of his shirt as she moved through the gate.

They could hear the sounds of people moving about nearby, the noise of crowds, their laughter and chatter. As they emerged from the shrine pathway, Chibiusa stopped suddenly, Duck clamoring into the back of her. "What's wrong, Chibiusa?"

"This... this isn't..." Chibiusa stammered.

Before them stretched out the city. Ceramic roofs peeked out over the crowd of people in traditional garb. A few horses strode by with mounted samurai. Women in decorative kimono held parasols to shield themselves from the sun. The people were a mix of human and animal, much like what was present in Gold Crown Town.

"You have a weird home," Fakir noted.

"This is Tokyo, but it's not my Tokyo," Chibiusa shook her head. "It's from hundreds of years ago, like the pictures from my history books!"

Fakir stared at the people walking by, scowling at them as they stared back. "So this spinner's idea of Tokyo is outdated?"

"But hundreds of years. I've only seen drawings and historical shows that Ami sometimes watches." She stared up at the horizon seeing Tokyo Tower still standing in the distance. "But that tower, that's from modern times. I've been there lots with school trips."

"That's just really weird like some mix of past and present like we've suddenly gone back to the dark ages and oh goodness there's a strange fox lady staring at us," Duck stammered.

"There weren't animal people in Tokyo either," Chibiusa added quietly.

So the tales were blending here as well, fact merging with fiction and somehow transcending time like a fairy tale often did. "Are the tales you've encountered from this era?"

"I'm not that great with history," Chibiusa frowned, "but the drawings with the tales often did look like feudal Tokyo. Well, it was called Edo then."

"It's possible that this isn't a fusing of our times but some sort of story unwinding," Fakir proposed. "The question is, which one and why is that modern tower standing there in the distance?"

"We should go see," Chibiusa nodded with intent.

"We'll have to keep an eye out for anything that may clue you into what story is at play here," Fakir agreed. He paused, hearing voices behind them.

"Fakir!" one called out to him. She bound up to him with a smile. "I didn't expect to see you three travel so far outside Gold Crown Town today."

"Illia," he offered a bit of a greeting, noticing that she and her friends didn't seem the least bit fazed by the sudden appearance of Edo. But that was how stories went, things suddenly appeared and the characters acted like they had always been there. "What brings you out here?"

"The koi festival, of course!" Illia smiled brightly. "It's downtown and I've been wanting to visit for awhile. Something always seems to come up each time but this time, we're not buried in practice or classes."

"He acts like he doesn't even know what the festival is," Bunette snickered.

Fakir folded his arms. "We're here for other reasons, and we should probably go take care of those. Enjoy the festival, Illia."

"He didn't even acknowledge us," Bunette huffed.

"How rude!" Deeria fussed.

"That's just how Fakir is," Illia shrugged. "Maybe they'll be done with whatever it is and join us for the festival later. I bet they'd all have so much fun." Illia couldn't blame him for not wanting to stick around. She still recalled the deep wound he had received in the illusion forest, even if her three friends didn't remember it at all. She still wasn't entirely sure what had happened in that forest, some mix of leaves and people acting out a ballet. She had attempted to speak to him about it, but he just said not to worry about it.

"A koi festival?" Chibiusa pondered as the left. "Koi are pretty popular, but I don't ever recall a koi festival. There is a Children's Day, where you fly koi flags, but that's modern. I think. I really am bad at history."

"What are koi even?" Duck wondered aloud.

"They're a type of fish," Chibiusa explained. "They're like giant goldfish that live a really long time. There are dozens of legends about how people thought they were immortal."

"That's an old fish!" Duck exclaimed. She clung to the back of Fakir's shirt as the three wove through the crowd. Everyone was dressed in such interesting clothing, nothing like she'd ever seen before. The outfits the women wore looked hard to move in. "Are we going to visit the festival?"

"I'm more concerned about that tower in the distance," Fakir replied.

"I'm really wondering about that too," Chibiusa agreed. "Why is the Tokyo Tower in Feudal-era Edo? It doesn't make sense."

"Some story is at play here," Fakir insisted.

"Sure a lot of anime involved the Tokyo Tower, but I'm pretty sure it was built way after this era," Chibiusa reasoned. "Unless CLAMP started writing some historical-modern fusion manga." She shook her head. That just sounded ridiculous. "That's ridiculous."

The three wove through the crowd, past stands of food and games. They stood out like sore thumbs, wearing garb that didn't even look like it belonged in the story. "Maybe we should try to blend in," Chibiusa suggested, digging for her wallet. Her thousand yen would probably stretch pretty far in terms of Edo money. "C'mon." She ducked down one of the alleyways towards a second hand kimono shop nestled off the main street. As soon as they walked in the door, they had literally walked out in attire that matched the area.

"QUAAAAAA?!" Duck clamped her hands over her mouth.

"How did that even happen?" Chibiusa blinked stupidly. She thumbed through her wallet. They didn't even take any money at all.

Fakir stared down at the layers of kimono he now wore. At least the hakama pants felt somewhat more natural than whatever the two girls were wearing. He scrutinized the shop for a moment, walking back and opening the door, walking in and immediately walking out. "It's a plot hole."

Chibiusa nearly tripped on her own two feet. "You're kidding me!"

Fakir straightened out the layers of fabric, catching Duck as she tumbled forward attempting to walk in the kimono. Chibiusa giggled a bit, leaning forward and tugging at the kimono fabric, loosening it from the obi waistband. "Here, that'll make it a little easier to walk in."

"Well you know me, silly Duck always tripping on things," Duck laughed at herself, though she couldn't deny whatever Chibiusa had just done made walking a lot easier now.

Now properly blending in with the surroundings, the trio wove through the crowd particularly unnoticed. Duck stopped to admire some of the food, and eventually the trio did stop to pick up some rice balls at Chibiusa's suggestion.

"I really never knew rice could come in a ball!" Duck marveled, nibbling on it.

"It's pretty common at home," Chibiusa cradled the rice ball in her hands. "Kind of nice to have something familiar."

Duck stared at the rice ball, knitting her brow in worry. "You really miss your home, don't you?"

"I really like being in Gold Crown Town," Chibiusa admitted. "I really love art classes and being with you and Fakir and all the really nice people we've met. Miss Kitter's a really good teacher too. I've learned so much. But part of me still misses the friends I've left behind, my family that's still at home."

"Well somehow we'll get you back to home and we can get back to ours too," Duck nodded assuredly. "We'll just need to crack the code of who is causing this and why and how they're overwriting Fakir's stories and where did he go anyway?"

"You really don't pay attention, do you?" Fakir frowned, approaching the pair. "I went off to get some paper and ink, just in case. There's definitely a story at play, especially with the plot hole we encountered and the sudden appearance of this neighboring town, but it's still unclear which story is playing out. If we get stuck here, we'll need a means to write ourselves out."

"Good plan, good plan," Duck nodded fervently.

Chibiusa shoved the rest of the rice ball into her mouth, staring out at the horizon. "Hopefully we don't get stuck trying to reach the Tokyo Tower. I really want to know why it's there. It could be an illusion, but it could actually have gotten recreated here or pulled in."

"It's really the only thing that stands out enough to be part of a story playing out here," Fakir agreed. "Whatever that tower is, it's our only clue."

"It looks so far away," Duck stood on her tiptoes.

"Let's see if we can get a better view," Fakir suggested, heading back into the crowd. Duck and Chibiusa followed him closely as to not get lost. But as the crowd thinned, they were able to walk more easily despite Duck tripping twice. The path had lead them closer to a harbor. Fishing boats littered the docks, along with a number of huts, a ferry, and a rather large boat parked off to the side. Fakir stared at the sign standing near the harbor docks. "I can't read this."

Chibiusa stared up at the sign. "Hoh... Rah... Ee... Horai. Ferry to Horai."

"What's a Horai?" Duck stared up at the sign. She couldn't recognize a single letter. Perhaps it was Moon Speak.

"Nothing I've ever heard of." Chibiusa peered around the sign, seeing the water before them calmly wave too and fro in the afternoon breeze, rocking the docked boats side to side. "It's not a name of a place in Tokyo, and I'm pretty sure it's not even in Japan." She couldn't read the kanji well, but at least there were the little furigana to tell her how to pronounce the name. She didn't recognize the characters, but they were pretty complex and she hadn't gotten that far in her kanji studies. "But I'm pretty sure I've heard the name somewhere."

Fakir glanced across the waters, barely making out an island in the distance where the Tokyo Tower now mysteriously stood. "Does the sign give times to take the ferry?"

Chibiusa read over the sign, stumbling on the kanji in her mind. At least she could read the kanji for numbers. They were the first ones she'd learned. "It looks like there's one at 3."

Fakir pulled a pocket watch out of his sleeve. "It's 2:30 right now."

"That gives us time to go get more rice balls," Duck suggested. But as soon as she'd turned around, she heard a very unusual group of people approaching. "QUAAAA!"

The group of people approached, dressed incredibly lavishly in brocade kimono with so many layers Duck questioned how they were able to even walk. Most appeared human but several appeared to be cats, a handful of foxes, some frogs, and strangely a few ants. Most were human-sized but a few accompanying the group were smaller and the size expected of the animal.

They approached in a solemn fashion, accompanying a horse-drawn cart covered in various cloths. Inside the cart sat a human male with blonde hair that had a particular cowlick at the bangs. He didn't particularly look like he belonged with his simpler clothes more resembling a merchant than the seemingly royal entourage.

As they drew closer, the trio could clearly see the person in the cart. Chibiusa gasped. There was no way. "Motoki?!"

...

Author's musings

I always wanted to write a plot hole. At least they didn't get swallowed up in it.