Monday evening, October 18 - The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery

This had become a familiar scene to a lot of the neighbors that lived around the park. The four trucks with their strange looking machines were taking up their positions on the streets that bordered the park. Dozens of people in lab coats were milling around the trucks – cranking the feet down that would stabilize the bed of the truck, taking measurements, and hooking up the power couplings that these particle accelerators would need to do their magic. Others were helping to erect the pergolas and setting up the barricade ropes. The members of the recovery team were busy setting up the four portable hot tubs and changing tents. There was less of a sense of urgency with their task since their part of the process wouldn't be for at least another thirty hours. Still, with Fujibayashi Ryou's suggestions, they would be set up and ready. The recovery team would continue to man their posts until Kotomi could give them a more refined time for the exploration team's return.

Sunohara and the police had already arrived and were figuring out the most effective way to perform their crowd control function without being in the way too much. Fortunately, none of Youhei's worst case scenario's had played out… yet. The spectators had been orderly and it had all become more of an entertainment event than a demonstration. But this time there would be kids there, and Youhei wasn't taking any chances. He had a few of his officers stationed in a place where they would be able to watch over the children until they got back to their tent at the end of the show. And then of course, he had a few officers in their parade uniforms to be there as an honor guard for the visiting dignitaries.

At least it's not the heat of the summer any more and those guys won't be melting in their uniforms but dammit Okazaki, did you have to start inviting dignitaries? Do you have any idea how much of a pain in the ass it is for us cops when we have V.I.P.s show up? Out loud he shouted, "BAKA!"

"Sir?" one of the nearby officers flinched when the short detective vented his frustration. Most of the officers were taller than him, and almost all were older than him, but none of them doubted his position. He had come home to serve in the local police force after doing well at the academy. As an officer, he had performed brilliantly and had passed his detective exam in record time. When he was tasked with organizing this once-a-month science in the park thing, he had insisted that all the officers were fairly compensated and asked only for volunteers. Some of the older officers had worried that he had risen through the ranks a little too quickly, but not any more. Even though he hadn't spent that much time as a uniform officer, he still remembered his roots and treated all the detail cops fairly.

"Ah, it's nothing." Youhei waved off the concern. "I just wish we had a few more uniforms to patrol the back areas and the streets around the park. But with these V.I.P.s here…"

"Do you really think something is going to happen tonight?" the officer asked him.

"No. In fact I'm pretty sure nothing will happen that we couldn't take care of." Youhei sighed.

"Then… why are you so worried?" the officer asked again.

"I… used to be a scheming delinquent. I was pretty good at being bad. So, when I look at this place, I think of all the ways I could stir up some trouble and then I try to figure out how to stop myself using you guys."

"So, you think you could get something past all of us?" the officer asked with a challenging grin.

"Easily, but that's not because you're not good cops. You're spread way too thin and you haven't had this place under surveillance day and night for a week. A schemer like me could have already done the damage and is just waiting for the fun to start." Youhei stated without sounding like he was bragging.

"You were that good, huh? So, you never got caught?" the officer accepted Youhei's reasoning for why he could defeat all of them, but it still sounded like haughtiness from the short detective.

"Oh no. I never got away with it. There was a class rep that caught me every time." Youhei laughed.

"But, if you got caught…" the officer didn't think this sounded like such a big deal any more.

"That class rep caught me… but only after I had successfully pulled off a prank. We don't have that luxury on this job. With all the sciency stuff that's going on here, somebody's prank could result in crime scenes and death certificates."

"Ah!" the officer only then realized his shortsightedness. Sunohara was right. This was no simple detail after all. They would all have to be observant and vigilant. "I'm sorry Sunohara-sama. I underestimated the seriousness of this detail."

"Ha! The only reason you didn't think of it is because you are a fundamentally good person. You have always been a good person and that is something I really admire about you. So, don't beat yourself up about this, okay?" Sunohara cheered up the officer that he had known since he came back to this town to be a cop. This was the older officer that had kindly taken the green young academy graduate and patiently trained him to be a good cop. Now, Sunohara outranked his old supervisor, but he never forgot the kindness and patience that the older man had shown him when he was a rookie.

"If you say so." the officer still felt a little embarrassed at his gaffe.

"I do say so." Youhei said confidently, "Now lets take a walk and check on the others. While we're out, I'll point out some of the pranks a former delinquent like me could dream up."

"Yes!" the older man fell into step with the short detective as they headed first out to the streets. You're damn lucky you're already married Sunohara. Rising star like you are, half the cops in the prefecture would be pushing their daughters on you… including me.

.

In the midst of all this activity, Mikio and Takeo were setting up an additional pergola near the children's playground. This one was fitted with heavy curtains that could enclose the whole structure in case of inclement weather. And, it was also big enough that everyone in the class would be able to sleep inside on the raised floor, instead of the ground outside. This was to be their surprise gift to Kyou-san, Yuki-san, and the students from their class. All of Tomoyo's boys had contributed to buy the materials but with only two of them assembling it, they worried that it might not be ready in time.

The four exploration team members were in their own pergola and were supposed to be resting, but that was easier said than done. Sitting next to Tomoyo, Isamu seemed to be relaxed… but he was the only one. Iwao was pacing back and forth across the width of the pergola. He looked like a lively puppy that had been put on a chain that was much too short. Hiroki was watching Iwao's constant pacing and exercising his own frustration by crushing tennis balls in his massive hands. Ryota was at the other end of the pergola talking to a few members of the tech team and was thus – far too excited to be resting.

"I wanna go help wit da kids tent." Iwao grouched aloud. His nervous energy was about to bubble over but the rules were that you were supposed to be well rested before a mission since you would be away and need to be alert for a full twenty-four hours. Tomoyo had drilled that into them several times already and he knew it on an intellectual level, but it was very hard for someone like Iwao to force himself to relax.

You know the rules… Isamu was about to explain it to his hard-headed friend once more, but Tomoyo spoke up before he could discipline his friend.

"Iwao… do you think you can help them without tiring yourself out too much?" Tomoyo asked.

"Whadayamean?" Iwao blinked. Tomoyo-sama was usually pretty strict about the rules but it sounded like she was considering letting him go help.

"No running around excessively. No heavy lifting. Can you do that?" she asked.

"Yeah! I can do dat." he promised.

"All right. But remember that you need to be conserving your strength. The lives of your friends could rely on you soon. You do not want to have to live with the regret that one of your friends died because you were too tired to focus." she said sternly.

"Y… yes, Tomoyo-sama." Iwao bowed before turning to leave. He had wanted to run to where his friends were setting things up, but Tomoyo-sama's warning about his greater responsibilities had gotten his attention like a slap in the face.

Iwao was no more than a dozen meters away when Hiroki turned to Tomoyo with a pleading look. Although he still said nothing, it was easy to see what he desperately wanted.

"Go ahead! Keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't exert himself too much. And don't you exert yourself too much either!" Isamu warned the quiet, gorilla like man as he lurched up and quickly followed his friend.

Ryota was still at the other end of the pergola with the communication techs. They were going over the latest modifications to some of the devices in the hidden part of the toolboxes once more. Of all of Tomoyo's boys, Ryota was the most technical and had even contributed some idea's into the the devices' redesigns. Now that Ryota would finally be on a mission, the tech team had a few tests they wanted him to perform with their various devices, and they were reviewing the test processes with him. His eyes fairly glowed with the thrill of holding these new versions in his hands. Rapt in the discussion with the techs, he hadn't noticed that two of his companions had just left the pergola. Even if he had, there was very little chance that he would be asking to go work with the others.

"Is this okay? It's not like you to break the rules like that." Isamu asked Tomoyo as she sat back down next to him. And, he noticed, a little closer to him too.

"Not many people can force themselves to relax. It was pointless to keep him here." Tomoyo said in a defeated tone.

"You're worried." Isamu stated.

"Of course I'm worried. I worry every time you go out…" Tomoyo felt his hand close over hers, under the table.

"It seems different this time." Isamu pointed out that she seemed to be particularly on edge.

"Too many new things… and some things have already gone wrong. I just wish she would reschedule this for next month." Tomoyo leaned into Isamu's shoulder.

"Hey, Kenta and Takeshi couldn't help getting sick." Isamu had changed the roster of who would be going a few days ago when two of the selected team members came down with the flu. But that shouldn't be too much of a concern. It's not like I'm replacing them with two guys who have never been on a mission before.

"I know. Hiroki and Iwao are both good. I'm more concerned with the equipment changes. Three of the four special tools are being replaced, and the communicator failed two of it's performance tests." Tomoyo fretted.

"It failed two out of what… thirty tests? And they fixed that stuff that didn't work right. Look, Ryota is over there with those tech boys now. He'll know if they got it right. You can trust him." Isamu tried to sound reassuring, but he also knew how excited Ryota could get with gadgets and toys. He was also the only member of the team that had never gone on a mission before. It was possible he would freeze up, when crunch time came. But it was unlikely; he had always been reliable both in the past as a gang member, and more recently as a construction worker.

"Just… promise me you'll come back safe." Tomoyo looked down at the table so he couldn't see her blush.

"I promise I'll bring us all back safe." Isamu gave her hand a squeeze for added emphasis.

"Good answer." Tomoyo wanted desperately to lean on his shoulder. More than that, she wanted to wrap her arms around him and demand that he not go on any more of these damned missions…

Wrap my arms around him… Eh?

An unexpected wave of heat ran through the body of the powder blond… and seemed to settle in her face.

.

"What? What's going on here?" Kyou demanded. She and Yuki had just led their class from the gathering point in front of the Furukawa Bakery. They arrived at the spot where Kotomi had said they could set up their camp… only to find a pergola there. She could relocate her kids to another section of the park, but she didn't like the idea since she had already told the parents of her students exactly where they would be. Moving locations would necessitate contacting all the parents again, in addition to the image it would set up – that she just didn't have it together, and was a bit unreliable.

"Ah, Kyou-san!" Mikio called out. He was busy with finishing part of the floor, but it was something that Iwao could handle. After handing his hammer over, he walked over to where she stood with all the kids and a few parents from her class.

"Mikio-san?" Kyou knew that the exploration team had a pergola near the site where they would be transitioning to the parallel world. She wondered why they would need one here too.

"We built this for you and your class!" Mikio smiled his best, but it was just at that moment when Hiroki stepped out of the pergola. There was an audible gasp from the parents and some of the children and several of them took a step back. Without turning to look, Mikio knew what had happened from all the blanched expressions on all the faces.

"Sorry." Hiroki mumbled and turned to leave.

"No no no! I'm glad you're here." Mikio kept his smile up and tried to be charming and disarming like Kenta would if he were here. Turning to the children he said, "This is one of the explorers that will be going to another world tonight. His name is Hiroki and he may look scary, but he is as kind as a teddy bear and very brave."

"Really?" one of the smaller girls asked.

"Really and truly. Now if you would like to ask any questions about what it is like to go to another world, you can ask both of us. But don't be surprised if I answer all of the questions because Hiroki is the quiet type."

"Does the other world have monsters?" the third grade boy asked. His fear of Hiroki's face had evaporated when he heard that the scary looking man was one of the explorers.

"No, no monsters or strange animals or anything like that. In fact the other worlds that we have been to have been a lot like this one. This park was here and the Furukawa Bakery was over there."

"That sounds boring." the boy was obviously disappointed in the answer to his question.

"Not at all. You see, we are looking for little changes that result from the choices that we make every day." Mikio was essentially telling them what Kotomi and Tomoyo had explained to him when they were making the offer to become explorers.

"What do you mean about choices?" the fourth grade girl asked.

"Hmm… let me see." Mikio looked around the little group and noticed the parents that were there. He had an idea and asked everyone, "Who has a parent here tonight?"

Shuichi, Shuji, and a few of the other children raised their hands. Mikio pointed to the lady that was holding the hand of a young girl whose hand was raised.

"Where did you meet your daughter's father?" he asked the surprised woman.

"Um… college." she stammered. She wasn't used to everyone looking at her and it had her off her usual responses or she would have said something about that being private information.

"Was that the only college you wanted to go to or were there others?" Mikio asked the rattled woman again.

"There were several." she replied and her senses were starting to come back to her. Why does he need to know about my past anyway!

"And, would you mind telling us why you picked that college?" Mikio could see that she was starting to get upset at all these questions, but if he was lucky – this would be the last one.

"It… it came down to a coin-flip if you must know." she said stiffly.

"Excellent! This is a perfect example." he said loudly so that everyone would look back at him. "Now lets say that she went to the college where she met her daughter's father – because the coin came up heads. In one of these parallel worlds that is very close to this one, we might find a world where everything is the same, except that coin flip came up tails. So, what would be the difference in that world?"

"So what? It just means that I would have gone to a different college." the woman still resented all the questions about her private life and was first to reply.

"That's true. You would have gone to a different college. You would not have met the man who would become the father of your daughter. And in that world, your daughter would not exist at all." Mikio explained just one of the effects of a seemingly minor decision.

"Okāsan!" the little girl sounded terrified.

"Wow!" most of the class was amazed and looked back at their friend and classmate as if she might suddenly disappear.

"That applies to every single one of you." Kyou was quick to point out. She wanted to avoid the rest of the class picking on the girl that might not exist. "All of your parents made choices that added together to bring you into this world. If they had made other choices, you may not have been born either."

Kyou's explanation amazed the older kids, but the younger ones were starting to get scared with all this talk of not existing. Fortunately, Yuki picked up on that and came to their rescue before the tears started to fall.

"That's why your birthday is so special!" she cheered. "It's not just that you are a year older. We are all so happy that you are here too! In fact, I think we should start having classroom birthday parties. What do you think?"

"Yay!" the children cheered.

Disaster averted. Yuki's look silently said to Kyou.

Good job. Kyou silently said back.

.

"Kotomi-chan." Melissa said to her friend who seemed to be looking at the same screen for longer than was necessary.

"Melissa-chan?" Kotomi shook herself and responded in the style of her verbal handshake.

"Is everything okay?" Melissa tried to keep the concern out of her voice, but Kotomi did seem more distracted than usual.

"I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Kotomi looked up from her computer and turned the full attention of her purple eyes on her red headed friend.

"Well, Kyou-chan is with her class and Tomoya-kun is greeting the Minister and the Secretary. You only have me this time. Will I be enough?" Melissa knew that Kotomi had a hard time functioning around a lot of strangers if she didn't have Kyou or Tomoya or both of them with her. But she had been working with most of these interns, technicians, and scientists for several months now and they had thought that she would be able to get by this time with only Melissa's assistance.

"What do you think of Katsuro?" Kotomi seemed not to acknowledge Melissa's concern and asked a seemingly random question of her tall red haired friend.

"Katsuro? I… I am afraid I do not remember meeting a Katsuro." Melissa was racking her brain for all the people she had met since coming to Japan, but that name did not sound familiar.

"Not yet," Kotomi took Melissa's hand and placed it over her own belly, "but you will."

"Ah! I forgot that you are… um… nine weeks pregnant now? So, you like Katsuro for a baby name? But what if it is a boy?" Melissa asked.

"Katsuro is a boy's name." Kotomi blinked, "It means, victorious son."

"I'm sorry. I guess I still need a little help with Japanese names." Melissa apologized and added, "If it is going to be a boy, I thought you would go with Saburo for the name."

"Yes… I used to want to have ten sons like the families in the folk-tales of old. I wanted to name them Ichiro through Juro, and I would name all my daughters after flowers." Kotomi sighed.

"You're kidding, right?" Melissa looked at Kotomi askance. She was having a hard time figuring out whether Kotomi was being serious or making a joke.

"Oh no, not at all. Japanese historical records show that before the modern era, there were many large families with ten sons. Some had even more." Kotomi's voice rose with enthusiasm.

"Well… that's true… sort of. Back in those days, infant and childbirth mortality were pretty high, so those big families… uh… well…" Melissa suddenly felt very awkward going into any more detail on this topic.

"I am well aware that the children in those big families had several different mothers, Melissa-chan." Kotomi said with a tilted head, "But with today's medical advancements and Kyou-chan's help…"

"STOP!" Melissa had a hand up in front of Kotomi's mouth. She had been warned by Tomoya that Kotomi's value system was on a whole different plane. "Kotomi-chan, please tell me that you are not planning on getting Kyou-chan pregnant."

"Oh?" Kotomi tilted her head in confusion and asked, "You don't think she would want to have Tomoya-kun's child?"

"No!" Melissa replied instantly, and then doubted her own answer just as instantly, "Well… maybe she would… But that's not the point!"

"I disagree." Kotomi still seemed too excited about this topic.

"You disagree?" Melissa didn't feel like she made any headway at convincing her purple haired friend.

"Melissa-chan, isn't Kyou-chan's desire to have Tomoya-kun's children exactly the point of our discussion?" Kotomi asked.

"No! No! No! No!" Melissa knew she would get lost in Kotomi's unnerving logic. It had happened before, so she already knew there was almost no chance of her winning – and barely a chance at being able to keep up. Instead, she decided to try the derail option. "We can talk about that later. What we need to focus on now is tonight's experiment. Tell me about the waveforms and show me where we stand with relative time projections."

"Oh, of course! Tonight I will be shooting for an initial time displacement of plus four to plus six hours from our translation time, and an inter-dimensional time slip of less than…" Kotomi spoke while her hands flew over the keyboard of her laptop. Aside from the control panels that interfaced the four particle accelerators, the laptop screen came alive with datasets, charts, graphs, and waveforms.

Melissa was paying attention to Kotomi's excited chatter, but her smile was from the double-win she was counting for herself. She had, at the very least, postponed Kotomi from another one of her confounding and morality-challenging debates. And, she had managed to get the girl genius back on track for the current experiment that was scheduled to happen later in the evening.

.

Nagisa walked with Ryou as she checked and double checked all the arrangements and equipment that the recovery team had brought with them. They had been close for a long time and Nagisa knew when her lavender haired girlfriend was upset about something. When it came to hiding her inner turmoil, Ryou could do a much better job than she used to, but Nagisa could still tell. It was the little things that would give her away. She would eat less than usual and when she did, she would eat the things she didn't usually like without comment. She would go to bed later and want to sleep in more. She wouldn't talk as much, and she wouldn't smile as much either.

That was the part that got to Nagisa the most. A lot of people thought that Kyou and Ryou had the same face except for the eyes, but Nagisa knew that it wasn't true. Kyou had a nice smile, but Ryou's smile was something that transcended physical beauty. Hers was a truly wonderful smile and it was something that Nagisa noticed when it wasn't there. The chill of a winter day was not as harsh when Ryou smiled. Birds sang more sweetly and colors were more vibrant when she smiled. But Nagisa felt only a chill now. Ryou hadn't been wearing her smile for a while, and Nagisa's concern had turned into worry as the days turned into weeks. Summoning up her courage, she reached out to Ryou… but her courage faltered and she pulled back her hand at the last moment. But her resolve hadn't weakened so much that she had to remain silent.

"Ryou… are you okay?" Nagisa asked tentatively.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ryou responded but she didn't look up from the thermometer she was using to test the water in one of the hot tubs, "Why do you ask?"

"Are you upset with me?" Nagisa startled herself that she was able to say it. The question was dangerous. If the answer was yes, and Nagisa didn't even know what she had done to upset her dearest friend… it could be the end of their relationship.

"Huh?" Ryou dropped the floating thermometer into the water and turned to look at Nagisa. Her mildly curious expression changed to one of shock when she saw the troubled look on Nagisa's face. "Nagisa, tell me what's wrong!"

"I… I was asking you what's wrong." Nagisa said. She was twisting her fingers in her hands, but more than anything she wanted to close the distance to Ryou and hold her in her loving arms. But if I am the problem… if Ryou is upset with me, she would refuse… me.

"What do you mean?" Ryou was taken aback by Nagisa's seemingly sudden concern.

"You haven't smiled for a while. You've just seemed so… unhappy. I started wondering if… if I did something that upset you." Nagisa struggled to keep from crying as she laid her own heart bare to her girlfriend, "I still love you, Ryou. You mean everything to me. If I did something…"

"No!" Ryou stepped into Nagisa and wrapped her arms around her fidgeting girlfriend. "I'm sorry if I've been worrying you. Honestly Nagisa, if it wasn't for you, I would feel like a butterfly in a typhoon. I didn't know I was letting it show though."

"What is it?" Nagisa was hugely relieved to find out that Ryou's troubles did not stem from herself, but the fact that she was troubled at all was still worrisome. "Can I help?"

"I… I don't know. I'm just so worried about onee-chan. I don't believe she's thinking clearly and… I'm worried that she's going to be hurt." Ryou's hands grabbed fistfuls of Nagisa's coat as she let her frustration flow out.

"You're still worried about her relationship with Tomoya and Kotomi?" Nagisa sounded a bit bewildered. Nagisa didn't have any problem with their strange relationship but then, she wasn't the twin sister of one of them either.

"Yeah… I thought I was over it until I watched how she was with those kids. They really think of her as a mother and she thinks of them as her kids. But they're not hers. They will never be hers. They belong to Tomoya and Kotomi, not onee-chan!" Ryou was holding onto Nagisa tightly, her frustration at the boiling point. She didn't know how she expected her girlfriend to react to her ire, but she didn't expect the simple and innocent question.

"Why?" Nagisa asked.

"Huh? Why what?" Ryou needed Nagisa to clarify her question.

"I feel like I belong to you because I love you. Do you not feel like you belong to me?" Nagisa asked.

"Of course I do!" Ryou stammered, "Nagisa, this isn't about us, it's about…"

"Love." Nagisa held Ryou close and hoped she didn't hate her for disagreeing with something she obviously believed very strongly in. But Nagisa felt like she had to say it or Ryou would never smile again. "We are not related. And we can't be legally married in Japan either. But we feel very strongly that we belong to each other. And that's all because of love, right?"

"Yes…" Ryou wanted to argue, but this was Nagisa. She could hurt her sister's feelings because Kyou had always been strong. Except for that brief period after she almost killed Tomoya with a dictionary, she was always resilient and strong. But Nagisa was more like a flower. Ryou vividly remembered holding Nagisa's dying body in her arms and begging for a miracle.

"When you saw Kyou-chan and the Okazaki kids, did it look like she loved them?" Nagisa asked.

"Yes." Ryou admitted.

"I can see how much they love her too. All of them do. Even Kotomi-chan adores Kyou." Nagisa felt Ryou crumple a little.

"Do you really think so?" Ryou asked. She was no longer holding onto Nagisa with clenched fists and even leaned in a bit and rested her head on her girlfriend's shoulder.

"Yup!" Nagisa related something her mother had told her recently, "Okāsan says that Kotomi-chan has the same expression on her face when she see's Kyou-chan – that I have when I see you."

"You think I'm being stupid, don't you?" Ryou asked. Now that Nagisa had pointed it out, she realized that she had seen that face on Kotomi too. And yes, just like her own beloved Nagisa, Kotomi did show the same expression of delight and… love. But how can that be? She is married to Tomoya! How can she be so naive to bring in another woman into her house that loves her husband? She is so intelligent, so how can she be so unwise? Or, does she not understand the concept of jealousy at all?

"I don't think you're stupid." Nagisa laughed and patted the back of Ryou's hair, "I just think you love your sister and you want to protect her from something you don't understand."

"Something I don't understand… so you are saying I'm stupid." Ryou pouted.

"Ryou…" Nagisa smacked the back of Ryou's head. Not enough to hurt her, but enough to let her know that she was becoming a little too childish. It wasn't something Nagisa had to do often, but since they had gone off to college several years ago, it was something that Nagisa discovered would help her lavender haired girlfriend when she was getting too moody.

"I'm sorry. I'll try to be moody less and smile more." Ryou promised. However, despite her promise, she still worried that Kyou was just putting up a facade for Tomoya. If she doesn't truly love those kids and she's just doing this to keep Tomoya happy, then the duplicity will be tearing her apart. And after all, how can she really love the children of the woman that is married to the man that she loves? How?

.

Tuesday early morning, October 19 - The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery

The places where everyone stood were different this time. Tomoya was stuck with babysitting the Minister and the Secretary. Two of Sunohara's officers were there in their finest livery, but he wished that Sunohara was there himself instead of roaming about. Ryou and Nagisa stood with the recovery team. There shouldn't be much for them to do for a while, but they wanted to show that they were ready… just in case. Kyou was with her class of children from the school. Also with her were Yuki, Mikio, and Takeo. The presence of the two rough looking men concerned the cops that had been sent to keep an eye on the children, but the kids had formed a bit of an attachment with them. Aside from the younger kids climbing all over them like they were some kind of mobile playground equipment, the nice men had built them a wonderful tent and told them all about being explorers.

With four of the boys going on the mission and the other two home with the flu, that left Tomoyo to stand with Kotomi, Melissa, and a couple of the lead techs at the perimeter rope. Long speeches were unnecessary now, but she still felt the urge to brief the only member of the team that hadn't yet had the experience.

"Ryota, you've seen the lights a couple of times now. And you've heard that they can pass right through you as well." Tomoyo was stating more than asking, but she saw that the tallest member of the team was full of excitement and ready to reply.

"Yes boss!" he was hanging off her every word, but at the same time, he couldn't wait to stand in the transition area and actually go to another world.

"And, when you get to the other world, all these tents will be gone, there won't be anyone in the baseball field stands, and the lights will be off. Don't be surprised about that, but you need to look for other differences too."

"Yes boss!" he said again.

Melissa held back a chuckle. He reminded her of a spirited puppy that was waiting for the ball to be thrown.

"All right," Tomoyo took a moment to look them all over and gave them their final orders, "no foolishness and no heroics. You are there to do a job and safely come home. You may not be able to complete the job, but you had better all come home!" She looked at each one of them in the eye as she drove in that last point.

"Yes boss!" all four of them replied. They all knew that she was worried about all of them, but no-one would complain if they noticed that she was a little more emotional when she met Isamu's eyes.

"The number one thing I want you to confirm is your arrival time and date." Kotomi told them, "I selected this waveform because it was very close to our own, so you should be arriving at the destination four to five hours from now."

"I thought the travel to the other universe was just a second or two?" Ryota looked confused.

"Yeah, it's quick. She means that if we left at midnight, it would be somewhere between 4AM and 6AM on the other world." Isamu explained.

"Right boss." Ryota said without thinking.

"Don't call me boss, knucklehead!" Isamu slapped Ryota on the back of the head and pointed at Tomoyo, "She's the boss. She's the only boss! You got that?"

"Yeah, I got it! Sorry." Ryota had gone over and over the rules that Tomoyo had laid out for them and did know them by heart. It's just that… he didn't understand that rule all that well. Sure, they were trying to look like a construction team and not at all like gangsters, but didn't construction workers have bosses too?

.

"What are they doing now?" the Secretary asked while he watched the four men that were dressed like typical construction workers, slowly walk to a particular spot in center field.

"They finished getting their last instructions from their Mission Leader as well as from Kotomi herself." Tomoya told both of the well dressed men standing next to him. They were already wearing their disposable glasses, although the Minister kept taking his off and trying to see if there was anything special about it's construction.

"Oh? Ichinose Kotomi is over there?" the Minister couldn't help using the insult by calling the brilliant scientist by her maiden name in front of her husband.

"She is." Tomoya heard the dig, but he was used to Kotomi using her maiden name in academic circles since her parents had been the forerunners of her research. But still, he needed to put the Minister in his place quickly or, like a misbehaving dog, his misconduct would just get worse. Or at least, that's what the Secretary had told him in private.

"Secretary, would you care to meet with Kotomi after the event?" Tomoya asked.

"Indeed I would! If nothing else but to congratulate such a remarkable young lady!" the Secretary beamed.

"I suppose I am included in this invitation." the Minister said in a bored voice while looking at his watch.

"No, I'm afraid that wouldn't be a good idea. You see, my wife has a problem with bullies." Tomoya said.

"Bullies? I haven't assaulted anyone!" the Minister demanded.

"Not just physical bullies. It extends to emotional bullies and verbal bullies as well." Tomoya said matter-of-factly.

"Is she afraid of them?" the Secretary asked.

"Yes." Tomoya told both of them, "But also, she despises them. In her opinion, bullies are the lowest form of life. They are a blight on humanity. In general, bullies should be crushed and destroyed, for the greater good of society."

"So… you're saying that you don't want to let me see your wife because I might frighten her?" the Minister was ready to argue that she should feel safe with all these police officers present.

"No Minister, I am doing this for you." Tomoya explained, "You are a natural bully. Surely you must know that by now. I don't believe you have the self control to keep your true nature hidden from Kotomi for very long. And, once she believes you to be a bully, she will have lost all respect – not only for your position, but for you as a human being as well."

"He's right, you know." the Secretary chuckled, "You know how much you enjoy lording your position and political power over other people. I'm your best friend and even I have to agree with this young man."

"But…" the Minister's spluttering objection would have to wait. Just at that moment, they heard an announcement over the loudspeaker system that had been set up.

"Transition will occur one minute from… now. At this time, all spectators should put on their special glasses. You won't see anything until the countdown gets to 10 seconds. Time to transition is now… 50 seconds."

"Oh, now this does sound very exciting! Where should I be watching?" the Secretary asked Tomoya.

"Over there." Tomoya pointed to the four men standing back to back in center field. "Keep your eyes on those men dressed like constructions workers."

"Forty seconds."

.

Across from where Tomoya and the dignitaries stood, Kyou's class was gathered in another viewing area. Students and adults all had their glasses on and were anxiously watching the four men in the middle of center field. Well… almost all of them were. Unfortunately, midnight was a little past many of the children's bed time and some of the younger ones were having trouble staying awake. A parent was already holding one sleeping child that just couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. Yuki had another one in her arms. The rest were in varying stages of sleepiness, but the sound of the countdown was having an invigorating effect on them.

"Thirty seconds."

"I don't see anything. Am I supposed to see something now?"

"Twenty seconds."

"You'll see something as soon as they get to ten seconds. Look for little lights on the ground around their feet." Mikio told the kids.

"Ten seconds."

"I still don't see…"

"Nine."

"Oh wait… I see em!"

"Eight."

"I see em too. There's more of them!"

"Seven."

"They're moving!"

"Six."

"Wow, there's even more of them!"

"Five."

"Look at them go!"

"Four."

"Ha! They look like crazy fireflies!"

"Three."

"Wow, they're moving really fast now!"

"Two."

"I can't see the men any more!"

"One."

"Where are they going? Where did they all go?"

"Zero. Transition complete."

"Sensei, what happened? Where did the lights go? Where did the men go?"

All of the students that were still awake and even the parents wanted to know what had just happened. Kyou was stunned that they were getting these questions at all. The document that had been attached to the permission form had explained what was going on in some detail, so the parents should have known before they got here. But all of them should have known since some of the project workers and I just spent the last several hours talking about tonight's event. But, I suppose it's one thing to hear about it in a lecture and another thing entirely to see it with your own eyes. Hmm… I'd like to turn this into a learning experience, but they all look so sleepy…

Kyou's thoughts and everyone asking questions were suddenly interrupted by a tense sounding voice on the speaker system.

"Emergency emergency emergency! Please clear the transit area."

"What's going on?" Kotomi asked after touching her communicator.

"We have decoded a distress signal from the Exploration team. They are requesting immediate pickup." the tech replied.

"Begin charging the homopolar generators." Kotomi said into her communicator as she opened her trusty notebook computer, "Send me the time deltas from the transmission and I will have the formula ready by the time the generators are fully charged."

"How soon?" Tomoyo was ashen faced as she asked the question. Nobody knew what kind of trouble the exploration team had run into. All Tomoyo, or anyone else knew – was that they had requested immediate pickup.

"Thirty minutes… probably. It will depend on the time deltas." Kotomi looked up from the laptop into Tomoyo's tear filled, blue eyes and told her, "We will all do our best to get them back, Tomoyo-chan. I promise you that."

Glossary

Ichiro: first son

Juro: tenth son

Katsuro: victorious son

Saburo: third son

Shuichi: studious first son

Shuji: studious second son