"Sayori."

Sayori smiled. "Yup."

"Natsuki."

Natsuki nodded. "Right."

Ford leaned back and stared up at the sky. "They sound like Japanese names, but you have practically no accent."

Monika sat down on the cold concrete. "Yeah, like I said. We're from a dating sim. It's supposed to be an English translation, but I don't think there really was a Japanese version originally. I think it's just part of the plot, and, well, we're pretty much anime characters, aren't we? I suppose the game designer decided that means we should have Japanese names. I don't think any of us even know any Japanese."

Sayori looked over to Monika. "That's not true. I totally know some Japanese!"

Natsuki looked at her skeptically. "Really? Prove it."

Taken aback, Sayori struggled to grasp for something. "Uh, uh, um… Omae wa mou shindeiru!"

Natsuki jumped back, surprised by the sudden outburst. "Nani?!"

Yuri looked back at them. "What does that mean, though?"

"Um, it means, um… you, uh…" Sayori didn't look like she had the slightest clue what she had said. "It means that… life, uh… uh… finds a way."

"I don't think that's correct. Not even remotely." Yuri went back to reading her book. The others silently cursed that she had managed to bring the book with her.

Ford sat up, still examining the strange sky above them. "So, where's… Vezon? Where did he go?"

They were sitting around on the concrete street at the edge of an unfamiliar city block. Behind them were towering buildings that they had quickly discovered were all entirely empty, devoid of any sign that there had once been someone living in them. Every building they checked was the same, so they quickly gave up. On the other side of the street was a wide abyssal gap with another city block on the far side. There was no visible way across, so they gave up on that too.

Upon first arriving, they'd checked the timer on Vezon's mask. Monika determined that they had about forty minutes before they would be warped away again. That was fifteen minutes ago. If he wasn't back in twenty-five minutes, they were likely stuck here for good. That wasn't a good outcome, near as they could tell. There was nothing living in this city. It stretched on beyond what they could see in every direction, but there was no sign that they could even possibly survive here.

In the far distance, they could see gigantic pillars rising up into the sky where they held up what looked to be another layer to the city. That was what served as their sky in this desolate place. Whatever it had been, it hadn't been that for a long time. Whoever had built it was long gone, and it was doubtful they would ever return. Ford and Vezon both said they'd seen places like this before. Usually, there would never be anyone to find out what happened in these places. It wasn't worth worrying about. That didn't mean they wouldn't worry about it anyway.

Sayori answered Ford's question. "He said he was going to explore a bit further. He'll be back before it's time to leave. He said if he needed us to come find him, he'd blow something up so we'd know the right direction."

Natsuki pulled her arms tighter around herself, shivering. "This place sucks. It's cold. I'm hungry."

Yuri grumbled from her book. "Go cry me a river. I'm thirsty."

Sayori turned to Ford. "So you're American? That's pretty cool. I mean, it would be cooler if we were actually from Japan, but…"

Ford, mostly ignoring her, started opening up his supplies. He pulled out several protein bars and tossed one in Natsuki's direction. He held one out to Sayori. "I'm almost out, so I hope we can find more food soon. Consider this my thanks for getting me out of there." He handed out two more to Monika and Yuri, who both accepted them graciously.

Natsuki tore into hers without hesitation. She was done in an instant and looked up at Ford. "T-thanks."

Sayori was done shortly after. "Yummy! Well, not really. But it was food!"

Monika swallowed her first bite of the protein bar. It wasn't great, but it was food, and that was something they needed. "Thanks." She looked around for a moment, starting to wonder where Vezon had gone off to as well. She wanted to think this wasn't like him, but she didn't know anything about him, really. It could be just what he did, taking people away from where they lived and leaving them in barren wastelands where they were doomed to die.

Vezon hadn't abandoned them, had he?

Vezon stood on top of what looked to be an old apartment building. Maybe it was an office building or a factory or a store. He wasn't sure. It had long been cleared of any defining features. He let his future vision play out in front of him. It was helpful sometimes, but he wished it had warned him about this. At the very least, he had been happy to find that it was still there. When he'd lost the Kanohi Ignika, he thought all his powers had gone with it. Then one day, wrestling with a weird cat girl and a scruffy old man, it popped up and showed him something from the future. He still hadn't encountered that particular moment, so it was just a looming unknown in his mind.

All things indicated that he wanted to avoid that eventuality, though. He wasn't sure if it was an avoidable thing, but he had to try. Not that it looked particularly bad, just annoying and he didn't want to deal with it. Unfortunately, the future vision seemed to be just as broken and unpredictable as the dimensional portals, save for his ability to suppress them for the most part. He could keep them from appearing in front of everyone else, holding them in for a while before they exploded out of him. It did hurt, though, and he had to assume that meant it was physically taxing on his body or his mind. He didn't care so much about brain damage, but he needed his body in working condition.

He let the vision finish, then turned to look down the side of the building to the scene below him. He'd managed to find some life in this empty world. Surprising as that was, he could tell it was up to him to change things here. He smiled to himself. This could be a bit more interesting.

Sayori stared blankly up at the sky. "Monika, what kind of a sound do sloths make?"

"Sayori, I don't think sloths make a lot of noise."

"Yeah, but if they did, what kind of sound would they make?"

"They'd probably say something like 'shut up already'." Natsuki stood up and started pacing. "The worst part about waiting for him right now is that the time could come and go while he's not here and we wouldn't notice."

Monika stuffed the wrapper from her protein bar in her jacket pocket. "Remember, everyone. No littering. We'll drop them off at the next garbage bin we see."

Yuri closed her book and turned around the face everyone else. "Um… I'm sorry. I already threw my wrapper away."

Monika blinked in surprise. "Well go get it. Where did you throw it?" She watched as Yuri sheepishly looked over at the gaping abyss next to them. "You didn't."

"Ah, well… I guess you could say I stared into the abyss too long and… found I was not content to just look, so I wanted to leave a piece of me behind in it." She smiled. "I may be the last polluter in this world."

"He's back." Interrupting their line of thought, Ford pointed down the empty street to where Vezon had appeared. "Looks like he found something."

As Vezon got closer, they could make out something in his arms. It looked like he was cradling a young girl. Where he could have possibly found her, they couldn't guess, but she was unconscious, asleep, or dead, and they doubted he would have brought a corpse back to the party. Then again, it wasn't like any of them really knew him. They all stood up as he arrived.

Monika looked at the girl, who she could now see was simply sleeping. She let out a sigh of relief. "Where did you find her?"

He shrugged. "On the ground about fifteen minutes from here."

"She was alone?" Monika felt like something was off, but she wasn't sure what to think of it. It felt like Vezon wasn't telling them everything. Like something he was claiming was wrong. But then again, maybe it was just this world they were in. Something was clearly wrong about this whole place, so it could have just been that it was so wrong here that a little girl would be sleeping out on the street all alone. "Did you see anything else?"

He shook his head. "This is the only thing I found that was edible."

She seriously hoped he was kidding. The girl started to move, slowly opening her eyes. Monika reached out for her. "Hand her to me. She might be frightened."

He passed her over just as she woke up. The girl stared up at all the faces looking back down at her from her place in Monika's arms. Sayori and Natsuki crowded in closer, and Yuri butted Vezon out of the way. She started to panic, pushing away from Monika. Not wanting to just drop her, Monika let the girl down. She looked around at the four new girls around her.

"Who… who are you?"

Monika crouched down so she wasn't standing over the girl. Looking up at her, she introduced herself. "My name is Monika. These are my friends." She pointed them out one after the other. "That's Sayori, Natsuki, and Yuri." They all gave friendly waves as their names came up. She shuffled aside so the girl could see Ford. "And this is…"

He waved casually. "I'm Ford." He knew better than to confuse children with his rank.

Then it was time for Monika to try and figure out how to introduce Vezon. He was standing back, waiting patiently. He was being surprisingly tactful, so she had to assume he didn't want to scare her.

"Um, and that… is Vezon. He's the one who found you."

She looked at Vezon and… just stared for a while. At the very least, she hadn't started screaming. Finally, the girl turned a little to Monika, but never took her eyes off Vezon. "Is it… alive?"

Sure enough, Vezon hadn't moved since the girl woke up. He just stood there, crouched down so he was barely taller than Ford. He almost looked like some big machine that had shut down. His eyes shifted over to look back at her, causing her to gasp in surprise. Very slowly, he stood up and took a step closer. The girl took a step back, wary of the alien giant.

Vezon looked to Monika. "We don't have much time for this. Explain the situation quickly."

Monika put her hand on the girl's shoulder. "He won't hurt you. Why don't you tell me your name?"

"My…" She still wasn't taking her eyes off Vezon. "My name is Chito."

"Okay, Chito, listen carefully. We're leaving in only a couple minutes. We have to go or we'll be trapped here, and we don't want that. We want you to come with us."

Chito finally turned to look at her. "Go… with you? But… but what about Yuu-chan?"

That's what Monika was afraid of. She had someone else in this world who she was attached to. Someone who she couldn't leave behind. She looked to Vezon, asking him the question without saying anything.

He shrugged. "I found you sleeping alone in the middle of the street. There wasn't so much as a hair hanging around. If you were traveling with someone, they ditched you."

"But… I can't just leave her here!"

"Listen, kid. She left you to freeze or starve to death, whichever came first in this void of a city. We've been here for almost forty minutes and you're the first and only sign of life we've seen. You were sleeping, and we don't know for how long. She might just be a few minutes walk away, or she could have picked a direction and bolted the moment you fell asleep. That could have been hours ago. Or, considering the blatant hopelessness of the place, it's possible she just took all your stuff over the edge with her." He looked over the edge of the chasm next to them to emphasize his point.

"No… she wouldn't… I have to-"

"I'd be glad to take you back and show you where I found you, but that's about fifteen minutes away. We have, uh, maybe a minute tops before this stupid mask pops us through another portal. You want to check, go ahead, but we won't be here when you come back. Seriously, consider your options. I brought you here because I figured you might not want to die at, what are you, five years old? Doesn't matter. Come with us, and you can last a bit longer. Maybe even find a nice place to live. Stay here, there's nothing."

"I…"

Ford took a step closer. "Hey, come on. She's just a kid."

Natsuki spoke up. "That was a bit harsh, but… he's got a point. I don't like her chances if we leave her here."

Yuri nodded. "I hate to admit it, but there's hardly any chance she'll ever find out what happened to her friend either way. At least if we take her with us, she'll live."

Dejected, Chito collapsed onto her knees and started crying. "No… I don't… want to be alone."

Sayori jumped in, wrapping her arms around the small girl and hugging her. "You're not alone. We'll keep you safe. We'll be here for you."

Monika ran around behind Vezon. "Hold still, I need to see… guy's, we've got about twenty seconds."

Natsuki and Yuri ran over and took Monika's hands. Ford grabbed all his gear and supplies and hurried over to join them. Monika looked to see Sayori just hug the girl more tightly. Sayori was determined not to leave her alone. One way or another, she intended to make sure Chito wouldn't be alone. Realizing this, Chito reached up and wiped the tears out of her eyes with her sleeve. She knew there was nothing left for her here. She wished Yuu well and reached her hand out to them. Sayori reached out as well. Natsuki took Sayori's hand. Ford knelt down and took Chito's hand. Vezon let out a deep sigh and grabbed Yuri's shoulder in one hand and Ford's shoulder in the other.

Time was up.

The last thing they heard in that world was Natsuki complaining about how cold it was. Then they were gone.

With a resounding *pop* seven inter-dimensional travelers appeared several meters above a river. They dropped into the cool, slowly running water. After the initial panic and thrashing about, they all managed to pull themselves together enough to swim for the shore. Vezon was the last one out of the water, and from the sounds of his struggling and ranting Monika had to wonder if he couldn't swim.

Sayori sneezed and rubbed her nose. "Geez. That sucked. Now we're all wet."

Ford took off the tactical vest he was wearing over his shirt and draped it over a rock. "We need to dry out or we're going to catch hypothermia."

"I was just going to say that." Yuri patted herself down, checking her knives were all in their place. She pulled out her book and opened it. "Oh god it's ruined."

Vezon tried in vain to wring out his soaked cape. In the end, he just ripped it off and threw it away. "Great. It's so hard to find capes in my size." He looked up at the world in front of them. "Okay, where are we… oh. Oh fudge."

The others looked up. They fell silent. In front of them was a tall, deep, and dark jungle. A thick fog was rolling around in between the giant trees, coming off the ground as water evaporated in the night heat. It was the starkest contrast from the world they had just been in, living things everywhere in sight. Then there was the things they couldn't see. Growls, snarls, chirps and trills coming from the darkness all around them. The jungle was alive.

Chito let out an audible 'wow'. "They're living plants."

Monika let herself smile for a moment. This might have been the first time Chito had seen so many plants all at once. She knew it was more than she'd ever encountered. It was truly something grand, in a way unlike anything she'd seen before. Now that she thought about it, she supposed each of the worlds they'd visited up till now were all amazing in their own light. But this was the first one that didn't feel totally sinister or bleak. It felt like this could be Earth.

All pleasant thoughts were dashed from all of their minds as a distant roar split the night. The jungle animals scattered in every direction, terrified by the overwhelming sound. Monika tried to imagine a lion making that sound. She hardly wanted to encounter a lion, but it was better than the conclusion she came to. She couldn't imagine that sound coming from something so small.

"Guys?" Monika backed away from the jungle. "Where the hell are we?"

Vezon grabbed a fallen branch off the ground and immediately turned it into a walking stick, stalking forward to the head of the group. "My dear friends, welcome. To Jura-"

Of course he'd meant it as a joke. The roar had made him think of dinosaurs, and one think led to another. He, the mad Skakdi at the head of the party, built of muscle and metal and madness, froze in his tracks when it stepped out of the darkness in front of them. The Tyrannosaurus Rex reared back, cocking its head to the side as it stared down at them hungrily.

Vezon's jaw hung open, a strangled tone coming from his throat.

Natsuki was the first one to find her tongue. "This world's a cunt!"

It roared, deafening them.

Everyone bolted in different directions.