It was only a short time later that the bus reached its final destination. The driver pulled into a huge paved parking area lined with what seemed like hundreds of parking slots for busses and other similar public transportation vehicles. Before parking, the bus pulled up to a curb behind a dozen other busses and alongside a very large terminal building. After it came to a full stop, the doors all opened and every one of the passengers filed out in a relatively orderly fashion. Outside, on the concrete platform, everywhere was jam packed with hundreds of people. The stench of diesel exhaust permeated the atmosphere, but thankfully it was not a very warm day. Fuu covered her mouth as she exited the bus, almost unable to breathe the air. Hikaru held her hand to try and keep Fuu steady and on her feet in the pressing crowd. Leading the way before them towards the terminal building was Umi. Rather unbashfully, Umi jostled and pushed people aside to clear a path for Hikaru and Fuu to follow. Occasionally someone would say something to her, but Umi would respond to them rather angrily in English, swear words Hikaru thought, but Hikaru couldn't really be sure. "I guess this is why Umi-chan can't stand the trains" Hikaru commented to Fuu "these crowds really bother her." Fuu didn't reply as she was still struggling with the horribly polluted air. Hikaru knew that Fuu wasn't faint of heart by any means, so she knew that Fuu must be suffering a great deal to be affected the way she was. Just then, Umi reached the terminal entrance door. "We're almost inside Fuu-chan, just a little further" Hikaru tried to assure her friend. Inside the terminal building the massive crowd of travelers continued on unabated, however the air quality improved a great deal and enabled Fuu to catch her breath to speak again.
"Umi-san, please wait up!" Fuu called out to Umi. From her current stance, there was little to distinguish Umi from a football linebacker, except that she lacked the uniform to go with it. However, the sound of Fuu's voice melted Umi out of her trance and she turned to look back at her friends Fuu and Hikaru. All three of them stood together amongst the crowd and rested for a moment. Umi was visibly annoyed by their current situation. Fuu was also having a hard time and only Hikaru seemed unaffected by all of the craziness going on around them. "Okay, we can rest for a little, but I don't know how much longer I can stand being in this crowd" Umi complained. "I'm sorry Umi-san" Fuu apologized. "Let's see if we find a place to sit down where it's not so crowded" Hikaru suggested. "We need to figure out where to go next" she finished. All three of them looked around. The building they were in was the terminal for a multi-modal transportation hub and the building itself was immense. The two far ends were so far away that they disappeared into the distance. The side that Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu had entered from consisted of a continuous lineup of doorways and gates to various ground transportation like busses, shuttles, and taxis. The mezzanine level above them was for access to overhead trains and possibly aircraft. In the floor, spaced at regular intervals, were wide escalators leading down to levels below, maybe to Cephiro's version of the subway Hikaru thought. On the side of the building opposite the one they entered from was a hodgepodge of ticket counters, bookstores, and what appeared to be coffee shops and fast food restaurants. Fuu took a liking to one of the coffee shops and suggested "How about that one over there?" as she pointed to it. "It looks fine to me" Hikaru affirmed and they started to make their way over to the shop. "But how are we going to pay? We don't have any Cephiran money Hikaru!" Umi warned as soon as they started to walk. "That's certainly true Umi-san" Fuu acknowledged "but maybe there is a currency exchange booth around here someplace?" she asked. Umi did something like a hiccup and protested "Fuu! What are you thinking? No one here's ever seen Japanese money before!" "Oh look there's one right over there!" Hikaru indicated cheerfully and sure enough just two doors down from the coffee shop was a currency exchange booth with a short line of people waiting. Umi just sighed with exasperation as the three of them changed course and got in line for the currency exchange. When Fuu's turn came up, she passed two ¥10,000 bills under the window. The clerk studied the bills for a moment to determine their origin, and when satisfied he passed Fuu a stack of Cephiran bills back to her. Umi's jaw dropped. "But … how?" Umi thought to herself, utterly amazed. Fuu thanked the clerk politely and then they left to go to the coffee shop.
The shop, from the nearest they could tell, was called "Sephia's" if Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu could still trust their interpretation of the Cephiran alphabet as it was still unknown to them just how many years had passed since their last visit to Cephiro. Once inside, they looked around for a place to sit since it appeared to be a "please seat yourself" type of establishment. Umi spotted an empty booth next to the windows that looked out upon the crowded concourse and urged "let's sit in that booth over there" and gave Hikaru a gentle nudge. Hikaru and Fuu both agreed and they went and took a seat. Just like on the bus, Hikaru and Fuu took their places together on one side of the table, while Umi sat opposite them on the other side. Right away Umi leaned over the table and whispered to Fuu "so what did you do back there Fuu? Did you use magic to hypnotize that guy in the currency exchange booth?" "Huh?" Fuu answered in surprise and then explained "it wasn't anything like that at all Umi-san. I didn't do anything to trick him. I just gave him my money. He even scanned it with his computer and it seemed to check out fine, like there wasn't anything wrong and then he gave me back the equivalent in Cephiran money … less the exchange fee of course." "That's just a little too bizarre" Umi acknowledged still perplexed. "I agree Umi-chan" Hikaru joined in and continued "I was game to let you give it a try Fuu-chan, but I was pretty sure that they weren't going to accept your Japanese currency. It all seems pretty suspicious and I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this" Hikaru finished on a dark note. They all sat back in their seats normally just as the waitress arrived. She was a tall, dark skinned woman, middle aged, but still rather attractive looking and Umi couldn't help noticing a similarity in appearance to Umi's Chizetan friends of the past. She greeted them cheerfully "Good afternoon" but quickly became startled upon seeing her customers. "You gals aren't from around here are ya?" She asked with a mild accent. "It's that obvious?" Hikaru thought to herself sheepishly but Fuu answered the waitress with a smile "we just arrived here today." Now that the waitress had an interest in them she kept going "where are you three from? I see all kinds come through here, but I don't see outfits like yours every day." Umi thought quickly "there's a high probably she's from Chizeta herself, so I can't say that. Tokyo is out of the question. The only other worlds I know are Autozam and Fahren so …" Umi answered "we're from Autozam" hoping that would defuse the tension. "Ah, I thought so" the waitress agreed. "We get all kinds of weirdos from Autozam these days … well I don't mean to say you gals are weird but these clothes of yours are gonna get you in a lot of trouble real quick if you don't get them up to code" she warned them. "Code? What do you mean?" Hikaru asked her earnestly. The waitress gave Hikaru an odd look, and then answered simply "the government dress code. This is the Empire's home world so they are pretty strict about enforcing it here. Didn't they tell you before leaving Autozam?" Hikaru was now becoming distressed. The three of them were already in trouble and didn't even know until this moment. "No, they didn't tell us." Hikaru answered her quietly. "Goodness! Such carelessness to send y'all this far with no clues!" the waitress responded with a tone of disgust. However, she also agreed to help "I might have a copy of the rules somewhere around here, maybe out back. Let me get your order, then I'll go lookie for you."
Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu all looked at her for a moment. "Oh … right" Hikaru responded. All three of them had completely forgotten that they were in a coffee shop. Hikaru ordered simple black coffee with sugar, Umi ordered something that looked like a cappuccino, and Fuu just had tea. As soon as the waitress left, they started up the whispering conversation again. "'Empire home world, what does that mean?" Umi exclaimed as best she could in a hushed voice. "It sounds like something right out of Star Wars Umi-san" Fuu answered followed by Hikaru "Whenever I hear of 'Empire' it makes me think of the early Showa era." "Either way, this is all kinds of bad! Enforcing a dress code on the general population reeks of totalitarianism!" Umi responded with alarm. "What if …?" Fuu started but her face blanched at the thought before she could even express it. "What is it Fuu-chan?" Hikaru asked. After a pause, Fuu slowly answered "what if it's not just neglect as you interpreted earlier Hikaru-san. What if Cephiro has turned … and become … evil?" she finished with an unsteady voice. With that, the conversation ended and they all sat back in their seats again in silence.
In Hikaru's thoughts it didn't take much for Fuu's speculation to recall the nightmare of Nova and Lady Debonair and what they tried to do to Cephiro and Hikaru personally. Cephiro was a land of the will, that Hikaru was sure had not changed, and with their will people can choose to do good or evil. This Hikaru knew well and so Fuu's suggestion was indeed a frighteningly real possibility.