Rachel yawned as she looked back at Sol sitting on her guest bed. She had plenty of time until she made her next move, but considering the amount of times she had been down this specific date before, it still made her a little annoyed that she would have to sit through it again. "Do tell me…what exactly are these Gears you mention?"

"In a nutshell? Weapons created through the fusion of magic and technology."

"So you have magic in your world?"

"Do we have magic?" Sol scoffed. "Does a bear take a dump in the woods?"

"Don't get snooty with me, you barbarian."

Sol resisted the urge to leap off the bed and smack her. Instead he spoke, "It was originally just supposed to be an evolution in warfare, every country was making these Gears in some arms race, but something went wrong. They all became sentient, and decided that humanity as a whole was their enemy. Lots of people died and lots of cities burned across the world before a select few heroes got together to fight back against them, taking all the magic they could and focusing it within their weapons to fight back against these Gears and stop the one who made them go berserk in the first place."

"Oh, and did there happen to be six of these heroes?" Rachel smirked.

"Yeah, that sounds awfully familiar to our own world's history!" Gii shouted, "You're just a big copy-cat!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize this story was already licensed by a fat pink squeak-toy."

"Hey!" Gii was offended by the remark, but Rachel pinched his back and held the familiar in place. She motioned for Sol to continue.

"There were a lot more than that, but there were two leaders: myself and Ky. There were a lot of good people that died during the war, but we managed to shut down the Commander Gear for good." Sol paused for a moment as another thought flashed across his mind. "Hey wait a minute, where is my sword?"

"Your sword is fine, though it appears to have changed a bit."

"Changed how?"

"I'll let you see it if you finish the story."

Sol scoffed. "Fine, but if you don't give it back I can still beat you without it."

Rachel frowned as she started to weigh the pros and cons of keeping him alive. Just remember, you're doing this to break the time-loop. Then you can kill him later. Just be patient…

Sol made his way down the stairs of the office building, following the trail of incapacitated bodies and scorch marks until he reached the lowest level he could. It figured that the trail would lead to the secret, lowest level of the building. As he stepped into the hallway and over the bodies of a few heavily-armed and armored guards, he heard a couple of male voices shouting angrily at each other.

"You fool! Don't you realize I'm trying to save this world from a greater threat?" It was the voice of That Man.

"You are using the life of an innocent child, and trying to resurrect the power of the Gears no less!" The other voice belonged to Ky Kiske, there was no mistaking it.

That Man scoffed at Ky. "Your time as an agent of INTERPOL has rotted your brain! You cannot see the consequences beyond your own nose! I'm trying to prepare this world for a future calamity! What is one life compared to the salvation of thousands?"

"Enough talk! You were the one who created this problem in the first place! I will be damned if I let you repeat that event! Drop her, or I swear I will cut you down!"

"Then do it! End it all right here Ky Kiske, if you have the courage to do so!"

Sol found the room where the two men were yelling at each other, and he saw Ky Kiske lancing a large bolt of electricity from his sword, but not at That Man. He was using his power on Dizzy. She was crying out in pain, but before Sol could act a splitting headache overtook him and he found himself faceplanting into the floor as his vision went black.

"…then the next thing I know, I'm in Kagutsuchi, I'm feeling hungrier than I've ever felt in my life, and there's a mixture of Japanese and Chinese writing on the walls and the signs. I try to grab something to eat, but then I run into a retarded, talking cat-girl, chase her down, run into some weird kind of giant, invisible, cloaked spider thing with a mask, and then you. Now I'm here."

Rachel chewed on that story for a bit, then responded, "A few elements seem awfully dubious, like the fact that the only reason you happen to be in this world was because some policeman hit a friend of yours with a lot of electricity, or the fact that you could even see that electricity. Doesn't exactly lend itself to truth, but then again stranger things have happened when magic is thrown into the mix."

"Like those freaky familiars that you keep hanging on to?"

"What I do with my familiars is none of your business." Rachel shook her head as she stood up and the chair form of Nago morphed back into an umbrella that Rachel carried. "Nonetheless, even if your story does seem unlikely, I shall show you the weapons I've collected." She started walking towards the door, but then turned around. "I'm sure you have the strength to walk, don't you Sol?"

Sol grunted as he lifted himself off of the bed on onto the floor. He was already thinking of ways to ambush this girl and escape.

"By the way, I wouldn't think of launching a rear assault if I were you." Rachel said as she continued walking out the door with her back turned to Sol. "For one thing, this mansion is not exactly located inside what you know to be Kagutsuchi, you wouldn't really get anywhere. And secondly, I have eyes watching you."

Sol nearly freaked out as Rachel's umbrella suddenly had a cat's face appear on its front, and even more disturbed when that same cat face began talking, "Count yourself lucky, commoner. You get to see the rest of the mansion!"

"Yes, the mistress is so generous with her mercy!" Gii said, "More generous than she's ever been with me…"

Rachel slapped Gii with one hand, "Gii, what did I say before about unsolicited opinions?"

Meanwhile, somewhere near the upper levels of Kagutsuchi, two watchmen from the NOL were sitting down to a late lunch before returning to the main Library for further orders.

"Hey Rosen?" Gilden mumbled as he was still chewing through a particularly tasty chicken sandwich.

"Yes Gilden?"Rosen responded, a bit miffed that his own roast beef sandwich had a bit too much mayo on it.

"Have you heard the latest orders from above?"

"That depends, Gilden." Rosen wiped his mouth with his sleeve, gagging as some of the mayo-slathered sandwich slid down his throat. "Was there any change from 'stand in front of a wide-open gate and look for suspicious people?' Because if there was, then I would have heard."

"Oh, so then you knew about the mass evacuation?"

"Mass evacu-what?" Rosen stared at Gilden like he was addressing a madman. "Is this some stupid joke?"

"I'm serious." Gilden took a swig of water to wet his mouth before he choked on his own food by accident. "Supposedly the Imperator himself had ordered that the main Library in Kagutsuchi be completely evacuated tomorrow."

"Why in God's name would anyone do that?"

"When the Imperator is the one giving you the order, you don't ask why. You just do it."

"Why didn't I hear anything about this?"

"Why, Mr. Smart-ass? I probably wouldn't have known about it either if not for the fact that I heard one of the others talking about it after their little scrape with some ninjas from Ronin-gai earlier. Apparently, our esteemed superiors didn't feel the need to let us know. Probably didn't care either."

"Heh, joke's on them." Rosen chuckled. "Now that the port's been damaged, they can't possibly evacuate all of us in time…" Rosen suddenly paused for a moment as he chewed on that thought, along with the last of his roast beef sandwich.

"Well, I'm sure no horrible tragedies will happen to us soon, and if they do we can always argue for hazard pay."

"Assuming we're around to collect it, you mean?"

"Well, yes, that goes without saying." Rosen suddenly found his attention drawn to a pair of loosely-dressed young ladies. Gilden saw his eyes wandering, and then asked if he was a pedophile.

Rosen did not answer the comment as he saw them walk into the Ladies room of the dining establishment.

Inside that same Ladies room, Jam Kuradoberi was washing her hands when saw two girls giving her a mean look in the bathroom mirror.

"Thought you could run from us Jam?" One of the girls spoke Jam turned around to face them. "You know you can't just back out of the deal like that."

"What are you talking about?" Jam asked. "I escaped with the rest of you guys, just like you said!"

"Really?" The second girl raised her eyebrows. Jam noted that they were really big. Distractingly big. "Because Marzo here tells me that you were snitching on us to the local authorities!"

"W-w-why would I do that?" Jam blushed, "You people don't have any proof."

"You have a wire under your shirt right now, don't you?" Marzo said, "Let's take a look." One of the girls advanced on her…

"Relax Rosen, it was just a stupid joke."

"Yeah, well I don't appreciate you insinuating that I enjoy the company of underage girls in that manner." Rosen snapped and then suddenly thought he heard a muffled, high-pitched scream, but dismissed it as just his imagination as he motioned for another refill of his water glass.

"Why would you do that?" Jam shouted. "Don't you people have any decency?"

"You have to sacrifice a lot sometimes in our line of work." Marzo tossed Jam her shirt back. "So here's what is going to happen next: We think we found where they took Captain Johnny, and you are gonna help us bust him out. They took him to a hospital, so it shouldn't be too hard. Once we get him out, we can form a plan to leave this town…what was it called?"

"Kagutsuchi," the pirate with the thick eyebrows confirmed.

"Yeah, what she said. So if you want the cash to open up that restaurant again, it would be in your best interest to help us out. Meet us outside the Ironworks shop, five blocks east away from here, and if I have to stay in this miserable town one second longer than necessary I will take it out on your ass."

The two pirates made their exit from the bathroom. Jam seriously considered beating them both up, but if she did she'd never get the money she was promised. She wasn't sure which was worse: working for criminals, or that she was stuck in a town she had never seen before. Sure, it had the same sights, sounds, and other little touches that reminded her of home, but it just didn't seem right.

Jam walked out of the bathroom and out of the restaurant, but accidentally bumped into a pair of NOL watchmen. One of them looked at her and said, "Excuse me miss, you seem a bit troubled. Is something wrong?"

Jam resisted the urge to burst out and tell him everything she knew, and instead said, "Tell me what isn't wrong these days?"

"What do you mean?" The man said, but Jam left before he could get a response.

"Smooth move, Rosen." The watchman's friend remarked.