"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Ky Kiske asked as he continued to follow Litchi Faye Ling down to the undercity of Kagutsuchi. He swore the sun had disappeared and the moon had replaced it by the time they took to get to what was supposed to be another part of the same city. "We've been walking for a while now."

"If you ask me that one more time, I'm leaving you behind." Litchi responded without turning back. "Besides, I've been down here plenty of times before. Not my fault the lift happens to be under repairs at the moment."

"How did it get so dark then?"

Litchi stopped for a moment and gestured at the sky. Ky shrugged his shoulders and decided to look up as well, only to find that the sky had been replaced by a large metal plate that seemed to stretch on forever.

"The Kaka prefer their privacy." Litchi said as she continued walking. "There were too many normal humans and beast-men up above, even in the lower-class residential areas, so the Kaka clan settled down here instead."

"Don't they need sunlight and water to live?" Ky thought out loud. He was genuinely confused. "I thought no living being could survive without some form of nature."

"Well, it's not totally cut off from the city, just that most people up there don't bother to venture down here. Also, the Kaka clan are not exactly…people in the traditional sense."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see what I mean." Litchi gestured over to what appeared to be a small, primitive village. Compared to the bustling urban center they had come from not too long ago, it seemed to Ky as if he had stepped into a different world.

"HEY! BOOBIE LADY!" Ky jumped back at the high-pitched squeal as a big…thing in the vague shape of a cat with large, blonde pigtails hopped on top of Litchi. It seemed like an exciteable little girl in a cat costume, but those reflexes were far greater than any human could pull off. "We've missed you sooooo much, meow!"

Ky reflexively tried to hit the cat-thing off of Litchi, but it curled up its hind legs and kicked Ky back with a lot more force than he expected.

"Ky! Calm down!" Litchi shouted, "She's not an enemy!"

Ky reflexively reached for his sword, only to remember that he wasn't carrying it anymore. Damn, of all the times to be unarmed…Ky found himself freaked out a little more when the cat-thing hopped off of Litchi and looked at him with a face that seemed to be entirely black save for a pair of featureless eyes and a couple rows of sharp white teeth shaped in a frown.

"You're a mean guy, Ky, for attacking me like that!"

"Mean? What did I do?"

"I coulda hurt my foot when it hit you! Apologize to meow!"

"Me? How about you tell me what the hell you…"

Litchi groaned. She knew that this was going to happen when the two of them met. "Will the two of you please calm down?"

Ky couldn't believe it, the cat thing was singing happily. "You sure this isn't an enemy?" Ky asked Litchi as she regained her composure. "She's got more mood swings than a toddler on a playground."

"Yeah, well…that's Taokaka for you."

"Nice to meet you, Mean Guy!" Taokaka held out its hand, or paw, depending on one's perspective. "I'm Tao, of the Kaka clan. You have any food for me?"

"I don't." Ky shook his head as he gestured with his open hands.

"You're a Mean Guy!"

"Stop calling me that!" Ky growled, "I'm not a…"

"Mean Guy! Mean Guy! Kyyyyy is a Meeeeaaan Guuuuuy!"

Ky threw up his hands and gave up as Taokaka broke into another chorus of "Ky is a Mean Guy." Instead he asked the more sane woman who was barely concealing her laughter at the whole spectacle. "Dr. Ling, what is she?"

"Well, the short version is that she's one of the genetic descendants of one of the legendary Six Heroes, designed to fight the Black Beast or similar threats should the need arise."

"And are they all," Ky paused as he tried to think of an inoffensive term, and then continued, "special like her?"

"No, no...the Six Heroes were very good people, at least from what I've heard. Considering it's been almost a century since that war, no one's really able to say what they were like aside from the stories written about them."

"If this is their descendent, then maybe they were killed by…ow!" Ky rubbed his cheek as Litchi smacked it.

"You watch your tongue, mister!" Litchi growled. "It's not like any of the Kaka clan chose to be born like this, so show some damn respect!"

"I just hope the rest of the clan shows me the same." Ky said, though he doubted it if this cat-girl was their first representative.

Taokaka had finally gotten bored of singing, and then perked up and said, "So, what brings nya here Boobie Lady? Is Mean Guy your boyyyyfrieennnnnnd?"

"What? No!" Litchi blushed, "Of course not, never in a million years!"

"Ooooh, hear that Mean Guy? You've got no chance, meow!"

Ky shrugged his shoulders. "Not like I wanted to be here anyway. I'm just trying to find a sword." Litchi suddenly felt the urge to smack him again, but this time she wasn't quite sure why.

"Ooooh! A sword-meow!" Taokaka shouted as she made wild gestures, "Is that like one of those spinny things on a string that you go 'whrrrrrrr' and then it goes 'wsshhhhhing!' and the enemy is like 'oh no I'm hurt' and then the person holding the string goes 'no I didn't meown it!' and then he shares food with everyone because he's a pretty boy?"

Ky Kiske was flabbergasted and unsure what to make of this statement. Meanwhile, Litchi seemed amused at the whole spectacle.

"So have you seen a sword or not?" Ky asked.

"Oh oh and there was a little teddy bear that went "RAAAWR" and then I had to cut it but that made pretty boy sad because he really liked it so I thought I'd make him another one but then I went to sleep meow."

Ky shook his head again. He'd have better luck asking a baby to cure cancer.

"Alright you two," Litchi said as she re-slung the medical bag over her shoulder, "Let's go back to the village and see this pretty boy you keep talking about."

"Okay Boobie Lady!" Taokaka shouted as she ran back towards the village. "Try and keep up with meow!"

Litchi ran after her, and Ky followed closely behind, not wanting to be lost down there. Still, he kept one hand on his damaged ribs. The painkillers were not doing their full job, and what should have been a light kick dealt a lot more pain than it normally would have.

"Oh no, hurry up! Taokaka hears something bad in the village meow!" Taokaka shouted and doubled her speed, causing both Litchi and Ky grief as they tried to keep up with her.

Jam peeked into the different rooms one by one, but was a bit disturbed by the fact that there didn't seem to be any nurses or even any security in the hallways. There were a few patients here and there, and there was one oddity where a tall, bald doctor appeared to be hovering over someone by a bed, but aside from some sick or injured people there didn't seem to be anyone on the floor. Jam started to wonder both what happened to all the people on the floor, and if Johnny was ever there to begin with or if the Jellyfish Pirates had simply been following a bad lead out of desperation.

Finally, in an unmarked room at the end of the hall, Jam found a well-muscled man with long blonde hair. He looked quite different without the clothes and the sword he always seemed to have around him. Now he was just lying sedated on a hospital bed, clad in little more than a hospital gown with an IV drip running into his arm.

"Johnny, can you hear me?" Jam took the IV needle out of his arm as she tried to rouse him awake. "Johnny, you've gotta wake up! The whole crew needs you!"

"Crew…" Johnny mumbled, his eyes still closed. "Izzat you May? You know we got a good haul that last time."

"C'mon Johnny! You have to wake up!"

"#3, hold the sauce…" Johnny mumbled, shaking his head as he spoke to some imaginary figure, "You're too young to be drinking July, it doesn't suit you. Gotta be 'n example 'n such…"

Jam tried to lift Johnny out of the bed, but had difficulty, as she didn't have the strength to deadlift Johnny's weight with her arms alone. It seemed rather ironic: she could take down a man of Johnny's size and stature with a few chi-powered strikes to his weak points, but she couldn't make him float in the air. It didn't seem fair. "Johnny! Tell me you can stand! Your girls need you! Your ship needs you!"

"My girls? Heh." Johnny chuckled. "Certainly we've come a long way, a tight-nit crew. Chased after plenty of women didn't we? Oh sensei, if only you saw me now…"

Jam struggled to drag Johnny off of the bed, and settled for putting him in a sitting position instead.

"There's a bright light…" Johnny continued to mumble with his eyes closed. "I've kept hearing, don't go towards the light. You go to it, no going back, but the light…"

Jam began slapping Johnny's face around with one hand as she grabbed his hospital gown with another. "I need you to pay me so I can start up my restaurant with fire-proof walls this time! Just wake up already!"

Johnny finally caught her hand as she prepared to slap him again. His eyes were open, if only a little. Jam was unexpectedly surprised, as she couldn't recall ever seeing his face without a pair of sunglasses on it. "Thank you for being honest this time around." Johnny put his free hand up to his face, "Damn, how hard did you slap me?"

"Are you awake? Can you stand?"

"Don't see much better choice staying here." Johnny slowly rose from his bed, "Would you know where they put my clothes and my sword?" Jam shook her head. Johnny tried standing, but immediately felt dizzy as he touched the ground. The drug had not fully left his system yet. "Well then, let's get out of here. Do you know where the others went?"

Ragna the Bloodedge idly tapped his foot on the floor of the cabin as the shuttle chugged along the path. He trusted that this driver knew the best route to get around the various seithr-infused monsters lurking around the area, as no sane person would otherwise subject themselves to this job. Still, it made him a teensy bit impatient as he had little to do but wait. He had been awake almost non-stop for the past few days, running on adrenaline, hatred, and thoughts of his own mission. As the sun began setting in the sky, Ragna rested his eyes for a bit, and then drifted off to sleep.

Some time later, though Ragna didn't know how long he had slept, the shuttle suddenly jerked and kept moving. The driver growled, "Something's on the roof, you mind checking it out?"

Ragna shook the sleep out of his eyes. "What? Why do I have to find it?"

"Because I'm driving this thing, and I'm pretty sure you can handle it with that sword of yours."

"Fine, I'll do it." Ragna opened a window as the man continued driving the shuttle, and peeked upwards.

He flinched as he just barely avoided a metallic blade cutting his head off, then slipped back into his seat

"Did you see anything?" The driver asked.

"That depends, do metallic weapons count?"

The driver hit the brakes hard and caused the vehicle to jerk to a sudden stop, hoping to throw off who or whatever was clinging to the roof. Instead, both the driver and Ragna heard a loud grinding noise as part of the roof seemed to fold in on itself. The entity on the roof was digging in to avoid getting thrown off.

"Stay in here, don't move." Ragna picked up his sword and opened the door. "I'll take care of it."

"Yeah sure," the driver responded, "It ain't like I'm trying to live or anything."

Ragna stepped outside into the evening air and saw the outline of a muscular man with a relatively big sword standing on the roof of the shuttle. Without saying a word, the man leapt off and faced Ragna.

"Okay, who are you? Another vigilante?" Ragna tightened his grip on his weapon, "Don't you people get the memo that Ragna the Bloodedge will kill you if you are stupid enough to attack him?"

"Another one…" The man growled, "You're just another punk come to kill me."

"What? I'm not the one who jumped onto a speeding shuttle!"

The man lifted up his own sword into an attack stance. "You're Ragna the Bloodedge? Maybe I can see if the smiling ghost was right. Just give me your right arm and I'll be on my way."

"Sorry, I'm kind of attached to that arm. Who the hell are you?"

"Just call me Sol, though it won't really matter soon enough."

"Sol, huh? I'm really tired so let's—" Ragna didn't get the chance to finish his sentence as the man calling himself Sol rushed forward and began attacking. Ragna raised up his sword to block and skided backwards from the sheer force of the blow. This vigilante, or whatever he was, immediately seemed different from other men he had fought.

Sol focused his power into his sword, and it suddenly burst into flame, scorching Ragna's red jacket with his next attack. Ragna became distracted as he began patting the fire out on his sleeve, he didn't raise his sword all the way when Sol attacked again, cutting his natural arm and sending pain shooting through his left side.

Ragna shifted his stance to put less pressure on his left side and beckoned Sol to attack again. Sol feinted a thrust and when Ragna brought up his sword to parry him, Sol nicked him in the torso with his sword before Ragna hopped away.

"Dammit…who are you?"

"Like I said, does it matter?" Sol shifted, preparing to attack again. "Just let me do this quickly and there will be less pain involved."

"Sorry, but I can't die just yet." Ragna said.

"Have it your way." Sol jumped forward, planting his feet and again feinting an attack, but Ragna didn't block. Instead, he built power in his legs and then jumped up in the air, leading with his own large sword as he cut a dark-reddish streak through the air. All the while, he yelled the words, "INFERNO DIVIDER!"

Sol found himself lifted up in the air, then felt Ragna punch him in the side, sending him flying into the nearby shuttle and leaving a small dent in the side.

"Hey!" The driver shouted, "You said it would be safer inside!"

Ragna tried to think of a response, but could not as the driver started up the engine. Apparently convinced that here was no longer safe, he decided to hit the gas. Ragna ran to catch the shuttle before it left, but Sol sent a streak of fire towards him, forcing Ragna back.

"You're not going anywhere until this is over!" Sol shouted. "Just die already!"

"You first." Ragna muttered. He moved within striking distance of Sol and feinted a thrusting motion of his own, then stabbed his sword into the ground in front of Sol. Sol reflexively hopped back, but before he touched the ground again Ragna took his sword with both hands and swung it upwards, unleashing a dead spike that sent Sol flying back through his own flames and into the shuttle that hadn't gained enough speed yet to leave. Rather than countering, Sol decided to hang onto the shuttle, beckoning Ragna to try and stop him.

Ragna leaped into the air and pushed himself with enough seithr in his body that he practically dashed through the air until he landed on top of the shuttle. At that point, the driver stopped caring about much else than moving to his destination, hoping against hope that the NOL would maybe stop these two from fighting before they killed him, or each other.

However, the speeding shuttle didn't deter the two combatants from fighting. Instead, they started fighting each other on top of the shuttle. Swords clashed with each other, but neither fighter was willing to give much ground. In fact, there was little ground to give: whoever lost would be sent flying from the shuttle.

As the wind whipped by, the two combatants faced each other for another brief moment. Then struck at the same time, the swords bounced off of each other as the two fighters redoubled their efforts. Ragna tried an overhead slash at the same time Sol kicked his leg out, sending Ragna to the floor. Sol then focused a good portion of magical energy into his blade and struck the surface, just barely missing Ragna with the blade but close enough to do damage.

Unfortunately, this also meant his blade became stuck in the roof of the shuttle, causing the driver to freak out again as he briefly slammed on the brakes, hoping to throw both men off and escape. However, both Ragna and Sol barely managed to hang on. Sol just held on to his sword handle while Ragna held on to a crack in the roof of the vehicle with his right hand. His wounds were healing, but they were going much slower than usual.

"How the hell can you do all this?" Ragna asked through gritted teeth, "Did Jubei teach you too?"

"Jubei? I don't know what you're talking about." Sol yanked his sword out at the same time that Ragna regained his footing, but the shuttle started moving again. "You're not going to last much longer if this is how you're going to fight. C'mon, if this is your real strength, then this is where you're going to die."

Ragna could see the lights of the city of Kagutsuchi in the distance as the shuttle moved closer and closer to its original destination. He was just hoping he could survive long enough to see it in person, but this swordsman was surprisingly skilled.

There was only one way out of this, and Ragna didn't like it at all, but if he didn't use it then he was going to die.

Sol quickly struck, aiming his flaming sword downward again, this time blowing a gigantic hole in the roof that impacted the passenger cabin down below. Ragna ended up jumping out of the way, but he landed at a bad angle that he couldn't quite roll out of. He landed hard on his left shoulder, but Sol did not seem to be as wounded. The shuttle skidded to a stop, as blood began leaking from the driver's head.

Sol shook his head as he began walking slowly up to Ragna, watching for any sudden tricks the white-haired swordsman might pull even in this wounded state. "That was pathetic, Ragna. I thought you'd be a little more of a challenge."

"The fuck do you even want from me?" Ragna growled as he charged his right hand with seithr. He had to buy time to unleash the BlazBlue. It was not going to be a pleasant choice, but at this point it was the only way he was going to survive against this monster. "What makes you think the Library will keep their promise?"

"The Library?" Sol scratched his head. "What's the Library? I just need your arm so I can find my way home."

"My arm…you mean the Azure Grimoire?"

Sol shrugged, but continued closing the distance to Ragna. "Don't know. What I do know is this is the only way I can get home, from the only thing that hasn't tried to kill me since I got here."

"You want the Grimoire so badly?" Ragna slowly raised his right hand, "I'll give you a personal demonstration right now!"

Just as Ragna was about to say the code to unlock the BlazBlue, a familiar cat person appeared from behind Sol. Just as Sol turned around, the cat slapped some sort of Ars Magus on Sol's back in the shape of an ofuda.

"It looks like y'all need to sit back and take a breather, y'hear?"

Sol fell to his knees and grabbed his sword with both hands breathing heavily.

"Jubei?" Ragna asked if it was really him, but he already knew the answer. "What are you doing here?"

"That's all? No, how ya doin' or how's the kids? Well, you could say I was just passin' through. But that ain't important now, is it kid? You were about to get your arm cut off by some two-bit swordsman."

Ragna used his still-usable arm to deal with his bad shoulder. After gritting his own teeth, he relocated his shoulder the old fashioned way. It hurt a lot, but then came a strange sort of numbness as the various nerves began to reconnect with each other. His natural healing power was working its magic, but that didn't mean he liked dealing with the pain in the process "What did you do to him?"

"Well this fella might be a mighty fine swordsman, but it seems that he don't have too much experience dealin' with seithr. Toss in what I'm guessin' is a new Nox Nyctores, and ya got more hormones and hatred ragin' throughout that body than a blue-balled teen bull at a young cow convention."

"Wait, what does that even mean?"

"You'll find out when you're older. For now, that armagus should calm him down, help regulate the seithr in his system, but it's only a temporary fix. The rest is up to him." Jubei looked at Sol, and then back at Ragna. "Whoo-ee, you two certainly made a mess of things, didn't you? This is gonna be more complicated than I thought…"