Jubei saw Ragna look past him and in the direction of the attacking swordsman who was regaining his stance. However, he dropped his sword on the ground nearby and then bent down on one knee.

"Forgive me, please." Sol took a few deep breaths, then continued, "I'm not sure what came over me back there."

"Oh I know exactly what happened." Jubei responded, "stop kneelin' on the ground before you kill us all with your embarrassment."

"Jubei?" Ragna shouted from his position on the ground. "What the hell? Why are you letting him-"

Jubei extended a hand to his former pupil. "You both need to settle down. The man's a strong warrior, no doubt about that. But he ain't used to seithr at all. Heck, I'm surprised he's still able to stand on two feet. I just sucked a good deal outta him with this here talisman, but it's only gonna be a temporary fix. The rest is up to him."

Sol stood up and grabbed his sword again. He reflexively tried to shove it in his sheath only to discover that it wasn't there. Damn, that girl must have removed it earlier.

"So, you're name's Sol huh? I don't suppose you seen a smilin' green ghost around, didja?"

"A smiling ghost?" Sol thought hard, "Well, I saw something in a dream, but…"

"Just as I thought." Jubei closed his eyes, or one eye, as Sol noticed. The other eye was covered by some kind of small eyepatch. He wasn't sure what freaked him out more, that he was speaking to a talking cat with one eye, or that said cat was quick enough that Sol didn't even register him until he slapped a talisman on his back. He didn't give off any kind of feeling that Sol could detect, and that only creeped him out more.

"What's that?" Sol asked.

"Terumi," Ragna growled, "Even now that bastard's mocking me. Sending this guy to finish me off."

"This guy almost killed you, boy." Sol said, pointing to himself, "You might want to rethink your skills."

"You wanna say that again?"

Jubei cleared his throat as loudly as he could manage as the two swordsmen refocused their attention back on him. "Ragna, the stranger's right. You ain't got the skills to beat Terumi just yet. And you, Sol, whatever your name is, I would appreciate it if you would calm down before this escalates into another blood bath. There are monsters running around here, drunk on seithr. Something's got them spooked, and I don't want you to be among them. 'Specially at night."

"We can still take the shuttle can't we?" Ragna asked.

"You could, but the driver's dead and the front end smashed into those rocks over there. Unless you have some tools that ain't just for destroyin' things in that pocket o' yours, we're gonna have to huff it on the 'heel-toe express.' Good news is you folks can probably reach it after a few hours of walking. Bad news is if ya go out now, you'll have to deal with some of the worst monsters this side o' the mountain."

"So what do we do now?"

"Now? Now we make camp. You remember how to do that much, dontcha? One of you go make a fire, one of you get out some food, and I'll keep watch for any crazy critters that pop up. Yell if you see anything."

Ragna and Sol both stared at the cat-person that simply took a seat in the middle of the road. Ragna didn't expect his mentor to intervene in that situation, but Ragna was spooked because he didn't know of any beast-like creature that could walk and talk like an old swordsman.

"Well, what're ya staring at me for? You wanna take your chances with the monsters or do you wanna get some sleep before you hit Kagutsuchi?"

"Y'know Rosen, I was just thinking of something."

"What is it Gilden?"

"Our shift's almost up, correct?"

Rosen took a look at his pocket watch. It actually had an automatic rotor inside instead of the old-fashioned crank, but it let Rosen work up some sentimental story about the watch when he was trying to impress someone. Not that the story always worked, but the watch did. "Well, now that you mention it, our shift was up a few hours ago."

"You're serious? So why hasn't anyone come to relieve us yet? I thought after the port was damaged the mass evacuation was put on hold?"

"It was. But no one came to replace us. Nothing over the radio or in person letting us know which person would be standing in front of this gate for several hours instead of us."

"Fuck that." Gilden muttered. "I'm not going to spend the rest of my night waiting around here." Gilden grabbed his weapon and twisted it until it grew more compact to carry. "I'm going back to the Library, and I'm telling them this shift is over." With those words, he turned to leave.

Rosen gasped as he quickly put away his weapon in a similar manner and chased after him, "You can't just leave, Gilden! There's no one watching the gate!"

"Oh yes, because the moment we leave some suspicious terrorist is going to magically appear out of the blue." Gilden expected Rosen to respond to that remark, but instead he pointed a finger towards him and said nothing. A few moments later, Gilden turned around and found himself looking at the midsection of some…well, Gilden assumed it was a person. A very tall and lanky person, with a paper bag on his head. Gilden wasn't sure which creeped him out more: that such a tall person was able to appear out of the blue, or that he couldn't keep his big mouth shut when he should have.

"Ah, excuse me," the bag-headed person asked in a polite, yet muffled voice. "Have you two seen anything absent in the area?"

The two NOL watchmen waited for the other to respond to this stranger, but neither did.

"Perhaps I should elaborate…you see, there were people bustling around in a hospital, now there are few. There were many in a barracks, now there are few there as well. Left their clothes behind, but their souls went somewhere else, like something out of a bad best-selling series of novels. Would you two know anything about that?"

Rosen and Gilden both shook their heads.

"Oh? Such a shame. I should have guessed that you two are low on the totem pole. I suppose I'll have to go to the top to find the source." With those words, Faust opened a door and stepped through it, then closed the door behind him.

Rosen and Gilden both did a double-take. This day was getting weirder and weirder. Aside from the fact that the mysterious bag-headed man just appeared and disappeared without saying much, and the fact that said person was able to summon a wooden door out of thin air at the same time, they seemed to be the only two people who noticed while everyone else seemed to be going about their business.

The two of them waited a few minutes before Rosen broke their silence. "You know what? I think I'll go get us some coffee. Looks like it's going to be a long night after all."

Gilden nodded. "I don't think I'll be drinking at lunch ever again."

"Alright kid, time to wake up."

Dizzy found herself awake with the cat-woman from before looking back at her. Just as before, she had a lollipop stick hanging out of her mouth. Unlike before, she was out of her cell and lying on a metallic table in a sterile, brightly-lit room.

"Maybe I used a little too much anesthetic…can't be too careful I guess, considering I'm running low on options and people I can trust with this job." Kokonoe muttered to herself.

"What job? What's going on?" Dizzy pulled herself off the exam table and felt a bit woozy. As she stood on her own feet, she noticed a couple of odd things: a bandaged spot on her left arm, and a thick collar attached to her neck.

"Look, I need someone to rescue Tager and I can't rely on any of the regular idiots that Sector Seven has in its employ. I've narrowed it down to one place in Kagutsuchi they'll be taking him, especially considering he won't be going anywhere far now that their port is still under repair." Kokonoe paused as she noticed Dizzy trying to pull the collar off herself. "Oh yeah, about that…I didn't have time to fully study your body and I don't completely trust that you won't disappear if I do let you go, so I have to do this the old-fashioned way. Trust me when I say you do not want to take that collar off just yet."

"Why is that?"

"Because it's built so that anyone who tries to remove it or cut it off without my permission will cause it to explode. You might be stronger than a normal human, but I don't think you'll survive long if your head is violently separated from your torso."

"Explode?"

"Yeah, explode. But don't worry, you won't have any issues as long as you do what I need you to do."

"You're mean!"

"I'm a scientist, kid, not an emotional girl who needs a box of chocolates every time she breaks a nail. Now that we're done talking, here is what is going to happen: There's a giant, orange lug named Iron Tager currently being held by the enemy." Kokonoe shoved a small, flat object into her hands. "Now, I need you to plant this beacon on him so I can teleport him out from enemy territory. Just slap it anywhere on his body. Any questions?"

"Um, is this teleportation going to be painful?"

"The teleporting? Not really, as long as you just relax and let your mind wander. Otherwise it gets a little dicey. At least that's what our designers tell me. I'm going to send you on your way to his last known location. Hopefully he'll be back online soon and I can give you a more current location."

"What do I—"

"No more questions," Kokonoe snapped, "Just find him!" With those words, Kokonoe pushed a button on a remote hidden in the pocket of her lab coat, and Dizzy disappeared into thin air, leaving little more than a small hint of ozone in the air. Everyone asked questions before the teleporting, didn't they understand that there was no such thing as 100% risk-free in this world? Kokonoe muttered a curse. If only they'd listen to her maybe the world wouldn't be in such a terrible place right now.

Having finished that, Kokonoe then turned her attention to her next project. "All right then, where was I?" Kokonoe tossed away the soggy stick from her mouth where a lollipop once stood and immediately replaced it with another as she sat back at her computer and put on a headset. "Hakumen, can you hear me? My name is Kokonoe, and we're going to be attempting to pull you from the Boundary. Try not to assert yourself too much or this process is going to be problematic…"

Iron Tager was not unconscious when he was being locked up to a large cart and carried away. On the contrary, his system was still active, so he could record everything that happened. The surprisingly-strong little girl who had put him in this position had whispered that they were holding someone she loved hostage, so it wasn't personal. Unfortunately, that gave Tager very little comfort as he tried to think where he was being transported.

After a few hours, he realized that they were not taking him to the library branch, nor to a Public Affairs office or even to the docks for transport and processing. Instead, they carted him into what seemed to him an empty warehouse and simply left him chained there. Several minutes passed with no visible sign of any friend or foe coming to check on him.

Tager decided to try using his power of magnetism to free himself, though in this position it might damage him, he had little choice. It was either this, or wait for someone to come and do it for him. He did not want to risk the possibility of another enemy coming for him, so he focused his energy in the magnetic gauntlets in his arms.

A warning flashed through his head. The coils would not open. Doing such an action now might damage his arms instead. He tried passively opening the coils little by little instead of all at once, trying to loosen the chains enough that his strength could do the rest. Tager was so focused on this task he didn't hear the sound of two sets of feet entering the same room.

"Hazama called me here for this thing?" The man sounded insulted, "Hmph. That cat has certainly been busy, but in the end, all she accomplished was making a clumsy toy. I don't know what he sees in this, but I suppose extra precautions have to be taken due to recent events."

Tager slowly felt himself breaking free, the chains were starting to come loose and Tager was able to pull himself off of the cart. Before he could stand up, large, metallic hand suddenly grabbed his head and squeezed.

"Ignis, leave this thing intact. We're going to need it in time for tomorrow's festivities."

Tager had no idea who or what this "Ignis" was that the man was addressing. But with one arm it grabbed him by the head and yanked him forward before he fell to the ground again.

"I wonder, Iron Tager, do toys feel pain? Did you experience such a sensation when that Kokonoe was shaping you into this monstrosity?" The man continued talking, though Tager could not see him. "My creation here felt a lot of pain as I shaped her into the form of this puppet, and now she has no complaints at all. Ignis has come out all the stronger for it."

Tager tried to push himself up, but Ignis kept a firm hold on his neck, preventing him from rising up too far without risking damage to what was left of his spinal cord.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to make a few adjustments," The man said as he yanked out a small plug attached to his back. "Look on the bright side, you might not feel anything at all from this."

Tager's world suddenly went dark.

[Author's Note: I apologize for the multi-month delay this chapter has taken to come out. I could label the reasons why, but none of you will care. You only care about the finished product, so here it is.

Story-wise, what I will say is that I've been trying to find some way to get Chipp and Axl back into the story, but every scenario I can think of seemed stupid or just plain boring. They may show up next chapter, I don't know for sure. What I do know is that the next chapter should have some more action in it if everything goes as planned, and with luck the next chapter shouldn't take several months to complete.

As always, feel free to tell me how I'm portraying your favorite character rightly or wrongly in the reviews.]