The owner of the shop examined these two new visitors.

One was a girl, short but with very long dark hair. She was probably in her mid teenage years. She was examining the potions, weapons, and armor with great interest. Judging by her clothing, she wasn't from these parts. The shopkeeper had never seen that style of clothing before, he couldn't even determine what material her shirt and pants were made of.

The girl was looking at a set of red armor. "What are the stats like for this one?"

"S-stats?" the shopkeeper asked. What did she mean?

"I think what she means to say is... we want the best armor you can provide for us within our budget," said her companion. He was a boy who appeared to be several years older than her, with dark brown hair. Possibly her brother, but more likely just a close friend. His clothing was similar to hers, completely out-of-place in this region.

He handed a bag of money to the shopkeeper, and upon opening it he saw a huge amount of gold coins.

"You're willing to spend... all of this?" he asked. This was more gold than he would see in an entire week of business.

"Sure. We're a little under-equipped at the moment."

"Take your pick, then. As for that armor..." He turned to the girl, still examining the same red armor. "That's the best in the store."

Chapter 4

The March Of Time Begins

The language they were speaking was one that Konata had never heard in her life. It definitely didn't exist in what she considered to be the "real" Earth. She had expected people here to speak Japanese, like they did in the game, but... Japan didn't exist here anyway, so why would they?

"Where did you get all that money, anyway?" Konata asked.

They were in the town square. She recognized it from all the time she had spent playing this game online, but this was so much more real. The town seemed more populated, and while many of the people here were carrying weapons and magic staves, there seemed to be just as many regular townspeople. None of them were NPCs, this world was just as real as her own. The cel-shaded graphic style here was a bit more like what she was used to, though, unlike the two-dimensional anime look back home.

They had changed into the armor they bought at the store, so they now fit in with the crowd better. Before they had been wearing their typical twenty-first century street clothes, and here in this fantasy-medieval setting they had gotten a few strange looks.

"I have this friend - another organization member - and, well..." Jason paused. "He's a bit of a gambler. But he's good at it, and he was able to make quite a bit. We're meeting up with him, by the way."

"You mean we're forming a party?" Konata asked.

"Well... yeah, I guess you could say that."

"Unbelievable!"

"I won that one fair and square. Your wager was twenty gold, hand it over," Joshua said.

A sizable crowd had gathered to watch this out-of-towner at the dice table. Since he had arrived today, he had made an absolute fortune. His long red hair stood out in contrast to his black clothing and hat.

"That's the last of my gold..." his opponent grumbled. "You must be cheating."

"Honestly, I'm shocked that you would say such a thing. I'm just lucky today, that's all."

That was when the man drew his sword and held it up against Joshua's throat. "Feeling lucky now, then?"

Joshua remained calm. "Well, when you bring swords into it, it's entirely skill. I'd put that away, if I were you."

Before anyone could respond, Joshua drew his own sword in an impossibly fast motion against the other and lowered it towards the ground.

"Wha -"

"When it comes to that, I'm not taking any chances. Glad you understand," he said.

As Joshua turned to walk out of the tavern (better do it now, before things get any worse), the man he had been playing against slowly turned, and charged towards him with his sword raised again –

His face suddenly met with something hard. A fist. Unsurprisingly, it was another one of these strange travelers, this one wearing a red cape with no shirt. Blue tattoos ran up both his muscular arms.

"Get out of my way! You're not a part of this!"

In response, the newcomer said nothing at first, but instead jumped up onto one of the tables, making himself even taller than the rest of the ever-increasing crowd of onlookers, and began to speak, one arm raised towards the ceiling as the other pointed a long katana at the man's face.

"Before you stands the great Kamina, the legendary leader of Team Dai-Gurren! And he never turns his back on a fight! If you dare to try and fight us, we'll take on all of you by ourselves!"

How did I get paired up with this guy? Joshua wondered.

A mob had quickly formed, convinced that this Kamina was all talk. Who did he think he was, coming into this town and picking fights like that? They had taken all they could stand of these foreigners.

"Nice going, there," Joshua said. "Couldn't you have just let it go? I was just having a little fun, I don't really need the money. You should know that as well as I do."

"Idiot!" Kamina snapped. "This is about your honor!"

It wasn't that the two of them alone couldn't take on an entire bar full of half-drunk warriors. As members of Eclipse, their fighting abilities were nearly unmatched. But this was quickly turning into a huge and unnecessary mess, and Joshua was not in the mood for that today. What was taking Jason and that new recruit so long, anyway?

In the meantime... he dodged a mug full of beer that was headed towards his face, which hit another drunkard in the face, causing him to enter the battle as well. Kamina ducked a few punches coming his way and responded by kicking his attacker in the legs, causing him to trip and fall over.

And all at once, everything stopped.

"Hm? What now?" Kamina asked.

"Time Stop... Of course," Joshua said. "Right on schedule."

"Sorry I'm late," Jason said. He had just entered the tavern with the new girl. She was absolutely speechless at his magic ability, apparently she hadn't seen what Jason was capable of yet. "Looks like you got into some trouble here. Let's get out quick, I can't hold them much longer."

They stopped at the edge of the town, where civilization gave way to a dark forest. No doubt that when the spell wore off on the tavern, the brawlers would have no idea where the two foreigners had gone. Just another unexplained mystery. In this line of work, they seemed to leave a trail of such occurrences in their wake wherever they went.

"Just like you had always said. That Time Stop spell really is useful," Joshua said. "I remember when you learned that one, back when we were working together back in Ivalice. Good times."

"Now that that's over with... Konata, these are some guys I've worked with on missions before. They agreed to come train with us for the day."

"Although you never told me that I'd be stuck with this psycho for hours," Joshua muttered.

"This is Konata Izumi, the new recruit I was telling you about," Jason said.

"Welcome to the team! I'm - " Kamina started.

"Kamina, the leader of the Dai-Gurren brigade?" Konata was ecstatic. The real Kamina, from Gurren Lagann? It was too amazing to be true.

"So I see I'm more famous than I realize!" Kamina said.

"And I'm -" Joshua was unable to finish before Konata cut him off as well.

"Joshua, wandering swordsman, secretly the lost prince of Jehanna?" Konata said. Fire Emblem 8, she thought.

"Yes... Yes I am. How are you doing that?"

"Well... To say that Konata is a fan of anime and games would be a bit of an understatement," Jason told him.

"Ah. So she's from one of those universes..." Joshua said.

"It's been a while, Joshua. And Kamina. Good to see you again. It's been a while since we did that mission against the Principality of Zeon."

"Zeon? You mean... you piloted Gundams?" Konata asked. There was definitely a fascinating story there. She really hardly knew this new student.

"Maybe he did, but all I need is Gurren!" Kamina said. "It's served me well ever since I left my old brigade behind for my bro Simon to take command."

Konata couldn't help but wonder - if Kamina had "left behind" Dai-Gurren (and if that meant what she thought it did, having seen that series), how was he still able to take Gurren with him into these missions? There just didn't seem to be answers to these things. Having access to an infinite number of possible realities, surely plenty of things were possible. For now she would just have to roll with it.

"I'm sure they still can't figure out how you were able to fight with drills larger than your Gunman's entire body..." Jason said. "But overall I think that went pretty well." He turned to Konata. "So where are we going?"

Konata looked at him. "What? I thought you would have a plan!"

"This is your game, after all - you should know it better than any of us."

"Well..." She thought for a moment. "New players usually start out in the fields or the forest. But I think I'd rather try the tunnels. That's one of the first dungeons."

They left the crowded bustle of the town to find the entrance to this dungeon. Out here in the woods, there were only a few other parties of adventurers out slaying monsters. Here in the real world it seemed to actually be for defending the town, not like in the game where it was all for the fun and experience points...

Kamina sauntered around with his katana over his shoulder, his cape flying out behind him in the wind, and a confident grin on his face. By comparison, Joshua was fairly laid back. His sword was kept at his side. And Jason seemed to store all of his equipment using magic. For an organization, Konata thought they were really diverse in their methods.

"So you're staying in Konata's world right now, aren't you?" Joshua asked.

"Yep. I'm going to high school for an entire year..." Jason said. "Just as thrilling as it sounds."

Joshua laughed. "Good luck out there."

"So what do you usually do, if you're not going to school?" Konata asked.

"Well, we're usually just going from world to world according to what missions are available," Jason explained. "For the most part I avoided normal places, I'd much rather be... here, for instance."

"We're the kind of people who absolutely refuse to live a quiet and boring life!" Kamina said. "We're always searching for new worlds. Starting from my village, moving up to the surface, and now all of this!"

"So by now I think it's obvious," Konata said. "Jason, you're not really from America. Where are you from, originally?"

"Well, I am from America," he said. "Just not the one in your world. And I haven't been back there since I joined Eclipse several years ago…" He wouldn't say anything more on the subject.

They passed a band of warriors taking down a pack of Kobolds. One of them was a mage, as Konata could tell by his clothing. He used a chain lightning spell to attack several of them at once.

"I want to learn how to do that..." Konata said. "Magic, I mean. That Time Stop thing… I had no idea you could do that."

"Magic abilities are very useful," Jason agreed. "But how do you go about getting them in this world? It works differently everywhere, you know."

She had almost forgotten, she was the expert on how things worked here. "You usually use a scroll to learn new spells... If you're a mage class, that is."

"If you want it, then go out and get it! There aren't any rules here to stop you," Kamina said.

"Exactly. There are no classes here, or levels, or stats, so if you find one of those scrolls you'd be able to learn it just like that," Jason said.

They now approached an opening in the face of a steep cliff, leading deep underground. A few warning signs were posted, and the remains of a makeshift shop were left by the entrance. Konata recognized it instantly, although in the game the shop was always there to provide one last chance to buy health potions and weapons before entering the dungeon. But here in the real world, he couldn't be expected to just live right there, could he?

"Should we stop and make preparations?" Konata asked.

"Like what? I've been ready all day," Joshua said. He stretched out his arms and yawned.

"Well, in the game, we usually..." She stopped. No, those things weren't necessary here. "Nevermind. Let's go."

"Charge in headfirst and never look back! That's what your eyes are in the front for!" Kamina had already ran in, and Konata decided to head after him. How could you help but be inspired by absolutely everything he said?

"And they're off..." Joshua muttered. "We should probably catch up before they get lost in there."

"Right, Konata's just starting out, so she doesn't even have her own Talisman to get back home with," Jason said.

"But... I've just been wondering about what you told me earlier," Joshua said. "About her. Is she really...?"

"Like I said, there's not really a way to tell for sure. I'm just supposed to keep an eye on her."

"Hmm... At any rate, let's get in there before they kill themselves."

Jason started in after them. "Wait up!" The entrance to the tunnels was a long hallway lit by torches. Most likely magic. Who would be down here to keep them lit? Although the passage twisted around as it descended, there were no branching paths until the first room, where Kamina and Konata had encountered a goblin warlock.

As the goblin cast fire spells at both of them, it dodged each sword swing at the same time. Luckily its aim was not as good as its evasiveness.

"Annoying little guy," Konata panted.

"Get on the other side of it," Kamina said. "We'll take this punk down." He slashed his katana horizontally, and the goblin jumped back within range for Konata to hit it with a downward slash directly on its skull.

"That's a bit messier than the game usually shows," she remarked. "These things usually drop magic items, but I guess they don't here. Lame..."

"You'll have to go through its belongings if you want to find anything," Jason said. "They're not going to fall out on their own... regrettably."

The body (which was not going to vanish after a few seconds) did have a pack on it... As disgusting as it was, maybe there was something good in there. Konata squatted down and started rummaging through the pack.

"Hmm..." Most of the contents seemed useless. Anyway, the good stuff was usually really rare. There was a 7.2% chance of finding new attack magic as a drop item. But looking closer... "This looks interesting. Hey, I think this is a fire scroll..." It had some sort of weird lettering on it, but she could still read it... Of course. Just like any other language. She read it softly under her breath, the ancient words sounding strange to her yet still comprehensible...

This was quite an amazing stroke of luck, finding it on her first try. She couldn't help but feel that maybe it wasn't just a coincidence.

As Konata finished reading the last line, the scroll crumbled to ash. She looked at it in shock. "What happened to it? That's not supposed to happen..."

"Those things... I'm guessing they disappear after you use them in the game, right?" Jason asked.

Of course... That made sense. In the game all you ever saw was a "use" command, and then a text box telling you the scroll had vanished and your character had learned a new spell. This was what actually happened.

"So let's get on to the next room. Try it out on something, see if it worked," Joshua said. Kamina was already gone, at least you could count on him not to waste any time.

"Four hours left," Jason reminded them. "Let's keep going."

It appeared to be an empty room until something came flying towards Kamina. He caught it in midair. An arrow.

"Absolutely shameful! A real man stares his enemy in the face instead of hiding in the shadows! Come out where we can see you!" he bellowed into the darkness.

So how did magic work when you were using it for real? Konata wondered. She focused on summoning fire from her hands, directing a wave of it towards the unseen attacker, although she had no idea how to go about doing that...

As she imagined it, she waved her hand and, just as she had tried to imagine, the fire shot across the room, catching a few goblins armed with bows aflame.

"Nice one..." Jason said. "You'll have to be careful with that."

"If I can even remember what I just did," Konata said. She had actually learned how to use magic. It all existed. And somehow that made everything more real.

"We got pretty far today," Jason said. "But time's just about up. We've got school in the morning."

Konata sighed. "How depressing."

"I agree completely. I'm off for some new mission," Joshua said. "Maybe we'll see each other later. This was some good training."

"Hey Konata, I wouldn't mind doing this again some time," Kamina said. "You've got some real spirit in you. Plenty of potential."

"Coming from you, that really means a lot," Konata said. She still couldn't believe that she had actually met and fought alongside Kamina. Just another thing to add to the list of completely impossible things that had happened today.

"Don't mention it," he said.

"Come on, Konata," Jason said. "Let's go home. We'll continue tomorrow night if you're still feeling up to it."

"Of course I will," Konata said. She smiled. "Did you even have to ask?"

Once you started living in an anime… The life of an ordinary high school student truly was grand.