It felt like so much was coming to an end. There was no need too worry about entrance exams anymore, everyone had passed those. Kagami was proud of how hard Tsukasa had worked on studying, and they had somehow survived cram school together. That had been hard. Their senior year had already ended as well. And - the one thing nobody was glad to be done with - this would be the last time that the three of them would be able to just get together and hang out like this.

Kagami was going to a law school all the way in Nagoya. Around the time she started high school she started to consider a career as a lawyer, and the time had come to start making that goal a reality. All the arrangements had been made, she managed to get accepted and had started getting ready for the move into a dorm over the past week or two.

Tsukasa, on the other hand... She had found a culinary institute in Kobe, miles away from Kagami's school. Would she be okay living on her own, without Kagami to help her? They had never been separated before, for more than a day or two, at the most. She was sure they'd be calling back and forth nearly every night. If not even more often than that.

It would be difficult to adjust, that was for sure. For both of them. Nobody she knew from Ryoo was going to Nagoya with her, so Kagami would be alone. At least until she met some new friends over there. She hoped.

And nobody was really surprised when Miyuki was accepted into Tokyo University. Sure, it was a difficult school to get into, but this was Miyuki, it had been no problem for her. Her major was going to be in the medical field. They were all going into such great career paths...

And that brought up the painful memory of what had happened to Konata. If she were still alive... Where would she be going? Would she have even passed the entrance exam? It was harder than any other test they had ever taken. An all-night study session wouldn't have cut it. But Kagami smiled faintly, remembering how Konata had always seemed to pull off miracles. She would have gotten into some university, maybe as an artist or a game developer or something along those lines. But not anymore...

"Sis? You okay?" Tsukasa's voice brought Kagami back to the present. They were enjoying this day before they'd all split off, all over the country. For now they were right here in one of their old favorite restaurants in Akihabara, all sitting around the same table. The three of them.

"Yeah... I was just thinking about her again." There was no need to say who.

"I've thought about her lately as well," Miyuki said. She tried to remain her usual calm, polite self, but there was something behind that front that made it evident how much Konata's death affected her. "I wonder what her plans were for after school."

"I dunno..." Kagami said. She tried to lighten the mood."Look, let's not worry about her anymore... There's nothing we can do to change it. Let's just focus on right now. Besides, who knows when we'll all get to do this again?"

Chapter 20

Mist of Resolving

A layer of dust covered countless game cases, anime figurines, and shelves still packed with manga. The door was closed, the lights turned off. Only some sunlight shining through the window lit Konata's old bedroom.

Konata looked around for some time after she arrived, inspecting everything. Nothing had been moved, nothing at all. Her dad hadn't wanted to clean this place out. She hadn't expected him to. Everything was just as she had left it on that day. Even the books that she had been reading sat in the same place. It really did seem it had been a lifetime ago since she was last here.

Konata had come prepared for business, though. On her back she carried Laevateinn, in its ornate sheath, and a large shotgun crossed over it in the shape of an X. The gun was a powerful model, something that likely wouldn't be invented for about another century. It was a souvenir from some mission a long time ago. She was wearing a long flowing black coat over her red T-shirt and jeans. All of it, the coat especially, admittedly only served the purpose of looking cool. As long as she was going to drop in, take care of whatever it was that was going to attack in the next 2 hours, and most likely get fired, she might as well do it all in style.

It was silent back here in the Izumi residence. She almost wondered if it still was the Izumi residence, realizing the possibility that her dad could have moved away. She hoped not, the entire reason for starting out from her room was so that she could see him before going into the city. She had to apologize.

Sliding the door open - it stuck for a moment, suffering from disuse - she looked out into the hallway, dark, just like her room had been, although without the layer of dust. Konata could feel her heart pounding, from excitement, anticipation, fear... Not fear of the imminent demon invasion, that was no problem, but of why the house was so quiet.

"Dad...?" she called out, a little weakly. There was no response. "Yu-chan?"

She checked his bedroom. It was a wreck, even more than its usual slobbish state. It seemed fresh enough to suggest that he was still living here. That was a relief. But he wasn't in here right now, so Konata decided to keep looking. Checking the clock, it was almost noon. The attack was going to be sometime around one in the afternoon, and she intended to be there when it started.

Heading to the living room, she could begin to hear the muffled sound of the TV - it was turned to the news, she heard the date announced as March 30. What year was it? Was it 2007 now...? Probably. As Konata thought back to all she had been through, she realized she still couldn't have been gone more than a year.

Now she could see the light of the TV illuminating a mostly dark room, full of old newspapers, magazines, empty cups of noodles... And her dad was sleeping on the couch. Both he and the room were in a sorry state. Had she done this to him? It was worse than she could have imagined.

"Um... Dad, I'm home. Wake up," she said. She almost made it sound like nothing was strange about this situation.

"Hm?" He shifted a little and yawned. "Yutaka, that you already? Sorry, I didn't hear - " He stopped when his eyes opened and he saw her standing in front of him. "Konata... How are you - ?"

She could barely stand it. All this guilt. "I'm really sorry, Dad... I made a mistake."

He sat up quickly. "No, it's not your fault, you couldn't have done anything - "

"No, you don't understand. I'm not dead. That was all fake. I just..." How did she explain it? Any way she tried to say it, it wouldn't sound good. Now that she was here, the entire thing just seemed so selfish. "It's too hard to explain. And I need to get going, there's this thing - "

"Konata..." He stood up, stepping forward to hold her tight. He didn't seem to care about how she had returned, he was just overjoyed to see her alive and hear her voice. He also didn't mention the weapons on her back even as his arms brushed against them, and pulled her close against him.

"Dad, that's - " She could barely choke out the words, though admittedly she was just as happy as he was to be back home again. "That's a little... too tight..."

"Oh, I'm... I'm so sorry..." He let go reluctantly, not taking his eyes off her. He still couldn't believe what he was seeing, or that she was real, physically standing there. "But... Konata, you can't leave again!"

"Don't worry. I'll come back... I promise." She laughed a bit to herself. "No doubt about that... They're never going to take me back now." Then something else occurred to her. "So, um... Where's Yu-chan?"

Her dad scratched his head. "Uh, let's see... She was going... She said she was going out with her friend, that Iwasaki girl... And her other friend was going with her, Tamura. After... what happened to you, I wouldn't let her go out there on her own... Just wait here, she'll be back soon."

Konata was in shock. "No, that's probably too close to where..." If those three were out somewhere, then what would happen to them? "I need to get going right away. I'll find them, don't worry." She glanced at the TV, the news still onscreen with the volume turned down to a low murmur. "And... No matter what you see, I'll be fine on my own. I promise I'll come back when it's all over."

There was no more time to be wasted. She bolted for the front door without another word.

"Excuse me, officer."

Officer Yui Narumi was currently on patrol in the city. She turned around as she heard the voice call for her. Helping out the citizens was, after all, her most important duty. Especially after what had happened a year ago.

It was a man in a blue suit, with a frizzy afro hairstyle. He appeared to be a foreigner, although she couldn't exactly determine where he might be from. America, maybe. His voice kind of had that drawling accent, although his Japanese was good enough to be native.

"You're the local law enforcement, if I'm correct," he said. He had a smooth and very laid-back temperament, although he kept glancing away and towards the sky in the east like he was expecting something to happen there. The sky was clear and sunny, so Yui had no idea what he might be looking for.

"Yes, I am. What did you need, sir?"

"If it's not too much to ask, I'd like to recommend you start evacuating people right now." His carefree attitude didn't shake much in making the request. "Just trust me on this. You'll be glad you did."

"What are you saying? We can't evacuate people for no reason, there'd be panic, you can't just -"

"I didn't say it was for no reason. But you probably wouldn't believe what reason I have even if I told you. I figured I might as well try, so... can you send the request through or something?"

Avoiding panic, defending the citizens... These were all very important to Officer Narumi, considering what had happened to her cousin not far from this area. They were important as long as there was actually a threat, though, which there simply wasn't. Her dedication to the police force had increased dramatically in the past year. Things like this had to be taken seriously. But who was this guy to just suggest they clear out all these people?

"I don't know what kind of a stunt you're tying to pull - "

He sighed, ran his fingers through his hair. Then he raised his head again. "Look, this'll probably sound crazy to you, but there's supposed to be a massive invasion of demons today. I'd say clear out the entire city. As much as you possibly can." His nonchalant tone didn't change at all.

Yui stared at him in shock. "What kind of a joke is this? I'm sorry, sir, but I don't have time for this."

"Really? That's a shame. Just remember, I did try to warn you." He glanced upwards again, at that same point in the sky. Following his gaze, Yui could see that... There was still absolutely nothing there. "I suppose they don't want me saying anything more than that..."

She examined him again, closer than before, and saw...

"Sir, are you carrying a weapon?" Yes, there seemed to be something in his left jacket pocket.

He turned back to her, an innocent expression on his face. "Oh, well, of course. I'm just here to help against the invasion. Too bad you're not doing your part, but I've got it covered."

As if he was entirely unaware of Japanese law, he flashed a handgun of impressive size at her from the inside of his jacket, and quickly put it back. Yui's eyes were wide in shock, she'd never apprehended someone like this before. And carrying a handgun in the middle of Tokyo... Someone like that had been the one who had -

She acted quickly, grabbing his arms and cuffing him in the split second he took to watch the sky again. "Sir, you're going to have to come down to the station with me. And I don't want to hear any more of this bullshit about demons."

The man with the afro stared at her in shock, looking down at the cuffs then back up at her. "What? I - " He calmed down, and simply said, "Go ahead. But you'll uncuff me once it starts, I'm sure."

"If that ever really happens? Of course I will." What did he take her for, anyway? Did he really expect her to believe such a story?

Officer Narumi was proud of her ability to play bad cop when it was necessary.

The old train station. Konata had memories of this place, waiting to go to school each morning or taking it over to the Hiiragi residence. She'd just take the next available train, ride it all the way to the Yamanote area. In theory, she could just use the Talisman to jump to some other world, then come back here right in Shibuya, the dead center of the predicted attack. But just supposing she was caught, she wouldn't be able to come back... It was best to stay in this world.

Would she be staying here forever, then? She'd just be trapped here... Once you'd seen what worlds were out there, having to live in one world did seem like being trapped. Why was she risking that? And why didn't it worry her as much as it should?

The station was crowded as usual as she approached. Just like she remembered it. It was the early afternoon, and there were a few clusters of high school students around, in casual clothing. Maybe it was spring break. So... her friends would have graduated. Konata wondered where they were now. Hopefully they weren't in the city.

Coming up into the station itself, she saw a train on the tracks now... People were packed inside. The doors were closing. It started moving.

"No way... You've gotta be kidding me," Konata muttered. Making her way through the crowd, she picked up speed, starting into a run.

The train was slowly accelerating. She sprinted straight towards the side of the train, gaining unnatural speed, narrowly avoiding running into some of the bystanders, then finally jumping up a good ten feet away from the side of the train, pulling out her sword in midair, and landing on top of the last car a split second before it would have been past, stabbing through the roof leaving only the hilt of the sword showing.

She gripped the hilt as tight as she could, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to hang on as the train accelerated. They didn't call it "high-speed rail" for nothing. With some difficulty, she managed to break through the roof of the train car, dropping down into the center to some very startled passengers. Ignoring them, she calmly returned the sword to its scabbard and put a hand on one of the poles to catch her breath.

"Uh..." There was a woman, maybe in her 30s or so, staring up at the sky through the hole in the ceiling and then looking back down at Konata. "Why did you..."

"Admit it, sometimes you just don't feel like waiting for the next one to come by, right?" Konata said.

"But you..."

"Yes, I realize I caused some damage to public property, and maybe that jump shouldn't have been physically possible... But you'll thank me for this later." She turned back to the window, surveying the city.

"Alright, I'll have those ready for you soon." The waitress left the table.

"So like I was saying - " Kagami stopped as her phone rang. "Hang on a minute." She pulled it out and checked the screen, the table falling silent as she read the text message.

"Who is it from?" Tsukasa asked.

Kagami smiled. "It's Misao. She says she and Ayano are feeling left out. Do you guys mind if I invite her over?"

"That would be fine," Miyuki said.

That was when it arrived.

There was a sound of something exploding and bursting apart several miles away, with enough force to be heard and felt all over the city. The three of them were thrown back from the force. Plates of food slid off the tables, the windows facing the street shattered as the pavement itself was torn in half. The lights flickered and died. Cars rolled down the slanted ground. The crack branched out from the road and split the floor of the restaurant. It felt like the tremors must have gone on for an hour, but they only lasted ten minutes. Only.

Even after the shaking stopped, nobody moved, and the only sounds were some car alarms and water spraying from busted pipelines.

"Wh-what was that?" Kagami said, finally looking up from the floor. The building had been wrecked. They were lucky to be alive.

Tsukasa was covering her ears, trembling. She didn't say a word, but looked up slowly as she heard her sister's voice. It was still very silent.

"I... think it could have been an earthquake, there is a fault line right underneath Tokyo. Nothing of this magnitude, though. Was it... It had to have been at least an eight point zero." Miyuki tried her best to stay logical, but she had never experienced anything like this. There were rumors of such a thing happening. This was possibly a world record for level of destruction, and here they were in the middle of it.

Finally Tsukasa found the ability to speak. "What should we do? We need to get home... Is it... over...?"

"Let's not be too hasty. It could still be dangerous." Miyuki stood up, bracing herself on the table. Her legs were shaking and nearly unable to hold her. She turned towards the window. People were standing back up on their feet if they were able. Instead of looking at the wide split in the ground, though, they seemed to be looking towards...

"Huh? What's going on out there?" Kagami said.

Miyuki only felt curiosity now, the unfamiliar feeling of witnessing an event like this firsthand. She headed towards the door to the street, which was partially intact. Stepping outside, she followed the gaze of the other bystanders up towards the sky in the east, and saw something she simply could not understand.

"What is it?" Kagami said, coming up behind her.

A gargantuan black tower had appeared in the direction that the tremor seemed to originate from. Even against the now-ruined skyscrapers, it was massive. The peak, which seemed to stand miles above the ground, had strange sculptures around the edge which were mere dots against the sky when viewed from this distance. Dark red clouds were beginning to form around it.

"No way... That..." Kagami stared at it, not believing what was in front of her own eyes. "How could something like that...?"

"It... appears to have come out of the ground... So it wasn't just an earthquake?" Miyuki said.

"No, that's impossible. Nothing like that could have been underground. And how would it have... come up like that? It can't really be there. It's impossible..." Kagami was shaking her head, not wanting to believe it.

Tsukasa had managed to join them. "Sis... I really think we should go home..."

Konata saw the tower appear while still on the train. Looking past some tall apartments as they passed by, the tower was hard to miss. She had to admit, that was quite a way to make an entrance. Had she seen this before? It seemed familiar. She couldn't put her finger on it. Once it had appeared, the brakes had set in and the train came to a screeching halt. It was nothing short of a miracle that the track itself hadn't been torn apart by the force. But now there was the issue of getting into the city.

The inside of the car had deteriorated into complete panic. Konata, having arrived so dramatically, bearing weapons, now realized she was being held in suspicion. Most of the passengers who had been trying to ignore her were now glancing nervously in her direction.

"Everyone, calm down," she tried to say, but was drowned out by the babble and confusion. It was no use trying to keep the peace now... This had quickly turned into damage control, nothing more.

How to escape... The rails might still be electrified. It was a bad idea to try to step out. But the longer she stood here, the more damage could be done to the city. And whoever might currently be stuck there. She hoped nobody she knew was in the middle of it all... If the chaos was this bad all the way out here, who knew what it must be like in the Yamanote circle?

She took out her sword again, causing people around her to step back from the sudden burst of flame as it was drawn from the sheath. Thrusting it into the space between the doors, she managed to pry them open, fighting against their resistance until they eventually snapped open.

Returning Laevateinn to her back, Konata examined the distance. She jumped out, clearing the rails to land on the very edge of the elevated track. She put her arms out to balance herself, rocking dangerously close to the rails behind her. It was about twenty feet to the road below, but she dropped down easily. This was going to cost her some time... She really should have started out inside the center of the metropolis, she could have gone home after everything cleared up... Or not gone home at all, and maybe keep her job...

But what had Eclipse done? They knew this was coming at least two days before it actually happened. If they even cared about all the lives at stake, they could have sent a warning, had the city cleared out before any damage occurred. Were they just sending out people to take care of it at the last minute? Why?

Maybe it was too late to save the city itself. All she could hope for was that all the people she knew would be okay... What were the chances of finding Yutaka in all this, if she was in fact in the city at all? If someone, anyone, could at least find her and keep her safe...

Nothing she could do about it now except to keep running.

This building, until just a half hour ago, had been a department store. Now, the walls were smashed to pieces, and a car had driven through the front windows. The back end had caught fire. Miyuki noticed the risk. It could explode at any minute, and advised her friends to get past quickly on the other side of the street. From what she had read about survivors of disasters, it was important to keep a level head, and identify the risks. There were things like that car, there was the structural damage and the general state of panic causing people to make irrational decisions...

"Come on, please pick up, Dad..." She could hear Kagami trying to call home. It was her fourth attempt now. The cell phone reception was bad, almost completely nonexistent. "Huh? Oh, Matsuri, thank God! ...Yeah, we're in the city right now. We're fine... We're on our way home... No, don't come out here. It's no use, the roads are... Matsuri? Are you still there? I can't hear..." She waited some time, then grimaced and closed the phone. "No good. I just lost the signal."

It was a mad scramble to leave the city as quickly as possible. Those who had cars would attempt to drive them down what was left of the road. Traffic was thick, all going in the same direction, and it really wasn't any faster than getting away on foot. With all the rubble blocking the way, traffic laws were being ignored.

They had turned onto a smaller street and taken a different route, trying to get away from the crowds. It couldn't be safe for so many people to be that close together. What if a building collapsed, or something caught fire? That department store across the street couldn't be the only one in that kind of condition.

There were several people here now, but nowhere near as packed as the main road they had left. They were all headed the same direction.

Except for...

Now she could see a tall man moving against the flow. Admittedly, he was hard to miss. He was wearing a wide-brimmed red hat, and as he came closer, she could see he had a matching red trenchcoat as well. His eyes were hidden behind huge yellow sunglasses - goggles? - and his skin was deathly pale. His stringy black hair reached down to his shoulders.

The man was leisurely making his way towards the tower, without much difficulty. Everyone avoided getting in his way. People were afraid of him. He only smiled, his eyes hidden behind those goggles.

"Kagami-san... Do you see that?" Miyuki asked, looking towards him but not pointing.

Kagami followed her gaze. It really was hard to miss him. "Whoa... What's he doing? Is he crazy?"

Tsukasa came up behind them, but she wasn't paying attention. She stared at the ground, making a conscious effort not to look up at anyone if it could be avoided. The only thing she wanted was to follow them out of the city, as far away as possible from all this madness. But even she raised her head when they heard an awful shriek.

It wasn't a human sound. It was a high-pitched wail that accompanied a burst of brown and gray ash that appeared out of nowhere right behind them. Out of the corner of her vision, Miyuki could almost swear it took the form of a misshapen skull before it vanished within seconds.

In its place was a hunched figure in a black cloak. It had glowing yellow eyes on a dark, emotionless face. Miyuki could only stand watching it in strange fascination... She noted that it carried a long, crooked scythe. It resembled the traditional Western personification of Death, come to think of it... But that was only a legend, a symbol. Such things didn't really exist, and couldn't be standing there right now.

The creature's attention immediately turned to the tall man in the hat, who barely glanced up at it as it dashed forward crookedly and stabbed him directly in the chest. People screamed when they saw it.

"Oh my god..." Kagami said.

Strangely, the man simply stood there, unflinching, and with a widening grin on his face. His teeth were very white. No blood was flowing from the area that had been pierced. And then he spoke in a deep, calm voice. "About time one of you showed up."

With the blade of the scythe still in his chest, he grabbed hold of the creature's cloak, brought it close to him, then whipped out a huge handgun of some sort and shot it directly in the face. It dissolved back into dust as it fell to the ground, retaining its shape until it burst apart on the pavement.

"Hm. Any more out there?" the man said. "I'm waiting." He continued walking, ignoring the speechless crowd.

"What was that?" Kagami said.

"Um... We really need to get going, I don't like this..." Tsukasa was almost in tears now.

They hurried past the man in the hat as fast as they could manage. Nobody looked back to see what he would do next.

Jason was staring up at the tower once he arrived in the center of a packed street. At first the shocked faces of the witnesses worried him. Usually they were advised to enter a world in some secluded spot, where they could materialize without being seen, but then he realized that was the least of their worries.

"Well, that's certainly something new..." he mused.

"Dude... This is completely insane," Junpei said. His eyes were wide. "You're saying that Emiri is actually... And what the hell happened to us? I mean, we look like..." It seemed like he didn't want to admit it.

"You said you wanted to come," Jason replied simply.

"You didn't tell me anything about this!"

"I told you most of the basics. I didn't have time for all of it. I can't believe Konata would pull something like this..." He surveyed the street they had arrived on, one that he recognized from his time spent living here. They were in Nakano. His apartment had been here. It was probably a wreck now, but that didn't matter. "Our priority is to find her."

"All this time, she was actually an anime character? What the hell?" Junpei still hadn't recovered from the shock of all these new revelations, and the experience of travelling between universes for the first time.

"Your world isn't that much different. It's actually a video game." Jason readied his sword, hearing the sounds of chaos all around him. "But for now, we need to get moving. I have an idea of where she might have gone."

"A video game? What are you talking about?"

"Calm down. You'll get used to it." Jason paused. "And there are some things about Konata that you still aren't aware of."

"I could have told you that." Junpei grinned nervously, trying to make light of the situation. They heard some small explosions far off in the distance.

"I meant other than the obvious things. The point is, I really have no idea what could happen now. The possibilities really are endless. If she really wanted to be found, we'd have no problems. There are no coincidences. But I'm guessing that now she really doesn't want us to stop her, which will make things much harder for us. But all we can do for now is try."

Once the creatures had started appearing, everything had dissolved into total panic.

Tsukasa was having trouble keeping up, even with her sister and Miyuki doing everything they could to slow down for her. With everyone in a hurry to get out, as fast as possible, there was little regard for the safety of others. People pushed through and separated them often, only concerned with saving themselves.

This kind of thing wasn't meant to happen in real life. Monsters and stuff like that. They were only supposed to be in movies, video games... They couldn't actually exist. Tsukasa wished she could still believe that.

"K-Kagami...?" Tsukasa said. She had lost sight of her again.

"Tsukasa!" Kagami turned around, spotted her, and hurried back with Miyuki following. "I'm sorry, I couldn't see where you were."

Was anyone else able to fight these things? There had been the guy in red, and as scary as he had been, it would be comforting to see others like him. Nobody else had a gun, or any sort of weapon. They hadn't even seen any police officers, and Miyuki had mentioned that it would be a long time before the Self Defense Force could be deployed.

Even more bursts of ash appeared around them, and out of each one a black cloaked monster identical to the first stepped out from the swirling dust. They advanced slowly, almost clumsily, but with the crowd so thick they had easy prey. Tsukasa had frozen in her tracks when she saw them appear again, unable to run, and one of them turned its sights on her.

It stumbled forward, swinging the scythe down and grazing her leg, falling just inches short of its mark. It intended to kill her. She felt a sharp pain, it was worse than anything she had experienced before. She cried out and fell on the ground. Kagami turned back in horror. As the thing rose its weapon again -

A jet of flame seemed to burst from its chest, and its head jerked upwards in shock. Tsukasa barely had time to recognize that the flames were in the shape of a blade... in fact, they were a blade, there was a girl with black hair all the way down her back using it as a sword.

She wore a long black coat, and there was some sort of huge gun on her back that she grabbed and used with her left hand, still holding the flame sword in her right. She was moving too fast to see any details, shooting the creatures left and right while fighting them as many as two at a time with the sword. They dissolved into ashes as she killed them, and finally she slowed to a stop as the last one fell and died.

The girl then returned both weapons to her back, making a bit of a flourish with the gun, and came over to Tsukasa, crouching down to look at where the scythe blade had cut her. That was when she finally recognized her. But it couldn't be...

"Tsukasa... I didn't expect to find you guys here. Are you okay? Hold still for a second." It was the first time she had heard Konata's voice since... It seemed like so long ago.

"Kona-chan? How..." It was unbelievable, it was unmistakably Konata who had just saved them. She held a hand over the gash in Tsukasa's leg, and some sort of weird green light was shining on it. The burning pain was beginning to fade, and the cut itself seemed to be closing.

"Konata-san, what... What are you doing?" Miyuki said, watching intently.

"No way..." Kagami said. "No, I just don't believe this. You're not supposed to be... You died a year ago, there's no way you could be here - "

"There. Can you stand?" Konata looked up at Tsukasa's face. Tsukasa looked back at her, eyes wide in shock. If Konata was here... no, Konata was dead, so that meant...

The painful realization hit hard and sudden. "Kona-chan, are we going to... die?" Tsukasa said, her voice weak with fear. A terrible image was coming to mind that as soon as Konata turned around, that bullet hole would be open in the back of her head, still bleeding... She tried to push that thought away.

"Huh? No, of course not, I'm trying to help you." Standing up and helping Tsukasa shakily to her feet, Konata took out the shotgun again and laid it causally against her left shoulder. She scanned the area, watching people as they would stare at her before they hurried on their way.

"Hold on, how do we even know you're really her?" Kagami said suddenly. "Nothing about this makes any sense. For all we know, you could be one of them. It could be a disguise or something. You just happened to show up when these things are showing up everywhere? It seems really suspicious."

"But I just killed about twenty of them," Konata said. "Isn't that enough proof? Honestly, Kagamin, I'm disappointed. I thought you'd all be happy to see me again..."

"I don't know... how you're here, but..." Miyuki hesitated a moment. "I trust you."

"Thanks, Miyuki-chan... I'm so sorry about what happened, I don't know what I was thinking. I really am sorry for making you guys worry. Can you just kind of... you know, forget about what happened to me?"

"But..." Kagami sighed, apparently choosing not to ask about that. "Konata, what are those things? And where did that tower come from?" She was still keeping some distance from Konata.

"Did any of you ever play Devil May Cry, by any chance?" Konata asked.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything. This is exactly what happened in that game." She pointed upwards. "The tower is a portal into Hell, and - "

Tsukasa whimpered at the mention of a 'portal into Hell.'

Kagami gaped at her. "Huh? Oh my god, Konata, you don't mean you came from - "

"Of course not! You don't really think that lowly of me, do you? Seriously..." Konata shook her head with an expression of disappointment. "Look... You remember when we first met, right, Tsukasa? How I saved you from that foreign guy?"

Tsukasa nodded. She was beginning to feel safer.

"Well, these things are just like a bunch of foreigners. And these ones actually are trying to hurt you guys... So I'm just here to defend you. Just like I did then."

Yutaka was feeling out of breath. Part of it was fear. They were all scared. Most of it was running. She wasn't used to so much physical exertion. She didn't have the constitution for it. With all that was going on, those things they had seen earlier, whatever they had been, she couldn't stop for a break, but that was gradually becoming the only option. The worst thing she could do was slow everyone else down...

"Yutaka, are you alright?" Minami asked.

"Y-yeah, I'll be..." She stopped to catch her breath. She really wasn't feeling good. "I... don't know."

"Come on, you guys! Minami, it's not much farther to your house, is it?" Hiyori shouted over the noise, running back to where the two of them had stopped.

"Is that safe? I mean, those things, they're still coming... What if they're already..." Yutaka didn't want to bring up that all-too-likely possibility.

They had all considered that this might have reached as far as the Iwasaki residence. It was a few streets down, but from here you could still see that tower, and there was just as much damage here as anywhere else. Was there anywhere left that was truly safe? The only break they were given was that these monsters that were appearing seemed half-blind and clumsy. They could try to outrun them, but not for much longer.

"We still need to stop there," Minami said. "I need to make sure that everyone's okay." It was an understandable concern.

They looked back up, towards the direction they were headed. That all-too-familiar cloud of dust appeared once again, the way that it was almost shaped like a skull... But this one didn't look like the others, it carried some sort of huge throbbing orange mass on its back. It moved slowly under the immense weight and moaned.

"What's that one?" Hiyori said. She took a step back, not taking her eyes off it.

"Is that another one of those things that just blows itself up? What a pain. These things are just annoying." They didn't recognize the new voice. It was devoid of fear, almost sounding excited. They turned around to see the speaker was a girl about their age. She was albino and wore a tan sweater vest, a school uniform from someplace they didn't recognize. It was dirty with ash and something that looked shockingly like blood. The girl smiled. "Hey, you're Yutaka, right? Konata-senpai's cousin."

"Huh? You... you knew Onii-chan?" Yutaka was shocked.

"Yeah, I - " She stopped, glanced up at the creature holding the glowing-hot orange glob. "Wait, everyone back up. This guy'll need some space."

As if they needed to be told. They quickly ran, the white-haired girl following behind them part of the way, then turning around and - Yutaka couldn't be sure if she saw this right - shot a burst of lightning out of her hand, hitting the creature and exploding on contact. From where they were standing, Yutaka could feel the extreme heat of it, but... everyone seemed to be fine, and it was gone now.

"Are you like... I don't know, some sort of superhero or something?" Hiyori asked, amazed. "And how did you know Yutaka's cousin?"

"My name's Ayanami Rei." She smiled at them, apparently not fazed by all these explosions and lightning and... everything. "Konata and me go way back... I figured since she couldn't be here, I'd help take care of all this. By the way, Yutaka, it's great to finally meet you for the first time."

"Uh... Th-thanks..." Yutaka was still staring at the smoking crater where the demon had been standing. How Ayanami had shot lightning out of her hand at it. Nothing made sense anymore.

"Huh? Ayanami... You don't mean like..." Hiyori seemed to be remembering something, although Yutaka couldn't guess what it would be, then dropped it. "Nevermind. Probably just a coincidence, that's all."

"So you guys need some help with these things?" Rei pulled out something from her pocket. There was a high-pitched buzzing sound, loud at first but then falling to a low whir.

Hiyori's mouth dropped open. "That's... a lightsaber, isn't it? A real one?"

"It's technically a beam katana. This is my first time using it, so... let's hope for the best!" Rei was smiling cheerfully, unlike anyone else. The katana she carried glowed a light blue. She spun it around a few times, watching the patterns the beam made in the air as it moved. Yutaka flinched.

"Shouldn't you be careful with that?" Minami said. "You said you've never used it before. I don't even know where you'd get something like that..."

"You're right about that. You'd never believe how I managed to come across this... And I'm not allowed to say. But anyway! Let's get going, shall we?"

At long last, Dante had found a balcony from which he could see what the hell had just happened.

First Vergil and that other guy, the bald one in the suit, had unsealed the Temen-ni-gru after it had been sealed for two thousand years, setting a portal into Hell wide open for all sorts of nasty things to come out. It had been one crazy party ever since that.

But then, it had suddenly moved. The entire tower, suddenly transported to burst out of the ground somewhere else. The force of the whole thing moving had knocked Dante to the ground, unable to stand until it came to a stop and just barely able to dodge all of the debris from the old crumbling stonework. This place was most likely held up by magic alone.

At that point, he had been able to register that something had changed. Everything looked like a drawing, for one thing - had they gone into some weird alternate realm? Maybe that Jester guy had set it up. It seemed like his style. That bastard.

Now that Dante could look out over the balcony, he could see they were in a whole different city than before. What was left of all the signs and billboards that he could read revealed it must be somewhere in Japan. Strange - he'd never been able to read Japanese before. Why could he do it now?

At first he could barely walk, it was too hard to judge distance and he was tripping over his long red coat that had never given him a problem with mobility before. This new dimension or whatever it was really sucked. He was going to find that Jester and beat the shit out of him.

And then Vergil. This was all his fault. Dante's own brother.

Some more of the demons were approaching, he blasted them with his twin handguns without a second thought. At least he was adjusting. But there was no way he was going to put up with all this weird stuff any longer. The sooner it was all over, the better.

"Um... Konata..." Kagami tried to catch her breath. "You need to slow down. We've been running for so long... Where'd they go?"

They looked around for Miyuki and Tsukasa. They had most likely been absorbed by the crowd. Konata saw them first. "Over there!"

"How did you..." Kagami still couldn't see where they were. Were they one of those spots in the mass of people trying to escape?

"You'd be surprised how easy it is to find the three of you in a crowd," Konata said with a grin. Kagami was starting to accept that she was back from the dead... somehow... but there was something weird about her, almost creepy. But what other option did they have than to accept her help? At least it had been working out so far.

"Konata-san, there you are!" Miyuki said with relief. "I'm terribly sorry, it's so hard to work our way through..."

They tried to form a tighter group as they worked their way down. The tower still loomed over them. It seemed inescapable.

"You know, it's not going to stop until somebody takes care of the source..." Konata muttered. "I really hope they have someone get on that - " She was interrupted by a crash from somewhere behind.

Kagami really didn't want to look back, but couldn't help herself. She soon regretted it. Now there was some huge thing, it looked like a whale, but somehow flying... It was circling the tower. Even from miles away it looked huge. And its mouth... That was the worst part, just rows of teeth, and big enough to swallow buildings.

"Konata... What the hell is going on here?"

"I told you. It's the legions of Hell. I remember that one, actually. That thing's called Leviathan." Konata was staring straight up at it. Was she... used to this kind of thing? Maybe it happened all the time, wherever she had gone after she...

"JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? YOU WITH THAT UGLY MUG! YOU THINK YOU'RE TOUGH, PICKING ON ALL THESE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T FIGHT BACK? YOU MAKE ME SICK!" The voice boomed out of the sky, drowning out most other sounds.

"Huh? What's that...?" Tsukasa didn't want to look up at that Leviathan, or whatever it was, but now...

"No way... A giant robot?" Kagami said. "But those don't really -" She couldn't even finish the sentence, the huge red mecha somehow pulled out giant drills from absolutely nowhere and flew up towards the creature. Blood was spraying out of it everywhere. So gross, but... that was a good thing, wasn't it? If it could kill that monster...

"Relax, guys. That's just Kamina," Konata said. "Heh. Didn't expect to see anyone I knew here... He's an old friend of mine, I trust him. He'll take care of it. Now we really need to keep moving."

"A friend of yours? Konata, you aren't making any sense!"

"I don't have time right now. Real sorry about that."

A few more of the smaller demons stood in the way, but were dispatched quickly with shotgun blasts. Konata stopped to reload, pulling some shells out of the pocket of her coat. She loaded the weapon with speed that suggested a routine, like she had done this hundreds of times before.

Now, the flaming sword made sense for a ghost, or guardian spirit, or... Whatever it was that Konata was now. But a shotgun? It didn't seem to fit the image. Kagami wasn't complaining as long as it helped them. It would have been so much better just to know what all of this meant... Konata was too occupied with defending them. She wasn't explaining any of this. If it could, in fact, be explained.

Around the base of the tower, the road, which would have been the only open space in this packed city, was choked with wrecked cars, broken asphalt, and various rubble from the buildings that had been unfortunate enough to be in the way. Any people who had survived had cleared out of this area with all possible speed.

Joshua didn't always care for these futuristic cities. Begnion had been about as huge and populous as he could stand. Even the responsibility of being a prince of a barren desert nation had been unappealing to him. This world was apparently where Konata came from, though, and... maybe that was why she had been so eager to leave. He could understand that. Too bad she wouldn't be allowed to help out on this assignment.

Even so, he thought he might come to this world for something different than the usual. This tower was the center of all the chaos, if he got in there and somehow got all the way to the top, maybe this would all be over. The demons had so far been exceedingly simple to beat.

"Ah. I see I'm not alone."

Joshua turned to see who had spoken. A pale man, tall, in a red trenchcoat and hat.

"You're with Eclipse, I take it. The name's Joshua. And you are?"

"Alucard." The stranger smiled, showing pointed teeth. Weird.

"Nice to meet you, then. Shall we enter?"

"Such a beautiful day..." Alucard seemed to be referring to those dark red clouds that had gathered in the sky and expanded to cover the entire country, it seemed. Here at the center it was darker than night. "It'll be a shame to see it go. But we have a job to do here, correct?"

Joshua shuddered a bit. This guy was creepy. But even so, the help would be appreciated. "Yeah... I guess so. Let's get this over with, then."

Konata, now familiar with the sound of demons appearing behind them, was almost getting bored of dealing with them. Turning around, she swung out her arm in front of her, and about twelve demons were engulfed in a wave of flame breaking out over them.

"Hm... My magic seems to be getting better. I've never done that before," she said.

"Magic...? Kona-chan... What happened to you?" Tsukasa asked. They'd all been wondering that. Not only had she died and come back to life, now she was using magic and fighting demons. It didn't make any sense.

"I'm really not supposed to say anything... I'm not even supposed to be here." Konata almost stopped with that, but it wouldn't be fair to them. They were her friends, they had a right to know. And what else could she lose at this point? "I've been travelling to other universes. That's where all of this comes from. The devils, the giant robots. Everything."

"I've heard that theory before..." Miyuki said. "The multiverse. You say it's... actually possible to travel between them?"

"Yeah. I mean, where else did you think I'd shown up from?" Seeing that Kagami was about to respond, Konata quickly cut her off and added, "You didn't have to answer that, actually. It was a rhetorical question..."

"But we're going to be out of this soon, right? I can't go on much farther..." Tsukasa's voice trailed off.

"I think so - " Konata stopped as she looked where they were heading.

This was the place from her dream. Yes, it was that street with all the cherry trees... They were somewhere in the middle of being vibrantly pink and being burnt and destroyed. It was empty, no students here this time. And neither was that dark figure...

It was all a very hazy and unreal feeling.

"Huh? There's nobody here... But..." Kagami looked around the entire area. Nobody else was around, anywhere. The crowd of people seemed to have vanished. "Where did everyone go?"

Konata couldn't figure that out either. She wanted to say something, but she could only stare ahead. She still heard the sounds of continued destruction behind them, but it seemed like it was growing more distant even as they remained in the same place, as if it was all dozens of miles away. And, although all was still now, ahead of them the path was still destroyed. How far had all the damage spread? And... What was going to happen now? To the city, and to everyone who lived here?

She had managed to save her friends' lives. While she had been escaping, the city she had lived in all her life had been torn apart beyond recognition. It would be years before it was all back to normal, if it ever was.

And even so, she was now stuck here. She couldn't go back to school at Gekkokan, she couldn't work for Eclipse at all... And she still had so many plans! Those were all thrown out now, weren't they? She still wanted to keep doing this, but she had thrown it away...

What did she really want now, anyway?

The dark man was here now, standing there in his old jacket and worn-down boots, watching her. Grinning. Doesn't anyone else see him? Konata wondered. He's right there...

"Konata?" She thought it was Kagami's voice, she couldn't tell...

"Are you alright?" Miyuki.

Konata tried to respond, tell them she was alright, they'd keep on going. The words wouldn't come out. She was losing her balance. The dark man watched her fall. She blacked out before she hit the ground, but right as everything was fading out, she heard -

Do you reject this vision of reality?