The first thing Konata was aware of was an intense pain in her skull, like someone trying to force a corkscrew into her forehead. It hurt. She couldn't remember what had happened or where she was. Her scattered mind could only remember something random, from a very long time ago, about Kuroi complaining about having a hangover at the beginning of the week. Maybe this is what it felt like. She was lying facedown on the pavement, which was most of what she could tell about her situation. Konata made a small noise of pain, tried to move her arm or leg. Those still worked. Good. It was so quiet. Then, a voice.

"Kona-chan?" She recognized it. Tsukasa.

That was right, she had gone home. It was coming back to her now. And, not long after that, everything had been destroyed. The last thing she remembered, she was with her friends, not too far from their old school, when suddenly it had all become too overwhelming. Maybe the realization of what was going on, the graveness of it. She had felt so drained, and she lost even the strength to stand up. It wasn't normal for her to do something like that. And even now, coming back into consciousness, she still felt so tired...

Hands came down on her back, shaking her violently. Her head rocked from side to side. It didn't do much for the headache. She tried to open her eyes, and she saw some blurry shapes slowly come into focus. The purple blob closest to her turned out to be Tsukasa. She was the one trying to wake her up. And more details were coming in now. It was dark, they were all alone on a brick sidewalk with the bluish glow of an overhead streetlight a few feet away. It seemed too bright, it was painful to look directly at it. They were in a city park, maybe. Not one she recognized.

"Kona-chan... It is you, right?" Tsukasa was examining her.

"I... 'mokay..." Konata slurred. What had happened?

"Konata-san, you're awake..." Miyuki was somewhere behind her. Konata picked herself up off the ground, taking a great effort to do so. She stumbled once, and didn't try to stand up, instead just kneeling.

"I... Did I pass out...? How long was I - " She rubbed her forehead.

"Only a few minutes," Miyuki said. "And, um... About the way we look now..."

"I'm not sure why it all looks like this, but... I think we're still alright..." Tsukasa said. Her eyes were wide with concern. "It just all changed... You fell down just a few seconds before it happened..."

"Tsukasa, what are you talking about? You still..." She stopped. Yes, Tsukasa still looked the same, but... It had taken Konata a minute to work out what they were talking about. Why things would seem different to them. How she could have been unconscious for only a few minutes, but wake up in some unfamiliar place at night. "How did we... get here, exactly?"

"Really? Even you don't know? I was hoping that at least you would understand any of this..." Kagami was sitting alone on a bench a couple meters away, her face in her hands, not looking at anyone or anything. Her voice was bitter.

"Kagami-san, this couldn't be her fault, she was trying to help us," Miyuki said. Then she turned to Konata, who was still seated on the ground, and added, "I think those things are gone now... The ones that were attacking us."

Crickets were chirping, and somewhere in the distance they heard the sound of a car driving past. They were safe in this world, at the very least. But what was it like back home? They had to get back right away.

Konata pulled herself shakily to her feet, and realized she was still wearing the black coat and the weapons crossed on her back. She removed them, storing them away in the usual method. Once the gun and sword were gone, she decided to remove the coat as well. Tsukasa and Miyuki watched as they vanished into the air, while Kagami continued trying to ignore reality. Konata thought maybe her headache was starting to - she flinched at another dull throb of pain, and realized it wasn't quite gone yet.

"I'm not exactly sure where we are, but it must be some other universe... You really don't know how we got here?" Konata said, looking at her friends' blank expressions. Now that she was adjusting, she could tell that it was different here than back in Lucky Star. The body proportions were more realistic, the colors more subdued. She searched her pockets, found her Talisman, and opened it. "This is really weird, it doesn't usually happen like this, but I might be able to get us out..."

The notice of "1 unread message" on the screen confirmed her fears that maybe she could not, in fact, get them out.

"What do you mean by 'another universe'?" Tsukasa asked quietly, watching her face.

Konata said nothing for a moment, reading the message.

This message is to inform IZUMI KONATA that he/she has committed the following class I offenses against the Eclipse Organization:
-Entrance into a restricted zone (x2)
-Desertion of an assigned mission
-Ignorance of direct orders
-Public disclosure of classified information
These offenses have been labelled as treason, and membership to the Eclipse Organization and access to all servers have been permanently withdrawn.

She tried, in mad desperation, to get into the main travel function. She was presented with a blank screen and an error message. That couldn't just be it... They'd just leave her here? Not to mention everyone else...

"Um... About what I said, about getting us out... Looks like that's not going to happen."

Chapter 21

Burn the Bridges

For the first time since they had arrived here, Kagami opened her eyes and lifted her head. "What do you mean? You're saying that... We're not going to get back home?"

"Not for a while, at least," Konata said. "To tell the truth, I was even planning on staying back in our own universe. I figured they'd cut me off while I was still back there, and I'd just be fine living there. I even stopped by my old house to talk to - " She stopped. She hadn't even thought of that. Now the details of that regrettably brief conversation were coming back. "I told Dad I'd be coming back once it was all over... He was counting on me..."

Had she really wanted to go back home? She remembered that she had almost felt sorry after leaving him there like that - not so much because she had abandoned everyone, but because deep down she still wanted to be out there exploring and defending new worlds. No... She had made the right choice when she returned. She might be confirmed as dead, but they couldn't deny that she had come back, could they? They'd have to accept her again, they simply had to.

Konata raised a hand to her temple, feeling the headache getting worse. She took a seat on the bench and let out a sigh.

"This really wasn't in my plans, you know," Kagami said. "I can't even believe you're somehow still alive... What happened to you? You're not even acting like yourself. How you used to, I mean."

"Umm, Kona-chan, you... are still alive, though, right?" Tsukasa asked.

"Yeah, of course. I thought we had established that." Konata stared up at her.

"I was just making sure..." Tsukasa said. Even though she had been trying to stay close to Konata through all of the chaos back home, there had still been a hint of fear and doubt in her behavior. So much for a warm reception.

"But how? I thought the news report said they found you... as in they found a dead body. Now what's all this about alternate universes?" Kagami made a movement like she was going to turn to look at them, but then decided against it.

Konata was trying to think of what to say, but it was all so awkward. She had never expected to be in this position. They'd always seemed so far removed from Eclipse, like nothing like this would or could ever happen. "Eh..." She winced as another stab of pain shot through her brain. "I'll just start at the beginning, I guess..."

She paused for a moment, wondering how much she should tell them. Maybe it didn't make much of a difference anymore, what else could Eclipse do to her? A gust of wind blew through the trees, sending a few orange leaves to the brick sidewalk. Wherever they were, it definitely wasn't spring. Still, the weather was comfortably warm, even at night, and the air had a crisp quality. And, other than the unexpected appearance of four teenage girls from another universe, everything here was pretty normal. Not unlike what Lucky Star used to be. How it was supposed to be.

"I've been working for an organization called Eclipse. They handle all sorts of conflicts in different universes, things like that. I started out about two years ago. It wasn't long after we started our junior year," Konata said. "I was headed home in the evening - actually, I think it was from your house, Kagami - and they sent someone to pick me up."

Still not understanding exactly how Eclipse's rules worked, she didn't want to use Jason's name. He was probably their most likely chance of getting rescued. She wasn't about to do anything to jeopardize him.

"Two years ago...?" Tsukasa said. "Kona-chan, you never told us anything... I never would have guessed..."

"And now that you all know about it, I've been fired. They really don't like having their secrets revealed. To anyone," Konata replied grimly. "But anyway... They took me out to practice combat, to start with. It wasn't for very long, that first time."

"So they chose you?" Kagami cut in. "Out of all the people... Why?"

"I don't really know... I think they had been watching me before I joined. And even on that first training session, I was pretty good at fighting. Once I came back, though, everything looked kind of..." She looked over at Kagami's purple hair, then at Miyuki's huge eyes, which she thought at one time might have been brown or hazel, she couldn't remember which. "Well, it all kind of looked the way it does now."

"If it wasn't happening right now, I'd say you were crazy." Kagami paused a moment, then added, "Maybe we all are."

Miyuki looked thoughtful, putting a hand to her chin. "But why would that happen? There doesn't seem to be any explanation for it..."

"Actually... There's a really popular manga out there - not in our world, in other ones - and it's all about us. It's called Lucky Star. They made an anime of it, too. Once you've gone back and forth through different worlds, the place we live looks the same as it does in that."

"Then that means... Oh God." Kagami seemed to be breaking down again. She wasn't handling this too well. "When we get back home... It's still going to be like this? I hardly even recognize you guys anymore. And what about everyone else?"

"You get used to it."

"You seriously don't find anything wrong with this? It's like nothing's even real anymore!"

Konata used to wonder what her friends would think if they knew about the nature of their universe, and the existence of Lucky Star, not to mention the legions of fanboys that came with it... She especially liked that part. She never thought Kagami would take the news so well, though. Too bad she hadn't been awake to see the initial shock of arriving here.

"Of course it's all still real, it's just... I don't really know how to explain it. It's not easy at first, but you'll get the hang of it. Just give it a few days."

Kagami sighed and leaned her head over the back of the bench, staring up at the sky. "I can't believe this... It's definitely your style, though."

"But, if you were in this... organization thing... how were you still coming to school every day?" Tsukasa asked, attempting to get back on subject.

"I only took missions at night. They'd usually take about three or four hours, sometimes longer." Konata remembered those days, back in a simpler time. Back then, she had always wanted to go on some sort of a quest that would take weeks or even months. Something that she could really lose herself in, putting everything she had towards a single goal. Remembering the homesickness she had felt during the war, and even during her time at Gekkokan to a certain degree, it hadn't been as much fun as she had hoped.

"And you would take these missions almost every night... So that's why you were always so tired during class..." Miyuki said.

Konata almost could have laughed. As smart as she was, there were just some things Miyuki didn't get. "Uh, yeah. More or less." The pain in her head was beginning to fade. "I went to a lot of anime worlds, since those were the ones I recognized, but as for where we are right now... I don't know. It might even be one that I haven't heard of, something that's only published in another universe or something."

If only there was some clue, some person or event that she recognized and could use to figure out where they were... Even if it didn't get them out of here, it would at least be a relief to know what this world was. She pulled out her phone, checking to see if the date and time had changed. Usually it would do that automatically, but it still read 16:19 on March 30, 2007, apparently the current time back home. There wasn't even a signal. She sighed and snapped it closed.

Miyuki was inspecting it closely, now that she knew what it was. "So that's what allowed you to travel between universes? How strange... It must be very advanced technology."

"I don't really know how it works, I'm guessing it's partly by magic." Konata was turning it over in her hand. She stared at the emblem printed on the front, the logo for the group that had abandoned her. "Funny story, actually... You've all called me at least once while I was out working. It still receives calls if you're in separate worlds. Used to, anyway."

"I did, too?" Tsukasa said. "I don't think I remember..."

"You were the first call I ever got like that. I don't know if you remember, it was around Golden Week, I was home sick the day after." She still remembered how difficult that day had been. Maybe they really hadn't noticed anything about her condition when that had happened.

"You got some sort of weird illness while you were on a mission?" Kagami guessed. "And they just let you risk bringing it back home. Incredible."

"Kind of like that. Come to think of it... That was the one time I really did get killed."

Tsukasa was taken aback. "Wh-what?"

"Yeah... I got hit by some stray gunfire while I was out hunting a vampire."

"Vampires exist...?" Miyuki said. "I thought they were just stories..."

"Nothing's just a story, Miyuki. I learned that soon enough. But anyway... This particular universe, there were some vampires who were on the humans' side. And, well... they're the reason I was okay. They turned me into one of them."

"So you're..." Tsukasa's eyes widened.

"No, not anymore," Konata assured them. "For the one day afterwards, I was a vampire. It really wasn't very much fun. I couldn't go outside, I couldn't eat regular food... Not to mention how awkward you guys made it when you came by for a visit. But by the next night another one of the Organization members brought a cure, so I'm still human now." She smiled. "That's just one of the crazy adventures I've been on."

"Alright, so what happened the... second time you died, I guess?" Kagami said. And wasn't that what they all really wanted to know?

"That..." The grin vanished from Konata's face. "I truly am sorry that ever happened. I thought I had planned it out enough..."

"You planned your own death?" Kagami said in disbelief. "How could you even do something like that? It's just insane!"

"Up until that point, I'd only been able to take smaller missions, nothing too involving. But if I had more time to put into it, I'd be allowed to go on longer, more important assignments," Konata continued. "And the only way to do that was if I left home and never came back."

"So, um..." Miyuki was at a loss. Finally she said, "How long were you planning on that?"

"I probably started considering it back in... I don't know, February or something." Yes, it had been some time after meeting Rei, which had been at the festival in January, and all of the missions she had been taking around that time - she specifically remembered Valentine's Day, all the candy exchanges had been going on then - had just been relatively boring. She hadn't been in the greatest of moods, though.

"Gosh... And you never said anything." Tsukasa stared at the ground.

"The plans weren't finalized until the start of our senior year, and then they still had to arrange a date and get everything ready. They made... it was kind of like a clone of me, but it wasn't really alive. And I brought that out once I was sure nobody was looking, and... shot it in the head." This was something Konata never liked to think about, but ever since then, rainy evenings had always made short flashes of that night come back to her. "That's what the police found."

"You really made us think someone had murdered you, though... Once I heard about it, I was just so scared..." Tsukasa winced at the memory. "And all that time you knew you were going to do that?"

"I never said it was easy... I just thought..." What had she thought, exactly? Now that she was looking back on her decision, with her friends so aghast at what she had done... Konata realized what a bad idea it was. "I guess I thought this was the best thing I could do with my life. I was finally good at something. They wanted me."

"If that's what you want, it's just fine with me," Kagami said. "But we were supposed to go to college. Lead normal lives. I just want to get home and be done with this. Konata, you can do whatever you want."

"We... really should get home, shouldn't we? I mean, Mom and Dad will think..." Tsukasa's voice trailed off. "They're going to think we're dead! All of those things come into the city, and we just disappear like that!" Tears were filling her eyes.

"It's, uh... It's really no problem, I'll figure out how to get us back home... And I was serious about going back with you. I really was." Konata stood up and looked down the path, then turned around to survey the other direction. "Let's get moving. And act natural. Get rid of that deer-in-headlights expression."

"What do you suggest we do?" Miyuki inquired.

Konata wasn't sure of what to say, but moving had just seemed like a good idea. She'd never been stranded in an unknown world like this before. "Well... Maybe we'll find another Organization member. I have friends that might be looking for me, actually. But I'd really like to figure out at least where we are."

That sounded reasonable enough. Now, right or left... She chose to start heading to the right. Either direction would have to lead out of this park. Now that she was paying closer attention to everything, was something familiar about this? For a moment, something seemed to resonate, but she couldn't properly identify it. Better to just get moving.

"Kouyou Park Station..." Miyuki read the name of the train station aloud. It didn't seem familiar to any of them.

It hadn't taken that long to find their way out of the park. Eventually the lights of a few store signs had led them to the rest of the city. None of them were open. On one occasion a car drove past, the high beams nearly blinding them. Other than that, it was deserted. The station was across the street from the park entrance.

"People... live here, don't they?" Tsukasa said.

"You're not used to being out in the middle of the night... It usually gets empty like this. Which makes it convenient when you don't want to be seen," Konata replied. "If we wait until morning, I'm sure the sidewalks will fill up. Maybe I'll see someone I know..."

"And until then?" Kagami said. "We don't even have any clue what time it is."

"We could still look around some," Konata said. The thought was already starting to occur to her that they might need to find a place to stay. It could be days before they came across a means of escape. Or longer.

Leading them into what seemed to be the main commercial district, it didn't appear that any stores were open at this hour. A row of pay phones was outside a convenience store, and for the first time they could see another person out walking, a tall figure in a long coat. He walked over to deposit some change into the slot, taking the phone at the left end of the row. At this distance, and with the lack of light, it was difficult to make out any features. He stood there, slouching impatiently after punching in some numbers and depositing even more coins after listening to the receiver for a brief moment.

"Enzo, you'd better be watching the shop for me..." He was muttering to himself in English.

"Huh? No way, I think that's..." Konata started to head towards him.

"Pick up the goddamn phone... Finally! Enzo, I need your help. I'm stuck somewhere in..." The man glanced around. As Konata approached, she recognized him, his white hair and red coat. Dante, from Devil May Cry. "Japan, looks like." Dante's face twisted as he listened to the response. "Wait a sec. Who the hell are you? What are you doing at my shop? Goddamnit, I paid long distance for this, don't screw with me!"

After listening for a few more seconds, growing more impatient, he simply dropped the phone and let it dangle from the cord. He turned around, ran some fingers through his hair. Then he quickly spun back around, landing a forceful kick directly on the phone. Change clinked inside it and the inner workings cracked in half. Tsukasa recoiled from the outburst of violence, despite still being far away. Dante groaned. "Can anyone tell me what the hell is going on here?"

"Dante?" As Konata spoke, he seemed to notice her for the first time.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" He looked over the four of them, frowning.

"You wouldn't happen to be in Eclipse, would you...?" If Dante was here, from the same game that the demons had come from, what did that mean?

"In what? I don't have time for this." He turned as if to walk away.

"I'm just saying, we're working on finding a way out of this universe... How'd you get here, anyway?"

He stopped, but didn't turn around. "'Out of this universe'? So that's what I'm stuck in... Glad to have you working on the case, you all seem so capable. I'm just certain you'll be a big help."

Miyuki spoke hesitantly. "Actually, Konata-san is the one who understands this... We're just as confused as you are."

"All I know is that I'm in that godforsaken tower, when all of a sudden shit starts going crazy, and somehow I eventually end up here. And now I try to call my shop and some lady I don't even know claims it's a wrong number? You say you really know what's going on?" Dante seemed to be examining Konata, still not convinced. "What's with the weird hair, anyway?"

Ignoring that, Konata said, "So you just suddenly appeared here... And you were in the tower, which was in our universe..." She didn't seem to be talking to him, it was more like she was saying it out loud to herself. "Nobody was around when that happened?"

"What does it matter?" Dante sighed impatiently, and turned to leave again. "If you girls do find out anything, just look for me. I don't think I'll be going anywhere far."

"Wait!" Konata called after him, but he just raised a hand in a lazy waving motion and continued walking away.

"He wasn't in that thing you were a part of...?" Tsukasa said, her ability to speak returning. "How did you know him, Kona-chan?"

"He's from a video game I played once."

"You're not serious," Kagami said, even as she realized that Konata probably was serious, about this as well as everything else from the past few hours.

"But the important thing is, the same thing happened to him. I just don't get it... And he even ended up in the same place. Weird." Konata looked for him, but now he was out of sight. "I wonder if anyone else is here... But we should remember to get him back to where he's supposed to be, too."

The darkness of night had left and was replaced by a chilly gray atmosphere as morning set in. As they walked along the sidewalk, a few cars passed by. The traffic was picking up as the day began, although not many people were out walking around yet.

"Wait... Over there!" Konata suddenly spoke up. She pointed ahead towards a building.

Tsukasa looked ahead, squinting. "What...? Oh, that's a bookstore, isn't it?"

"Don't tell me you're going to go shopping, of all things," Kagami said.

"No, this is important. Let's go in as soon as it opens. I need to see if they have Lucky Star there." She started heading across the street to look at the times posted. The rest of them followed, unsure of what else to do.

Kagami quickened her pace to catch up with her. "Forget it. I'll just take your word that it exists. I really don't need to see that we're just characters in some manga."

"That's not it. If Lucky Star exists here, then we shouldn't use our real names. People might recognize them," Konata said, still looking ahead. "I had to do that on the last mission I took." Reaching the store, a sign in the window informed them that it would be closed until 9:00. If only they knew what time it was now.

Tsukasa stepped forward, gazing into the darkened windows. There was nobody inside, but that wasn't what interested her. It was her reflection. She didn't recognize herself.

Konata noticed her. "Yeah... You should probably get used to it. That's just how you're going to see yourself from now on."

Kagami and Miyuki also stopped to examine themselves. Miyuki's hand went up to her cheek, tracing the rims of her glasses, watching the pink-haired figure in the window copy her movements.

Konata was only focused on what she could see of the manga selection, her hands cupped around her eyes to get a better view. The titles that were visible were all fairly outdated, and anything related to Lucky Star was nowhere in sight. She backed away, and watched them. "If it makes you feel any better, I've always thought everyone looks a lot cuter this way." Konata personally thought of the blue hair as a Super Saiyan-like transformation.

"That's me?" Kagami said, as if she still couldn't accept it.

Miyuki turned around, her hand on her chin in thought. She noticed a newspaper vendor a few meters away, and an idea formed. "Oh... If anyone has a few yen, we could probably find out where we are from that."

"Good idea, Miyuki-san. Uh..." Konata checked her pockets, reaching deep down but finding nothing, then remembered she had left her wallet back in her dorm room. It seemed like it had been ages ago. She smiled nervously. "I'm kinda broke right now, so..."

Kagami sighed. "How much is it?" She pulled out a few coins, counted them, and deposited them in the slot, then removed the paper.

According to the paper, they were in Nishinomiya (in the Hyogo prefecture, Miyuki informed them.) Scanning over the headlines, there was something about the American president meeting with the Prime Minister during a tour of Asia, and a local column about the upcoming culture fest at the local high school.

Konata pointed out the date. "So it's October 19, 2003... a little different than I expected, but still pretty close."

"2003?" Tsukasa said. "You mean... But it's 2007, it must be an old paper or something..." She turned to Konata for confirmation.

"We just bought it now. I'm not sure when they change these machines, so it might be the 20th." Konata shrugged. "And at least in most universes, Lucky Star wouldn't be released until 2004. That's a relief. Maybe we should still check just to make sure, though."

Everyone was silent for a moment, just staring at her.

"So, not only are we characters from a manga, we're from one that hasn't even been published yet... Seeing as we're somehow four years in the past now. And in some different anime." Kagami shook her head. "Don't even bother trying to make sense of this, I've had enough."

It was an hour or so later that the town really seemed to wake up. The sun was shining, and the morning chill had left. They were headed towards a part of the town they hadn't explored yet, taking a sidewalk that led up a steep hill.

"So what exactly do we do now?" Kagami asked. They had been wandering aimlessly ever since visiting the book store and confirming that they were unknown to the people of this world.

"I dunno..." Konata said. "Maybe if Dante's here, then someone else from the Organization got dropped in too... And they might have a working Talisman. I mean the cell phone thing," she added, noticing they weren't familiar with the name of the device.

"And you're sure that's the only way to get back?" Miyuki said.

"There's also however we got dropped in here, which I still can't figure out," Konata said. "Sometimes something just shows up in another universe that it's not supposed to be in... It's rare, but that's like what happened to the demons when they showed up. I don't know how it works."

They were passed by some girls in sailor uniforms. White and blue, the design somehow seeming familiar. It figured, if it was October then of course there would be students on their way to school in the morning. As the students passed, they turned to glance at the four of them.

"Huh? They're... staring at us..." Tsukasa said. She nervously fingered her hair.

"Don't worry, it's not that. We're just not wearing uniforms. And I think college students usually wouldn't be hanging around here at this time of day," Konata reassured her. "I remember how it felt. Nobody can tell you look any different, though."

"How interesting... This really does seem to be a regular town," Miyuki said. "It's hard to imagine they don't notice anything that we do."

"Well, it's not like you ever - " Konata stopped mid-sentence. She was watching someone across the street, starting to gape.

"Huh? Is that someone you know?" Kagami said, trying to follow her gaze. Once she saw him, she stopped as well. "Wait... That's not... No, it's crazy."

"Who is it?" Tsukasa didn't recognize any faces in the crowd.

"I think we've just figured out what universe we're in..." Konata said, a grin spreading across her face. "Let's introduce ourselves."

"What? You're just going to - " Before Kagami could protest, Konata was already in the middle of the street. She called out his name.