"Should we really leave this town? How do we know we're not supposed to do something here?" Mikuru stood at a distance as she watched as Rei tried to operate the gas pump. They were at an Amoco station a few blocks away from the Spirit, stocking up on fuel. Or at least, they would be.

"Stupid thing won't even work..." Rei grumbled. She had the nozzle inserted into an empty red canister they had found, and was squeezing the trigger, but nothing came out. "Do we need to pay for it first or something? How do these old pumps work, anyway?"

"Maybe the power doesn't work, something like that," Kagami suggested. "It's insane to even take that old thing out on the road, anyway. And I've never been taught how to drive."

"I'm sure it won't be too hard. And I'll be your copilot," Rei said.

Joshua spoke up. "You know, Mikuru has a point, why are we heading out there again?"

There was a reason, but what was it? An empty beer bottle rolled down the street slowly. Kagami watched the direction it was going, and in a few seconds it slowed and came to rest. But the direction... It wasn't just a coincidence.

"Kagami's got a feeling about it or something," Rei said. "Any reason behind that? You never struck me as the type to go off on a hunch before now."

"Weren't you the one saying it was 'fate' that let us find a way to drive out of here?" Kagami said. "I don't know, it's just..."

"Maybe we'll find Haruhi and we can get out of here," Rei offered. "She's using her mind powers to draw us in, or something."

"I don't think she can do that..." Mikuru said. "I mean, I'm not really sure what she can do... Do you really think she's in this world?"

"Who knows? I'd just like to get back home, actually. I wasn't planning on being gone for more than a couple hours. I'm sure Shinji's wondering about me." Rei gave up on the gas pump and dropped the empty can, making a hollow sound as it hit the ground. "Hmm..."

Setting her sights on the convenience store, she headed inside without saying anything. Kagami stayed outside, standing with her arms crossed and staring up at the sky. The world was quiet. She was beginning to miss being back home with all the background noise confirming the presence of living people outside and all over. Some kind of disease had made this world like this, a superflu or a virus of some kind that just wiped out everything.

There was a flapping noise, and a large black bird perched on one of the gas pumps a few meters away. Not everything had been killed, then, but this was probably the first animal they'd seen in a long time. Mikuru was watching it like it could attack at any moment, but it simply stared back at her, as if it were curious. Joshua had a slight grin.

"Found... something..." Rei called from inside, and the bird turned its head sharply at the sound of her voice. She came out lugging a heavy plastic tank. "They were in a back room, labelled 'emergency.' There's a few more, can you give me a hand with this?"

They took one can of gas each, which would be several liters. Most likely enough to get them pretty far, but Kagami didn't know anything about the Takuro auto company's fuel efficiency. Oh well, she decided as she lugged her can back through the empty streets. If it really is destiny or whatever, or Konata pulling the strings, then it'll be enough.

Even so, that wasn't enough to convince her.

The Spirit was waiting patiently where they had left it. They emptied as much of the gas as they could into the tank, and Kagami hesitantly took the driver's seat to see what would happen if she turned the key. The engine chugged to life, fading to a low background rumble. She took a quick inventory of the steering, the dashboard symbols, the gear shift. Taking a deep breath, she tried to convince herself she could figure this out.

"Hey. Anyone else coming?" she asked.

Chapter 31

Fear of the Unknown

The summer heat of Tokyo and sounds of battle transitioned rigidly into a cool nighttime breeze with the sound of crickets chirping. They were out in the woods somewhere - Tsukasa didn't care where they were. They were out. A large building of some sort was at their side, and she leaned against it, lowering herself to the ground and pressing her face against her knees. Kyon came to sit beside her.

"We made it out... That's good," he said.

"I never want to do that again... Never." It was all she could say.

"I'm with you on that."

He raised his head to see where they had stepped out from. Of course, there was nothing there - just like last time, the door vanished once they came through. It was probably still there on the other side.

Kyon sighed, and looked over at Tsukasa. "Well? What do we do now?"

"Are they..." Her voice was weak with shock, fear. "Are they coming?"

"They should be out any minute now." Everything was quiet. It was a pleasant change from before, but somehow unsettling. "Any minute... Look, they're much better equipped to survive than we are, and we made it out fine."

"Konata wanted us to..."

It was the one shred of hope Tsukasa had left, the belief that whatever happened, Konata was in control. Even after a situation like what had just happened, her faith was unshakable.

"Maybe..." Kyon said, considering the idea. "But she doesn't want this to end any time soon, it looks like." Tsukasa turned her head very slightly to the side, just to look at him, but still clutching her legs tight against her. "She really does remind me of Haruhi..." Kyon added.

"Huh?"

"I just get this feeling that Haruhi disappeared because she wanted to. She's fed up with the real world... my world, I guess," he corrected himself. "Isn't that like what Konata did?"

"She died a year ago..." Tsukasa said, her voice dropping to an even softer volume. "I mean, I guess she faked it, or something..."

"Because she wanted to go to different worlds. I guess what she'd consider what we just went through to be fun." Kyon leaned his head back, staring up at the stars.

Tsukasa remembered the demons that had shown up back home. Those were the ones from Dante's world. Konata had shown up and was fighting them easily, and she'd been well-equipped to do it. Tsukasa doubted she could ever use a sword, or any kind of weapon, really.

"Still not out," Kyon said, looking up and around.

"No..." Tsukasa agreed. "But..."

"They'll be here any minute," Kyon reassured her.

The branches of the trees rustled in the wind. Tsukasa stared at the ground with her large blue eyes half-closed, while Kyon inspected the ornate brickwork of the building they were leaning against. The windows were arched with clean white panes, but the rooms were dark. He wondered what kind of place this was. A few minutes passed.

"You still have the COMP, right? If that still works... Those demons can protect us. I wasn't too sure about how it would all turn out, but you have some good ones." Kyon didn't outright say what he was afraid of, because it was the last thing Tsukasa wanted to hear. But he had to think practically.

Tsukasa still didn't move. "Your number's gone," she said idly, looking above his head.

"That's a relief..."

Seeing her there, so vulnerable and scared, he couldn't help but think about Asahina. Any number of terrible things could have happened to her. He hoped she was still alright. He hoped she hadn't caught the flu or anything - and realized that was an oddly specific thought, and somewhat random considering what all the possibilities were. Tsukasa, Mikuru... that other girl too, Takara - they weren't really cut out for this kind of thing. Neither was he, to be honest.

"How much longer do we stay here?" he wondered aloud.

It shocked him to see Dante suddenly step out of thin air, in about the same spot that they had. He stopped to catch his breath and return his sword to his back, then stretched out his arms behind his head. It took him a couple moments to see them.

"Hey. So looks like the three of us aren't dead."

"The... three of us?" Tsukasa said.

"So you're saying Kamina..." Kyon started.

Dante cut him off. "He's still back there, but he's doing just fine on his own. Should be through any minute. Where are we?" It was as if he'd just noticed his surroundings.

"No clue," Kyon said. He stayed seated beside Tsukasa, and yawned. "We've just been sticking around here waiting for you. Wonderful to see you made it out okay."

"Right... I'd say give that idiot half an hour to get here, or else we're off," Dante said. "Those angels saw what you did, and it really pissed them off. I could barely get to the door without them all swarming after me."

"So what would you say Kamina's chances are?"

"No clue." Dante shrugged. "If he doesn't make it, fine. Tsukasa, you've still got that computer thing, don't you?"

"Yeah..." she said feebly.

"And I'm fine on my own..." Dante said. "Hell, I'm tempted to get going right now. Wonder what kind of crazy shit we'll run into in this world."

"But Kamina's the only one from... Konata's organization..." Tsukasa said. "She wanted him to come with us..."

"I've got it figured out by now." He considered it for a very brief moment, and then said, "So come on, let's - "

He was cut off when Kamina appeared behind him. He stepped out of the invisible doorway, sheathing his katana with a satisfied grin on his face.

"Mission accomplished," he said. "But I'm ashamed none of you stayed to fight longer. You'll never get anywhere if you keep on giving up like that."

"Except that one, I'm pretty sure we would have died if we tried that, and two, we did get somewhere," Kyon replied. "And I'd really be happy if we never had to do anything like that again."

Kyon liked this world, he decided. He'd noticed the faint sounds of a nearby city - a normal, functioning city, or at least he hoped. Not one that was under quarantine enforced by the forces of Heaven itself. They'd been sitting for nearly an hour without anything notable happening.

"Fine, so now let's get out of here," Dante said.

With any luck, this feeling of calm would last.

A river separated the city from the wastelands, and it was crossed by way of a long steel bridge. Dangerously long, by the looks of it, and swaying dangerously in the wind. By what was left of its structure, Miyuki could infer that it had been quite sturdy at one point until years of neglect and rust had all but destroyed it.

"Hm, still doesn't look like anyone's home," Spike said, staring across the chasm. "Makes you wonder just how long the music's been playing."

After several hours of hearing the repetitive pattern, it didn't sound musical anymore. It had almost become unnoticeable, just a part of the background noise. Now as they got closer, it was much more irritating, and they had to speak loudly to be heard.

"I'm intrigued," Alucard said. He turned towards the bridge. "Any volunteers?"

Miyuki was the last to step onto the swaying mess of concrete and steel, directly behind Nagato. Once she was on it, she felt her legs wobble, and had to resist the urge to look down into the river below. A blue vehicle of some sort was down there, once she gave in and looked at it, something that looked like a... a monorail, she supposed. It had crashed long ago and was overgrown with rust and plant life.

The thought of ending up down there, falling into the muddy water like the train had, seemed to have permanently fixed itself in the back of her mind.

She tried to look up instead, but that made her notice the steel tracks, which had given out just like this bridge could at any moment. The train had derailed from there, the supports just giving out and letting it tumble into the water below.

"Now, I almost hate to ask, but what exactly did you mean when you said this world was corrupted?" Spike asked.

"The data compromising this space is instable." Nagato didn't say any more as she proceeded calmly. Miyuki decided to watch her, hopefully finding she could imitate how undaunted Nagato could be by these dangerous situations.

Miyuki noticed the words "LaMerk Foundry" imprinted on one of the steel beams.

They were advancing at what seemed like a rate of only a couple feet per minute. The drums grew louder and louder, but it couldn't be because they were getting closer, it was like someone in there was cranking up the volume as a way to greet them.

They were almost to the other side... What was that song Spike had talked about, again? The one that this isolated beat had come from... He had hummed a bit of the melody.

"Hey, look at the hooks
on your pants makes you wanna dance.
I say yeah yeah,
I say yeah yeah.
There ain't never a catch, all you got to do is snatch,
do the velcro fly,
do the velcro fly."

"Is that the radio?" Kagami said. "Geez, what kind of a song is that?"

"Nah, not radio. Cassette player, looks like," Rei replied.

"Turn it off."

"But it's so quiet out here! It's starting to creep me out."

"Then we really don't want the car battery to run out, do we?" Kagami said. "Should I remind you that this thing really shouldn't be working in the first place?"

Rei shut off the music. Ejecting the cassette, she examined it, noticing it was a band called ZZ Top. She'd never heard of them before. Maybe they were like the car, the Takuro Spirit or whatever it was called. Some relic from a different world, one that had died long ago. They passed a number of green metal road signs directing them to different cities, all spray-painted over with the words "BOULDER, CO" and arrows pointing towards wherever it was.

"Hm? What was that? Some kind of pounding..." Joshua said, waking up. He'd been asleep in the back seat for the past couple of minutes.

"Drums," Rei said.

"Oh, it was music. Gave me some kind of weird feeling, like... I don't know." He shifted in his seat slightly, and stared out the window.

It had been nothing but the ruins of the United States for the past two hours or so. The signs pointing to Boulder suggested that maybe someone was still alive out here, but Kagami didn't follow them. It would have meant going off the path. She still wasn't exactly sure what the path was, or where it led, but if she ever looked closely at anything, a tree, a bent road sign, the motion of the wind, it all followed the path.

"It's so quiet..." Rei repeated.

"Fine. Why don't we talk?" Kagami suggested. "I'd really like to hear more about Konata, actually. It seems like the two of you know her much better than I do, after all."

"I've only known her for a little more than a year, actually..." Rei said. She thought for a moment. "The first thing Eclipse ever had me do was steal that EVA from the alternate version of my universe. That was a weird experience, I ran into myself and everything... Do you even have any idea what it's like? Totally weird."

"So Konata helped you on that? When was that?"

"Let's see, it was right after I ran into you at the Comiket thing, so... wasn't that January for you? We actually did the mission a week later."

Kagami tried to imagine Konata back then - and Jason, for that matter. Come to think of it, she really didn't have any clue who he was. But she had really thought that Konata was such a simple, predictable person. Go to school, laze about for the afternoon, not caring about anything, then at night going off to another world to fight demons or steal a giant robot? And, whenever they went to different universes back then, they could always come back whenever they wanted.

"It really wasn't too bad when the Talismans worked, you know," Rei said.

"Let's see, it's been about two years since I first met Konata. I helped out on her first training mission." Joshua was searching for the memories. "Jason told me all about her. Neither of us could believe they'd let someone like her - with that much power, I mean - become part of the Organization, but I agreed to help out anyway."

"You knew? You never told me about that!" Rei said, turning around in her seat to stare at him. "So all that time that we were in Fire Emblem - did she ever do anything crazy that I just didn't notice?"

Joshua shrugged. "Jason said that she created closed space a couple times. Slowed down as time went on, and they always had people come in to take care of it."

"Closed space...?" Kagami said. "So she actually can create it? That's a little scary."

"It's all because of how she was feeling. She talked about you a lot - well, everyone from Lucky Star, but especially you and those other two girls."

"She shouldn't have ever left in the first place..." Kagami muttered, now staring straight ahead. She turned smoothly around a minivan that was abandoned in the middle of the road. "You both were doing that mission, or whatever, right after she did the whole murder thing?"

"Joshua was there with them, I dropped in every now and again to be a mage," Rei said. She grinned. "It was actually pretty fun, but I don't think I'd ever be able to adjust to medieval times like that."

Actually, it was difficult to imagine Konata being able to do something like that. At least, the Konata that Kagami was imagining would never live in a world without television and video games. It was like she was a total stranger - but she had missed her old life back home, and she'd missed her friends... Kagami felt split between anger and sympathy.

"After the war was finished, I guess Konata went to Per - " Rei stopped for a moment. "Wait, does anyone else hear that?"

It was a warbling, high-pitched sound growing steadily in volume. Kagami glanced around for a source, but nothing was visible. The radio was off, it wouldn't be malfunctioning, and the scenery was the same mess of abandoned cars and vandalized highway signs.

"I hear it... What does it mean?" Mikuru said.

"No idea. Sounds Hawaiian, doesn't it?" Rei replied.

Kagami was about to ask what the hell she meant by that, but the sound suddenly jumped to absolutely unbearable levels and she clenched her teeth trying to resist it. She was getting a migraine, and losing control of the car -

"Kagami! Pay attention!" Rei shouted.

"What is it? What's going on?" She heard Joshua's voice from the back seat.

The sound died out, only having been present for less than a minute. Kagami slowed down, and shifted to get comfortable again. Her knuckles were still white, gripping the steering wheel firmly.

"That was odd..." Rei said.

"What did you mean by 'sounds Hawaiian?'" Kagami asked.

"Huh? I..." Rei hesitated, and let out a sigh. She stared ahead out the window. "I don't know. Just kind of..." Her voice trailed off.

It was then that the car started to slow down, lurching forward a bit and coming to a stop. Kagami realized she hadn't been watching the dashboard closely. The fuel gauge was nearly empty... No, it was empty, and this was its last chugging motion before the Spirit died. They sat in silence for a few moments, the apocalyptic vision surrounding them eerily still. The road had faded out to a barely distinguishable dirt path.

Kagami didn't do anything for a minute, just letting her hands drop from the wheel. She looked over at the duffel bag beside her. Then she checked the mirrors, looking at the back seat, and watching the landscape. "So what do we do now? We're probably about a hundred miles from Topeka, the car's not going anywhere, and I don't see anything useful out here."

"We could... get out and walk?" Mikuru's tone suggested she didn't entirely like the idea. Maybe the thought of sitting out here doing nothing was terrible enough to make her go for the less-unpleasant alternative.

"Where would we go?"

"Umm... We'll find something, didn't one of the signs back there say we were near..." Rei couldn't remember exactly. They weren't anywhere near Boulder, that much was for sure.

"You could ask for directions," Joshua offered, his gaze directed out the window. His chin rested on his hand.

"There's an idea," Kagami said. "Who's out there to tell us anything?"

"That person, over there," he replied. "See?"

Sure enough, somebody was out there - far off in the distance, but it was worth a shot. If they were there, maybe there was some form of civilization nearby too. But something about the figure didn't look right. The proportions, maybe. Or the way they were moving.

"You think somebody survived the plague?" Joshua said.

Kagami considered it for a moment, then took out one of the revolvers from her bag. She slung it over her shoulder. "We'll find out." She noticed the look Rei was giving her, somewhere in between shock and approval, and added, "It's just a precaution. We don't have any idea who it is."

"I'm beginning to think you could've been a great member of Eclipse, that's all."

State Alchemists - "dogs of the military" was the term you heard a lot in the anime, Konata remembered - surrounded what was left of the front entrance of the library. She raised her hands to indicate she wasn't going to resist, still holding Dr. Marcoh's notes in her left hand. It probably looked like she had stolen a single book and then set fire to the rest, which would most likely be construed as an anti-government action and punished severely.

At any moment she expected the mildly familiar sensation of being shot to death.

"This really isn't what it looks like," she said. It sounded terrible.

"Alright, so I'd love to hear exactly what is going on," she heard someone say. A tall man with square-rimmed glasses stepped out from the ranks to speak directly to her. "First, what are you doing here?"

"Major Hughes? I, um - "

"You know me?" he said, suddenly caught off guard.

That had been a mistake - Konata knew better than to reveal anything she knew, particularly names. "Uh... Never mind that..." The guns were still trained on her. She cast a quick glance at the book in her hand, and held it out to him. "Here."

"What's that? A... cookbook?" he raised an eyebrow.

"No, it's... It's Tim Marcoh's notes for creating the Philosopher's Stone."

Hughes was shocked when he heard that, and understandably so. Chances are he'd been hearing a lot about the Philosopher's Stone recently, due to the Elric's constant attempts to create one. Which reminded Konata that she had to get this book to them. And she wanted to deliver it personally, because if she didn't get to meet them in real life, it would be a waste of a great opportunity. She also didn't feel like being arrested with stolen material and a strong possibility for arson and destruction of government property.

"I think you'd better come with us. There won't be any trouble if you just come along peacefully," Hughes said in a calm tone.

Instead, Konata broke into a sprint, taking off towards a small opening to her right.

She was running at full speed, not making an effort to appear like a normal human. At this rate, nobody would be able to catch up to her. She heard a confused babble behind her and a couple gunshots, but none of them made their target. If she would have been paying more attention, she would have noticed how the bullets would abruptly stop in midair for a second, then drop to the ground. All she knew is that she was glad she was making a good escape.

Everything was a dark, greyish blur. Konata turned random corners, went through alleys, just putting as much distance between herself and the police as she possibly could. At some point she realized she was lost, and couldn't even remember where to go back to the hotel the others were staying at, but there were still angry voices in the distance that she was pretty sure were referring to her.

By tomorrow, she'd have quite a reputation. A teenage girl - actually, she looked even younger than that - burning down the library and stealing such an important book? Chances are everyone would be talking about her.

Konata figured she probably had quite a reputation. She'd never know just how many of her assignments with Eclipse became widespread stories in the hundreds of worlds she'd visited. This just added one more.

The problem was, Edward and his brother would be arriving the next day, and she'd still want to talk to him. Chances are he'd know about her before she showed up. That would be awkward... But she'd gotten away from the military here once, she could always do it again. Speaking of which, she noticed the commotion had died down, and this part of the city was still asleep. She slowed her pace.

Examining the cover of the book - the innocuous title giving no hint as to its true purpose - she put it away, and brought out a hooded coat. Surprisingly, she'd found that wearing cloaks often was a good disguise when you were wanted by the police, as much as it would seem like you would stand out while wearing one. But this would certainly get her back the hotel unnoticed... wherever it was.

She turned around and started looking for it, debating over whether or not it would be a bad idea to ask for directions.

Miyuki was wondering just what exactly had happened to this city. No people, neverending rock music eternally on repeat, and severe structural damage to these otherwise commonplace skyscrapers. Chances are that in a world where people continued to live in cities, these buildings would be repaired periodically and would never come down to this level of neglect.

"What are we supposed to do now?" she asked finally.

"Nothing interesting around here," Spike replied. "I thought maybe there would be something, or even just the way on to whatever world Konata has planned for us next, but... I'm out of ideas."

The city was so large that it would be difficult to find anything useful in it. They certainly didn't want to pass over anything that was useful, and Spike had a good point. Konata was still the one sending them to these worlds, and if she did have any sort of plan, then there must be a reason they were here.

"Let's see, what could possibly be important in a place like this..." Spike said, thinking for a moment before arriving at one single conclusion. "Nagato, do you sense Haruhi around here anywhere?"

"No."

"Do you sense anything around here?"

At that she didn't respond, seeming like another negative response that she didn't feel the need to say out loud.

"With that noise going on for so long, I don't think anyone would want to stay here if they didn't have to," Miyuki said.

"You've got a point. I guess I'd really just like to get out of here, as quickly as possible." Spike had lit up another cigarette. He seemed to be going through them at a rate that accelerated the more time they spent in the city.

It was several minutes before they came to something that looked like a station of some sort. Miyuki could imagine people coming and going, using... monorails. Like the kind she had seen crashed in the river. At some point this city might have been a nice place to live, full of people. Not too much unlike Tokyo, maybe. Or New York City, in America.

She noticed a large sign hanging above their heads:

NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS

WELCOMES YOU

TO THE CRADLE OF LUD

←SOUTHEAST TRAVEL (BLAINE)

NORTHWEST TRAVEL (PATRICIA) →

"Here's our way out," Alucard said. "Provided the trains are still running."

"Hey, if ZZ Top can keep playing throughout all of eternity, there's a good chance we might be able to commandeer a monorail." Spike's tone sounded like it might be half-sarcastic.

Miyuki stared at the tracks, which really did remind her of the public transportation back home, and attempted to determine the directions. The Northwest line seemed to go in the direction they had started from. Patricia - was that the name of the blue train? It reminded her of that exchange student, Patricia Martin, the one who had gone to Ryoo after Jason had left.

"I suppose we should take the Southeast one," she said. "'Blaine,' it says."

Spike shrugged. "Let's see if he's home, then."

"It's odd, though. They made Patricia blue, when usually the boy would be blue and the girl would be pink..."

"Maybe they're both blue."

"No, Blaine's... pink."

"Huh? You saw it?" Spike seemed confused. "When?"

"I..." Miyuki's mind suddenly went blank. "No, I never saw it... I guess I just..."

"That doesn't matter for now," Alucard interrupted them. "Be quiet. Do you hear that?"

Even if they stopped talking, the loud repetitive beating drowned out anything else. The attempt was in vain, but Alucard still seemed to sense something.

"It sounds as if the city's not as dead as we thought," he said.

"Someone's here?" Spike asked.

"And they're coming," Alucard said. He seemed to be grinning, though the blankness of his goggles and the pointed fangs revealed in the smile made it more menacing than anything else. "Ready or not..."

Miyuki's heart was pounding as she reached down into her pocket to feel the comforting shape of Negi's card. She tried to remember her training, although it hadn't lasted long.

One more thought: What did it do to a person if they had in fact lived in this city, and for so long?