Topeka was not nearly as old as Lud had been. The station didn't seem as alien, either. It was more like an old-fashioned train station, older than the ones in Tokyo, that was for sure... Actually, other than Blaine being docked here, Miyuki would have guessed it wasn't a station for him at all. Was this the same world?
Spike jumped down from the top of the cabin, where they'd climbed out the emergency exit. Alucard and Nagato were already down. "Good to be back on solid ground again. It'll probably be years before I can ride a train again, but at least we still have years left, right?"
Miyuki would have to agree. Even if she were to go to the Akihabara station with Kagami and Tsukasa again, like they usually did, she would most likely jump out of her skin if a voice came over the speakers to announce the next train was leaving or to announce a delay. That would be terribly embarrassing...
"Are you coming down?" Spike called up to her.
She realized she'd sunk down onto her knees on top of the now-dead (deactivated?) Blaine. It was a short but still considerable jump down to the platform.
"Y-yes..." Miyuki said. "I'll be right there..."
She started to shake, and tried to compose herself. Then she lowered herself slowly over the slanted roof and dropped down suddenly. Spike tried to lunge forward to break her fall, but she somehow managed to land on her feet, stumbling just a little. Picking herself up, she raised her head to take in the station they had landed in. She still felt so dizzy from the train ride.
"It's quite different from Lud," she remarked. "It doesn't seem as old... But this station isn't as technologically advanced as the other one was."
"I've given up trying to understand what's going on," Spike said. "And whatever you did to Blaine to make him act the way he did, thanks for that, but we'll never speak of it again."
She took one final look behind her at the pink vehicle sitting in the tracks. It would probably never move again, and she found that fact relieving. In any case, she'd never come back here again.
"He... it... must have been sitting in that town for so long with nobody to operate it," Miyuki said. "And those drums kept playing... I think he must have gone insane over all that time..."
Nagato said nothing.
"Shall we see how things are in Topeka?" Alucard offered, standing by the entrance to the station. To his left was a blue metal box labelled for the Topeka Capital-Journal. The front window was covered in a layer of dust.
Nagato didn't say a word and followed him. As Miyuki passed by the newspaper dispenser, she saw the disturbing headline saying something about a superflu epidemic. Something about it was unsettling and she didn't want to take a closer look. Maybe it was just the fact that they'd been hearing those drums for several hours, and then been stuck with Blaine and his deep, booming voice, but Topeka seemed unnaturally quiet. An epidemic...
The inside of the station was huge and deserted. It took her a few minutes to realize what the two dark shapes on a bench against the far wall were, but then she realized.
"Those are bodies," she said quietly.
"Long deceased," Nagato said. "It appears they were naturally mummified."
"I guess that's our welcoming committee. God, we need to get out of here..." Spike said. Miyuki heard the click of his lighter and smelled the tobacco burning in his cigarette. "There's nothing useful here, is there?"
True, there wasn't much in here except some litter and those dead bodies. If they were mummified, they'd obviously been dead a long time, and if they hadn't been moved... It proved what the paper had said about the superflu. And it was much worse than an epidemic, there must have been no survivors. Nobody was left to clean up everything and return to normal life. Or whatever could be normal after something so horrible.
"What are we doing here?" Miyuki said, just staring straight ahead at those bodies.
"Nagato. Are you sure this is the same world that Lud was in? It seems different." Alucard looked around with an expression of distaste. "Whatever happened here was not what happened to Lud."
"Correct."
Miyuki waited for Nagato to continue, but that was all she said. "There aren't any... I don't know, diseases or anything... still in the air, are there?"
"The air here is clean. Low pollution residue."
They continued out of the station once they found the front doors. The roof had leaked sunlight faintly into the building, but outside it was fairly bright with a few clouds. Everything was silent. There weren't even any birds in the park across the street, which had grown unattended into a thick jungle. There were just a few cars parked along the street. Miyuki noticed somebody sitting in a green truck. Dead, obviously - for who knows how many years.
She'd thought that Topeka sounded familiar as an American name that she'd heard once, and the flags in front of the station confirmed it. At one point there must have been fifty or so American flags flying in front of the building, but now just a few were left hanging on. Nobody had raised them since they'd been lowered to half-mast. That must have been for all the people dying... How awful.
"Damn it. What if the way out was back in Lud? Blaine must've taken us thousands of miles off course... And I'm going to agree with Alucard here. We probably passed into some other world in the middle of that. I didn't think you could do that, but we just did," Spike said. "What the hell is this?"
"It almost makes you miss that... excitement that ran into us back in the last town," Alucard said.
"Not quite. Those people were crazy. Jesus, I don't even know if they were people - "
"The door's over there," Nagato said.
It was in the middle of the street. Like the one that Kagami and her group had been sent to, Miyuki realized. Just out in the middle of the road, except in Topeka the cars weren't going to drive through it anymore. It just sat there waiting for them. Even not knowing where it would lead, even knowing that the last time they'd used one of these it had taken them to Lud... The sight of it was still enough to fill Miyuki with hope.
"We weren't so off-course after all," Alucard said. "Who would like to do the honors?"
Spike sighed. "You know, I'm sick of this whole deal... Konata, please don't screw it up this time." He stopped, then laughed at himself. "Wow, I'm actually starting to treat her like she really is a god or something. We've been out here too long."
They crossed through the gateway. Miyuki found she was still feeling strangely optimistic.
Chapter 34
Wander Between The Worlds
Everything going back to normal, being human again, living a normal life, swearing off unlimited power even when it was right in your hands. Konata had run these all through her mind dozens of times as she walked to the train station, going at an easy pace and taking the long way around.
She honestly didn't think those ideas sounded too bad, really.
As much as she enjoyed achieving heroic feats and gaining magic powers in different universes, she found she preferred the version of herself that appeared in the Lucky Star manga. She was much more cut out for just being a fan of those animes than actually being a part of them. Not that she hadn't been good at it, but really she just liked the laid-back lifestyle of fun irresponsibility.
The magic powers were okay. Being God wasn't really so much. She could call up flames at any moment, or heal minor injuries on the battlefield with a wave of her hand, but no matter how much she wanted to change reality and just find the doorway out of here, she couldn't just do that. And she really wanted to find the way out right now.
Find Haruhi, take her back home. Then go back and get Kagami, Tsukasa, and Miyuki... If she could focus in on Haruhi, she could do the same for the others. Then they'd all go home.
If she drilled that into her mind enough, maybe it would happen. That was exactly the problem, she had no clue what her powers were going to do next. Things had been so much easier before she had... well, before she knew about them, at least.
When Konata finally reached the station, which was so large it was hard to miss, she had to hesitate for a while. The plan was to choose a train, any of them, really, and get out of town. It didn't matter where. Someplace remote that wouldn't have gotten the news about the library. Hopefully Edward might put in a good word for her innocence, but there was still a risk they'd try to arrest her. The fact was more annoying than scary. She was oddly used to breaking the law.
The crowds were thick, and the smoky smell of the trains was overpowering. This technology was roughly a hundred years old by Konata's standards, and she really preferred the electric trains more. Modern Tokyo... what a pleasant thought.
A few state alchemists were standing around, but they seemed to be off-duty. Or at least irresponsible. They didn't take much notice of her, or maybe just didn't even make the connection of who she was. Surely they must have been told... But as long as nothing was happening, she turned away from them and continued looking for the others. Junpei would be easy to spot, he was the only one wearing a baseball cap in this entire universe...
"Oh, there you are," she heard. Koizumi's voice. Konata turned around to see his oddly cheerful face. "Everything went alright, I presume?"
"Yeah. I found both of them. They've got the book," she replied. "So did you get together the money for tickets? Where are we headed?"
"I don't think any of us could answer that," Koizumi said. "You made another door pop up right in the station. We've been waiting for you."
"Whoa, seriously?" It had happened again; as always, she had no idea when she must have conjured it up. Maybe it had been here since they'd entered. They'd never come into the station before anyway.
As they continued moving through the crowd, she saw that navy blue baseball cap, and recognized Jason standing there too. Behind the two of them was a solid wooden door, just sitting by the wall. Not set into the wall, but about a meter in front of it. The way that it just appeared so real was still so strange, coupled with the fact that she'd wished it into existence.
"Konata," Jason said. "Looks like you're okay. Good."
"We've been waiting for hours, what happened?" Junpei said.
"Sorry. It's a big city, it was hard to find them... But we're done here now, so let's go," Konata said. She had already gone up to open the door and leave. This one probably went to Haruhi, she'd been focusing so hard on that goal that it would have to work. Please, she thought, trying to direct it at the door. There's really nothing else I want right now... Just let this all be finished.
"Hold on, you're going already?" Jason said. "You're ready to go?"
"Why not? We're finished here," she said. As the door swung out towards her, the familiar blackness appeared in front of her. The first time it had been a little strange walking right into it, but now she didn't hesitate.
Junpei watched her as she stepped through, and turned to the others. "Guess we're leaving now. Hm, I guess that was interesting..." He took a final look around the station.
"Looks like nobody noticed her..." Jason said, watching the crowd. "Usually we're able to control where we exit a world, and make sure it's somewhere remote. Should we risk it?"
"We'll all go at once and we won't be around if anybody freaks out," Junpei said, shrugging. "I kind of like her style."
They'd set up a makeshift firing range on the outskirts of town. A crudely drawn paper target - as circular as they could make it - was posted on an old tree. A few holes were scattered about the center region. Kagami was a bit frightened by her own aim, she'd taken those shots from a good ten meters away.
Rumors traveled fast in this small town. As soon as Kagami had waken up and greeted the others outside Traveler's Rest, she already noticed people watching them and speaking in hushed tones. A few kids had come up to her and asked her if she really was a gunslinger, one of the legendary ones from Gilead. She thought that was in the Middle East somewhere; she wasn't sure. There were those villagers who seemed all too glad to have them in the Calla (they called it 'the Calla,' not just a town), but there were still others who gave them silent looks that seemed to urge them to leave, let the town be invaded and don't ask for any more trouble.
Kagami slipped six more rounds into the cylinder, and rolled it back closed. She cocked the gun, and raised it to aim towards the tree. Bracing for the impact of the fire, she tightened her grip on the polished wood handle and squeezed her eyes closed. As it fired, she realized the mistake and was certain it must have gone far off the mark, missing the tree entirely. That was when she noticed the smoking hole directly in the center.
"Whoa," she said, squinting to make sure she'd seen that right.
Practice - just practice. It seemed unnecessary when she could have such dumb luck like that, but it made her feel better. Back in that gun store, she must have scooped up more ammo than she realized. She really did have a lot of extra cases just to use for target practice out here. And maybe while she was at it, she should just try reloading the gun a few times, emptying it out... It was so hard to put those bullets in without a steady hand. The last thing she needed was to drop her ammo in the middle of a fight.
She was actually going to be in the middle of a fight? Just walking out there willingly to try to kill these things? Why?
Kagami sighed. That was why she had to practice, because she'd resigned herself to this. As she thought of it, she checked her current supply. The red bag sat on the ground near her feet. She could have been sure that the text on the faded logo had said "Mid-Town Lanes" when she found it, not "Mid-World." It sounded like something out of a fantasy novel now... But what was this, anyway? She ignored it for now and examined her supply. Maybe it would be good to take a break for a while.
But those Wolves (whatever they were) were going to come in a matter of days. The exact time wasn't certain. It could be tomorrow, it could be four or five days. All they knew was that it was soon. And how strong were they? Rei and Joshua were from Eclipse, they could handle a lot. Back home, in... Lucky Star, that's what Konata had started calling it... Those demons hadn't been any trouble for her. If that was the strength of an Eclipse member, what could really stand against them?
But Kagami wasn't quite sure where she fell. Being able to shoot straight was one thing. Having true combat experience and enhanced superhuman abilities was another.
"Oh. There you are, Kagami," Rei said. "We were looking all over for you."
She lowered the gun from the target (noticing that she had been holding it with just one hand now, not even bracing it with the other anymore) and turned around. Rei was coming from town, with Mikuru tagging along close behind.
"Hey. I was just getting some extra training in..." Kagami said.
"I saw that. Good for you," Rei said, nodding approvingly. "I was trying to get Joshua to practice with me earlier, but he's been with some of the guys playing cards... He always used to do that when we stopped in a town." Kagami figured she was talking about that war that they'd fought in with Konata. Rei suddenly seemed to remember what she'd come for. "Oh, yeah! We talked to Gran-pere Jaffords just now..."
Kagami remembered hearing the name. "You mean Tian's father? The one who..."
"He said that he fought the Wolves back when he was nineteen..." Mikuru said. "He had... He had a few friends who tried too, but all of them..."
"He was the only survivor," Rei finished. "He doesn't look like much now, but he was probably a total badass in his day. Anyway, he told us how he did it."
Kagami had been hoping for some kind of a strategy, but she didn't like the fact that whatever they'd done had left only one person standing in the end. "Is that... so," she said. "How did they manage it?"
"So you know how they said these guys come in on horses, and they're all wearing green cloaks?" Rei said. "Apparently somebody threw their weapon, it was some kind of throwing disc or something, and it hit the guy right on the head." She demonstrated with a hand, passing it over the top of her hair so that her palm just grazed the surface. "And get this - it knocked off some sort of satellite dish thing on their heads. Once that's gone, they're done."
"That's it, huh?" Kagami said. She knew it would be much harder than it sounded.
"Yeah, that's it," Rei replied. "I thought these guys might be wearing masks or something, but it turns out they're just robots. Like Andy, except they won't sing songs or give you your horoscope. Weird, huh?"
Kagami paused. "I just could've sworn we were in a completely normal version of America. I mean, ignoring the plague and everything. I thought it would all be like that. But there are these people here who live like it's two hundred years ago or something, but they also have robots and can't explain where they came from? I can't even figure out what time it's supposed to be..."
"It doesn't seem like it's..." Mikuru's voice trailed off. "I'm sorry, it's... classified. But this hasn't happened... where I'm from, I think I can say that much..."
"Probably just some completely other version of the world. We could've ended up somewhere much stranger than this. You guys can consider yourselves lucky," Rei said.
"Sure. But... just one thing. Exactly how good are you at this kind of fighting? Compare what you heard about the Wolves to, say... The demons that attacked my world. You were there, weren't you?" Kagami asked.
"Yeah, I'd say it sounds like it's going to be..." Rei thought for a moment. "Yeah, I'd say it's sounding like they'll be a bit tougher than those guys were. But hey! It's no problem for me and Joshua. You just give us some covering fire from behind, and everything's good. We won't let anything come near you."
"What about me?" Mikuru said.
"I think you should probably stay back in the town," Kagami said. She was beginning to think maybe she wanted to be there too. But... no. No matter what the truth was, the people in the Calla believed she was an experienced gunfighter, some sort of heroic figure, and as weird as that was she didn't want to dash their hopes. "But really, how many people were with him when they did this?"
"I don't know, exactly. I think he said five or six others?" Rei said.
"And they all got killed."
"Quite horribly," Rei said. "But we won't. I mean, they had very little experience at fighting. And they didn't even know about those radar dishes when they went in. So we're going to be just fine."
"If you say so," Kagami said. She picked up the bag, gave one last look at the target... She had done pretty well. On a stationary target, that is, a target that wouldn't try to kill her. They started off back towards the town.
"Hm... I'm still relatively new to the whole hand-to-hand combat thing. Joshua's great at it, but..." Rei noticed the look of dismay on Kagami's face. "No, I'm still perfectly capable! It's just that I'm not as good at it as Konata or Joshua."
"Speaking of which, we should probably find him," Kagami said. "You said he was - "
"Hanging out at the tavern, playing cards," Rei finished. "I don't even know what he's betting with..."
"Does it matter? He needs to hear this too. Let's go find him."
"This is the Tokyo Settlement." Kyon stated this as a fact, one that they'd heard earlier while asking around.
"Seems so," Dante agreed.
"But this isn't Japan. It's Area 11. Which is in the same place, only it's ruled by Brittania."
"As far as I understand, yeah."
It had taken them a long time just to figure out where they were, and what the next step should be. Usually when they asked somebody where they were, they got looks like they must be crazy. A few people had been casting odd glances towards Kyon and Tsukasa, more so than the other two wearing the flashy outfits. All in all, it had taken them another entire day. Precious time. At least Kamina had resigned himself to survival instead of heroism.
"I think we should stop trying to understand this... How much time do we have left? They didn't start that special announcement thing yet, did they?" He looked at Tsukasa.
"Um..." She looked around at a few people walking by. They were on the city's outskirts, as far as they could tell. It didn't look anything like the Tokyo she was familiar with. Hearing that this was supposed to be Tokyo came as a shock to her.
Gunshots in the distance. Rapid fire popping sounds. Machine guns.
"I don't like that noise," Kyon said. He sounded strangely calm.
Dante drew his twin pistols. "Damn it. Are they starting already?"
The way he'd said "starting already." Like he was talking about a birthday party instead of, as it seemed it would be, mass murder.
"Damn it!" Kamina shouted. He'd been silent for a long time, with a disquieted, contemplative look on his face. The sudden outburst was enough to make Tsukasa flinch. "We're too late... If we'd only known what was going to start all this...!"
"It was that announcement, wasn't it? That Princess isn't as great as people seem to think," Dante said. "Simple as that." There was more intermittent gunfire in the distance.
"From what we heard, I really doubt that it was the Princess' fault," Kyon said. "There was nothing we could do, we've got no idea what was going to go wrong with it."
"Um... which way are those sounds coming from?" Tsukasa said. She had taken out the COMP and was holding it close to her, defensively, less scared of it than she was of those gunshots. "We should get away..."
"That would be smart, yeah," Kyon said.
More sounds from the other direction now, sounding closer. They were joined by an explosion, and far away some thick black smoke began to rise.
"Damn it... Which way do we go, then?"
"Where are we trying to get to?" Dante said. There was no concern in his voice, just mild annoyance.
"Away," Kyon replied. "Anywhere. As fast as possible, before this gets any worse."
Tsukasa had seen all those numbers. Lots of people were scheduled to die today, and since they'd been unable to change anything, it was all just going to happen. These scattered sounds of fighting were just the beginning of something much bigger, and somehow she thought Tokyo (or the Tokyo Settlement, part of Area 11) was going to be the center of it.
Area 11... Why did that sound familiar? Konata... Yes, Konata had said something about it once. At least, Tsukasa thought maybe it had been Area 11, it was something with a number.
"Konata would know what to do..." she said in a low voice.
"Maybe so," Kamina said. "Eclipse always had a way of knowing when things like this were going to happen. And Konata watched so many of those shows in your world, she knew about some of them before Eclipse even said anything."
"Because it's all anime..." Tsukasa said. It was becoming too much for her. She just wanted to be home, even though Konata had said that was going to be an anime too. "I don't want to do this anymore..."
Kyon was staring down the street, seeming to ignore her now. She managed to lift her head enough to see what it was. A large purple shape, arms and legs becoming visible as she looked at it. It was humanoid, but with oddly sharp angles. And from this distance, it must be... Quite a few meters high, it was hard to say exactly.
"Giant robots." For once, Kyon's voice actually trembled a little. He had somehow passed the state of shock and entered something even deeper.
"You've gotta be shitting me," Dante said.
There was a flash of light, and for a moment Tsukasa was completely sure that they'd been hit by a bomb, the explosion had gone off so quickly that they hadn't even heard it, now it was all over... But the whiteness was gone quickly, and something huge and red was standing in front of them.
"Nothing to worry about. We can play at that if they want to," Kamina said.
The robot he'd summoned was about the size of the one they'd seen down the street, give or take a few meters in height. Not like those huge ones in the series Konata and her dad really liked. Not a Gundam. Still, it looked like there might be a place for a pilot to sit in it, somewhere behind the huge pointed sunglasses and fanged smile.
"This is the Gurren. The cockpit might be a little cramped for the four of us, but it'll do."
"What the hell? You had this with you all along? Where was it back in that last universe?" Dante was incredulous, staring at Kamina, then taking his eyes back to the robot.
The others down the street seemed to take notice of them. And the sounds of gunfire were getting more frequent. It looked like the other ones - the dark purple robots, holding huge machine guns that must be the source of that noise - were gliding towards them, not walking. Maybe they had wheels or something...
"Tsukasa found that COMP to fight the demons with. That world was her chance to prove herself," Kamina said. "I wasn't going to step in and do everything for her, you know. She had to learn."
"Tsukasa isn't supposed to fight," Kyon argued. "You could've brought this thing out and broken through the goddamn blockade if you wanted to!"
"So we'll do it this time," Kamina said, nodding calmly. A grin had come across his face. "And, Tsukasa, if you could get those friends of yours ready to come out if we need them... We should get going. Looks like they've noticed us. Let's hurry up."
"God damn it," Dante swore under his breath. "I already knew you were insane. This is too far."