The girl with the pink hair and glasses was the first one she saw. She was hard to miss, really. Definitely one of the people from the list Eclipse had sent out. She was walking alongside someone else, another girl in a high school uniform and brown cardigan. The other two - how could you miss them? Spike Spiegel, with the afro and navy blue suit. Alucard, the tall pale one dressed all in red. Those three together probably meant that the other girl in the uniform was somebody important, and even Eclipse hadn't heard of her.

"Shana? What's going on?" Yuji had noticed that she was watching them.

"Those four..." Shana said, not moving her eyes off them. "They ended up here?"

"Huh?" Yuji followed her gaze, and saw who she was looking at. "Are they Crimson Denizens?"

"Something else... They might be worse." She considered how much she was allowed to say, since Eclipse usually forbade giving out any kind of information to outsiders. Weighing that against the fact that she'd be turning in three (four?) wanted individuals... She shook her head. "I can't tell you very much. It's something I've been doing on the side. But letting them go would be bad, for this world... and the others." The last part she added in a very soft voice, and immediately wondered if she should have left it out entirely.

"What are you talking about?"

"Yuji... You just stay back. I need to take care of this on my own."

Shana had accepted Eclipse's invitation some time ago. They'd seen her as a valuable ally, someone who already possessed superior fighting abilities and a will to use them. It was part of being a Flame Haze. Her fighting skills were already beyond that of a regular human, but the idea of going to other worlds, protecting the people who lived there, had its attractions. She did have room to improve, it turned out. She wasn't quite at her full potential.

The missions in other worlds were somewhat infrequent, since Eclipse was admittedly just a side pursuit for her. But just a couple days ago, she'd gotten an alert on her Talisman - the cell phone-looking device Eclipse had given her. Pictures of twelve different people, labelled as deserters, highly dangerous, whereabouts currently unknown. At the top of the list was Izumi Konata, a girl about eighteen years old. Shana couldn't help but notice how much this girl looked like her... Minus the fact that this Konata's hair was blue. Shana's hair was black, or blazing red when she was ready for battle. Still, she couldn't help but worry that she might be mistaken for this girl.

That pink haired girl - currently with her companions ordering food from the restaurant's counter - was Takara Miyuki, if Shana was remembering it correctly.

Yuji spoke again. "Please, Shana, if this is something dangerous then I need to know - "

She put up a hand, motioning him to keep away. "Stay back from this one. It'll be over quick."

Chapter 36

Just A Twist Of Fate

Back to the world of weird hair, huge eyes, and a severe lack of a third dimension. This place looked even more cartoony than Haruhi's world had. Maybe they wouldn't stay here for long. The transition was just dizzying.

On the bright side, it was a big city. The signs in store windows were printed in Japanese. The whole area was fairly clean-looking and safe. The slight chill and grey skies suggested early morning, and the sidewalks were empty. All in all, this felt much closer to home than the Calla had been. Even the slight smell of gasoline, more noticeable due to the lack of it during the past few days, was comforting in its own way.

"Hm... It might be..." Rei's voice trailed off. She cast a quick sideways glance towards Kagami.

"Are you thinking of that too?" Joshua said. "I mean, I wouldn't jump to conclusions, but..."

"What? What's going on?" Kagami said. "Do you know where we are?"

"It looks a lot like your world did. Before the whole demon situation, at least," Joshua said. He noticed the look in her eyes as her heart leapt. "Now, don't get your hopes up. It's possible that if Konata's the one making these doorways for us, she could have gotten us where you want to be, but I've been to plenty of worlds that look close to this."

"Sure... I get it. So this is what the world I live in looks like to you people?" Kagami took a better look around. This was what Konata was used to. How did she deal with it? Anime wasn't all that terrible, but that was when it stayed on the screen where it belonged.

"This is... You live in a world like this, Kagami?" Mikuru said.

"It definitely could be Lucky Star, but..." Rei shrugged. "Actually, the more I consider it, this really does look like it. You look exactly like you did when we first met, Kagami."

She was beginning to think that maybe she knew this part of Tokyo. But, to be honest, right now it would be difficult to recognize her own house... Was it possible that they were in her own world, that she might be home in just a couple hours? Now she wouldn't want to believe any differently. This was her home.

Across the streets, there were plenty of colorful signs, billboards, advertising all sorts of things.

"This is Akihabara, isn't it? I mean, I can tell that much..." she said slowly. "I guess there are a lot of Tokyos out there, but... it just feels like..."

"Come on. What's your address? We could start by checking out your house and seeing if it's still the Hiiragi residence," Rei suggested. "It won't hurt to look."

No, it wouldn't hurt just to check it out. As long as it did turn out to be the right world, because if by any chance it wasn't... Kagami just didn't want to consider that right now. Not when they were so close.

Tsukasa didn't notice anything at first, just that she was in a lot of pain after that fall. First those demons, then giant robots. She couldn't take much more of this. Her hand went to her pocket, searching for the COMP. Even after all that had happened... Especially after all that had happened... It made her feel safe to know that it was there. Her leg hurt. But she could still move it.

"Alright. So it looks like we got out of another one," Dante said. His voice was the only sound, other than a few background noises... Wind blowing through trees, some chirping insects.

Tsukasa stared up, away from her injured leg that she was starting to think might be sprained, or fractured. They were in a forest. Kamina was standing behind her, he'd been the one who had grabbed onto her and dragged her through the door. It had been rough, but she wasn't mad as long as they were safe now. The others were standing around her, but they looked different... Why?

Because this world looked real.

Her hand shot up to the side of her head, and she took a lock of her hair and held it up where she could look at it. Brown, not purple. She smiled, momentarily forgetting everything else. It was like waking up from a terrifying, surreal dream.

"Tsukasa? Are you okay?" Kyon asked her. He looked really different, she barely recognized him.

"Yes... I think I am..."

It was pretty nice here, actually. Tall pine trees were growing all around. Very green and pleasant. There was one that had fallen; the trunk was split into a million jagged spikes where it had broken. The weather was just a little bit chilly, but still comfortable. It reminded her of early fall... Actually, when they'd been in Kyon's world, this is about what the weather had been like.

When was the last time she'd felt like this? It was so peaceful. For once, it seemed like nothing was about to happen, absolutely nothing. That wasn't a boring feeling, it was comforting. Ever since the very first quake had hit the restaurant she'd gone to with her sister and Miyuki, Tsukasa had never been able to tell what was going to happen next. Demons, giant robots... Even seeing Konata alive again had been a little scary and confusing.

"So where do you suppose we are now? Canada, maybe?" Kyon suggested.

"Heh. Looks like it," Dante said. He took a deep breath in, smelling the aroma of pine needles. "Nice to be in the real world again."

"Don't you get it?" Kamina said, pronouncing each word slowly. He seemed offended, for some reason. "All of those worlds are real. And that's why I'm still pretty pissed that we weren't able to do anything for them. You didn't understand that?" He was yelling at this point, and Tsukasa cringed.

"Geez, no need to get so worked up about it... I thought we were trying to find this Haruhi girl. What happened to that?" Dante said.

All of them fell silent at that. Kyon opened his mouth once, like he was going to comment, but then reconsidered. Tsukasa tried to stand up, and found she could, although it was still difficult to keep her balance. It had been a nasty fall, but she wasn't angry at Kamina. He'd been the one to get them out safely in the first place, and wasn't that worth having to walk with a limp for a little bit?

"First things first. I'd rather not be stuck in the middle of the woods for too long, so shouldn't we at least try to find a way out of here?" Kyon said. "There's gotta be some kind of civilization around here."

Dante nodded, considering the prospect. "He's got a point."

There wasn't so much as a dirt path cut out through these woods, and it was quiet all over except for the distant sound of a waterfall. It woudl be neat to find out where that was. Surely they were a long way off from any major cities, but it didn't look like people had ever been here in the first place.

"We'll look," Kamina agreed. "It seems normal enough for now, but when it comes to all these different universes you can never be sure."

At the very least, Tsukasa had decided, it didn't look like there would be any more robots or demons to worry about.

It had been a long time - maybe four, five years - since Konata had last seen Rurouni Kenshin. That had been one of the series that she'd watched together with her dad. It was also the basis for most of her knowledge of the Meiji era, since the slightly over-the-top fight scenes were infinitely more engaging than history class. Hey, this was the anime version, not the "historically-accurate" one, so all of what she'd seen was truth in this world.

But most of what she hadn't understood in that series was Kenshin's lingering guilt. He carried so much regret from being a deadly assassin in the war, known and feared by many. He'd killed tons of people, but to look at him as he was during the events of the story, you'd never know it. He was such a carefree guy, and he only fought when he was protecting the innocent. What was so bad? What's past is past.

Four or five years ago, Konata would never have imagined she might be in a similar moral predicament someday.

Yes, part of it was that, as she realized, she had killed hundreds of people. No, there had been that fiasco in the Evangelion world, and that made it... what? Thousands of people? Those memories were hard to repress.

She remembered the guy who'd attacked her in Haruhi's world when they went to the apartment. She remembered the expressions on her friend's faces as they watched her, and when she'd told them that killing was "nothing new" to her. Sure, it was self-defense. Things could've been worse if he'd been able to kill her, then what would've happened to the others? Besides... His eyes, and those claws where his hands were supposed to be. That guy hadn't been human. But others had. She couldn't deny that. She'd been in a war... Yes, she understood exactly what it must be like for Kenshin.

They hadn't actually seen him yet. They'd passed by the Kamiya school and it had seemed totally empty. Everyone must be out to lunch or something. Besides, the real objective here was to find the way out. She couldn't control her ability, but there were only so many old animes that they could get through before they found something significant.

"I can't help but feel like everyone's staring at us. That last world was one thing, but this..." Konata glanced over at Junpei. He was right, they weren't doing such a good job of fitting in as they strolled down the street.

It was the middle of the day and the streets of this town were pretty crowded. True, it was Tokyo. Minus all the tall buildings, and cars, and other modern conveniences that would have made it feel anything like Tokyo. But it was still one of the most populous cities in Japan. A hundred years in the past, T-shirts, jeans, and Junpei's baseball cap were unheard of. Of course everyone around here was dressed in traditional clothing of various dull colors.

"This is why, on a regular mission with Eclipse, we wouldn't dress this way," Jason said. "If we had time to prepare and plan ahead, we could've arranged something better."

"Who cares? Nothing we can do about it now," Konata muttered. She was staring down at the unpaved dirt road, still thinking things over in her mind and only tangentially listening to the conversation the others were having.

"I've gotta admit, it's pretty cool seeing all these different places," Junpei said, ignoring her. "Way cooler than even fighting during the Dark Hour was. Too bad things went to hell when I was supposed to join the Organization. Eclipse sounds like it would've been fun."

Sure, it had been, for a while. Konata wouldn't deny that. But she didn't bother to say anything for now.

"Konata, you mentioned this was an anime you were familiar with, correct? I'd like to hear more about it," Koizumi said. "Maybe we'll be able to figure out what to do next, like we did in that last world."

"Shouldn't we just try to get out? We haven't seen Haruhi anywhere. We need to pick up the pace," Konata said.

"True..."

Jason seemed to be considering something, and then he spoke. "Didn't the last door appear about the time you gave the book to Edward and Alphonse?" he asked. "I've been thinking about that, actually. There's no way to tell if it was exactly the same time... But maybe that caused it. You had to accomplish something before you would create the way out."

"Sure. I wanted to make sure I got that to them, since they needed it... But I don't see anything needing to be done here. I just want to find Haruhi and go home... I thought that's what I wanted the last time, though," Konata said.

Junpei stared at her. "You're sure there's nothing - "

She stopped moving. "I'm done with all of this. Finding Haruhi is the last thing I have to do, and nothing else matters." She hesitated. "Then... Then we're all going back home."

Shortly after Miyuki stepped out of the restaurant with the others, everything stopped.

People were frozen in their tracks wherever they had been standing. The color had gone out of them, and they were all gray. But everything else - the sky, the buildings, the street - had taken on a deep red hue, a drastic change from the bright sunny day they'd been enjoying. Before now, it had seemed like this world was normal, but now something was obviously happening again.

"Is this... closed space? It looks different..." she said. The feeling of dread was similar... Perhaps even greater. Red was such an unnerving color.

"Current method of data manipulation unknown," Nagato said. A normal person probably would have phrased that as "I don't know."

Someone gave a short gasp behind them, but composed herself as she began speaking. "So you're not affected by the Seal... Very well then." It was a girl's voice. The calm, even tone somehow didn't conceal the anger.

Miyuki turned around, surprised. The one who had spoken looked an awful lot like Konata-san... Except that in these worlds, Konata's hair would have been blue, so it couldn't be her. This girl had striking orange hair that looked like it was glowing. Her long black coat also looked like the one Konata had been wearing a few days ago, but she was wearing it over a military-green school uniform that Miyuki didn't recognize.

Most importantly, she held up a sword... Specifically, a katana, Miyuki noticed on closer observation. One that was very long and looked sharp. She pointed it at the four of them. It hung in the air perfectly still. Her hand didn't tremble in the slightest.

"I know exactly who you are and what you're doing here. Don't think I'll let my own world go down so easily."

"Hm? Your own world..." Spike thought for a moment. "Are you with - "

"Eclipse? Yes."

"Good, good. Would you mind giving us some help? We're kinda stuck here - "

She directed the sword's point his way, and her eyes narrowed. They were the same shade of orange that her hair was, and it didn't seem like that was a natural color even in this world. "I don't think so. It's ending right here."

"I believe you may have us confused for someone else," Alucard said calmly, not making any movements. "And if you expect to take us on alone, I would suggest you reconsider."

Miyuki stepped back, behind Spike and Alucard. Her hand went to her pocket again, feeling the card inside. There was no sound, no movement. Alucard drew one of his large pistols from his coat and pointed it towards the orange-haired girl.

He seemed to be grinning slightly. "Then shall we begin?"

Sure enough...

"That's..." Kagami checked the licence plate number one more time, just to be sure. "That's my Dad's car..."

And the house it was parked in front of was very familiar. Maybe Kagami was just so adapted to anime now that she recognized her house and her neighborhood even when it looked like this. It helped that all the colors stayed the same as far as scenery was concerned.

If she and Tsukasa had purple hair, then what would her mom and dad look like? And Inori, and Matsuri? It wasn't the first time she'd considered this. As they'd gotten closer to Washinomiya the thoughts had started running through her mind incessantly. She was almost afraid to go in.

It was probably about noon by now. They'd started seeing more people as the day began. At one point Kagami had seen a group of girls in the blue Ryoo sailor uniforms heading off to school. She had almost been expecting to run into someone she knew. Yutaka, maybe. Or maybe even Misao. Everyone seemed surprisingly calm, like they didn't remember anything about the demon attacks less than a week ago. But the city showed no signs of damage, since Konata had cleared all that away. Maybe she'd erased everyone's memories at the same time.

"This is it, right?" Rei said, looking at the regular-sized suburban home. "Your house."

Kagami nodded, but didn't move otherwise. She felt frozen to the spot. This couldn't just be a dream, right? It was too good to be true. And at the same time, so terrifying to come home and find it like this.

"Hm. Looks like we got lucky, then. Do you think any of the others made it?" Joshua said. "Konata did want all of you to end up here eventually..." He shrugged.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye, then," Rei said. She suddenly lunged towards Kagami and gave her a hug. "It's been really fun, but I guess you don't want to go through any more of it, huh?"

"Y-yeah..." Kagami said. She hesitantly put her arms up around Rei's shoulders, making a very subtle pushing motion trying to break away, but to no avail.

Rei finally pulled away. "Right when it was getting good, too... I mean what I said earlier. You really could've done well in Eclipse. Too bad we're not a part of it anymore, huh?"

"Sure. Thanks, but no thanks..." Kagami smiled nervously. Eclipse simply had no appeal to her, not in the slightest.

Mikuru looked back and forth at each of them. "We still need to keep going?" she asked.

"I'm beginning to wonder about what Konata was trying to accomplish, but she did say she wanted Kagami and the others to get home," Joshua said. "So here we are. Which almost makes me wonder if we'll actually run into Haruhi at some point soon."

"And I need to be there... In case you find her," Mikuru said. She was staring nervously at her feet. It was obvious she would have rather gone to her own home and forgotten this had ever happened. It was pitiful, really.

"Don't worry about it," Kagami said. "Maybe Konata's finally gotten control of what she's doing. It might not take much longer."

"Speaking of which, why don't we get going right away?" Rei suggested. "We don't need to keep you any longer, I guess."

"It's fine... Really," Kagami replied. "So I guess this is the end of the road. For me, anyway."

She watched them as they turned and walked away. Mikuru was a little hesitant. She'd probably rather just strand herself here than go on into whatever. They'd just keep going on, finding yet another doorway out of here that would lead them to wherever they were supposed to go... hopefully. Now that she realized that was all done, it felt great, and Kagami really did want Mikuru and the others to get back home so they could have the same peaceful feeling.

But turning back to her house... This whole anime thing, purple hair and all, was simply an aesthetic change. Sure, it had been nice having the world look as it was supposed to in the Calla, but she'd take her old normal lifestyle over the confusing jumble of post-apocalyptic America and misplaced pop culture references any day. In time, all of this would fade into the monotony of the daily routine, and she could try to forget anything had ever happened.

She walked up to the door. No need to knock, she lived here, didn't she? It was all the same as she remembered. Close enough, at least. She opened it, hesitating just a bit.

Konata had wanted her to explain what had happened if she got home before the others. Where to even start...

Here was the front hallway, with the phone by the side wall. Across from that was the living room, the low table was the same one as always where she and Tsukasa used to do homework assignments together. It was quiet. She wondered if Tsukasa had gotten back... Or Miyuki. Or even if Konata had passed through, though if she had she'd probably keep moving and not stay for too long.

"H-hello? I'm back..." she said. It sounded odd, but what else was there to say right now?

She almost stopped dead when she heard her mother's voice replying from somewhere else - the family room, maybe the kitchen. "Kagami? Is that you? You're back from school early."