The whole gang found themselves in the middle of San Francisco, a location selected by James based on his visit to the city from when he had departed for Japan back in 1912. Unlike in real life, however, the weather in the city for the day inside the dream was rainy and stormy. As Mitsuri stood on a sidewalk and waited for the gang to pick her up, she said to herself as she felt her flattened abdomen, "It feels so weird being not pregnant. Well, at least I can fight in this dream without worrying about my child." After hearing some thunder above, she noticed a few of the projections that had been supplied by Hideki staring at her and sighed, "But of course my uniform will still get attention. No matter, though. I got a job to do… Whatever that may be."

"Hey, Kanroji-san!"

Mitsuri then looked at a passing cable car and saw that the gang was all riding aboard. "Want me to get on?!"

"Yeah," James shouted over to her. "Get outta the rain and get on! We'll tell ya more about what's goin' on!"

As Mitsuri climbed onto the cable car, she instinctively reached into her uniform and pulled out a small wallet containing money. When she opened it up, she found that all of her bills and coins were in American dollars. She asked James, "Uh, my money is all in American. How much do I give the attendant?"

"Give him a dime, the smallest coins we have. That's ten cents."

"Okay," said Mitsuri before she silently handed the attendant a dime.

The attendant said to her in Japanese after receiving the dime for the ride, "Thank you."

Mitsuri, shocked, asked James, "Wait, he can speak Japanese?!"

"The projections here are all from Watanabe's mind," James replied. "If they were from mine, they'd all be speaking English instead."

"This is so weird…" Mitsuri then sat down and asked Susamaru, "So, what's going on exactly?"

"Watanabe Hideki has plans to build a hydroelectric dam in Korea," Susamaru explained. "Saito Yoichi wants those plans so he can try to get a contract to build dams in Taiwan and mainland Japan. He fears that Watanabe will have a monopoly if he doesn't get the plans."

"So corporate espionage?"

"Basically," James replied.

Mitsuri then turned to Senjuro, who was sitting across from her, and asked him, "It's good to see you again. It's been a while, Senjuro-kun. How's your father doing?"

"He's doing pretty good," he replied with a nod. "He's cut down heavily on his drinking ever since my brother died. It's good to see him improving himself after so long."

"Hey guys," Reiko then said to the group as she pointed out of a window and to the sidewalk. "I think that's our guy right there."

"It is," James replied.

As they all watched, Hideki climbed aboard the cable car and paid the fare to get on before sitting down next to Senjuro and Tsuyoshi. He said to the others, "It's raining hard out there. I'm glad I was able to catch a streetcar in time."

"Yeah," Tsuyoshi replied, acting normal for the time being. "I got soaked myself."

James then nodded to the others, a sign that it was now time to take action. He pulled out his revolver and aimed it at the attendant, telling him, "Get off the streetcar now!"

As James pushed him, the attendant yelled, "What the fuck?!"

Tokuhei and Susamaru drew their own guns and ran to the front of the car, with the latter yelling at the gripman, "This is our car now! Get off!"

"Hey, wait!"

Susamaru then pushed the gripman off of the car, soon followed by James doing the same for the attendant. She then stopped the car by pulling a lever that allowed the car to let go of the cable underneath the street. "Alright. We're in control."

Hideki, realizing he was outgunned, pulled out his wallet and told James, "Here. There's about 200 in there. The wallet itself is worth about 30."

"Actually," James replied to him, declining the money. "We aren't here for that. We're here to protect you."

"What do you mean protect me?"

"There's a plot to assassinate you," James explained. "And the people running this cable car were in on it." The plan was to fake an assassination plot against Hideki in the dream by using the inevitable response from his subconscious projections as proof he was under attack, allowing the team to gain his trust.

"A plot to assassinate me, huh?"

The group was then interrupted by gunshots that flew through the cable car. As everyone ducked down, Senjuro and Tsuyoshi covered Hideki and moved him towards the front while James took air and fired at four armed projections that stepped out of a building nearby. "Fuck, get down!" He then yelled to Mitsuri, "Get your own gun out!"

Mitsuri obliged and began firing at the projections as well. She asked James, "Who are those guys?!"

"Armed projections," James told her. "I think Watanabe has a weaponized subconscious after all! We have to stop them!"

"What about that assassination plot?"

"I made that up to get his trust," James said as he fired his sixth and final shot. "Cover me! I gotta reload!"

"Got it," Mitsuri replied as she shot and killed the last two projections. "I got the last two! Are there any more?!"

"I ain't sure," James replied as he reloaded his revolver with a speedloader. "But if he's been trained to have a weaponized subconscious, these fuckers ain't gonna stop anytime soon!"

In the front of the car, Senjuro told Hideki, "See what we mean? There's a plot to kill you, Watanabe-san."

"Fuck, you're right," he replied. "I guess my company ideally is too lucrative. Where will we go?"

"No idea yet," Susamaru told him. "I'm awaiting orders from the leader of the security group."

Hideki then told her, Tsuyoshi, and Susamaru, "Thanks for this. My father always made sure to pay well for security."

They were then once again interrupted by gunshots, this time coming from the front of the streetcar. Susamaru told Hideki, "Get down if you want to live!" She then blind-fired around the front and struck down two armed projections.

James, from the back, told the group, "We need to leave the streetcar! We ain't gonna stay alive if we stay here! Come on!" The whole group then followed him off of the streetcar. By pure luck, a warehouse was nearby. "To that warehouse! Come on!"

As they all dashed for the warehouse, they heard more gunshots pop off in the distance as several more armed projections began firing at them. Mitsuri, having just reloaded, stopped to exchange fire with them briefly before running back towards the group. She told the group, "There's another three or so coming our way!"

James quickly shut the door behind the group, but not before firing off all six shots of his revolver at the trio, killing them. Once the door was shut, the group looked around the empty and seemingly abandoned warehouse for any signs of intruders as thunder roared overhead from the rainstorm. James told Hideki, "Sorry for all that. You got a whole army after you, it seems like."

"Holy shit," Hideki said to himself. "I knew my family's company was valuable, but not to this extent. I'll need a minute to sit down."

"There's an office right there," James pointed out to him.

"Thank you for all this," Hideki then said with a bow.

After he entered the office to recuperate and clear his mind of what had just happened, an angry Tsuyoshi grabbed James by Kyojuro's former haori and demanded of him, "What the fuck was that?!"

"He's clearly got a weaponized subconscious," James explained as he tried to remove Tsuyoshi's grip.

"You said that was almost impossible!"

"Hence why I said almost," James pointed out.

"Well how the fuck did he get one?!"

"Calm down," Reiko told Tsuyoshi as he pried his hand off of the Rengoku haori. "Come on. We can't fight among ourselves now. Not like this."

"Someone had to have trained him," James theorized. "But who? Barely anyone knows about dreamsharin' in Japan besides us and a few other people in the corps like Tanjiro."

Mitsuri asked him, "Did you see anyone observing what happened the night Kyojuro-san died?"

James paused to think. As he did, he tried to remember if he saw anyone near the wreck of the Infinity Train on the night Kyojuro had been killed by Akaza. That was when he recalled seeing another American boarding the train. "Hey, wait a sec… I recall seein' another American at the station before we left."

Susamaru remembered as well, "Oh yeah, you did. He had a uniform from the US Army, didn't he?"

"He did," James replied. "He was a Major. I think his last name was Miles. I didn't get to see the rest of his name, or even talk to him at all, though." Now on a hunch, he told the group, "Stay out here. I'm gonna go talk to Watanabe about this."

As he entered the office, Mitsuri told Susamaru, "I'm starting to slowly get it."

"Don't worry," she assured her. "It took a while for me to understand everything, too."

Tsuyoshi, meanwhile, was still angry. He told Reiko and Tokuhei, "What the fuck is this shit?! I didn't agree to all this!"

"We'll it's too late to go back now," Tokuhei pointed out.

"Oh, bullshit," Tsuyoshi replied before pulling out his gun and aiming it at his head. "I can exit by killing myself."

Remembering something James had mentioned earlier, Susamaru immediately yelled, "Wait, wait, no! Don't do that! You won't wake up!"

"Won't wake up?" Tsuyoshi asked her out of confusion, "What the Hell do you mean? That's how it worked in all other dreams."

"This isn't like other dreams," Susamaru explained. "The type of spell James used is an extremely powerful sedative. Dying in a dream this deep won't wake you up. It'll put you in limbo."

Mitsuri asked her, "What's limbo?"

"James told me it's endless unconstructed dreamspace. There is nothing down there except for whatever that might have been left behind by whoever's sharing the dream who was trapped down there before. It's incredibly easy to get lost, and if you do, you could wind up in a situation where you never wake up."

Tsuyoshi asked, "Never wake up?"

"You'll die in the real world, still trapped in limbo. Your mind will be totally and completely fucked beyond recognition by then. The only way to get out of this dream will be to have a synchronized Kick Event, which is what we originally planned."

"Fucking Hell…"

Mitsuri asked Susamaru, "And how do we do that?"

"We use explosives," she explained. "We'll gather up everyone that's asleep and place them next to a bomb, and at an exact time, the person left behind on each dream level will set off the bomb. It's what we did on the Infinity Train."

Inside the office, James sat down across from Hideki and told him, "Again, apologies for the sudden introduction, Watanabe-sama."

"It's fine," he assured him. "Better that than death."

"Exactly. By the way, Watanabe-sama, I gotta ask you somethin' regardin' a potential business transaction you may have had in the past. Nothin' you say is gon' leave this room, so you can tell me anythin' you want."

Hideki replied, "Sure. Go ahead. What do you want to know?"

"Have y'all interacted with a certain Major Miles from the US Army in recent months?"

Hideki nodded. "As a matter of fact, I have. He was Major Stephen Miles Sr. of the US Army. He contacted me and offered me some kind of security training in early January. He said that he could train my mind to ward off people invading my dreams."

"Dreams, huh?"

"I thought it was complete bullshit honestly, but he insisted I go through with it. Sure enough, he was able to show me how people can get into my dreams and whatnot. It somewhat frightened me at first, actually."

"How was it when you first experienced that kind of dreamin'?"

"It was incredible. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing. It brought tears to my eyes when I was able to manipulate my dreams so smoothly. It takes a lot to get me to cry, and that certainly didn't the trick."

"And what happened after that?"

"After that," Hideki explained. "He showed me how people could try to steal confidential information from my mind, and he offered how to train my mind to fight such attempts. It took about two weeks to do it."

"Have ya had to use your trainin' yet?"

"No, thankfully. I bet someone will force me to at some point, though. Dream infiltration is reportedly becoming more popular in America according to Miles-san."

"I see."

"Do you suspect he has something to do with this assassination plot?"

"I don't think he's behind it," James explained. "What I think is happenin' is that one of your competitors is tryin' to kidnap you and force you into a dream, and then kill you when they're done with you."

"I see…"

"I'll leave ya in here a little bit longer to relax," James then said as he got up to leave the office. "If ya need me, I'll be right outside."

"Thank you for all this," Hideki then told him. "Really. I know I keep repeating myself, but I mean it. It's been a rough few weeks ever since my father died, and knowing that my company has such a dedicated security team really puts my mind at ease."

James smiled and replied before leaving the office, "Thank you. It's our duty, sir."

Once he closed the door behind him, Susamaru asked him, "Does he know a Major Miles?"

"It's even worse," James informed. "Everyone, that guy I saw on the train somehow managed to train Watanabe to have a weaponized subconscious about a month and a half ago. Dreamsharing is really taking off, and Major Stephen Miles of the US Army is apparently at the forefront of it."

Mitsuri asked him, "How will that affect your mission?"

"Well we did gain his trust pretty quickly," James replied. "So that part's already squared away. Honestly, I thought that part would have taken longer, so in a way, we're actually ahead of the curve here. The only issue is that we'll have to move fast once we begin dreaming up more levels."

Tsuyoshi then asked him, "Susamaru-san told us we'll be trapped in something called limbo if we die. Is that really true?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Fuck…"

"That's why we got Kick Events to wake us all up on all levels we create."

Tsuyoshi told James, "Leave me behind on this level. This is getting too confusing as it is."

"Are ya sure? You'll have to fight off all the armed projections."

"I'll find a way," he insisted.

"If you want," Senjuro then offered. "I can stay with him to back him up."

"That's fine," James replied. "The next level shouldn't be as bad. The trainin' Watanabe got seems rudimentary, so the deeper we go, the weaker the weaponization of his subconscious will be."

Mitsuri then asked him, "How are we gonna go to the next level?"

"We'll do the spell inside the office," James explained as he pulled out another spell scroll. He then looked at a large wooden box near the office and said, "If I generated and architected this dream properly, that box should contain explosives to initiate a Kick Event plus extra guns and ammunition."

Senjuro told James, "We won't let you down."

Tsuyoshi asked him, "How long will this be?"

"Give us fifteen minutes in this level," James explained. "This will give us three-hundred minutes, or about five hours, in the next level."

Tsuyoshi replied, "Alright. Fine. We can do fifteen minutes."

Senjuro then opened up the box and found a bomb plus several rifles and four boxes of ammunition. "You were right, James-san. We got everything we need right here."

"Perfect," James then said. "Let's head in and go down to the next level." He then told Senjuro, "Shapeshift usin' the trainin' I gave you into a random armed man and pretend to put us in a dream, okay? Make sure you're holdin' some kind of needle when ya do it."

"Got it," Senjuro replied before snapping his fingers and rapidly changing his appearance to that of an average-looking man holding a rifle and a needle. "When do you want me to break in?"

"Give us about a minute." As they all walked to the office, James told them, "Remember, don't mention our true purpose."

As the gang minus Senjuro and Tsuyoshi all walked in, Hideki asked James, "So, what's our plan now?"

"We'll need to find a way out of here," James explained. "It's getting pretty bad out there. The storm's only gettin' worse, and it's only a matter of time before these bastards huntin' you down find us."

"Shit, you're right." By coincidence, lightning happened to strike a building next door, sending a blinding flash of light and a thunderous roar all throughout the warehouse and startling everyone. "Wow… That one was close."

"See what I mean? Now, what I'm thinkin' is that we shou-"

At that moment, a disguised Senjuro broke into the office. Hideki yelled, "Who the Hell is that?!"

"Get back," Mitsuri shouted as she tried to push Senjuro away, playing her part. Send offered no resistance as Senjuro pushed her out of the way. "Agh, shit!"

"I'm gonna enter a dream," Senjuro yelled at Hideki. "And you're coming with me!"

Hideki screamed as Senjuro grabbed him, "Get away from me! No!" In a few seconds, Senjuro stabbed him with the needle, while at the same time, James lit up another spell scroll and quietly chanted another dream spell to put everyone in the room except Senjuro in a dream.

On cue, everyone fell asleep except Senjuro, who then snapped his fingers to change back to his normal form. "Alright, we got that out of the way." He then walked back out of the office to grab the bomb from the wooden box and place it inside. Once that was done, he told Tsuyoshi, "They're all in the second layer."

"That just leaves us," he said as he grabbed a Winchester rifle from the box and began to load it. "Let's get ready for the onslaught, Senjuro."