Yet another month had passed by for Evan since he had been unceremoniously isekai'd. Now, he was packing up to go back to where it all started, Lungmen. He had to admit that he was a little excited, but he was also nervous. Why? Well, he hadn't left Lungmen on the greatest of terms with rumors that he slept with two of the LGD's top officers, Senior Lieutenant Beatrice Swire and Senior Superintendent Ch'en Hui-chieh. Yeah, he was a bit nervous given Swire's quick temper and Ch'en's cold ruthlessness. He didn't think they would blame him, but he didn't like the idea that the rumors could have gotten worse.

Speaking of Swire, she actually still kept in touch with him, via mail of course, and one such letter contained her PDA contact information for when he did get into Lungmen. After all, Beatrice was rather generous, offering him work and fixing his car, which had undergone minor modifications to allow it to traverse the wastelands. Nothing much beyond a tire change and a change in suspension height, but it had been changed from a vehicle used to having road infrastructure.

"Well color me surprised, it actually looks nice," Closure commented before popping open the hood, stars sparkling in her eyes as she looked at the interior. "Whoa, look at all this! I've never seen anything like it. Oh look, a battery. You said this thing can help assist the car?"

"I'm not sure, it might be a larger battery stored in a different part of the car, but I think this battery starts the combustion engine."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. But wow, this is much more complex than anything we've made. Hey, would you-"

"No, you can only study, not touch or take apart. Use laser scanning or something to figure it out."

"Ugh, fine, I'll use non-invasive, non-damaging arts procedures to scan it. You're no fun."

"Quit pouting, you know I'm not letting you deconstruct my car!"

After that, Closure sputtered and then started laughing merrily. Unable to help himself, he joined in a little. This earned them glances from their travel partners who were already there, which included the two Penguin Logistics operators who had taken him to Rhodes Island in the first place. Add in Mayer who made the demonstration, and then you had almost everyone.

"Seems you two get along well," the final operator said from leaning on the wall. "Closure works with almost nothing but her drones for a while, it's nice to see her taking on more."

Closure turned to him and put her hands on her hips, "Oh, quiet Ace. Even you can't tell me the service drones haven't been useful."

Ace merely grinned at this. The man himself was obviously liberi or something with minimal animal features, but what was most striking was his chiseled facial structure full of masculine features almost hidden by his scruffy, thick, but neat beard. He wore heavy sunglasses and had a headset that didn't seem to muffle outside noise given the fact he could talk normally. Beside him was a massive riot shield and a large backpack full of god knows what. Finally, strapped to his belt was a simple hammer for a weapon. The man himself was very meaty, and it made Evan wonder how strong he was by this world's standards if Swire lifting him like a ragdoll was anything to consider.

It didn't take long for the preparations to get finished, and once they were it was time to divvy up who rode in which car. Closure, of course, insisted she was riding with Evan. Surprisingly, Texas offered to ride with them, under the pretext that the car needed at least one combat operator in it. Thankfully, Lungmen wasn't going to be a long trip, but it wasn't going to be any easy one with the head of the Engineering Department sitting shotgun in a car from another world.

"What's this button do?" she asked, pointing to the buttons not in Terran Script, as Evan took to calling it, which was surprising as he nearly grabbed her hand expecting her to haphazardly push the button.

"That's the fan, for the AC."

"Oh, duh. Fan, how does it cool itself without using arts though?"

"It just pumps hot air out."

"Whoa, that's so simple of an explanation," she spat, which made him snicker a little, which in turn earned him an elbow to his arm. "Seriously though, how does it work? How do you separate the hot air anyways?"

"Well, you heat up a refrigerant-"

"Refrigerant? What the heck is that?"

"A coolant, essentially, I'll see if I can give specifics later. Anyways, the refrigerant is heated up by its environment inside the space you want to cool. After that, it's pumped into a chamber connected outside where fans blow air out as heat transfers from the coolant to the outside air, then it's pumped back inside and the cycle repeats."

"That's…a lot more complicated than pumping hot air out, it's more like you're pumping heat and then using air to blow it out. Anyways, normal AC is made by using arts to cool down the air then releasing it back in, much simpler."

"Except you need originium, so if the AC needs repair or breaks down, you have what could be active originium being spewed into the air or you need to be careful your energy source hasn't been ruptured."

Closure just blinked dumbly at this, a little wide eyed, but then she grinned shortly after.

"Well I'll be damned, I never thought about it that way. Normally we just contain the originium as best we can, but I guess if that breaks down it does pose an infection risk. I never thought about that."

"I'm so surprised that this world flocks to such a dangerous material for energy. Sure, it's convenient, but it makes me wonder how many billions of dollars is spent treating the infected rather than implementing better safety measures or alternatives."

"It's too easy to make money off of," Texas chimed in from the back. "If you see the price on originium products and originite fuel, it's pretty clear whoever is making money makes a lot of it."

What Texas just said made all too much sense, which was rather depressing. It also explained why even though there were signs he wasn't the first transported here, no serious effort to change the status quo was made. Just like how his world continued to use fossil fuels to make money the old fashioned way, Terra had its own old fashioned way which had its own drawbacks. It seemed oripathy was just another tragedy to mix into the consequences.

"Hey, don't look so gloomy there. You're helping, after all. Besides, this works right into one of Rhodes Island's base goals of fighting oripathy if you think about it. Who knows, maybe thanks to you a day will come when the mines are quarantined and we'll be left wondering why we ever used it for things other than arts in the first place," Closure encouraged with a much more somber smile on her face. He didn't get to enjoy the moment long as it quickly gave way to her greedy drooling as she added, "And think how much richer we'll be when that day comes."

Again, just when he was starting to think better of her.

Getting into Lungmen was relatively easy, considering he still had that little pass Ch'en gave him was still on hand, so when they pulled into Lungmen, they reached their destination just a little earlier than expected. This became especially evident when a certain duo came into the door, bickering as usual, only for a large thump to be heard as a certain heiress pounced him in the split second she saw him.

"Hey, Evan!" Beatrice excitedly said before curling her fingers and giving a bright smile. "Gao~."

"What are you…oh my god I really have entered an anime universe."

Not far off, some lungmen explicatives were clearly said as Ch'en ripped Swire off of Evan.

"Let me go!"

"Get off our guest, you're being shameful."

The tiger lady then flashed Ch'en a wicked grin and said, "What, you jealous?"

Evan was hoping Ch'en wouldn't fall for the obvious provocation, but to his horror she immediately blushed and let go, crossing her arms and turning away. To his further horror, Beatrice snickered and leaned behind her superior and continued teasing her, "I knew it, you're totally jealous. Aren't ya, aren't ya?"

This earned a very quick explicative and for Ch'en to whip around and point her finger at the rich lieutenant.

"I am not, you-!"

"Ugghh…" Evan groaned very loudly and openly, drawing both their attention. "Do either of you have the self awareness to the rumors of me allegedly sleeping with both of you?"

This earned more than a gasp from Closure and Croissant in particular, and Texas' attention apparently.

"Oh. My. Gosh. Evan!" Closure said with her mouth barely covered by her open hand and an ear to ear grin. "You didn't tell me you slept with Madame Ch'en and Miss Swire?!"

"I did not!" all three of them shouted in unison, Ch'en blushing the heaviest.

This earned a very hearty laugh from Closure as she wrapped her arm around Evan and cheerfully poked, "Just messin with ya, there's no way this guy isn't a virgin."

"You're exactly right, Closure."

"Eh?" she sounded, a blank stare aimed at him, as he stood there with his arms crossed, genuinely surprised at this revelation. "Wait, are you serious?"

Silence.

Evan dared to peek an eye open and saw everyone staring at him.

"What? Is it seriously that surprising?"

"N-No, I-...Wh-...Uh…" Closure struggled, clearly still trying to process the confirmative information she just received. Swire's mouth hung dumbly open, Ch'en had a raised brow, and he had no idea about the operators behind him, but judging from the silence it was surely as surprising to them as well.

"Oh come on, is it really that surprising?"

"N-No, I just…didn't expect you to…say it. Hehe," Closure responded, laughing nervously to try and clear the air, slipping her arm off him to rub the back of her head. "Ok…, let's get going. Which floor is the meeting on again?"

Following the awkward elevator ride, the group made their way to the meeting room. Again, Wei loved his reds and oranges, but this one was a proper meeting room with an array of people at it. Immediately, Ch'en and Swire took their respective seats. The dragon taking a seat to the right of Wei Yenwu, and the tiger took a seemingly random seat. If distance from Lungmen's chief was any indicator, Swire's seat was surprisingly close.

Once he was seated, Evan noticed something, almost everyone in the room was looking at him. Well, everyone that wasn't a Rhodes Island operator. He took a mental gulp for courage and took time to think, coming up with scenarios in his head. He hoped Closure and Mayer would take the bulk, but he had a bad feeling about those odds with the amount of judging he was clearly receiving. Many of the elites in the room were sizing him up, trying to see what angle he would play. The room wasn't hard to read, but the people, that was another story.

"Everyone appears to be here. First, I would like to introduce our guests. No doubt, you all know of Rhodes Island, the pharmaceutical company that managed to partner with Blacksteel and more recently, Rhine Lab. This," Wei started before pointing his pipe at Closure, "is Rhodes Island's Head of Engineering, Miss Closure. The one next to her is the pioneer of this remarkable technology, Evan Carvey. They are here to sell us a new technology, a device that can turn sunlight into electrical power. If you would, we would like to see the device."

"Certainly," Closure responded. She then took the device from Croissant, who was charged with transporting it, and opened its container. Afterwards she placed the device on the table, and those who haven't seen it looked at it in wonder. A thin board of solar cells attached to some electrical equipment, including a switch and a lightbulb. "This is our demonstration model, once Rhine Lab has access to the prototypes, they will be the ones responsible for optimizing the device for consumer use."

Once that came, a round of questions came to Closure which she answered readily and happily. Watching their reactions, he could tell each of them was impressed the more that was explained, and then someone broached the subject of arts. This was when Closure gave a grin and turned her head to Evan that clearly said 'your turn'.

"Actually, the device does not run on arts or originium, rather it only takes advantage of something called the Photo-electric Effect, I won't get into the full explanation, but it is when electric charge is created and moved when light strikes certain materials. By placing n-type silicon over p-type silicon, this effect can be controlled to create an electric current. Here, I'll show you through the demonstration model."

Once the switch flipped and the light turned on, a few gasps were heard and a wave of questions started pouring in. He had to explain things such as how no, this couldn't replace originium reactors unless it was a lot and yes, it didn't produce power during the night. More technical questions such as its uses in small scale power came later.

After a time, the meeting was dismissed for lunch and Chief Wei said that Lungmen needed time to come to a decision and they were dismissed for the day as they would announce the verdict on whether or not to buy the technology tomorrow.

After that, the group itself split up between the Penguin Logistics operators who were going back to said logistics company and the rest of them who made their way to the branch office. In all honesty, he was kind of hoping he would've gotten to spend some time with Ch'en or Beatrice as it had been three months since he last saw either. It seemed that would have to wait though.

After checking in at the front desk, they walked through to an area that looked an awful lot like the Rhodes Island dorms, with hallways of rooms that had one or more beds built into the walls. That was when Closure turned around and announced how they would bunk.

"Alright, I'm going to take this room, Evan and Ace, you two share a two bed room, since Evan hasn't had any combat training, I think this would be in his best interest. Can't have our guest of honor getting kidnapped in the middle of the night."

"Has that happened?" he asked nervously. Closure's response was to giggle before replying.

"Nope, but we have had raids by underground organizations. Typically they spike when Penguin Logistics operators are in the building, but we should be safe tonight."

What in the world was Penguin Logistics up to if they were a variable in mobster raids?

"But, regardless, you should be in good hands. Ace is one of our finest, an Elite Operator of Rhodes Island's combat operators. Well, ciao, have a good day. I'm off to check stuff around the facility. Been a while since I was off the landship."

With that, his boss and the otter were gone, leaving him alone. Well, not entirely if he counted the bombastic Mayer and the hulking presence of Ace.

"Well, since it's around lunch time, how do you two feel about grabbing some grub? I know a good noodle place not too far from here."

"Ooh, it's been a while since I've had Yen style noodles, authentic no less. Count me in!"

"Sure, I'm up for some Chinese," Evan said out loud by mistake, this earned him some weird looks, leading him to scratch his head nervously while looking for an excuse. He gave a nervous laugh before correcting, "Yes…Yen…um…cuisine?"

"Yeah, great going there."

To his surprise, Ace just gave a smile and said, "Alright, let's go."

Mildly confused, Evan just decided to ignore it for now and followed Ace as he led them to the aforementioned noodle place. A short walk through Lungmen's busy streets revealed it was indeed a noodle place. A noodle stand was more like it. By that he meant your stereotypical outdoor ramen restaurant with cloth screens displaying the logo being the only semblance of doors. The smell of ramen was quite welcoming, and his nose could already tell he would be enjoying the food here, if his distinguishing palette didn't have anything to say about it.

Upon sitting down, he found himself flanked by Mayer on his left and Ace on his right. Immediately, the shopkeep noticed his new customers and greeted them fondly. Evan noticed a pile of menus and took out two, giving one to Mayer as she was farthest from them. There was a listing of tap beer, and after a small inquiry about what each were, he settled on an amber ale which Mayer also ordered. Ace didn't even have to ask to get what looked like an IPA to Evan at first glance. Ace offered a sip, which he decided was worth trying, only to have his mouth assaulted by the sheer bitterness of a very, very strong IPA which he visibly struggled to swallow.

"Guess I should've warned ya," Ace grinned before taking a sip of his own.

"No, just, wow that is strong. I guess it fits your character though."

"Ha, I guess you could say that. You wouldn't be the only one either."

The two shared a short laugh, and then Ace changed the topic.

"So how'd a rumor that you slept with Miss Swire and Madame Ch'en get started anyway?"

With his guard completely fallen, beer flooded his sinuses and he nearly screamed. Evan earned a concerned look from Mayer while Ace had a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Ugh, not pleasant. Also, you bring that up here, now?"

"I'm curious, it sounds like an interesting story."

Before reciting the story, Evan poorly decided to begin chugging his beer down. Liquid courage, or social lubricant as one could call it. "Another beer please. Thank you. Now then, it all started when I collided with Beatrice's car."

A splash resounded as a large object slammed into the river. Above the bridge it was chucked from, an emperor penguin dressed in gangster attire looked down and whistled.

"Well that made one hell of a splash, hey send the next fat tony down."

"Aye aye, Boss!" a cheerful acknowledgement came from a redhead with short hair covering one eye as Croissant lifted a comically overweight mobster onto the railing with gag covering his face. With one swift motion, the knot on his hands was undone and the redhead smiled cheerfully, face lit by a halo of light as she kicked him down with a smile. "Have a nice trip!"

The muffled cries sounded all the way down and a small wave rippled from the source of impact, creating a sizable up and down in the water along the banks. Both penguin and angel watched with great satisfaction as the fat mobster then struggled to swim his way to shore, the river carrying him down away from them.

"Next!" the penguin called in his surprisingly baritone voice as another mobster was handed off to Croissant from Texas, and the process repeated, angel giving a cheery farewell to the mobster who screamed the whole way down, muffled by the gag he had on. "Nice, big splash! Alright, send a skinny guy in so I can see how pathetic of a splash he makes."

Texas effortlessly lifted the collar of the designated target who began shaking his head and muffled screaming sounded from under his gag. It was in vain though as Croissant slung him over her shoulder like a sack and set him over the railing like he was laundry out to dry. This rather chaotically entertaining string of events went on for a while before the emperor penguin called for the next one, only to be met with silence.

"What are-, oh that's all of them," he said before hopping off a crate he had dragged to the railing to get a good view. "Alright, let's pack up and go home, whatever's left of it anyways. Hopefully that's the last of these wannabe Sicilians for the week. That'll teach 'em to mess with the Emperor."

"You said it boss," the angel cheerily agreed as she gathered up the rope she had saved.

Meanwhile on the railing, a girl in an idol suit kicked the air as she made conversation with the least talkative of the group. If one knew what to look for, however, they would be able to tell Texas was in fact listening intently to this girl's idle chatter. It was mostly little things, like what went on in Lungmen while she was gone, but then a new subject was broached as she began asking about Texas' time at Rhodes Island.

"So, how was your time at Rhodes Island? Anything new or interesting?"

"Nothing of note beyond the fact both trips were transporting the same person."

"Oooh, unusual. Who was it? Someone important?"

"An engineer intern under Miss Closure."

"Aren't ya leavin' out the best part there, Texas?" Croissant asked from nearby. "The fact he came up with somethin' that can turn light, of all things, into energy. Sellin' it right here in Lungmen too. Wish I could get a hold of somethin' that could make as much as that."

"Maybe it can turn my halo light into energy," Exusiai added, pointing to the unusual appendage unique to the sankta race. This earned a small chuckle from the two more expressive of the Penguin Logistics crew. Emperor merely gave an amused chuff in response.

"Does it even work?"

"Saw it with my own eyes, I did, Sora. I don't think I could say 'nuff about how impressive it is that he could make such a thing."

As the four continued their banter, Emperor pulled a cigar to his beak. How he managed to light it with his flippy flappers would be anyone's guess, but something as basic as logic wasn't going to stop him from having a puff.

Dark clouds swirled overhead, unnatural lightning flickering as originium crystals exchanged energy through the means nature gives clouds. From atop a hill, he could only watch as the catastrophe brewed, like liquid death in a witch's cauldron. Dread finally overtook him and he tried to move, only to find his muscles failed to reply to the command. The clouds grew closer, and all he could do was stare at them. He had seen it when his plane first crashed, and now he sat there on the hill of a desert with no civilization in sight.

The clouds grew closer, and he could start feeling his hairs standing on end, responding to the unnatural fluctuations of the mysterious black crystals. Yet, he could only watch as he stared at the storm, blinking and curious, like a deer in the headlights.

The catastrophe finally drew close enough for the booms and crashes, large black crystals began falling from the sky like large chunks of hail. As one came for him, he felt his body twitch, only to find he could only watch as the large chunk fell. Time slowed and his heart began picking up. This is how it ended.

"Oi, wake up!" a voice shouted while shaking Evan around in his mass of covers. "Wake up! I'm not paying you to sleep in."

Evan nearly screamed, only for the terror to be quickly replaced by annoyance as he saw his boss shaking him. He felt his old time acid reflux gargle in his throat and he sat up, still being shook. One swallow later and he grabbed Closure's wrists to get her to stop.

"Finally, you're awake."

"Next time be more gentle, I normally wake up easier than that. Besides, you nearly made me spit up digestive juices like an infant!"

Closure immediately pulled back with a look of disgust on her face.

"What, can handle blood, but can't handle other bodily fluids?"

"I'm a vampire! I drink blood because I have to."

He held his head, feeling vertigo set in briefly from sitting up so rapidly. He pulled himself out of bed, wobbling a little for some reason that he couldn't comprehend.

"A-Are you alright? You can lie down if you want, you were just having a nightmare is all. At least, that's what I assumed was happening."

"That was a dream? Shit," he said, trying to straighten his posture. "Why is it my first nights in Lungmen have started with lucid nightmares?"

"Wait, this isn't the first time?"

"Nope, first night in Lungmen, I dreamed of crashing into the earth. You know the story, Swire came in with some ridiculous looking chainsaw yoyo."

"Well at least it isn't the alcohol."

"I told you, I metabolize that crap faster than you do what makes your stools black."

"Hey! Alright, I'm getting you coffee. Lie back down mister, you're not cleared to get up until you get some caffeine in your system."

"At least it's coffee and not Terra's version of monster."

"Now you're talking nonsense, sit down or I'm calling Ace to hold you down."

"Fine fine," Evan said while slouching against the bed. After what felt like only a few minutes, Closure came back with a piping hot cup of fresh coffee which he took with a small 'thanks' before immediately chugging the drink of the enlightenment, at least in his world. During this, he noticed Closure looking at him with a small bit of concern visible on her face. "What is it?"

"Just…" Closure tried to start, only to let out a cathartic breath before continuing with a hardened expression. "Are you ok, really?"

"I should be fine, just recovering from waking up too suddenly."

Closure seemed, unsatisfied with the answer. He sighed and took another sip before getting up naturally. They said nothing about the subject after that, and Evan took only a few steps outside the room before he turned back to Closure.

"So what did you wake me up for?"

"Oh, right. Lungmen decided to accept our offer, we have to go to a meeting to hash out details later this afternoon."

Well that was good, he even felt the edges of his lips upturn a little at the news.

Author's Note

Aight, so we're finally back in Lungmen. I know we're going into PL territory, but it's for a reason, trust me. I'm gonna wait for the event to determine how to do Lee's Detective Agency. But Penguin shenanigans is fun to write, and that's mostly what they're there for. Also partly because Evan needs a taste for the danger he might encounter, but rather than him being the target I thought it would be better if it started out as a nebulous thing because Emperor seems to go toe to toe with the Siracusan gangs quite regularly for no reason other than to settle scores in an endless loop. Also get ready to see everyone's favorite fallen angel next chapter, before she goes poof again at least.

Chapter 20 is going to be Evan's shift to decide something to change his ways. All I have to consider is who's going to help him do that, and I have an idea.

So, response time, I'm deciding to slap this on:

I AM NOT LIABLE TO SPOILERS OR FUTURE DISILLUSIONMENT IF YOU READ BELOW.

To Kvantovy: Yeah, I wasn't happy with the possession arc, it just ruined any interesting potential Talulah had. Granted, Kaschey will get her in the end, but instead of everything being his perfect machinations, it's going to be that he had contingencies set up that will force Talulah's hand.

To Valguienmas1: Well, the beauty of AU and writing is I can do what I please with Mephisto. In this interpretation he starts going mad because of poor coping mechanisms with stress. His sadism comes out as a shitty form of catharsis in this story. Eventually, Kaschey's influence will lead Talulah to overlook some actions and perhaps even praise some of his actions. Thereby in a sense, 'nurturing' or enabling his descent further.

To Bastion: I already have what Blaze and Evan's relationship is going to be. Blaze, while against prejudice, has honestly said her ideal would be the infected are treated as people, essentially that they wouldn't need special treatment to be treated fairly. In this sense, her idea of ideal fairness matches up with Evan's and she's going to really, REALLY appreciate that. As for Gavial, IDK, Gavial's more of a live life as it comes type, they might see differently on some matters, but they should be able to understand each other.

To Seilax: I will admit, the plot hole with Grani's arc is one thing. Hell, it's an outright plothole with my plan, but sometimes these are unavoidable. The patchwork is that since Talulah's migraines, and partly Mephisto's less savory actions, Mudrock and Bob just decided to leave on their own. They split off probably due to complications of slipping out of the Tundra and Ursus, but they keep in touch through messengers. As for Doctor, I have a way to shove him back into the sarcophagus, but I haven't because I wanted him to have his own little pre-sleep arc of sorts. I wanted his change to be the effort of him and not an amnesia thing.

To Blackgold Night: Well, in reality citizenship doesn't stop discriminatory laws or practices as we've seen with Jim Crow and other, more subtle forms which I won't name to avoid political fires being lit. Essentially, Columbia does have restrictions both legal and societal on infected citizens. Bob mentioned that despite Columbia's tolerance, he was still an infected and branded as such by society and the law (if memory serves correct). Leithania on the other hand was done well and I might not be changing it. We've also seen that even in the prison system, Columbia segregates its infected and non-infected. If it roots that deep, imagine what the larger society is like.

Essentially this is my interpretation, while Columbia may say the infected can be citizens, it's conditional, and they're treated as second class citizens. They have laws that can be widespread or local, but they keep the infected in more of a state of complacency than any other society. That goodness is still horseshit when you read between the lines. Most tolerant doesn't necessarily mean life is peachy for the infected, they still get discrimination through society and law.