It was a complex dance, in a way. Something that the white-haired girl was used to performing. And yet, no matter how many times she had done the steps, she continued again and again. She was still in training. No matter how accomplished she became, she could always improve. she still hadn't reached Grandfather's level. To truly live up to her family name, she had to keep practicing.

Her katana cut the air, the misty form of her phantom half elegantly whirling through the air as the water fell around her. Roukanken's edge struck a single droplet and parted it. Than another. Than another.

Konpaku Youmu sheathed her blade as the water fell around her. Without pause, she drew Hakuroken. In a single motion, she cut three more droplets of water before they could hit the ground. The wakizashi was sheathed in an instant on her hip. Youmu straightened. The number of droplets had nearly doubled, her blades slicing them through so swiftly that she increased the amount. And yet this wasn't enough. No, if she wanted to reach Grandfather's level, she had to train harder. Placing one hand lightly on Roukanken's hilt, the small girl looked up. Myon followed her gaze. The second bucket was hanging from a thin pole of metal, supported between two wooden struts. Myon shot forward and struck the bucket, flipping the contents and letting the water fall out.

First, to divide it into droplets. Youmu drew Roukanken and swung it upwards, the blade and rushing air parting the falling liquid. In a flash, she had sheathed it again, shutting her eyes.

Then...!

Youmu opened her eyes, and just barely stopped herself from drawing the blade when she realized her surroundings were no longer the gardens of Hakugyokurou. In fact, it was some place she had never seen. There were buildings made of glass. The streets outside the narrow area she was in were filled with people, so many people. And there were enormous screens showing all kinds of images, like the books she sometimes purchased for Yuyuko...

Youmu's grip on Roukanken's hilt loosened. Her eyes widened as she stared out of the alleyway.

"... E... e..."

An image of a peppy girl played on the screen across from her. She waved.

"EEEEEEEEHHHHHH?!"

---

The blonde girl was quite pleased. At the moment, both Rin and Shirou were unable to accompany her, but some money had been provided and she had been told to go out. She of course did not plan to go far, for Rin could need her at any moment, but she could not resist... the scent had caught her attention last time they had gone out. And now she had purchased one, a smell of cream and fruit entering her nose... ah, of course, it was not cooked at home, but she had watched its preparation and nothing that smelled so delicious could be cheaply made and of low quality.

Saber, King of Knights, took a bite of her warm, freshly-made crepe. And to her delight, it tasted incredibly good. Ah, yes, the delicious flavor was fantastic... she would have to bring Rin and Shirou here. Yes, she would introduce them to crepes! She paused for a moment, realizing they may in fact have had crepes before. It was, after all, a modern food, like many of the meals she had been introduced to after the conclusion of the Holy Grail War. Each was so incredibly delicious... the small blonde girl had practically engulfed every meal she had been given with great excitement and enthusiasm about the flavor. She did not go out alone often, but this was simply one of those times she could not resist.

Taking another bite of her crepe, Saber paused for a moment. Something... had changed.

Her surroundings were no longer the streets of Fuyuki, near Shirou's home. There were far more people, and strange advertisements upon the tall buildings surrounding the streets. She recognized many of the advertisements as based around anime or games, a subject she lacked knowledge on. This was, certainly, not where she had been. Her hand lowered. The one thing keeping her from calling her weapons and armor was the fact that she simply could not.

Not that she was incapable, but even after the Grail War... she could not simply reveal herself here.

... And yet she was already drawing a crowd. Saber stood stock still as a circle of people formed around her. She started blankly at them, turning around to regard the people who had surrounded her.

"Wow, that Saber cosplay is fantastic!" commented one man, pulling out a camera excitedly. He was followed by many other strange compliments and cameras. "Can we take a picture?!"

"... Saber... cosplay...?"

What... was going on?

---

On the streets of Akihabara, something has changed. Many people will not notice, of course. Someone dressed as a character in Akihabara is nothing unusual. And yet, this time, it's not merely dressing as them.

For these people, brought across dimensions to be placed in this one, in a single thirty meter area in Akihabara, it was only the beginning.

The streets of Academy City were as lively as they ever were, with students milling about to and fro on one of their precious days off. Within that crowd of students wanting to, say, watch a movie or hang out at the park, though, a lone white-haired individual with a crutch and a young brown-haired girl made their way through the streets. Nobody seemed to pay them any mind- or, rather, they chose not to do so. They all valued their limbs fully intact and uninjured, after all. The white haired boy, aside from his abnormally-shaped crutch, had a bag of groceries hanging off to the side.

"'Come on, come on! Misaka wants some pudding today! Let's go home so Misaka can eat some already!' says Misaka as Misaka impatiently runs ahead of Accelerator!"

Such was a common statement that the boy heard from the child; in fact, ever since he had been taken in by Yomikawa, he'd had to deal with Last Order's constant demands for sweets and... Well, actions befitting a child.

Not that he didn't mind, of course. Well, it wasn't as if he didn't mind (he sure as hell did), but it was better than what he had been doing before--absolutely nothing.

"Geez... It's in the bag, alright? Just wait until we're done before tearing into it." he returned, an annoyed expression on his face. Yes. It was a freaking grocery run. Fun.

"But Misaka wants to eat it no-"

"Zip. It. Since you decided to take up everyone's requests before we left, I've gotta go pick up a bunch of other crap, and you're not helping carry anything." Accelerator cut her off, a slight scowl on his face as he walked towards the frog-faced doctor's hospital. "First things first: I have to pick up a new charger from the hospital, since it's a pain in the ass to build it myself. You can eat it there. Got it?"

"'Yaaay!' Misaka cheers as Misaka runs around Accelerator with a smile on her face!" Last Order responded, doing exactly that.

"...Tch. Whatever."

---

With the new charger tucked into his crutch, Accelerator sighed as he sat in the waiting room. Apparently, Heaven Canceller had taken this moment as the perfect time to give Last Order a check-up. Which was good, yes, but it also meant more time wasted. As he was about to stand up, though, Last Order (and Heaven Canceller) walked out from behind the doors to the hospital's interior, the former bursting through with enthusiasm (and a lollipop in her mouth.)

"She seems to be fine; no treatment should be necessary for a while." was the frog-faced doctor's response, and Accelerator was grateful for that. Anything gone wrong, and he'd definitely have broken something. Or someone.

"Alright."

That was all he said before leaving, Last Order holding onto his left arm (the one with the groceries) as they walked out of the sliding doors of the hospital...

And into the middle of a small street willed with entrances to video game shops, figurine stores, and... Maid cafes?
What.
The.
HELL.

"...Is this a fucking joke?" Accelerator swore, glancing around at the streets and signs and... People. These were not students from Academy City; no, these were freaking otaku. Like, the kind you'd see at... What were they? Conventions? But even in Academy City, the people who frequented that sort of area...

There was only one place he could surmise that would fit all of those criteria, and he was certainly not happy about it.

"WHY THE FUCK ARE WE IN TOKYO!?" he shouted, the irritation reaching almost critical levels. "Freaking-"

Turning around, Accelerator noticed two things:

One: There was no door behind him; he felt around, and there was no entrance, no exit to be found.
Two: Last Order was being surrounded by a bunch of people with cameras, all of them clicking and flashing as she stared wide-eyed at the display of a figurine store. Oh, for the love of-

"God DAMN it, Last Order!" he swore, switching his groceries over to his right hand as his left slipped through the mass of people and pulled the clone out of the mess. "Hold my hand. Don't let go. Something's off here."

"'But Misaka wants to see the figurines in the store!' says Misaka as Misaka gets dragged along."
That response only seemed to cause the bystanders to freak out even more- wait, was that a squeal he just heard?
...
"Fuck it. Doesn't matter if I get reprimanded for this shit; ain't dealing with it."

Switching his choker to esper mode, Accelerator lifted Last Order off the ground and, after a moment of stunned silence from the bystanders, launched himself onto the roof of the building to his immediate right before letting Last Order down.

"So. I restate my question to whatever asshole happens to be listening in: Why. The. Hell. Are. We. in. Tokyo." he spat, walking towards the edge of the building with a scowl on his face. Magic? Likely. A teleporter, even if they were Level Five, wouldn't be able to pull them both without his notice... And especially not this far.

Worry continued to weigh on the mind of the young keyblade master.

Clad in the silver-black armour, shielding her from the environment of the space between worlds, Aqua flew atop her glider, her thoughts troubled by recent events. Her friend, Terra, was taking a very worrying path, and seemed at risk of falling to the darkness. Not helping matters was their last meeting. It wasn't like she had been sent to spy on him or anything... still, maybe he did have every right to be angry. Even if it were Master Eraqus' orders, the faxt remained she had come across as distrustful...

And then there was Ven, the youngest. That strange boy in the mask who sought to hurt him was still out there, having escaped after their last battle. She could only hope Ven had returned home to safety, or else...

Aqua shook her head. She couldn't needlessly dwell on what if's. Right now, she just had to believe her friends were still okay, and meet with them once more. Until then... huh?
Her glider suddenly shook, and Aqua's grip tightened. The shaking slowly intensified, and Aqua fought to regain control. What was happening?! There was nothing to interfere with her flight, and keyblades never acted like this, so why...?

She gasped, seeing a light fast approaching - or rather, she was swiftly approaching this bright light. Her glider shot towards it, as if homing in on it. Filled with worry, Aqua tried to steer away, but her glider refused to cooperate, and soon she was enveloped in pure white...

...

Aqua's eyes slowly opened when it became apparent she had been vaporised. With great confusion, the blue-haired young woman took in her surroundings, wondering how she had landed in this world. A strange mix of people wandered the streets, several of whom gave her... admiring gazes? If Aqua wasn't so bemused and lost, she would be feeling quite self-conscious right now.

It was more important to find out where she was right, though. After a quick check of her current status - no strange injuries to speak of - Aqua cautiously approached someone dressed like a, well, knight in shining armour. With purple lipstick.

"Excuse me, can you tell me where we are right now?" Aqua asked politely, and earned herself a disbelieving stare. It took several moments for her to receive a reply.

"Akihabara?"

"I see... thank you," Aqua politely bowed her head and swiftly moved on. Akihabara? It wasn't a world she was familiar with... had her keyblade guided her here? Why? Did it have something to do with her friends? She would need to find out quickly.

The boy threw himself into his work, keen mind analyzing everything before him. And endless deluge of papers and screen data, a sea of information that was constant and never shrank. The endeavor would require an unbreakable and unyielding spirit to even grow the seeds let alone seeing it through to the very end. The boy continued his work, always putting in his best. Pen scribbled on parchment, adding signatures, changing equations, signing instructions. It was long and tedious, a thankless job that could make him a great deal of enemies. And yet he never stopped, stubbornly going against expectations and reality to make this dream corporeal. Without commitment, one could not save Mundus Magicus.

The insane and maniac pacing finally petered out in the dead of night, far too late to be called evening. In fact, in only a scant hour, dawn would break once more. Negi Springfield stopped not because he wanted to, but so that his former students wouldn't butt into the situation like they always did. They were good girls (most of them at least), but sometimes one just had to concede or else the fearsome alumni of class 3-A would do as they were wont to do and forcibly inject themselves into the situation, causing way more trouble than any sane person could cope with. By doing this, the boy could stave off their visitations of "good intentions". "Aha... everything would become rather messy, yes." Heaving a sigh of exasperation as his mind slightly quailed at the thoughts, the former teacher attempted to wipe that terrifying train of thought.

Leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes for the moment amidst the piles of paperwork piled high upon his desk, the boy felt a bit wistful and lonely- though not enough to tempt fate and have his students show up to make him even more exhausted than he was. Welcome though the shenanigans would be, he was stubborn and wanted to give his all into the project. That and Class 3-A would no doubt mess up all of his careful calculations and magical formula should they come visit. The young immortal gave his brain a cool down for a few more minutes before standing up and grabbing his battle equipment, ready to train the body to balance out the honing of the mind. One had to balance commitments, and theories needed to be tested out in the field. For a magic knight such as him, he had to be fit and ready. It was a lesson learned all too well in his young life after all those adventures.

Suddenly, things changed in such a way that even the young genius could have never expected. He found himself far away from the leased building that he had been in, in a much more packed urban sprawl of a city. "Teleportation?!" Muttering under his breath, the young Springfield almost flipped out before realizing that quite a lot of people were dressed in unique ways, like the Mahora Fest. Cosplayers, his mind told him as he glanced about with widened eyes, fully alert and trying to pinpoint the person who transported him against his will. Smiling querulously as some random people took pictures of him in his magician's garb, the boy gripped his uniquely shaped wooden staff with a focused expression and decided to move about the throng of costumed civilians, attempting to figure out what to do from here while on the lookout for anything truly suspicious and out of place.

Unlike the others, Gilgamesh was not in fact doing anything prior to his arrival in Akihabara. It wasn't merely in the sense of lazing around (something that he was well used to doing, especially without a kingdom to rule) but rather in the sense of 'I seem to recall being dead'. Therefore, to find himself standing in the sunlight, clothed for the era, was a remarkably positive change. It was a short delay before the exact state of the sudden life was realised: not a Servant. Whether a state similar to that after the Fourth Grail War or true life mattered little in light of not being bound to some mage as a tool for irrelevant schemes.

The blonde man took in the surroundings, attracting far less attention than some of the others. Most likely because his casual outfit was hardly distinctive or noteworthy in any way--though, unknown to the King of Heroes, it was most likely because it was hardly what he was known for wearing. Nevertheless, it afforded him a measure of not being stared at as he scanned the busy area and matched it with somewhere that he'd heard of, but never been.

Akihabara. An embodiment of much that annoyed him about the world... but familiar words reached his ears. Saber? Was this another grail war, simply in disguise? Given this place, it could simply be someone playing dress-up, yet even he had nothing to do without information. So the blonde made his way over to the source...

---

Flandre's day was more interesting than normal. Sakuya had come down to wake her up early and hand over an umbrella, explaining that her big sister needed something broken... now. It wouldn't be the first time that she'd been asked to go outside simply to deal with something, but it had been an extremely long time since she needed to go out in the day to do it. Maybe if it was more meteors, someone pointing them at the mansion would actually be believable.

After dressing, Flandre gathered up the needed parasol, along with the teddy bear that Meiling had somehow procured the other week. It wasn't necessary to carry around... but it was soft and nice to hold onto, and until it got broken somehow, it was unlikely that the isolated girl was going to let it from her sight. Even though still yawning, the vampire made her way upstairs and out through the front door, sleepily waiting to adjust to the light.

What she saw was everything that the Vampire hadn't been expecting. Built up rather than urban. Lots of people. Unfamiliar clothing, lots of flashing bright lights... not only was it more people than she'd ever actually seen in one place before, it was noisy and too many people were starting to look at her, some even pulling out... things with bright flashes. Naturally, Flandre backed away, holding the umbrella nearly tight enough to crack it and trying to position the teddy to hide her face. She was stopped, wings tinkling, by backing into someone.

For a few moments, Youmu could do little more than stare out into the crowds. From her spot, even her shocked exclamation hadn't been heard over the noise of the crowds. It was more people in one place than Youmu had previously seen, even when the human village was most crowded it wasn't so dense. And the buildings! And the... everything... it was a little overwhelming. The white-haired half-phantom's eyes traveled upwards slowly, gazing up the glittering surface of one of the glass towers. There were so many screens, as she slowly stepped forward, and advertisements for what looked like a plethora of manga. It was all Youmu could assume, basing on her experience with the things she had purchased for her mistress. As her eyes traveled up the surface of the building, she thought she spotted... it was... a boy? Up on the roof? Was... wasn't that dangerous?

Oh, it... even in spite of her situation, what if he fell? He was even using a crutch! No, even like this... a member of the Konpaku family could not allow something like that to happen. Myon flew ahead, drifting through the air rapidly, until the tailed manifestation of a portion of Youmu's soul resided in front of him, as if in a bid to stop him.

Youmu followed. All but the... other new arrivals(such as the woman in blue with the strange weapon she passed) would see, was a green and white blur and a rushing wind. Youmu hit the building and flew directly up, tearing through the air, hands outstretched to...

... Comically richochet off of him, through the air, and force herself back down onto the rooftop, stumbling once before flopping forwards slightly roughly onto her front, backside in the air.

Myon drifted down over her, circling her.

"... Ow..."

---

A few pictures clicked before Saber could respond. What was this? Why had so many people surrounded her and taken pictures? She didn't understand. No-one knew who she was, right? Of course, most people believed King Arthur to be male, anyway, so it could not even be said that she resembled their beliefs about her... It was making Saber feel rather self-conscious. In fact, she would much rather leave the area as quickly as possible in order to figure out what had happened, rather than linger in the group of people who were all paying her far too much attention.

Then she saw him.

Saber's hands curled into fists, and she very nearly forgot herself, very nearly called her armor and her weapon. For the one who entered her vision was none other than Gilgamesh himself. He had died. She knew he had. She had heard what happened even if she had not witnessed it.

But all she could do was glare. Unless the King of Heroes attacked first, it was too much risk to those around her. Saber had to stop herself.

Still, the way she suddenly stopped and glared at what appeared to be a suddenly-appearing foreigner was rather noticeable.

"...Tch. Guess I shouldn't have expected a response..." Accelerator sighed, beginning to turn around from the edge of the building before a floating white blob... Thing came up in front of him. The heck?

"...I'm... Not gonna ask." he shrugged before seeing a white and green blur smash itself face-first into his reflection. Well. That was... Something. It caught him off guard, but didn't do much more than cause him to flinch for a moment. Jumpscares? HERE? What kind of idiot would set up something like that all the way up here?

His eyes trailing the blur as it bounced above him head and landed right behind him, Accelerator sighed and shook his head, massaging his forehead with the hand not holding onto the crutch. On the upside, since his reflection was on, he didn't get hurt by this... Thing when it tried crashing into him. What a miracle that was.

Finally being allowed to turn around without some sort of thing distracting him, Accelerator saw the blur from earlier tumble onto the roof behind him and, predictably enough, revealed itself to be a... Girl. God damn, all the freaking TIME!

"...Alright. Okay. Even here, in the middle of this mess..." he grumbled, walking over to the fallen girl and poking her with his crutch. "Oi. That's dangerous. Trying to jump normal people on rooftops isn't safe for anyone involved, you know."

"'Misaka agrees! Though Misaka thinks that landing just now was pretty funny.' says Misaka as Misaka pats the lady with the green dress on the back out of pity while nodding her head."

Youmu heard the voices behind her, and felt the small hand patting her on the back. Oh... oh no... whatever had happened, she'd... that didn't come out as serious or impressive at all... flushed with embarrassment, Youmu drew herself up to a sitting position on her knees. She wasn't even sure what had happened, one moment she'd been about to shove the boy back from the roof's edge, the next she was wildly off-course and disoriented, tumbling to the rooftop. But... but she couldn't just dwell on this! No! Youmu had to save this situation, an explain herself! Shooting to her feet, Youmu spun to face the boy and the little girl, trying her best not to show how flushed with embarrassment she was and put on a confident and serious expression!

"P-people on rooftops shouldn't stand so close to the edge!" the white-haired girl declared, trying to sound authoritative, and inarguable. But really, saying something so obvious made it seem a little silly... and it wasn't helped by how much shorter she was then him even if she didn't think of that matter, but she didn't think the boy could fly and he did not appear to be a youkai or magic-using human. Even if he has somehow made her bounce... if that was him, at least. "You could get seriously injured! Or worse!"

Placing her hands on her hips, Youmu nodded, feeling somewhat more confident. Yes, she could not simply stand by and allow someone to injure themselves, even in such a strange place!

"As a member of the Konpaku family," she began, "I cannot simply stand idly by! ... Even, er... even in this... place..."

Lost in thought, Aqua almost missed the green blur shooting past her. Taken by surprise, she almost summoned her keyblade on reflex as she turned. However, it didn't look like she was under attack, but rather someone was just in a very big hurry. She saw the source of the blur rapidly climbing the side of a building... no, she was flying. Had she somehow returned to Neverland? No, this place looked nothing like it, but...

Once reaching the top, this mysterious person seemed to bounce off someone already standing up top. Aqua was quite thoroughly lost on what was going on, but she felt obligated to check if it was a situation she could help with. Lost or not, that didn't preclude the keyblade master from doing the decent thing.

At a speed much less impressive than the green-clad speedster, Aqua approached this building. Unlike the possible-Neverlander, Aqua couldn't fly... but she knew how to handle vertical obstacles like this with no trouble. After a slight crouch, Aqua leaped into the air. Although the height of her jump was rather impressive, it was of course nowhere near enough to reach the roof. Before gravity could reclaim her, however, a magic circle formed under her feet. Using this new platform, Aqua ascended once more, springing into the air and managing to grab the edge of the roof, from which she easily managed to climb up. An impressive feat for a totally-normal-looking young woman.

She quietly approached the group, politely asking, "hello, sorry to intrude. I thought you guys were having some trouble up here..."

"...Dangerous?" Accelerator asked, letting out a small laugh as he looked down at the girl. "So you're telling me that trying to scare someone when they're there isn't just as bad? Or, y'know, the fact that you scaled the building to do that? Don't go telling people off when you're making just a big of a mess as they are. Got it?"

Sighing, Accelerator shook his head before trying to process the incident that had just occured. As far as he knew, Academy City was the only place with access to this sort of technology, barring any sort of illegal smuggling. Even if that fringe case was the reason she was able to come here, it still wasn't enough to propel her up the many stories of the building in one go without putting considerable strain on the machine. That, coupled with the fact that espers were essentially an Academy City-exclusive...

"...Oi. Don't tell me... You're not one of those magic-using crazies, right?"
It would make perfect sense, of course, after what happened with Othinus and that weird mummy-thing he saw blasting down the street chasing after that spiky-haired idiot and the Number 3 the other day. Even though Touma had resolved those issues, the fact remained that there could be residual efforts to take the city down... Which would more or less spell disaster for the world. Would they be trying to lessen the city's defenses by taking him out of the picture? If so, then what of the other Level 5s? Imagine Breaker?
But, once again, that was all dependent on how hostile these forces ended up being. Jumping to conclusions would only cause trouble. But if his assumptions proved to be correct...
"And... Do you have any intention of taking down Academy City?"

That tense moment, however, was interrupted by Last Order seemingly dragging another random person into the mess--a blue-haired individual in... Well, it seemed to be more cosplay. Pausing to look at the girls for a moment, Accelerator sighed and massaged his forehead.

"Last Order? Why did you...?"
"'Misaka saw this person climb up from the edge of the roof and offered to help, so Misaka brought her over here!' says Misaka as Misaka directs the blue-haired lady to Accelerator."

There was a moment of silence before Accelerator began speaking again.

"Climbing up this many stories isn't within the realm of normal human abilities, and I use the term 'normal' in the most basic sense of the word. I can only assume that you're magicians, at the very least. So let me make this clear: you mess with Last Order, you die. Understand?"

"'But Misaka doesn't think that they're bad people!' says Misaka as Misaka runs over and tugs at Accelerator's jacket."

But Accelerator remained there, gripping his cane tightly as he prepared for the worst. A two-on-one while protecting Last Order was highly disadvantageous for him, but if he managed to disable one of them quickly enough...

Even without her turning to see him, Gilgamesh knew that this was no mere girl playing dress-up. There were plenty of clues: the blonde hair was natural, it obviously wasn't someone from this country, and the eyes were a giveaway. More than that, there was a charming natural beauty that, though second to his own, was far greater than the common dross. The familiarity of her features was almost unnecessary. The hateful look being sent his way showed all the recognition that could ever be needed.

"It's been a while, Saber," he said, the simple words sparking more interest amongst the crowd, who were now picking up who the apparently-simple outfit was supposed to represent. The blond ignored them, dismissing their speculation as they failed to work out that this was more than someone 'pretending' to be the King--if he saw anyone trying that, the justice for such presumptuousness would be swift. The masses, however, were permitted their pictures; there was no better subject to capture in perpetuity.

The red eyes met the green, one pair amused and the other fierce. Gilgamesh was interested in the knight's response. Would she be so eager to leap to the battle, even though this was no war? And did she think she could win such a confrontation?

The white-haired girl's shoulders sagged. He was still... she hadn't made herself look authoritative or anything at all! What was she going to do,? She'd pretty much totally failed... but she couldn't just... not even try and explain herself. No, not at all! She was a member of the Konpaku family, she had to do her best to uphold the honor of that name! But now it seemed so difficult to even get anything out, after those comments... "I... I w-was trying to push you back from the edge! It's... not my fault I... b-bounced off... somehow..."

Youmu shifted awkwardly, but she was snapped out of her embarrassment by the boy's question, and the subsequent arrival of another girl, this one in blue, with a strange weapon. For a few moments she stood in silence, unsure of how to react to the new arrival or the boy's question. The little girl, Last Order, seemed to think she wasn't a bad person... Youmu didn't, either! Youmu did her best to hold up the Konpaku name, to treat others well, and serve Yuyuko to her utmost capabilities. So she couldn't be a bad person, right?

"I... I have never heard of a place called Academy City," Youmu began, with a deep breath. She hadn't, at all. Never once before had she heard of such a place. However, she would never harm an innocent child! "But on my honor as a member of the Konpaku family, I will not harm any innocent child!"

There. That was more firm and serious! As Youmu spoke, myon drifted from one shoulder, then to the other.

---

Saber's green eyes fixed on him as he spoke. The King of Heroes was unquestionably her enemy, and her fists tightened as she fiercely stared at the blond man. However... she could not do anything. Not here. There were so many people around, people who could be harmed in a fight. It was not something Saber could conduct in good consciousness, she could not begin a battle that would doom so many people. So instead, she remained still, staring him down as she did.

"... The only thing that stays my blade is the risk it would pose to these people," Saber finally said, her voice steady, but tinged with anger, as she briefly gestured to those around her. The audience let out an impressed 'ooooh' and she heard the clicking of more pictures being taken. Did they not guess that there was danger? Even if Saber was attempting not to reveal anything... Ah, should she have mentioned her blade?! ... No, she couldn't avoid it, not in the face of Gilgamesh.

Negi continued to dither and dally about, nervous tension continually rising within his compact yet surprisingly sturdy frame, slightly panicking at the thought of being caught in someone's machinations. He couldn't use magic to investigate with a crowd this big, and the boy wasn't sure how doing such a thing would cause the public to react. Worst case scenario would be something that happened with Chao, where the release of magic straight away caused much trouble. While he was all for revealing it, he didn't want to do it in such a direct manner. Biding his time and shakily walking down the side walk with the throng of pedestrians, his eyes darted about to look for a place where he could take off without attracting any attention at all.

Suddenly, his senses snapped onto a certain scene. He felt his instincts snap onto a pair of blonde people talkin to each other. One was a slight woman with her hair dressed in a bun, reminding the young magister somehow of those nice girls from Ariadne Magic Academy who took care of Yue during her tenure as an amnesiac. This woman in front of him though was truly "knightly" to him, her demeanor just and firm just like those students were. The taller man with crimson eyes likewise had the same "feel", though in his case it was wafting with arrogance instead of stoicism.

Frowning slightly at the tensed display, Negi gripped his staff as he judged things were going in a direction that might be detrimental to the public. These two figures were different, they were definitely not normal. Having gone through all his experiences, the young immortal could easily tell who was normal and who was not now. Those presences were not something anyone could pick up, and his sixth sense told him to be on guard. Indeed, he would do his best should things devolve rapidly and attempt to any he could should things come to that point. And thus the boy prepared himself, fully on alert and yet doing his best to not aggravate the situation any further.

Chamo was bored. She was really, really bored. So bored that she wandered off from the others to go play with her pets. They had protested of course, said it was too dangerous and that they should stick together. Chamo might have listened if Adlet or Hans was there. But they weren’t. Those stupid jerks had went ahead somewhere without Chamo, so now here she was bored and with no fiends to kill.

The saint was just about to get up and go farther into the forest when she spotted a strange light. Her eyes widened. Was someone trying to kill Chamo again? Was… was she going to die this time? An unbidden fear that she didn’t feel very often gripped at her, keeping her from moving at all. She squeezed her eyes shut. Chamo didn’t want to die. It was scary, it was way too scar-

When she opened her eyes, it wasn’t death she found. Rather, it was a crowded place with strange buildings and people. How…? Where…? Chamo was so confused. And all this noise was giving her a headache, especially after she so embarrassingly thought some silly light was going to kill her. Whoever had played such an awful trick on Chamo was going to get ripped to shreds. They’ll definitely end up as scraps for her pets!

---

Koishi’s engagements prior to getting engulfed by a bright light mattered little the girl. She barely even remembered what it was. Maybe it was fighting one of those taoists? They always claimed such silly things like being immortal, but she was positively sure everyone dies someday, right? Koishi spent enough time with the kashas to know this much!

Whatever the case, she currently found herself in a street crowded by strangely dressed people. Was this the outside world? She heard stories from that funny tanuki woman at the buddhist shrine. Koishi hadn’t paid that much attention but she caught enough to say this place looked a lot like she described.

That was weird. She didn’t remember coming to the outside world. Of course, there was a lot of places Koishi didn’t remember wandering to until she had already found herself there. That shrine maiden must not be doing a very good job if even Koishi can find her way outside~

Looking around the crowd, a multicolored twinkle caught her eyes. Wasn’t that one of the SDM shut-ins? Maybe she should go say hello? The satori didn’t seem to notice how frightened the girl looked and was just about to literally pop up behind her and whoever the vampire had bumped into. Luckily, something far more interesting got the attention of the satori.

Two blondes were in an intense staring match. One that Koishi had the mind to interrupt just because it popped into her head. She moved through the crowd with ease, not being noticed and yet also being avoided. She subconsciously masked her presence up until she was right between the two starey people, with arms open wide and a far too cheerful grin on her face, “Hello! I am Koishi!”

Aqua, who had been greeted by the little girl, found herself dragged towards the two white-haired individuals. One with a cane, and the other with... something transparent, floating around her body. Somehow, this wasn't all that weirder than things Aqua had seen before, though still somewhat unique.

The young boy, speaking with some hostility, initially put Aqua on guard a she assessed him. Despite his apparent condition, he was willing to fight? No... his concern seemed to lie with the cute little girl. And, a magician? Aqua wasn't sure how he came to that conclusion. Surely, her magic couldn't be comparable to that of Merlin? She sensed a great power from that old man... still, he was at least aware of magic, so that was the kind of world this was?

Well, anyway, she had to dispel any misgivings this boy had. Holding her hands up, Aqua replied, "I promise, I'm not here to hurt anyone. My name is Aqua, and I'm just... lost, I guess?"

It certainly wasn't a lie, but given that announcing her off-world status wasn't exactly encouraged, she'd have to hide that particular fact, for now. Her eyes drifted to the girl in green, who had seemingly flew to reach this rooftop. She carried swords with her, so she was presumably a warrior, but evidently wasn't antagonistic. With any luck, they could avoid a needless battle.

Accelerator stared at the two women, glancing back and forth while Last Order was becoming increasingly more worried. Even after their responses, he couldn't jump to any conclusions. If dealing with the other underground organizations of the city had taught him anything, it was to never let his guard down...

Especially in situations like these.

Last Order, on the other hand, pouted and let go of Accelerator' arm. Taking a few steps back, the little girl immediately began to sprint and leaped straight onto Accelerator. The reflection, luckily enough, didn't go off (probably due to Last Order's shenanigans), and so the two immediately tumbled to the ground.

"Whoa-OI!" Accelerator shouted reflexively as he winced from the pain of the fall.

"'It's safe, see?' Misaka states as Misaka proudly stands up with her chest puffed out."

The moment of silence that followed felt excruciatingly long, but... Well, it seemed to help lighten the mood. If they were going to attack, Accelerator reasoned, then it would've been done when Last Order caught him off balance. Fine.

"...Alright, alright, I get it." he complained, stabbing his crutch into the ground to pull himself back up. "But still... They're not from around here, it seems... Well, so far as I can tell. Maybe it's related to whatever dragged us here..."

Youmu winced a little when the boy hit the ground. Certainly, if he had an injury that required him to use a crutch, that had to be painful... however, it looked as if that made him more relaxed, as the tension in the situation steadily fell. Youmu let out a small sigh of relief. She hadn't wished to fight anyone here, not with her confusion over her surroundings, and it simply did not appear necessary. It would not even have been a sparring match for the enjoyment and training of participants. To put it simply, the small half-ghost girl was glad that such a conflict had been avoided. Now there was time for her to focus better on her surroundings...

The blue-haired girl had introduced herself as Aqua, and before addressing the boy's comment, Youmu decided it would be best for her to do the same. Clasping her hands in front of herself, Youmu bowed.

"My name is Konpaku Youmu," she began, as she rose back to a standing position. "I am the guardian and gardener for Hakugyokurou, in service of Saigyouji Yuyuko-sama, Princess of the Netherworld."

Youmu hesitated for a moment, Myon fidgeting behind her, before she decided to continue.

"I... am definitely not from here, er... I don't even know where here is, ah-hah..."

The small white-haired girl rubbed the back of her head, awkwardly. So much for looking serious.

Gilgamesh seemed to soak in Saber's frustration with amusement, eyes only briefly wavering from her person to take in the newcomer, before he moved slightly to the side to keep the unbroken stare. It hardly mattered where she'd come from, though it lent further credence to the idea that something was behind this summoning. Something with questionable taste, if they were including monsters along with Heroes.

"You would fight me purely for your own desires, Saber?" the demigod asked, voice containing none of the mockery that the statement implied--the noble King of Knights, striking out simply to fight him, "This is no war to the death, even if creatures like that thing might deserve it."

'That thing' was obviously Koishi. Apparently, having a fleshy, living eye (albeit closed) hanging around your person in fairly inscrutable ways was not good for being identified as a human, who knew? Of course, her presence on top of the Heroic Spirits' raised the important question: just who else had shown up here for no apparent reason?

The tension was, momentarily, cut when a strange girl abruptly seemed to appear from no-where between them. And yet, somehow, Saber realized she felt something swimming on the edge of her consciousness when she looked at the girl, as if deep down she had realized she was there, and yet not truly noticed due to her distraction by Gilgamesh. Still, it was undeniably confusing, and Saber stepped forward quickly.

"This is no place for a young girl," she began, her tone stern as she approached her. The strange, eye-like structure, however, gave the King of Knights pause. What was it? She had never seen anything quite of that nature before, and she simply did not have the required knowledge to discern what it might have been. Saber was quite unsure of the nature of the girl, now, especially after her abrupt appearance. But she still did not wish to leave her between them.

Even more excited pictures were being snapped, as Saber once more listened to Gilgamesh's words.

As much as she disliked admitting it, he had a point. This was no Grail War, and compounded with the danger a fight posed to innocent people... there would be no battle here.

"... This... does not feel like such a war," Saber conceded, after some hesitation.

Aqua gasped when the little girl tackled the young man to the ground. Given his apparent condition, there was a good chance that he could be seriously injured, but luckily he didn't seem too hurt. In fact, he seemed more willing to believe Youmu and herself, now. At least there was that.

Of course what the two said had intrigued the Keyblade Master. They both spoke as if this world wasn't their own. Having taken the two for natives, it made Aqua wonder what was going on. After all, travel between worlds was hardly commonplace. Only herself, her friends, and a couple of other people she had met recently had displayed knowledge of other worlds, and even then, the methods to actually travel were extremely limited...

"If I may ask, how did you come to this place?" Aqua asked the group. She could probably rule out 'flying keys' as their method of transportation, but whatever whisked them away to this location, it was evidently as sudden and inexplicable as her own circumstances.