With the crowd in the area thinned out, a soft smile crossed Lydia's lips. She had honestly expected a much lower turnout from those who she had summoned, so the number that she obtained was well beyond her expectations. With this, maybe...!

"So... it seems that, at the very least, there is yet hope for me. Thank you; all of you, for listening to a stranger's wishes. I need some time to prepare the first gates; there are a few dimensions that are on the brink of collapse, and I cannot leave this area without compromising what remains of the record. While I do so, I humbly ask of you to make acquaintances with one another. The distortions are much too large for any one being to take on alone, so I implore you to make the most of this time. Pardon me."

With that statement, the being known as 'Lydia' fades into the light, her corporeality seemingly dissipating into nothingness. The sounds of gears grinding, however soft it is, manages to somehow make it through the walls of the building.

"While modifications are underway, I cannot maintain my physical form. Please, do excuse any disruptions you may experience this time; it's taking all of my effort to keep everything as stable as I possibly can."

With that last statement from Lydia echoing around the room, the pseudo-silence once again overtook the room.


Satori sighed as the strange girl ran her mouth off before disappearing off to... Somewhere else. There was no need to be so wordy; thanks were superfluous, since everyone here was probably around to stay regardless. She herself had no reason in particular to stay around, but even if she went home... What then? She had detected no trace of malice or deceit within the girl's heart, which meant that she was probably telling the truth.
...
Well, to be fair, she had detected nothing else from the woman's thoughts, either; the confusion and chaos within the minds of everyone else around her had made focusing difficult. But, if what that Lydia person had said was correct, then she'd have to work with others.

A single image flashed by in Satori's mind: the red-white shrine maiden and the black-white magician, stranding triumphantly over her. A shudder ran down her spine as she shoved the image into the farthest depths of her mind.

"No. Those two were strange, even among humans. There's no way that the others that have been called here would have a similar mentality to those two. Attacking first and asking later isn't normal among humans.
...
Right?"

Taking a deep breath to calm herself and pushing all the voices shouting in her head to the side, Satori turned to look around at those gathered.

"But... Hrm. What a unique crowd she's gathered, though..."

The question had been met rather swiftly with a resounding yes. At least from the exceptionally pale, rather short girl, who looked all the world like a human... except typically humans did not have seams or visibly jointed limbs. There was a faint clicking sound as she cocked her head to one side, grinning widely. How ever could she say no to something like this? Certainly, perhaps Silvabelle(she would have liked to to see Silvabelle stuck in such a confusing scenario, really...) would have been better suited to something like this... but Goldibanne had no shortage of confidence in herself. The living doll had to do this, of course. Mistress's safety was in danger, wasn't it?

"Haah, so many people~" she declared cheerfully, twirling on her heel with an excited look upon her face eyes, her golden eyes wide with wonder. At no point in her existence had she ever contemplated the existence of other worlds, nor expected she would meet people hailing from them. So, wasn't wonder an appropriate reaction? Of course it was. Even if this was such a serious situation, judging by what she had been told by the girl who had faded away to let the building work.

Placing her heels together and cocking her head to one side, she clasped her hands behind her back, still smiling cheerfully as she did. Naturally, there was only one appropriate thing to do, now.

"Goldibanne thinks this is a good time for everyone to introduce themselves!"

---

There had been little hesitation in Saber's response. Beyond her initial confusion, a matter that threatened things on such a vast scale was something she had to be concerned with. Given the opportunity to stop such a threat, there was no question that she would say yes. It was not merely out of her basic duty, the fact that a knight should pursue good causes and conduct themselves with honor. No, Saber also desired to protect Rin and Shirou.

However, at the moment, she hardly looked like a knight. Dressed in a simple shirt and skirt with leggings, she had been called here quite abruptly and had no real chance to call her armor, or anything much else. Instead, Saber found herself in a crowd of other people, people who had been called here from other worlds. That information had been more overwhelming, the fact that there were other worlds in which so many different people could be found was news to the smallish blonde girl, indeed. However, it did not dissuade her. She would do everything in her power, everything she could, to mend these worlds that had faced attack.

It was the only appropriate course of action for one who called herself a knight.

Of course, Saber was unlikely to start a conversation herself...

---

Miku...

Hibiki's first thoughts had been of Miku, and her family, before she had received an explanation of what was happening. Other worlds? And all these people were from other worlds...? It had been kind of overwhelming, at first, but Hibiki realized it wasn't at all something impossible, was it? And the fact that something like this was happening to people... Even if this situation was confusing, Hibiki knew it had meant that she had to help them, to protect them with her fists. She'd be protecting Miku, too. And so, without much hesitation at all, given what this all meant, she had agreed to help.

Now, however, she found herself in a crowd of people from other worlds. It was something else that she felt a little overwhelmed by, and for a few moments all she could do is rub the back of her head and laugh nervously. However, someone had to start talking first... even if she had heard another girl somewhere else in the crowd bringing up everyone introducing themselves... Hibiki took a deep breath and stepped towards the nearest person.

"My name is Tachibana Hibiki!" she introduced herself, "My favorite food is rice and rice! Since we'll be working together, we should get to know each other!"

Guts took savage delight in the thought that fate, and destiny, had absolutely no hold on his life. He carved his own path, through bodies and bone, blood and soul. Ever since he was a young child, it seemed as if life wanted to guide him down a specific path, and each and every time, he would delve away, creating his own quest and destiny. However, hearing this white-haired female's monologue, the warrior was feeling a tugging at his gut, the usual tug that accompanied him doing something risky. The usual tug that accompanied him choosing his own path. He knew what he had to do, in this weird facade, dream, or whatever the Hell this was. To stop worlds from being destroyed, and his own life being snuffed out indefinitely? Yes, he'd help, if only because it would assure his survival. The God Hand, and...Griffith. They could - no, they would all wait, for he would stop the deterioration of the worlds, so that he could kill each one individually. His vengeance would be sweet, and never-ending. He was not doing this for the innocents, no matter what his heart may have said. The weak deserved to die - he was doing this to further his own revenge.

Nodding his head slightly, the ever stoic Black Swordsman swept his gaze across the crowd that he stood behind, being able to see each person due to the height advantage he seemed to have over everyone. This would be the ones he had to fight alongside...and the disappointment was major. This was definitely no longer his world. Everyone here...they seemed too...clean, too innocent, unmarred by scars or any sort of toughness that came with survival or training in war. Guts felt his lips tilt down into a scowl, his one open eye visibly narrowing as he heard a small female speak.

"Goldibanne thinks this is a good time for everyone to introduce themselves!"

She spoke in third person, it seemed like, and Guts gritted his teeth in annoyance. He would have to fight alongside children.

"My name is Tachibana Hibiki!" Another female, a child again, spoke up, "My favorite food is rice and rice! Since we'll be working together, we should get to know each other!"

Guts wanted to leave. Now.

"The name's Narancia Ghirga, member of Buccellati's Gang, first things first, how old are all of you?" It was a male, this time, although he seemed to be a bit older than the first two girls? Regardless, Guts stayed where he was, arms crossed as he observed the crowd. He'd stay in the background, for now, waiting for vital information. He wasn't exactly in the mood for light conversation, especially since he was transported here while in a very...vivid nightmare. His mood was already shot to Hell.

If Akira had been told that there were other worlds out there a year earlier, she likely would've dismissed the speaker as crazy. After all, there's no way any reasonable person would accept something like that could really exist. Recently, however, she had begun fighting killer robots using a magical trinket from space, so her willingness to accept such things had increased quite substantially. Besides which, the strange variety of...people seemed like the right word for most of them, made it kind of hard to believe she was still home. In any case, Akira couldn't just turn down someone asking for help on this level.

As their host left, she took a better look at her surroundings. Someone had suggested people introduce themselves, which seemed reasonable enough, even if the speaker's appearance and mannerisms were a little odd. A small smile worked its way on to her face during the next introduction. At least these people seemed interesting. Next up, a young man accompanied by some kind of toy plane introduced himself as a gang member and asked for people's ages. Not any interests people might have in common? Abilities of note? Akira sighed, not getting why Narancia found that to be the most important thing to talk about.

"I'm Akira. 20." she said, not really making eye contact with anyone, "Nice to meet all of you."

The duo had naturally answered yes in regards to helping Lydia save the world. What kind of Kamen Riders would they be had they refused? The reward hadn’t interested either of them, at least not now given what they had to deal with first. ”If our reward is whatever we wish, you could motivate yourself with a wish to become the hardboiled detective you’ve always wanted to be, Shotaro,” Philip quipped.

”Hah, real funny. Then maybe you can motivate yourself with… Uh… Aw, get a hobby already!” Shotaro retorted. Though, to be honest, there were a few things that the two were interested in. Namely a few family members… But they would cross that bridge when they came to it. For now, they heard someone- the young… girl? She seemed like one of those ridiculously lifelike dolls you see in an anime, really.

”How fascinating… The “multiverse” holds no shortage of surprises, doesn’t it Shotaro?”

”Eh? Well, I guess so. I definitely didn’t expect there to be a whole bunch of uh…” Shotaro’s eyes scanned the crowd, “Kids? Buncha kids in here! All you guys can pull your weight, right?” he asked, honestly concerned for most of them. Well, maybe except for the one girly looking kid that proclaimed he was in a gang. You had to be tough to get into one of those. Though… He’s not sure where the funny toys he had buzzing around factored into being a gang. What the hell were they?

”I think they’re more than capable,” Philip replied, ”Now then. I’m Philip, 17. And this is my partner, Shotaro Hidari. He’s… 22? Was it?”

”Older than you, and that’s all that matters,” Shotaro responded, ”Together we make a single Kamen Rider. What about the rest of you? What can you do? I can see that the gang-kid’s got… funny toys?” He eyed Aerosmith skeptically, unsure of what use there was to it aside from being a major annoyance. Going off Narancia, Shotaro figured most of these people were hiding powers that weren’t immediately obvious. The one exception being Mister Quiet, of course, and his giant sword over in the back.

Maybe some of the others had seen her already, as she stood on the outskirts of the group, the tattered black cloak she had wrapped herself with rustling ever so slightly. Maybe they'd look straight at her, but then something else caught their attention and they forgot she was there. As long as she didn't try to stand out... These people were strange, and the bizarre things they spoke of made her question the hasty decision she'd made to join them. She wasn't even sure what it all meant, really. It was so confusing... But somehow she felt that she had to do it. Mother would've wanted her to do it. Maybe Mother was here, even... She couldn't remember what she looked like, but surely she had to be here. After all, who else would call for her like that?

But could she really be one of these people? She immediately dismissed the men... Well, she gave them a cursory glance at least. The gruff man with the oversized sword, the boy with the toy aeroplane, the two who... What was this "Kamen Rider" thing they spoke of? It made her head hurt to think about it, so she turned to the women. Mother had to be with them, after all. Somewhere...

...But her attempts to find Mother were stopped dead once her eyes turned to... She was clad in immaculate armour, her blonde hair tied up in a braid at the back... And she was like her. A Heroic Spirit. A Servant. She could sense it, but this didn't seem like a Grail War... Was she an enemy? She wasn't Mother at least. At least with her Presence Concealment, the other Servant wouldn't be able to immediately tell that she was also a Servant. Still, if she kept completely hidden she'd never find Mother, so after some hesitation, she slowly made her way towards the knightly Servant, and in a quiet, ethereal voice she muttered...

"We... Our name is... They called us "Jack"."

"Ah?"

Saber heard a small voice nearby her, and was immediately pulled from her thoughts. She turned towards the source of the voice, and... Realized that it had come from what appeared to be a pale, white-haired child, wrapped in a tattered black cloak. She frowned. While she herself appeared to be only around sixteen, and both of her Masters during the last Grail War were not much older, this girl appeared to be no more then twelve...

Saber hesitated, then reached out towards the girl. She was likely frightened, insofar as Saber could guess, at being dragged into a place like this without any warning.

"... You must be frightened..." she began, before taking a deep breath. She was not exactly the most well-versed in comforting children... and yet, at the same time, Saber could not simply stand by and leave her be without attempting to do anything. It simply wasn't right. It wasn't the action of a knight. "Do not worry, I won't let a child go unprotected."

---

"Fufufu, everyone's so tight-lipped~" Goldibanne said loudly, putting on a mock frown after she finished giggling. Really now, what was the point of avoiding making your entire introduction? Dawdling was just silly, everyone should tell some things about themselves! Like what the abilities they all blatantly had were! Those two guys seemed like they had a good idea, didn't they? They made a full introduction! Even if she had never actually watched that whole 'Kamen Rider' thing... Pirouetting to face them, she cheerfully headed over and stopped directly beside both of them, gesturing to them.

"They went ahead and told everyone what they do, so why doesn't everyone share~? I will too, if you want~" she said, giving a sweet smile as she cocked her head to one side, "You'll all get to know Goldibanne's secrets~"

The living doll giggled to herself, her smile spreading into a grin.

"Aren't you curious?"

---

Hibiki couldn't help but feel a little disheartened. No-one nearby had really responded... beyond the one boy, who asked what age everyone was. Admittedly Hibiki wasn't really sure why that was so important, but... well it was a common thing to introduce yourself with, wasn't it? Maybe that was why. Really, though, the blonde-haired girl wanted to get to know everyone here better. From the huge, gruff swordsman, to the short pink-haired girl. While she couldn't see the girl calling for everyone to introduce themselves more from where she was standing, at the same time she felt that was the right course of action.

"Er... I'm sixteen..." she said, in response to the boy who had asked. Maybe if she shared more about herself, she'd get other people to talk too? Hibiki nodded firmly.

"... And my birthday is September Seventeeth!" Hibiki continued, "One of my favorite things is my roommate's cooking, and my hobby is helping people!"

Projectiles soared through the air, towards the waiting mouths of those present. Long triangular shapes, tailed by plump round ones, flew like so many shuriken. The wafting smell of a finely-made broth followed swiftly behind. Indeed, Kinji was giving out free samples in the way only a ninja could. Jumping up to the roof of his oden cart, he let out a riff on his star-shaped guitar.

"YEEEE-HAW! I'm Kinji Takigawa, monster hunting ninja! How're y'all doin' today?"

"Ah." The scene was strange and the boy was a in place wildly different than where he was previously. If it weren't for the certain fact that a certain dimension hopper all but showed up in his house to bunk and turned him into a vigilante, the seemingly ordinary high school student would have freaked out by now. As it was though, he knew that there were some rather strange stuff out in the world and most of the people here seemed to be humans as well as rather non-villainous looking so it was decided to go along with the flow if only to not feel awkward. "Ah. Mitsuka Souji, age sixteen." His eyes darted around, taking in the sights even as he rubbed the invisible to everybody but him red bracelet bound around his wrist to reassure himself.

Satori stood by silently, watching the mess in front of her unfold before sighing, massaging her forehead with her right hand. These humans... Well, 'eccentric' would probably be a nice way of putting it. From the hyperactive and seemingly-airheaded brown-haired girl to that man cloaked in brown, everyone in here seemed... Well, crazy enough.
The introductions went by, one by one, and the youkai girl sat there, scrutinizing each person that decided to pop in.

The brown-haired girl from earlier, just from her speech alone, was off-putting to Satori. What meaning did such superfluous details have on the situation at hand?
The pair of detectives: a comedy duo, but with a modicum of common sense.
The child with a toy buzzing around his head: simply talking himself up.
And so Satori went, mentally making snide remarks as each person came up to speak their own. And so, when it came to her... Well, she stopped. There was a reason that nobody went near her back home, save for the truly strange and out-of-place. But... It seemed necessary for her here to lay her cards out on the table.

"Ahem... My name is Satori Komeiji. As my name suggests, I am a youkai with the ability to read minds. I'm in your care."

With a slight curtsy towards those watching, the girl turned to the boy with the toy over his head once more. He didn't seem like the type to understand the implications of her statement, so it seemed the task would fall to her to explaining for him (and anyone else who didn't know).

"In other words, you humans would dub me a 'monster,' though I dislike the moniker as much as any other would. I would also like to mention that appearances have no bearing upon age; an old fool is no smarter than a young one, after all."


As the introductions and chatter died down, the being known as 'Lydia' re-emerged from the light into which she had disappeared into mere minutes ago. The sound of the gears in the background had stopped altogether, instead replaced by the sound of flowing water.

"My apologies for the wait; opening a gate to these requires some manipulation over what little control I have left over the Record. Please, do make sure to be careful in these worlds; all I know is that some distortions exist, but not of their nature."

Behind the woman, from the walls of the cathedral, appear three doorways, each leading into a spiraling vortex. The leftmost one seemed to be leaking a grey fog, covering the ground nearby with it. From the center, a similar, but more sinister blackish-blue fog seemed to spread out. The rightmost one, however, seemed to be the most ominous: faint screaming and moaning could easily be heard past the gateway.

"Er... I apologize for starting on such a sinister note, but these worlds seemed to be the quickest anomalies to fix in order to regain access to higher functions of the Akashic Record.


The youkai watched as the person that had summoned everyone here made her grand reappearance, only to lay out three very thoroughly strange paths for everyone to take.

"Mist... I recall reading about such an incident a while back. I believe I'll deal with the one on the left, if you'll pardon my hastiness."

With that, Satori stepped forward, walking ahead without looking back.
This was not for her sake, but she had Koishi and her pets to think about, so it would be unthinkable for her to not move ahead. For their safety, she was willing to go as far as she had to.

"Maybe... Maybe one day, I can finally get Koishi to come back home. Maybe this wish could help me achieve that..."

Guts watched through his one dark, visible eye as the different people, of all shapes, sizes, and colors, introduced themselves with different levels of cheerfulness. He still didn't speak, deciding to spend his time calculating the appearances of the others. There was a reason that they were all called here, young or not - they each must have possessed some sort of hidden power, not obvious on their appearance. The Narancia boy...he seemed to summon some sort of flying contraption, which he accurately guessed to be the boy's main source of offense, or maybe a defense? The male goofballs seemed to make a 'Kamen Rider', whatever sort of form that was, and he virtually had no other information on the numerous little girls dotting the room. He hated not having a plan, but he would have to deal with it until he saw them in action.

The being that had brought him to this place reappeared, and explained that three portals, set in front of the group, would take them to three different worlds...the worlds themselves being unknown. This was the start of the mission, then? He could choose his own path...already, he was feeling better about this whole thing, not being forced onto one singular world with all of these unknowns. Without hesitation, he stepped into the portal on the far right, no hesitation. His face was stoic, eyes narrowed and fierce. This was the start.

When he felt his feet feel broken concrete, the smell of ash and corpses filling his nostrils, Guts' instincts began screaming. The man only did what was natural. A group of six infected had already been a mere few feet away, and as soon as they lunged, the gigantic Dragonslayer sword was already being swung in a wide arc, held by one hand as if it was a mere stick.

Six heads went flying into the air, followed by disgusting spurts of thick brown blood.

Guts ignored the blood as it splashed onto his Berserker armor, lips pulling down into a snarl as he began to survey his surroundings. Already, more of these Ghoul-looking beings seemed to be attracted to the portal. Gripping his buster-like sword with a steel-like, right-handed grip, Guts narrowed his one visible eye...and disappeared. It was like, one second he was there, and the next, he was in the midst of the herd of infected, blade cleaving through torsos and heads with reckless, yet oddly pinpoint precision, before they could swamp the portal and attack whomever would be his teammates for this mission. He had only came through the portal for 30 seconds, and he was already laying waste to his first obstacle.

A grin began to build on his lips, in spite of himself. Guts backhanded a zombie as it got too close, sending it flying onto the ground as he turned around and abruptly slashed Dragonslayer up, towards the sky, cleaving another zombie completely in half, from it's groin to it's brain.

Alex watched from afar as the strange group of individuals... 'talked' amongst each other. 'Talked' since they had a really funny way of communicating with each other. Still, these were the people Alex was going to work with if he was going to save the life of normalcy he had fought so hard for.

At first, Alex did not believe the situation he was in. He was ready to call the bluff and leave for home. However, he was a virus. He cannot hallucinate and everything he saw was as it is, even if all the scientific minds he had consumed could not comprehend it. It was all surreal but it was all real too. The only thing Alex could do was play along, and hope 'Lydia' was telling them the truth and send them all home after all of this was over.

Suddenly, the being Lydia reappeared. The portals were ready. Behind her emerged three doorways, each leading into a spiraling vortex. The leftmost one seemed to be leaking a grey fog, covering the ground nearby with it. From the center, a similar, but more sinister blackish-blue fog seemed to spread out. The rightmost one, however, seemed to be the most ominous: faint screaming and moaning could easily be heard past the gateway.

It was game time and the one with the huge sword had already gone and left. But between the portals and Alex were the crowd of his teammates. Pushing and shoving through them would be a pain, not to mention rude so the Blacklight virus simply made a huge leap to get himself over the crowd and in front of the portals. Before he went into the fray though, he turned to his teammates.

"I'm... Alex. I'm younger than I look." Glancing back to the portals, he added. "Anyone who wants to come with me is welcome. I uhh, look forward to working with all of you." Courtesy was one of the things Dana had taught him if he was going to live the normal life though Alex felt he was a little off.

The portal Alex went into was the middle one, the one with blackish-blue fog. The virus was not sure what he was going to see in the other side but if he has survived a nuke, he can survive this.

------
13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi
------

Alex dropped into a thin alleyway, his weight forcing dust and wind to fly off a bit upon his landing. Alex checked his surroundings, the ominous fog that haunted the portal he entered was practically nowhere. The only traces of it that he could see is a very thin layer hovering right above the ground, just faint enough to slightly tint it a slightly darker shade of grey and brown. If anyone was going to go with him, he'd expect them to plop here too.

The virus heard sounds of fighting in the distance and decided to exit the alleyway. What greeted him was a world straight out of fiction. The weird mix of technology left and right yelled 'Steampunk' to Alex. He wanted to explore this world more, both to complete his mission and to sate the curiosity. However, he figured to wait for any allies that also chose this world to fix first before investigating the sounds of combat.

“Now that you mention…” Philip answered back to Goldibanne, “I am rather curious to know what you are. Going by the distinct joints and clicking, you would appear to be a doll of some sort.” He stroked his chin curiously as he eyed the girl over, “Animated through what means, I wonder?”

“It isn’t obvious? Obviously it’s ma-AH!” Shotaro’s curt response was cut off by the cookie that was flung right into his mouth. He coughed from the unwelcome food and was quick to pull it out, shaking his fist to reprimand the… ninja? Cowboy?? Rocker??? “Oi! What’s the big idea, man?! There’s a time and a place to do that!” he briefly paused as he took in Kinji’s appearance and mannerisms, “Wait- That’s too many conflicting themes at once man! A ninja, an oden cart… and a cowboy rocker?!”

It was almost offensive to Shotaro how many themes Kinji was playing off of at once. He and Philip were a bit too caught up in responding to the two to really answer the others. Although they did make a special note not to think of anything weird while around the youkai girl. Youkai, though? She didn’t look like any sort of monster to them. Before they could think more on the matter, Lydia appeared again and opened the way to their mission. Er, rather, ways The duo observed the doorways and the increasing dangers each felt that they posed.

“Aw, come on… None of these look all that welcome,” Shotaro remarked, raising his hand up to hold his hat.

“If you are so off-put by them, shall we venture into the most welcoming then?” Philip responded, half-serious and half-joking.

“Very funny,” he sneered back, “But do you think you could handle what’s through the other two?”

Philip didn’t seem so confident about testing his chances in those worlds, so he had to give it up to Shotaro on that one. “Alright, you win there. Let’s go then?” he asked, adjusting his grip on his book.

Shotaro grinned and flicked his wrist in the direction of the leftmost portal. “Of course.”

And on that note, the two walked through and found themselves in the foggy park, immediately looking around and taking in their surroundings. “A big fountain… And that arch?” Shotaro noted, “Is this… New York? Are we in America?”

Philip looked around at the few people walking around, making note of the less than human characters around them. “Certainly not the America we know, but an Earth nonetheless.” The two walked forward a little more and looked back, waiting to see who would come with them.

When the oden came flying at Goldibanne's face, her reaction was, well... almost distressing, especially on what otherwise appeared to be a harmless, smallish girl(provided you didn't look too closely at the joints). Her head snapped sideways, too far for a human neck, and her hand snapped up, catching the dumpling in between two fingers as it did. Maintaining this position, she simply smiled at the... cowboy... rockstar ninja? What kind of combination was that?

She popped the oden into her mouth, chewing and swallowing in silence, before her head returned to its normal position and she shut her eyes, crossing her legs and raising her skirt as she curtsied politely.

"Goldibanne is so very pleased to meet you all~" she replied to the newcomers, "And that dumpling was delicious~ But be careful, some people might not like it if you get food in their eye~"

Opening her eyes, she spun on one foot to face the portals. She would have to talk to the two men who had spoken to her later, as they'd already went through one of the portals... her next decision was made entirely on a whim, as she cheerfully passed through the rightmost gate, which seemed most sinister. And yet, well, certainly that meant she could brighten it up, couldn't it?

Immediately she was met with a rather dismal sight. Fire, burnt out vehicles... Ah, how miserable. Certainly not the sort of place the living doll enjoyed being in, but at the same time, the sort of place that could absolutely use a little more cheer.

The living doll was torn from her thoughts when a foul-smelling body throw itself at her. A man, it seemed, who looked entirely worse for wear. Goldibanne's right arm lashed out and caught him by the forehead, stopping him dead in his tracks.

"... Oh? Animate dead?" she asked, cocking her head to one side with a click. "Or something else? Fufufu, it doesn't matter~"

Goldibanne felt the heat build in her hand, and forced it out. With a hissing, sizzling sound, she watched the man's body thrash... and then go limp as a thin spike of flowing, molten gold burst out from the back of his skull. It warped and then retracted, and she released the corpse, letting it fall to the ground with a thud.

There were many more of what seemed to be Animate Dead shambling all across the street. Goldibanne shrugged.

"What a miserable place~" she commented, cheerfully, before outstretching both of her hands. Molten gold flowed from her finger joints, coalescing into a pair of long, golden, and extremely hot whips. The tall man with the massive sword was already working at thinning their numbers...

"Let's brighten it up~"

Akira stared for a moment as the duo introduced themselves as a single Kamen Rider. Did they fuse somehow? Rider suggested some kind of mount, so did one of them turn into a bike or something? Deciding it was better to not dwell on it and just ask later, she shook her head and moved on. Of course, this was helped by the sudden edible projectile hurtling towards her.

"Gah! What the hell?!" she exclaimed, barely catching the incoming free sample before it hit her in the face, "Who throws food like that?"

Turning to the source, she was met with a character with way too many motifs going on. Cowboy, rock star and apparently ninja too. Akira was a little annoyed that the ninja would risk potentially hurting people and, more importantly (given the circumstances), wasting food like that. However, another distraction popped up at that moment. Lydia returned and with her, a set of doorways had appeared.

Akira found herself hesitating for a moment, as each of the doors was at least a little intimidating. She wasn't going to back down after agreeing to help, but...easing herself into this situation seemed like the best idea. With that in mind, she followed the youkai and Kamen Rider through the left portal.

"America, huh?" She repeated, taking in the surrounding area. Akira tensed up for a moment when she saw the non-humans, but the fact that no one was panicking seemed to suggest that might just be how things were in this world. The fog clouding the sky looked a bit disconcerting too.

Tilting her head to the side, the girl who identified herself as "Jack" stared in confusion at the boisterous man as the food he had tossed whizzed by past her cheek. She... Wasn't sure what to make of it, really. It didn't seem ill-intended, just... Bizarre.

The blonde knight assured her that she wouldn't be harmed, and even though she clearly wasn't Mother "Jack" couldn't help but feel calmed by her words. But still, she wasn't Mother... And Mother was the only person she could trust. As soon as she found her, that was...

As the gateways opened, "Jack" creeped over and found herself drawn to one in particular; grey fog seemed to be billowing from it, and whatever lay beyond seemed... Familiar, yet different. It wasn't quite London, but... As she scuttled inside, she heard the so-called "Kamen Riders" mentioning something about New York. The name... Did not sound unfamiliar, as though it was something she might have heard of in passing... But she could never have imagined it looking so big. Were there really cities bigger than London out there? It... Scared her somewhat to think of such things, really. Still, now that she was here there wasn't much point in worrying, so instead she stepped past the two men and inquisitively leaned over the edge of the fountain, staring blankly at her reflection in the water.

Surprised when food flew at her face, Saber reached up and caught it in one hand, her agility as a Servant allowing her to stop it before it could even reach her and potentially miss her mouth. After a moment's consideration, the smallish blonde girl popped the dumpling into her mouth... and quite quickly found herself deeply pleased with the flavor. In spite of the strange method of delivery, it was indeed possessed of an excellent taste. She would have to thank the oddly-themed man later... But for now, there were more pressing matters. Such as the way the little girl had just vanished into one of the portals, the one pouring with fog. That, essentially, made up Saber's mind for her. On her honor as a knight, she could not leave a child undefended.

Light flashed up Saber's arm, bursts of blue energy flashing in the air as gauntlets formed, a hazy, indistinct shape appearing in her right hand as her clothing altered. The flashes of light flowed across her body, until her simple outfit had been replaced with a decorated blue dress and a set of armor. Without a moment's hesitation, she placed both hands on the hazy form, her cloaked Excalibur, and sprinted through the portal.

She was not greeted with a sight she particularly expected. It was a city. A modern city. New York...? One of the men had mentioned it... It was foggy. And in the fog, she could see... people? Yes, there were humans walking through the fog, but also... other beings. Things Saber did not recognize.

Needless to say, the King of Knights was left rather perplexed.

"What... is this, exactly?" she questioned, approaching the little girl named Jack, intending to stay close to her for the moment. Until she was certain that the child would be safe, she would naturally have to keep an eye on her.

---

Before she got any real responses, Hibiki found food flying at her face. While she normally was perfectly fine with food approaching her face, when it was tossed at such speeds she was really not prepared for it. All the girl could do was reach up and frantically grab at it with two hands. The dumpling slipped from between her fingers and fell forward, forcing Hibiki to launch herself forward and snatch it up before it hit the ground.

That would have been a terrible waste!

"Er... thanks?" she said, not sure how to respond to having food tossed at her like that. She hadn't seen where it had come from, but she'd heard the voice... and now there were three portals. Right, if some of these people weren't willing to talk, then she'd get to know them while they were working to protect the multiverse! Popping the dumpling in her mouth and chewing, Hibiki clenched both hands into fists and sprinted for the middle portal...

... And found herself... well, she didn't know where it was, but the scenery was pretty spectacular! No small part of the girl wished she could bring Miku here, it was an incredible view!

"Wow..." she said, approaching one of the hand railings and looking over the edge.

The sounds of fighting in the distance, however, quickly snapped Hibiki's mind back to the present. That's right! They had a job to do!

Hibiki spun on her heel, trying to determine the exact direction the sounds were coming from. Needless to say, the moment she figured it out, well... she would throw herself right into things.

That was just how Tachibana Hibiki worked.

The youkai girl walked out of the portal, fully expecting a Gothic town of some sort to meet her gaze. What she found instead was, of course, much grander than that. Though the buildings seemed to be made of stone, their sheer size made Satori stare at them in shock. She could see some larger buildings in the distance, their surfaces shining with the light of the morning sun.

"What kind of...?"

The words escaped her lips, softly drifting through as a few of the people from earlier entered through the portal soon after. The manzai duo and the relatively-normal looking girl seemed to have a clue as to where they were, while the two others that followed (a blonde woman who had changed into an archaic suit of armor and that strange girl cloaked in a black cloth) seemed to be... Well, slightly less in wonder than she was, but still confused nevertheless.

Her companions' entry, though, pulled Satori back into focus as she began to examine her surroundings a bit more closely. There were humans, yes; that much was certain. But there were other beings milling about, ones which she had never seen or heard of back in Gensokyo. She probably wouldn't have been too surprised by this fact, if not for the fact that the two seemed to be... Actively coexisting.

"This place... You two called it New York, correct?" she asked the Kamen Rider duo, walking forward to take in the calm atmosphere for a moment. "Is it possible that such a parallel exists from your place of origin?"

With the city's sunrise, though, came the increasing frequency of pedestrians of all sorts; however slow it was, the number would inevitably rise as time continued on.

"...And though I would hate to shatter such a peaceful respite from society, it seems that this city is doing just that anyhow. Should we begin searching for the issue? I would rather not lead, so I would appreciate it if another one of you could do so instead."

This quote, directed at the group as a whole, came about as the result of a large creature snacking on a pastry of some sort walking by, a briefcase in each of its three other hands.

"...Please. This is becoming strange, even by my standards."

Miku had initially felt confusion about her location, as well as concern about how Hibiki would take her apparent sudden disappearance. She had to push the doubt aside, though; how would Hibiki feel if she walked out on helping people just to get home quickly? Even if she wasn't a fighter, and definitely not as dangerous as the alarmingly huge man with an even bigger sword, she had a relic and the courage to use it. Even a little courage is still courage.

Staying around to wait proved to be the right choice, as an all-too-familiar voice called out from elsewhere in the group, announcing her room-mate's presence as loudly and cheerfully as ever. She hadn't quite gotten through the obstructions to Hibiki before the girl was, like ever, picking the straight and obvious path and rushing into the centre door.

The city beyond was... beautiful. They were high up with an amazing view, but the architecture and technology was unfamiliar. She hadn't heard of a city build to any sort of plan like this before, either, since city planning tended to call for not having huge drops all over the place, wherever possible, so building up like this was a strange choice. With the sound of fighting nearby, though, there was only a few seconds to react before the brunette rushed off without realising there was support.

"Hibiki!" Miku rushed over, hoping that she would be noticed. Losing Hibiki in another crowd might cause problems...

Little did the green-eyed girl know that of all the doors she could have picked, this was probably the worst world for her to wander into. Her Symphogear, after all, did share something of a resemblance to a Murakumo unit... complete with floating just above the ground.