Natsuki’s body stretched and snapped back into shape. The ground slammed into her side. She grunted in pain. Wincing, she sat up and propped herself against a wall, taking in her surroundings.

    She was somewhere else. The question was where. By the looks of it, it was an alley of some sort. The early afternoon sun was shining down from a clear blue sky.

    She took a deep breath, trying to clear her head. The last thing she remembered was stepping away from Sayori for a moment to check out some rubble. And then, she was here...wherever here was.

    Natsuki blinked. Why was her head so fuzzy? She had hit her side, not her head. And the only reason that hurt so much was that she had landed on the water bottle in her coat pocket that she had borrowed from Aquila. The metal water bottle...that she had put beside her phone...

    Natsuki’s eyes widened, and she pulled her phone out. The screen was cracked and lifeless. She grimaced and tried to turn it on.

    Nothing.

    Natsuki closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing, forcing down a rising panic. She needed to calm down, and figure out where she was and how she had gotten there. That was step one.

    She had been in that story world beside Sayori. The town had been destroyed by a firestorm created by Balthazar. And then she had found herself here...

    Natsuki blinked. Balthazar would have used information stream energy to destroy the town. What was it that Aquila had said about the room in which Balthazar had murdered somebody using that energy? The fabric of reality had filled with holes that one could fall through...and that meant that the town–

    Natsuki cursed. “We walked into a minefield. How could we be that stupid?”

    Still, that settled it. She had fallen through the information stream, and that meant that she had to be in the hub world. And without her phone, she had no way of contacting or warning the others.

    Natsuki shook her head. They’d figure it out, and then they’d come to find her. What she needed to do was figure out how to find them once they arrived, or at least make it easy for them to find her. First, though, she needed to determine where she was.

    She rose to her feet, dusted herself off, and stepped out of the alley. She was definitely in a city of some sort. The language of the passers-by was Japanese, so that meant that it was a city in Japan. She couldn’t ask anybody what city she was in, as that would attract too much attention. But, if she could just find a hill and get a good look at the skyline...

    Natsuki spotted a rise just down the street. She made her way through the passers-by to the top, and then looked around. Then she smiled.

    Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Skytree, and Mount Fuji. She was in Tokyo. It may have been in a story world, but this was the city she was born and raised in.

    Natsuki nodded to herself. She knew where she was. Now she needed money. That should be easy enough – the coinage she was carrying might be from the story worlds, but it was silver and gold. So, any pawn shop should take it.

    And once she had money, she could get food, shelter, and perhaps even get her phone fixed.

    Something caught her eye on the sidewalk. She blinked. It was a small piece of charcoal.

    Natsuki grinned. It looked just like a piece of the burned wreckage of the town. Her friends must be using it to chart a safe path through the minefield. Rescue was coming.

    So, step two: find a pawn shop that would take precious metals. For that, she would have to ask for directions.

    “Excuse me!” Natsuki called to a young couple walking towards her. “Might I get directions?”

    “Of course,” the young man said. The lady beside him regarded her with interest.

    “I’m looking for a pawn shop that can take some precious metals my grandparents left me, and I’ve got a bit lost,” Natsuki said, bowing. “Might you know where I can find one?”

    The young man looked at his lady friend, and then they both shook their head. “I’m sorry,” he said, returning her bow. “I’m afraid we don’t know.”

    Natsuki bowed again. “Thank you for trying to help.”

    The next person she asked didn’t know either, and neither did the one after that. Natsuki sighed and started walking down the streets. Step two would be more difficult than she thought.

    “You look lost,” a voice said behind her.

    She turned to find herself facing a tall Japanese man in a long leather coat, standing beside a medium sized foreigner, American by the look of it, wearing a double-breasted trenchcoat and fedora.

    Natsuki blinked, forcing herself to keep an impassive expression. Something about them seemed just a bit off.

    “I’m just looking for a pawn shop,” she said. “My grandmother left me a bunch of gold and silver for my inheritance, and I was hoping to sell them.”

    “Perhaps we can help you find one,” the tall Japanese man said. Something about the coat caught Natsuki’s eye, a stiffness on the man’s left side that shouldn’t be there, the sort of thing you’d see when...

    ...when there was a concealed weapon underneath it.

    Natsuki swallowed. “I think I’m fine, actually, but thank you for the offer. I need to get back to my school, anyway.”

    “What’s the school?” the American asked in fluent Japanese with an odd accent, like something out of an old American detective movie.

    “Blue Lotus Academy,” Natsuki replied. “It’s a private high school. And I really should get back there.”

    “Really?” the Japanese man said. “You look a bit old to be a high school student. Were you held back three or four years?”

    “I’m a teaching assistant,” Natsuki stated.

    The Japanese man held up a smartphone with a map displayed on the screen. Three dots huddled together in the centre. “Actually, I think you’re one of us. This app tracks the EM radiation emitted by all of us from the story worlds. It’s very clever, and it led us right to you. My name is Ken Tanaka, and this is Harry Spade. What’s your name?”

    Natsuki swallowed. “I’m Natsuki Toshiro. What are your intentions?”

    “To find you and make sure you’re okay, for one,” Ken said. “Don’t worry, we’re the heroes of our worlds.” He blinked. “Well, I’m the hero of my world. Harry is...the closest his world has to a hero.”

    Harry shook his head. “Don’t say things like that. She looks like a classy dame, she doesn’t need to be confused.”

    Ken winced. “Why would you use that word? Nobody has used that word in that way in decades!”

    “There is nothing wrong with the word ‘dame’,” Harry declared. “Look at her – she’s classy, and that makes her a dame.”

    “It’s an archaic English word!” Ken said. “You literally brought an archaic English word into Japanese so you could use it! Nobody does that here!”

    “People use English words here all the time,” Harry retorted.

    “Current English words. They use current words!” Ken turned and bowed to Natsuki. “Please accept my apologies for my...friend. His story is set in San Francisco in the 1930s, and this is his idea of blending in.”

    Harry shook his head. “I blend in just fine. Half of what I do where I come from is stakeouts.”

    Ken pointed at his leather longcoat. “I’m wearing this coat because the thing I have to conceal for self-defence is long. The thing you have to conceal for self-defence is short.” He pointed up at the sky. “Not seeing a lot of rain clouds up there.”

    Harry shrugged. “Nobody seems to mind, pal.”

    “That’s because this is Japan,” Ken stated. “Politely not commenting about things they see on the street is a national pastime here.” He turned back to Natsuki. “Anyway, we should get you back to our base and at least get you something to eat.”

    “I’d really rather not,” Natsuki said. “My friends will be coming to find me, and once they do–”

    “We’ll help you look for them,” Ken said. “It’s the least we can do for one of our own.”

    Natsuki stared at them. She knew the subtle signs that somebody was lying to her, and they weren’t. Still...

    “Come with us,” Harry said. “Robot Girl will be thrilled to have another broad around.”

    “She has a name,” Ken said through gritted teeth. “It’s Selena. And she’s not a robot girl, she’s a mech pilot. And nobody uses the word ‘broad’ like that anymore either!”

    Harry shrugged. “You didn’t want me to use ‘dame’!”

    “‘Broad’ isn’t better! Can you please at least try to act like you’re from this century?”

    Natsuki blinked. “Sorry, did you just say ‘mech pilot’?” What was it Aquila had said? That the side fighting on the side of the creators was almost always led by a mech pilot and a mage? That sounded right.

    “Yes,” Ken said. “Selena came from a science fiction manga.”

    “Is there a mage too?” Natsuki asked.

    Harry grinned. “You mean Wizard Boy?”

    “His name is Darius,” Ken said. “Yes, he’s a mage, but he’s also an acquired taste...rather like Harry here.”

    Natsuki allowed herself a bit of hope. “And how far away is this base of yours?”

    “Pretty close,” Ken said. “We just moved there yesterday, and it’s much better than the place we were in before. It’s only about ten minutes by foot from here. It’s even got guest rooms in the second storey and basement.”

    Natsuki took a deep breath. A mech pilot and a mage... “Okay, I’ll come with you.”

    “Better turn it on,” Ken said to Harry. Harry took out a small device that looked like some sort of pen, and pressed a button on it. Then he slid it back into his inside coat pocket.

    “What’s that?” Natsuki asked.

    “It’s a device Selena made for us,” Ken replied, starting to lead her towards some nearby suburbs. “If we can track our kind using their EM signature, then the other side probably can too. So, this dampens it and prevents them from seeing us. We can’t use it and the detector at the same time, though, because the dampener will just prevent it from seeing anything.”

    As they wandered into the suburbs, Natsuki took careful note of every turn, building a map in her memory. The last thing she wanted to do was get lost.

    “Here we are,” Harry declared as they rounded a corner and headed towards a large, blocky three storey house with a white brick facade. “Home sweet home.”

    “Don’t worry,” Ken said, holding open the door for Natsuki. “We’re the good guys. You’re safe with us.”

    Natsuki looked at him again, taking careful note of his body language. No signs of deception. And, they had a mech pilot and a mage. She stepped into the house.

    The interior was nice and clean, but barely furnished. The white walls still smelled of a fresh coat of paint that could only be two or three days old. Unopened boxes lined the hallway and the walls of the living room.

    “If Selena is anywhere, she’s downstairs in the workshop,” Ken said. “The stairs are this way.”

    Natsuki followed Ken down the stairs into the basement, Harry taking position behind her. She found herself in a makeshift workshop, with a cabinet of power tools and a workbench placed almost as though somebody had just given up on getting them against a wall and left them wherever they were standing at the time. Puttering away at what appeared to be a smartphone was a short, Japanese woman with mousy green hair in a bowl cut wearing a tank top and cargo pants.

    “This is Selena,” Ken said. “She’s our resident mech pilot, inventor...”

    “And super-soldier,” Selena added. “Don’t forget the super-soldier. My story started with them turning me into one. Who’s this?”

    “This is Natsuki Toshiro,” Ken said. “She’ll be joining us for a bit, or at least until we can help her find her friends.” He blinked. “Sorry, I didn’t get what type of story you were from. What was it?”

    “It was a harem comedy,” Natsuki replied. “Three of my friends and I were the harem.”

    Selena looked up at her. “That would suck. Good thing you’re out of there.”

    “It did,” Natsuki said, reading Selena’s body language. The mech pilot was relaxed, with no signs of deception or hostile intent.

    “Anyway, Selena is pretty brilliant,” Ken stated. “She makes things for us, and fixes things–”

    “Aha!” Selena cried, staring at the open phone. “This needs some chewing gum!”

    “...somehow,” Ken added.

    “We should introduce her to Wizard Boy too,” Harry said behind Natsuki.

    Ken sighed. “For the hundredth time, his name is Darius. Selena, have you seen Darius lately?”

    “He’s in the other room right there,” Selena replied, popping a stick of gum into her mouth. “With the boss.”

    A chill went down Natsuki’s spine. “I thought Selena and Darius would be in charge.”

    Selena stared at her. “Us? Have you met us?”

    “Hey boss!” Harry called. “We’ve got somebody here for you to meet. She just arrived today!”

    Natsuki’s mind started to race, suddenly very aware that Harry Spade was behind her, between her and the stairs. Harry Spade was from a story set in America in the 1930s. He wore a trenchcoat and a fedora. That suggested a police officer or a private detective. But Ken had said that he wasn’t the hero of his world, so that ruled out the police officer. And if Harry was concealing something short to protect himself, that would make it a gun. And in those stories, the private detectives were quick to pull out their guns and shoot, and tended to have very good reflexes and very good aim...

    ...so if she tried to run, she wouldn’t stand a chance.

    “I should just go,” Natsuki said. “I don’t want to bother you all any more than I need to, and my friends should already be here looking for me, and–”

    The door to the side room opened, and Balthazar stepped out. The moment he saw her, he flashed her a big, welcoming smile.

    “Natsuki Toshiro!” Balthazar declared. “Detective Natsuki! So good to see you again! Have you eaten yet? It’s Selena’s turn to cook dinner, and her chicken katsu is just to die for.”

NEXT: “Balthazar”