"Well, sure, if you wanna put it like THAT."

First they stopped in front of Lucille's tea house, and right on schedule, Speedy and Guido fought over helping Lucille out and to the door. "I had a really great time today!" she said to the group. "Thanks for inviting me!"

"No problem," Polly said. "See you later. And GET BACK HERE, SPEEDY AND GUIDO!"

"We're just making sure she gets inside!" Speedy said, sliding open one of the doors for Lucille.

"It's pretty dangerous out here at night, after all," Guido remarked, sliding back the other.

Polly jabbed the floor of the wagon. "HERE. NOW."

"All right, all right!" Guido muttered. "Yeesh."

"... why are they always fighting over her?" Ileyna asked Helena quietly, leaning over to the weredragon so she could be heard.

Helena kept an eye on the two male cats as they rushed back to the wagon at Polly's continued insistence. "They like her a lot. You'll understand when you're older."

The wagon sauntered through Little Tokyo until taking an easy right turn on the street where the pizza parlor stood. Above, its massive roof loomed over them like a long shaft, blocking their view of some of the stars. The Pizza Cats filed out. "Speedy, give them some money for the hotel," Polly said.

Speedy dug into his pocket and produced a wad of bills. "This should be enough." He slapped the mess into Matt's hand, and it was all Matt's fingers could do to keep it all together. "Just tell 'em Speedy sent ya, and they'll treat you right. No strings attached."

"Thanks," Matt said. "And thanks for putting up with us."

They quickly departed, with Ileyna waving goodbye as they went their separate ways.

"They did say where this nearby hotel was at, right?" R.D. asked.

Matt sat up and leaned near the driver of the wagon. "Excuse me, are you taking us to the hotel near here?"

"I wasn't heading that way, but sure, I can turn around," the old dog grunted. "Shouldn't take us long."

"Thanks." Matt settled back down and folded his arms. "There. No problem."

"I wonder if this world has normal showers," Helena said. "Or any showers at all."

"We'll find out when we get our rooms," Alasea said.

"If they don't, we can just make our own," R.D. said.

"Oh, that's right," Alasea said, turning to him. "You and Matt can do that, huh?"

X looked annoyed for a moment. "How the hell am I gonna--"

He paused for a moment and looked at his sword. He swung his sword, sending a crescent shape of energy coursing out of it. It too struck the invisible wall. It dissipated on contact and and the wall briefly lit up.

"Well, it didn't break through the wall, but still..."

He swung it again, in a circular motion, lighting up the walls surrounding him. Continuing his strategy, he used it to find openings in the maze.

"What?" Matt asked. "I can't make a room. I've never been able to do that."

"She means when you bring the earth up to make walls," Helena said.

"Oh. Well, yeah, I could do that, but I don't feel like camping tonight."

"I wasn't suggesting camping," R.D. clarified. "Just that one of us can make a temporary outdoor shower if they don't have one in the hotel."

"You get to stand around sprinkling water, then," Matt said.

They pulled up to the hotel, another multi-floored and expensive building compared to the simple structures of the rest of Little Tokyo. Inside, candlelit lamps along the walls of the lobby lead up to the front desk, manned by a sour-looking giraffe.

"Excuse me," she said as the group walked up to the desk, "but, um...what are you doing?" Her voice was so nasally that states probably had laws prohibiting it.

"We're here to get a room for the night," Matt said. "You've got any vacancies?"

The giraffe sniffed. "Well, maybe for NORMAL visitors, yes, but I'm afraid it's against our policy to let strange creatures like yourselves stay here."

Matt held up the money. "Will this wad of money change your mind?"

The giraffe simply ringed a bell, and a deer-like citizen slipped out from behind a nearby red curtain. "Prepare some rooms for our guests. Preferably the ones without any roaches." The deer curtly nodded and scuttled off, and the giraffe turned to face them again. "Don't get me wrong. I still hate you."

"Likewise." Matt clicked his tongue, winking.

"We should probably point out that Speedy recommended this place," R.D. said dryly, not at all amused by the racism that they'd been receiving all day.

The giraffe's eyebrow arched. "Really." She reached underneath the counter and pulled out a handful of green candies, letting them clatter and roll onto the counter. "You can have these mints while you wait, then. But only because you're friends with Speedy."

"I'm already pissed off," Hugo said.

"Calm down, Hugo," Matt said, raising his hands. "We need rooms for the night, not trouble. Okay?"

R.D. sighed and scooped up the candies, looking at them briefly. He didn't even like mint.

Soon the deer came back and escorted the group to their rooms, far away from Passive Aggressive Giraffe. They would have two rooms near the end of one hallway. The wad of cash certainly went far to make sure these rooms looked pleasant, with nice curtains and comfortable beds. Well, the "beds" were more like sleeping mats, but they sure were nice looking mats!

Unfortunately, each room only had two mats, so someone would have to probably use their sleeping bag. "Me and Helena and Hugo get this one," Matt said, tapping on the door frame to their room. "Rest of you get the other."

"That's fine with us," Alasea said, stepping past to look at the room she, R.D., and Ileyna were going to use. R.D. glanced at her as she moved past him, and Helena's words came back to haunt him.

"I've got a question. When are you and Alasea going to get together?"

"No. I know you two really like each other. I haven't even been with the group long and it's easy to see. And not just because you were checking her out, either."

"Hey, these rooms look pretty nice!" Alasea called out as she looked into the room before stepping into it.

R.D.'s face met his palm as he sighed.

Hugo walked into the room and looked up at the wooden ceiling. "These rooms better be as good as that giraffe said they were. I'd better not wake up to this roof leaking on me."

"Well, if that happens, we'll just set her dress on fire or something." Matt slid off his pack and let it fall next to the bed farthest from the door. "Helena could do that for us."

"I'm not setting her dress on fire," Helena said. "Even though she deserves it."

Ileyna yawned and stretched as she stepped into the room, thoroughly wiped out for the day. Alasea smiled and patted the girl on the shoulder. "Go on, rest a bit," she said. "I'll wake you when its time for you to bathe."

"Okay," she said absently, moving towards one of the futons on the floor. She almost dived into it, setting her beret beside her like usual after slipping into it.

"Go on ahead and shower," R.D. said to Alasea after setting down his satchel. "I'm gonna go take a walk outside."

"You okay?" she asked, cocking her head to the side as she looked at him, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "I just need to clear my head a bit."

"I'm gonna shower, too," Helena said. "That okay with you, Matt?"

"Sure. Go ahead." Matt pulled his handheld console out of the sack and flipped it on. Time for some relaxing, anachronistic video games.

"Alright, be careful out there," Alasea said. "We don't need any more trouble today."

Nodding, he left the room as Alasea began rummaging through her purse to get her nightgown out. R.D. sighed as he stepped outside of the building, ignoring the dirty and mistrustful looks he got from the giraffe at the counter and the other hotel patrons.

Looking around, he ran a hand through his hair before picking a direction. How exactly was he going to handle this? Staying a room with Alasea was going to be difficult now, knowing that she apparently was attracted to him. It made sense, now--she always seemed closer to him than Matt. And if her teasing was anything to go by...

But even still, I feel uncomfortable around her, he thought sourly as he walked past some other animal people headed the opposite direction as him. He still remembered the hurtful, angry words she had spat at him days past, on board the XA-26-483 Ragnarok. How he didn't have a family, and that he couldn't understand how she felt.

But he did have family now. At least one person. Mesia. Just where could she be? When did they separate? Too many questions. Too many questions, and he was completely unable to find the answers until he returned to a world where at least four people were out for his blood. With a frustrated sigh, R.D. kicked a rock and watched it bounce off a building's side wall.

Another half hour passed before R.D. returned to the hotel, figuring that the others would grow worried if he stayed out too long. Once more, he ignored the dirty look the giraffe behind the counter shot at him, and proceeded upstairs to return to his and Alasea and Ileyna's room. Outside the door, he could hear muffled voices as Alasea and Ileyna talked about something--he couldn't quite hear them, and thus couldn't make out what they were saying.

When he slid open the door, he froze in place, his eyes going wide in absolute shock.

Both Ileyna and Alasea stared back, with the younger girl kneeling in her futon, her hands held over her mouth, hiding her bright red cheeks from view. Alasea stood in the middle of the room, hands holding the pink nightgown out before her, her own face blazing a bright red glow.

She wore not a single stitch of clothing.

He couldn't help himself. His eyes nerviously twitched upwards, gazing at smooth legs before traveling across a shapely hip, a toned stomach, and further upwards... until his eyes locked onto blue eyes full of embarrassed fury.

Bystanders outside of the building would suddenly freeze in place as the entire building seemed rock as several loud crashing noises erupted throughout the hotel, the entire floor Matt and his friends were on shaking with each sound. After a moment, there was silence, only for it to be broken by a door slamming shut.

Matt jumped as the ruckus began. "What the HELL?!" He snapped off his game and leapt through the door frame into the hallway. (The doors were just sheets of thick paper framed by wood.) He glanced up and down the hall, arming electrical energy, when he spotted R.D. bruised and beaten, slumping against a wall. "You okay, man?" Matt asked, rushing over to him. "What happened? Where are they coming from?"

R.D.'s body slid to the side until he collapsed fully from how he had been slumped upside down against the wall. His expression was a dazed one, one that he had to shake away before he could regain any kind of coordination. He lifted a hand a bit, still not entirely coordinated, to ward off Matt. "We're... not under attack," he finally said, pushing up from the floor into a sitting position. "Ugh. That hurt."

Matt crouched down next to him. "Then what happened, did you trip and fall a hundred times?" He glanced up and noticed Passive Aggressive Giraffe entering the hallway, looking dour as usual. "Sorry about that!" he said to her, lifting a hand. "He just tripped and fell a hundred times!"

Passive Aggressive Giraffe studied them intently for a moment. "Whatever," she finally said. "But don't let me catch you doing it again, or I'll just have to use a curse word." She spun about like a Nazi soldier and marched back down the hall.

R.D. eyed the door to his room warily, as if something might leap out and attack him again. He stood up from the floor. "Not here," R.D. said. "I don't want to risk getting injured again. Let's go elsewhere."

The broken door frame to Matt's room parted, and Hugo peeked out. "What the hell's going on out here?"

"Something attacked R.D.,' Matt said, standing back up. "We're gonna go look around. Keep an eye out."

Hugo tapped his helmet. "No problem."

R.D. didn't bother speaking until they had stepped out of the building. R.D. sighed as he looked around once more. "You didn't need to tell Hugo to watch out," he started. "We're not under attack."

He looked off to the side. "Alasea was... in the middle of changing when I opened the door to the room," he explained to his friend. "She wasn't really amused by it."

Matt's head sagged at the news. "That's it? That's why it sounded like someone died in there? Because Alasea didn't have enough sense to change in the bathroom?"

"My not leaving right away and staring probably had something to do with her attacking me," R.D. muttered. "She probably didn't think I'd be back so soon."

Matt groaned. Genius. "Well, thanks to that, we almost got kicked out, which I really appreciate. I'm gonna have to give her a talk when we get back."

"I guess. We should probably save it for later and let her cool down a bit," R.D. warned. "She did just throw me into the hallway on her own; she could probably do the same to you if she wanted to."

"Let's not get on that topic," Matt said. Probably because he could throttle her if he wanted, but the last time that happened, it was pretty awkward. "Come on, let's get back inside. It's nippy out here."