"It's just as you suspected, aruji-sama." The high-pitched, childlike voice came from a small fox kit with yellowish-orange fur, though its head and face was colored like a Japanese fox mask. The tiny fox creature reached up to bat at the oversized golden bell on its collar; the bell made a tone, and then a beam of blue-white light shone from it. Computer windows began to pop up on the floor, which Konnosuke moved around with paws to sort.

"According to the readings," the fox-creature continued, "in the same instant all the Touken Danshi were thrown out of time, portals began opening up all over the world."

"--Were any of the Touken Danshi hurt?" the saniwa asked quickly.

"Thankfully no," Konnosuke assured. "Just the opposite -- Mutsunokami got himself in trouble saving Izuminokami again, and might have been broken if he hadn't been thrown back here."

The saniwa breathed a sigh of relief. "...Those two." The words were fond, however. "Apologies, Konnosuke... please continue."

Several more, smaller windows popped up in the images projected on the floor, and Konnosuke placed them so they could all be seen. Several video that looked like they had been recorded from camera feeds. "The Time Government didn't want to chance sending a lot of us through these portals until more was known," Konnosuke continued. "But the few that left all returned safely, and they brought back these images."

The saniwa looked at the recorded footage as it played in a few small windows that shared the 'screen'. "A medieval town... a higher-technology megacity... And that one looks very much like our civilization did a few centuries ago..."

Konnosuke nodded. "It looks like it's just a big network of different places connected by more of these portals. We aren't sure if there's any rhyme or reason to it yet, or why it forced all the swords to return."

"And the time device... it's nonfunctional?" the saniwa inquired.

At this, Konnosuke's ears drooped. "I'm afraid so. We don't know why the time devices aren't functioning yet, or what happened to our world."

"...I see." Silence for a moment, an expression of deep thought settling across the saniwa's face in the space it took to sip from a teacup. After a moment, "We need someone to reconnoiter..."

Tilting its canine head, Konnosuke inquired, "Do you have someone in mind?"

"...I do." The saniwa stood, placing the cup of tea on the table in front of the chair. "Send Shokudaikiri and Hasebe to the summon chambers."

Konnosuke chirped, "Yes, aruji-sama!" The beam of light from the bell faded, the images disappeared, and the tiny fox creature bounded out of the room.