In the city of rodents, smoke billowed out from the factories, covering the skies.

The light of the sun would never reach this city.

Nor would the moonlight, or the flickering of the stars.

As if engulfing the very possibility of hope, the layers upon layers of smoke would only thicken as the factories continued to produce.

And as this byproduct filled the skies, a young couple walked down the alleyways in the depths of the city.

"What are you doing? You're looking up a lot."

"Ah... I was just wondering what's beyond the smog."

The two humanoids walked side by side, hand in hand, and the female couldn't seem to take her eyes off the sky.

The female was slender and beautiful. Her skin was covered in a thin layer of light grey fur, and her appearance was very close to that of a human, with a few features aside.

This woman was a gerbil kin. With ears, a nose, and claws representing her kind, she walked throughout the city with her lover.

The male was a hamster kin who was slightly taller and a bit more built, yet still slender by human standards. His black fur heavily coated his own body, which also closely resembled a human with a few features aside.

The woman wore a set of workpants and a white work tanktop, covered in black stains from oil. Her fur too was stained with the oil, as if she had recently finished a long day at work.

The male wore a pair of cargo pants with no shirt, broadcasting his abdominal muscles to the world.

"What's beyond the smog? Isn't it just more smog?", the male questioned as he looked up in confusion.

"I heard that there's something else. A light show. Balls of fire, and sparkles of light."

The male looked at the woman with doubt, and laughed it off.

"If there were balls of fire beyond the smog, then wouldn't all the smog just catch fire?"

The woman looked at him with a smile and calmly replied.

"They're far away, from what I heard. You know, there's a rumor that it isn't like this everywhere."

"What isn't?"

The girl pointed upward.

"The smog. I heard that the smog is localized to this city, and that outside of the city it doesn't exist."

"Is that so? I think you're too gullible. Did you hear that from your older sister? I think she's filling you with lies to be completely honest. After going outside the city she came back different."

The woman gave the man a serious glare.

"Don't badmouth my sister."

"Ah, sorry."

The man put his hand behind his head apologetically.

"I just can't find myself to believe anything she says.... I mean, at first she was so stoic, it was almost as if she was.... emotionless. To be honest, she was perfect for her role the way she was. But then she left the city and came back. I won't say she changed for the worse... it's just that her new personality is so different that it makes me wonder just what happened."

"Yeah.... I suppose I was very surprised too. She saw so many things outside.... I guess it just motivated her. She wants to make this village like the outside. She wants people to see the hope that she saw on that day."

The woman nodded with a light smile.

"I think it was for the better that she changed."

"I agree with you there.... but.... I still think that she might have been able to lead us better if she hadn't changed. She was emotionless, but I think that would have made her unstoppable as a leader. Right now, she has a big responsibility, right? Ever since that day, she took the initiative and has been working herself to death, fighting for our kind.... but at the end of the day, we've lost control over 2 factories since then. She gained hope, but it might have been at the cost of the future."

"Don't badmouth my sister. You know that she's working harder than anyone in this war.... and it's my own fault that we've been put into this position in the first place, not my sister's. It's not easy, no matter which way you cut it. When their numbers are so much greater, it's hard to get anywhere without taking major losses. And if you make the wrong move, you might just checkmate yourself. She hasn't made any wrong moves, it's just that she keeps on being put into positions where the enemy is whittling us down."

The man nodded.

"Yeah, you're right. Sorry. I didn't mean to badmouth her. She is doing all she can. And I'll do whatever I can to support you and her."

"Thank you.", the woman responded with a smile.

"Maybe someday we can go see together? What do you think? Why don't we make it a bet? Whether or not the rest of the world is covered in smog? I think it is, and that these sparkling lights and balls of fire are nothing more than her imagination."

"Alright then. I'll bet on that. What should the loser have to do?"

"Hmm.... good question.... how about-"

"How about you scatter off, and in exchange we let you go free."

As the man was about to answer, the voice of another figure spoke from the shadows.

Stepping out into the alleyway, surrounding the two on both sides, were a total of six skinny ferret humanoids- three in front and three behind the two.

They were wearing work suspenders and white gloves, industrial style. The one who spoke seemed to be leading the group, and wore a high class suit with a fedora.

"There were ferrets here!?! Shit!!"

The male hamster kin immediately moved, putting his arm in front of the woman beside him to shield her.

"What do you all want!?", he shouted.

"Hey, did you hear what I said? I said that if you scatter off, that we'll let you go free."

The one who seemed to be in charge was smoking a cigar, and took a puff before blowing a ring into the face of the hamster.

"See now, I don't personally like this type of work, but this is the orders from the boss. Direct orders. I can't let that woman next to you go free. If I do and it gets found out, then my head might roll. You understand my position, right? My boss can be pretty scary at times, so my hands are tied. But you, I can let you run free without any trouble. All you gotto do is walk away."

The man took his cigar, pressing it to the chest of the hamster, using the black fur on the man's body to put out the light and wipe the ashes.

"We got six of us, and there are two of you. So? What's it gonna be? Are you gonna play hero and try to protect the woman? Even if you do that, you'll lose. You'll get beat up. We'll take the woman. And you'll be left on the ground. If things get too complicated we might even have to kill you. And we've even got these new weapons to try out, so if you stick around, then you might just become the first test subject."

The man pulled something out of the pocket of his coat.

It looked almost like a small cannon, tiny enough to hold in one hand.

It was a flintlock pistol with all sorts of gears, gadgets, and levers on it.

Aiming the weapon at the head of the hamster, the ferret seemed to grin.

"So, tough guy? If you want to save her, then do it later when you're better prepared. After all, you can run home right now and tell yourself 'I couldn't do anything about it.' 'I was outnumbered. It wasn't my fault.' 'I can prepare to go save her right now. And I can bring my own men with me.' Well, that's if this woman is important enough to go save in the first place. As I said. I don't like doing this type of stuff. I'm only doing it because the boss said so. If you want to come save her, and I'm not on duty to guard her, then I don't really have a problem with it. Someone else will take the fall, after all. What will you do?"

The hamster looked back into the eyes of the woman.

She was scared.

She grabbed his shoulder with her arm as if to say 'don't leave me here.'

The man felt a tang in his heart as he saw her face.

A tear fell from her eye.

"L-let's get out-"

The woman began to speak, however the hamster took her hand off his shoulder.

Without looking back, he croaked out a couple of words which lacked any weight.

"I'm.....sorry...."

And without even so much as looking back, he walked off.

The ferrets stepped out of the way, and the man made his way down the alley, turning the corner.

The gerbil woman held out her hand, and wanted to cry out to him.

She wanted to shout 'save me!', but the words could not come out.

She knew in her heart that he had made his decision.

That he would not save her from whatever fate she was in store for.

'Was.... was that all I was worth? Not even so much as a consideration? Just a single look? That was all it took for him to walk away?'

The woman felt betrayed.

Deceived.

'Weren't we going to try and make it out of the town? Weren't we going to try and see what was beyond the smog?'

As these thoughts filled the mind of the woman, her tears dried up, and she could do nothing more than watch. She could barely even process the actions of her lover. It was unthinkable that he would just up and walk away at this moment.

'Was everything.... a sham? Was I just someone that he wanted to be with when everything was going well?'

The man who seemed to be the boss of the ferrets whistled loudly.

"Well damn. I didn't actually expect him to just up and walk away like that. Even I feel a bit sorry for you, miss. But at least you now know what type of guy that one was. Who knows? Maybe he really will come back to save you. No.... not with that look in his eyes. He gave up then and there. I'm sorry to say, but if anyone comes back for you, it isn't gonna be him. Anyways.... as I've said before, I don't want this to get messy. Come with us and we won't hurt you. I don't really have any say in what happens to you once you get handed over to the boss, but.... if you try to run here and now, we won't have any choice but to take you by force. After all, bosses orders were to grab any good looking females we find on the streets and bring them in top condition."

The gerbil fell on her knees, her eyes filled with despair.

"Do what you want.", she stated without an ounce of emotion in her voice.

"Well that makes things easy. I hope you make it out alright. If you just do what the boss says, you might make it out alive, even without anyone coming to save you. You two. Carry her. Looks like she's lost the will to walk. That's gotto hurt, don't it? Probably heartbroken, this one. Hurts me to even watch."

Two of the ferrets then grabbed the woman, one on each side of her holding her up.

She didn't resist.

She had a blank look in her eyes at first as she walked forward through the streets, escorted by the ferrets.

However, that blank look in her eyes faded after a few minutes of walking.

'Forget about him. I still have my older sister to return to. And I will.'

The woman reached out her hand, and made a grasping motion towards the sky.

'I'll uncover it myself, sister. What's beyond this fog.'

----

Claire rode in the carriage through the alleyways of the smog covered town.

"Hey, maybe before we head back to see my grandfather, we should do a bit of-"

"No."

While Mori seemed to want to explore, Lisa quickly shut him down before he could even so much as respond.

"If I give you an inch you'll take a mile. Absolutely not. First you run off and try to kidnap this person, and now you're trying to get into even more trouble? Think a little bit more about the problems we're facing right now."

"But if we have this person with us, I'm sure it will be safe!"

"So you're just going to rely on her like that to protect us?"

"Well.... when she was chasing us she gave me quite the scare. You too, right? You were hiding behind me! I don't think anyone would ever dare mess with her after seeing that! We'll be fine!"

Claire was focused on driving, but found herself smiling and eventually laughing at the banter between the two.

"What's so funny?", Mori asked.

"Ah.... you just kinda remind me of me, myself, and I. Always fighting, never able to come to an agreement. One side wants to play it safe, the other wants to be reckless. Hm? Actually, now that I think about it.... I suppose she's the one who is saying to just burst in and take over... wouldn't that mean I'm actually the one who's playing it safe this time? Then again, I'm being inefficient by doing this, but... ah whatever! Too much thinking! Anyways, it's sorta... peaceful to hear you two argue. It's like you two are a little brother and sister or something. I've never had any siblings. I was an only child in all three of my lives, and now I don't even have parents in this third one."

Mori and Lisa looked at one another with faces of complete bafflement.

"Did you get even a single word of that?"

"Absolutely no idea."

"C, you're really strange. I don't understand anything you say. Like ever."

"Me neither."

"Ah.... I guess that's just how it is for this world. Nobody understands!!! Well, I guess that's obvious.... everything is so different here.... maybe that's why I had such a hard time with all the other villages...."

'Except the fishmen. They were put in their place. Heh heh....'

'Be quiet!! I don't want to hear about them.... I feel guilty just thinking about it!!'

As the carriage was driving through the alleyways, a ratman who was on his balcony happened to drop a crate.

"Agh! Watch out below!!"

The crate flew downwards, aimed right at the back end of the carriage.

Claire looked back and watched in horror as the crate fell.

'Agh! It's gonna hit!'

'Nah. It won't. Remember the condition?'

The crate stopped falling in midair, as if it was floating. Claire had signaled for the horses to stop, yet the three looked back to see that it was just barely levitating above the carriage.

"Ehhhhh!?!?", the three shouted simultaneously.

"Don't 'eh' me. You should already know what just happened. I set the condition, remember? Nothing can crash into this carriage. It's literally a law!! It cannot happen. If it does, then the universe will implode or something due to a paradox. It's like if energy was just spontaneously created or something. It can't happen. Energy is conserved. In the same way, it's now impossible for anything to crash into this carriage, or for this carriage to crash into anything."

Clarice spoke out loud, for the others to hear.

"Ehhhhh...."

Claire was just as surprised as the other two, but even more surprising was the fact that Claire had just explained this, but seemed to be surprised at her own explanation.

"I have no idea what you just said, C, but why the hell did you just explain that yourself and yet you look like you just found that out for the first time?", Mori inquired.

"Ahh!!! I'm complicated, ok!? Just don't worry about that!!"

Lisa slapped Mori to the back of the head.

"If she wants to keep her secrets then you shouldn't pry! A woman has her reasons for things!"

"But you seemed just as surprised as I was."

"So what!? Even if I don't understand her, and even if she is a complete weirdo, that doesn't mean she doesn't have a reason for being this weird!"

Claire felt as if arrows had pierced her heart as Lisa called her weird.

"A-anyways! Let's forget about all this and just head to your grandfather.", Claire said, changing the topic.

"Yeah. It's because you keep asking questions that we've wasted all this time.", Lisa mocked.

"AHH!!! Are you all ok down there!? I'm coming down immediately!!", the man shouted from the balcony.

The man rushed down the stairs, however when he came down, he saw that the crate was perfectly fine. Claire had stopped the carriage and even done the favor of grabbing the crate and handing it off to the man.

"Here's your stuff. I don't think anything is broken, but it's totally your fault if it is.", Clarice managed to slip out.

"Ah!! I meant to say, if anything is broken I'm terribly sorry!!!"

The man looked confused, but instead bowed.

"No, I'm sorry. You're absolutely right, if anything is broken it's completely my own fault. I'm glad that nothing of yours is broken and that nobody got hurt."

The man took the crate and waved to Claire before heading back up the stairs to his home.

Claire mounted the carriage once more, and whipped the reins, and the three were off.

"Alright... with that being said.... next stop is your grandfather's place. I'd like to find out a lot more about the people of this city...."

Claire smiled as she looked forward, thinking back to how reasonable the man she just met was.

'But I'm sure that most of the people here are good people. I would like to help them all to come to an understanding with one another. I'll do my best!'