After leaving the hotel and "buying" the ingredients I would need for tomorrow, I returned to my room and went over the plan a few more times in my head. Not finding anything wrong with it, I went to sleep but tossed and turned for half the night until I finally fell asleep.

I was awoken by the sound of my phone ringing, and checking to see who it was, I saw that it was Ciri and that it was later than usual.

"Hello?" I answered the phone in a sleepy voice.

"You're barely waking up? I thought you woke up earlier than this." she asked confused at my sleepy voice.

"I was tossing and turning and ended up falling asleep late. Give me a few minutes to get ready and then I'll tell you when you can jump on over." I said as I sat up.

"Okay. See you soon." she said in a sing-songy tone before hanging up.

~

"Nice to see you again." I said as Ciri appeared right in front of me in an alley.

"You too. I miss the beard though." she said as we hugged, which lasted a little longer than a hug between friends would.

'God, how was I so blind?'

"Me too. I'm going to grow it out though so don't worry." I said as we stopped hugging.

"Good, I like you better with it. Anyway, how's it been?" she asked.

"Good, but we can talk some more over breakfast. I'm starving." I said, knowing Ciri loves the food from my world.

"Yes! I've been missing the food from here. Let's go to, uhh what's it called again?"

"Diner?" I said.

"Yes, a diner! I want pancakes." she said, salivating.

"Haha, okay. Come on, there's a diner down the street."

After a short walk to the diner, we sat down at a booth in the corner so no one would overhear our conversation and ordered our food. Ciri ended up ordering enough food for three people, making the waitress look at her with a confused look on her face, while I ordered what I always get at a diner.

"So, what've you been up to since you came back?" asked Ciri as she prepared her tea.

"I've been traveling a lot and have been laying some of the groundwork for my future business empire." I said before taking a sip of my coffee.

"So you're finally going to put that tech from that place to use huh?"

"Hopefully soon, but these things take time. But, I'm hoping to meet with someone that will help me shorten that time tremendously. And if not, I'll probably just buy something from the shop to make my life easier."

"Cool. So, who's the person you want to meet? A girl?" she said, not so subtly fishing for information.

"Yes, she is a girl. And she also happens to be one of the world's greatest business consultants, but I'm hoping to convince her to work as my financial manager. Her talent and expertise in business will be vital to my future plans, but if I can't hire her exclusively, I might just buy the talent myself before reading her memories."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"A little villany don't you think?" asked Ciri with a raised eyebrow.

"I know, that's why I don't think I'll go that route, just a last resort. Or I could just read the memories of some criminal business consultant so that I won't feel bad."

"Sounds like you've had interesting few days."

"What about you? I thought you would've figured out a plan during the 5 years we were over there."

"I did come up with a few different plans, but once I got back to my world, they all felt wrong."

"Pressure getting to you?"

"I think so. Even though I know with our strength now, nothing should go wrong but I can't help but not think about something going wrong. I've been creating and scrapping plans over and over." she said, wringing her hands.

"Hey, it's going to be okay. I'll help you come up with a plan and help you execute it. And I'm positive the others would help out too if you asked them." I said as I grabbed her hand to reassure her.

"You're right. Thanks, Matt." she said, smiling.

"Alrighty, sorry for the wait." said the waitress as she came over with our food.

"Thank you, it smells fantastic." said Ciri.

"Anything else I can get you both?" she asked.

"More coffee for me please." I said.

"Of course." she said before filling up my cup.

"Thank you." I said as she left to attend to her other tables before I saw that Ciri had almost devoured her entire plate.

"Food's not going anywhere." I said with a smile.

"Shut up." she said with her mouth full.

~

"Phew, I'm stuffed." she said as she patted her stomach.

"I'm glad you're satisfied."

After eating the three plates of food, she ended up ordering another two before finally being full.

"What can I say, my training's created a pit in my stomach."

"Speaking of training, how's it going with your nen and the breathing techniques?"

"Not much improvement since we last saw each other, but besides that, it's going well. I've been thinking about what my nen technique is going to be and I've come up with a few different ideas."

"Which are?"

"Well the one I'm most leaning towards is enhancing my body like Guts since it would shore up a weak point of mine. Another would be to enhance my blood and hopefully, it allows me to use my jump ability even more masterfully than before."

"I think you should go with the first one. The second one would be done on your own eventually because of your talent and the upgrade you used, so using your nen ability on it would be a little wasteful in my opinion."

"I was thinking the same thing. But, we'll see what I do when the time comes. Anyway, shall we go to your hotel to talk about you know what?"

"Sure, let's go." I said standing up and leaving a big tip for the waitress before leaving with Ciri.

~

"Nice place. I like this one more than the other one." said Ciri as we entered the suite.

"Me too. Too bad it's a front for a neutral ground for criminals." I said after sweeping the place.

"Really? I'm surprised you haven't done something about it."

"Wouldn't do anything. This is just one cog in a big machine. Anyway, let's hear the plan." I said as I sat down on the couch.

"Okay. The plan I'm most leaning towards would be to set a trap by using myself as bait. They want my blood so letting them catch my trail would make them follow me. Especially since I've not left one for quite some time. Once they appear at the designated area, I, or we, would take down the navigator before taking down the rest of them and saving Geralt."

"Sounds solid. They're not that strong without the White Frost they use by opening portals, so we should be able to deal with them with relative ease. You alone could do it, but I think it would be best if the others went too. Not to mention, Uzui would be pretty peeved if we didn't invite him to fight."

"Haha, okay. Then it's settled. Let me call them all." she said before pulling out her DGC phone and texting them. Shortly after, they all responded in the affirmative, saying they'd be glad to help.

"Phew, okay then. I guess we're finally doing this." she said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Tomorrow sounds like a good time to do it." I added.

"Yes. Tomorrow sounds good." she said before telling everyone that the plan starts tomorrow.

"So, are you going to stay here or go back to your world?" I asked.

"I think I'll stay here. We can go have some fun and eat good food."

"Or we could do something I have planned out." I said, heart beating a little faster than usual.

"Oh? Like what?"

"A date."