"Salem Center, New York," she answers, though to her credit, she shouldn't be any kind of schoolgirl Jack's ever seen before. Even discounting the utter lack of a uniform, unless you count denim shorts that might get her arrested in certain countries, Noriko's not your average Japanese chick.

The blue hair might be negotiable on that count, the metal gauntlets that are covering her arms to the elbows and are periodically webbing over with electricity are not. "A place which we are not, I can tell you now. Look around, there's a lot of us who have no idea how we got to this special corner of where the hell are we."