Despite her somewhat disconcerting dream -- or perhaps because of it, she wasn't quite sure -- Susanne had woken up before the others. She had tried to just roll over and go back to sleep, but amazingly enough, she couldn't. For once, she had actually gotten a good amount of sleep.

Of course, the bright sunlight streaming through the window onto her face might have also had something to do with it.

She got up and streched out. She thought about waking up the others, but decided to let them rest for a little while longer. Standing up quietly, her eyes wandered around the room. There... silently, she made her way over to Roger's bed and picked up the bag she had seen him pull the money from. She pulled a change of clothes out of her HammerSpace and got dressed, then set out to take a look around town.

Being a Southern California teenager, she was naturally drawn to the marketplace. For a little while, she simply wandered around, looking at the bright colors and wonderful things. It reminded her a little bit of Chinatown. Which, of course, made sense.

She didn't actually spend much of Roger's money -- she only bought a necklace and a matching bracelet. They were so pretty, too. The necklace was a silver chain and had a dark purple-colored stone as a pendant, and the bracelet had small purple stones on a silver chain.

And, naturally, just when she got a chocolate craving, there wasn't any chocolate to be had anywhere.

Susanne swore under her breath and stuck her hand into her HammerSpace. Maybe Roger had packed some in there.

Nope. No Milky Ways, no Krackels, not even one darn Hershey's Kiss.

"Well, that sucks," Susanne mumbled. She looked around and realized how long she had been gone. "Well, might as well go back. We need to go back to London for Andy, anyway. And the sooner we get there, the sooner I can get my chocolate!"

She turned around and started back to the... place they were staying (she hesitated to use the word "hotel"), and started to make her way through the streets.

As is often the case when a foreigner from the future is in ancient China in an anime-type story, Susanne soon found herself out of the marketplace and down a dead-end alley.

"Shimatte," she mumbled without thinking. Great time for her killer sense of direction to get confused! She shook her head and turned back around, only to find herself face to face with the one person she'd been told to avoid.