Gunslinger Stratos First Impressions (2): Joining the fight

This week’s episode introduces the premise of this show. There is apparently a war going on between two parallel worlds for survival facilitated by some mysterious “Timekeepers”. But am I nuts or are some of these concepts really cheesy? For example, “time energy”? Whose bright idea was that? Also, I’m not too sure how much I like the idea of Tohru chasing around some girl that apparently only he can see.

Presumably next week’s episode is Tohru’s first time formally in the field. Among other things, there’s one question that’s really been bugging me. Is it determined that they fight their alternate selves in these other worlds? I understand that if you have high affinity for time travel in one world, you’re more likely to have it in the other world. But what happens if you enter the world and your counterpart isn’t there? I guess I’m just wondering if there’s some sense of deterministic events leading to the people fighting.