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Chapter One: Choices

I knew everything about the hospital. Go ahead, quiz me! Meals were on a biweekly rotation, and I could tell you what today's menu looked like - breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I could name every nurse, aide, and doctor in this wing. I could tell you what company made which medical device, what chemicals were used for cleaning, and where every smoking area was located, even though I didn't smoke.

To put it mildly, I was something of an expert. When you've been in a hospital as long as I have, you pick these things up.

And I did not recognize this doctor.

He… she? They sat next to my hospital bed, holding a fancy tablet. Their hair cascaded down their back, a stark white that seemed to shimmer with various colors as the light caught it. Striking red eyes. The nametag on their white labcoat read "Ωα", which was just all kinds of unhelpful.

"What's up, doc?" I ventured. They were… strange, to be sure. But they were a doctor, right? So they belonged here. Maybe they were the call-in eccentric. Like House.

Doctor… Omega? Omega-Alpha? Well, whatever their name, they didn't respond right away, leaving me sweating for a bit in my bluish-greenish hospital gown. They seemed to eye me over before glancing back to their tablet. Several times. Look at me, look at a tablet. Back to me, back to the tablet.

I was silent, just… waiting for them to say something.

Eventually, they did. A look crossed their face, as if they were making some sort of decision. What did a doctor decide upon while sitting inside a patient's room without consulting them? "I have some news for you." They turned the tablet to me, showing what looked like… an X-ray? An MRI? Some sort of full body scan that I, frankly, didn't remember taking. At least not recently.

I couldn't make heads or tails out of it, honestly. It looked like a body scan, sure, but that didn't tell me anything else. I was a student, and not a medical one, so you might as well ask me to translate something into ancient Greek. Which I was worried they might, with that nametag. "What's the news?"

The doctor faced the tablet towards themselves again. "The hospital missed the signs of a rarer form of cancer. You are not getting better. In fact, you do not have much longer to live." They tapped at their tablet, then faced it to me once more. It was zoomed in, now, somewhere in my abdomen. I could see organs, and I could see areas - multiple - outlined in red along several of them.

I'd like to say I took it well. Well, I mean, I can say that I took it well! It'd just be a big fat lie. Maybe I looked like I did, from the outside. I sat there, perfectly still. Because, in truth, I was shocked speechless. I didn't know how to react. I wanted to cry, to scream, to say they were stupid and dumb and wrong. But somehow I knew they weren't, and so I didn't. I just didn't react at all, frozen like a school computer trying to run anything but the calculator program.

The doctor waited, patiently. I was a little surprised they hadn't interjected, even if just to tell me more information. So once I calmed myself, I asked instead. What could be done, what were my chances? You know, important stuff that wasn't going to make me cry no sir.

"There is nothing any mortal medicine can do for you," the doctor told me, phrasing it oddly but also telling me I was definitely going to die. That just ruined the rest of my day. Before I could really start wallowing though, they continued. "That is one of the reasons the Company has decided to offer you a contract."

That's weird, right? Like, that's a weird follow-up? It totally knocked me from my funk and just left me… mildly confused. "What?"

The doctor simply handed the tablet over to me at this point. "Read it over. Make your choices. And then work for the Company." They inclined their head in a… nod? "You have time to read it over and think about it. At least through the night. If you decline, or have not made a choice by tomorrow morning, however, I will be by to collect the tablet."

"...Why tomorrow morning?" I asked. There were a million questions running through my mind, but that's the one I asked.

"That is all the time you have left," they replied, and my face paled. "Also, do make sure to either pick up Body Tune-Up or choose a new body. You would not want to sign up and then still perish, after all."

What?

But they did not explain more, turning on their heels and walking out of my hospital room. I was on my feet a moment later, following - annnd they were just gone. They just stepped out of my room and out of my sight for a moment, but they weren't in the hallway.

I dipped back into my hospital room, bare feet sliding across the floor. Yeah, I'd get yelled at for not wearing the non-skid sockies. And also what the hell was all of that?!

I took my time, getting accustomed to my upcoming lack-of-living and the tablet in my hands.

I mean, I didn't feel like I was dying. Immediately. But then again, maybe I did. I was in pain almost constantly, a dull ache that existed even when I was drugged up on powerful pain medication. I asked not to be on the strongest stuff usually, preferring that background level of pain to just sleeping all the time. Maybe that pain I'd grown so used to was the final sign.

Nothing I could do now, though, except finish reading.

"Waifu Catalog, by the Company." I shuddered at that name. Who was this aimed at? Nobody used the term "waifu" unironically. If they did, they were, uh, not somebody to be associated with. Was this seriously a serious product? What professional company (Company?) would let that through?

Of course, reading through the Waifu Catalog gave me an idea of who I'd be working with - for? Both in terms of the Company and who this catalog was indeed aimed for.

Interdimensional slavers. It sounded ridiculous, but for some reason, I wasn't laughing. Or shoving it to the side to be forgotten.

I fully believed in everything the doctor had told me. Which meant that this tablet was legit, and that it was my only ticket to avoid dying. Some people, once they realized these were serious choices, would choose to die. I'm sure those kinds of people existed. Those people were stronger than I was.

All I could do was try my hardest to do the least harm possible.

But I didn't want to die. Maybe if I had more time - maybe if it was in 5 years, 3 years even. But tomorrow?

I shoved thoughts to the side again and read through the catalog, front to back to front - not that those directions meant much when browsing on a tablet - and gave it some thought.

The first choice was, arguably, the most important. The world. The danger rating, the "tier," of the world determined how many "points" I had to spend. Spend on things like powers, or not dying. On the lowest end, I could pick a relatively safe world. I wouldn't get many bells and whistles, but I could cure myself and just…. Exist. Make friends, start a new life.

…I was worried though. If I went somewhere super safe, without any way to really fend for myself, then I was… limited, in what I could do. I'm a student, I don't have any marketable skills. Could I even GET a job? Could I sign back up for school? How would I pay for it, and would the local governments even let me? There wasn't a lot of work-around without more points, and a low-tier world didn't give you many. And even some of those low tier worlds seemed dangerous, just maybe less dangerous most of the time. Which meant I'd be unprepared when they did turn deadly.

I could look to the next tier of tiers. Somewhere between Tiers 3 and 5, the mid-low levels. 4 was honestly a pretty good pick, I think - the kind of worlds with problems, but you were unlikely to run into them, or at least likely to survive them. If I picked Sword Art Online, all I had to do to avoid danger was not log into any weird VRMMOs on day one. Avatar… actually, let's not with that one. The Promised Never- wait, what? How on Earth was that only a tier 4?

I shook my head, then continued my search. I could go up a couple more tiers. 6-8 would provide much more danger, but also a lot more points, which meant more ways to mitigate said danger. Looking it over, it looked like several of the more dangerous "arcs" of shounen works showed up there. Or just try to take on Bleach, where even normal people would encounter giant ghosts that wanted to eat you, or Worm, where - no. No Worm. I didn't read it anyway, but I knew from Osmosis that it would be a Bad Time. Capital B, capital T.

Wait, Touhou was tier 7? The place where fights were explicitly a game and never to the death? Okay, putting that one in my pocket for later.

Let's narrow it down. I needed modern times, or sci-fi. I couldn't exist in a world without modern plumbing at the very least, and anime and video games were also a plus. Sorry, Touhou. And besides Touhou, most of the other higher-tier worlds were…. Iffy. From a survival standpoint. What was the point of surviving rare cancer only to die from a random monster or a war breaking out or… whatever? None. No point.

I took a look over some of the higher tier worlds just to see if anything seemed… relatively safe, while keeping to my one rule of giving me modern conveniences. But there really weren't any good choices..

My options, then: Minimal danger, with minimal points. Or a low-to-medium amount of danger, but ways to counter that danger.

I was tempted to pick Pokémon, I'll be honest. But I really considered the pros and cons here. Something like Pokémon was tier 1, and it was a measly 35 points from choosing it. I needed at least 5 for body tune-up if I didn't wanna die. 30 more points could get me… one talent and one defense, maybe? It was uprooting my entire life and moving somewhere new with nobody I knew, no friends, nobody I could count on, and nothing to fall back on.

I started looking over the tier 3 and 4 worlds again.

Suzumiya Haruhi. Condition, involved in the plot. That… honestly not too terrible? But ironically, not really sure if I wanted to just be dragged along for the ride like that. Plus none of the characters really appealed to me, sorry not sorry.

Fullmetal Alchemist? Honestly not sure how it was a tier 3 world, if you were anywhere near the plot. So my options were to be in way over my head or get the hell out of the way. No thanks.

Overwatch? I was… a little tempted, to be honest. But there was a big gameplay divide with the story, and so I wasn't really sure how the world would look. Plus everybody there had guns. I'd need to invest in some bullet immunity. I gave it a firm Maybe anyway - in my defense, a lot of the girls were hot. Not that I was looking to enslave them. But it was important to note.

Card Captor Sakura? Little Witch Academia? Both firm Maybe territory.

Promised Neverland, go away you're like a tier 7 in hiding.

Star Wars? Entire planets explode in those! And I don't remember which ones! No thanks.

My Hero Academia. Now there we were. Modern times or better, check. Superheroes, which are cool, double check. At tier 4, it gave a nice 140 points. It has characters I liked. It was relatively safe, if I needed it to be, but even if I got involved I felt like I could keep up with 140 points. It had a plot I knew… okay, I dropped off somewhere in the middle, but I knew the beginning pretty well, and some broad strokes for after. I had like half a day left to live, though, so I couldn't bumrush a read through before my choice. Eh. It'd do.

I didn't want to have to fight contractors, who would surely be taking this more seriously than me, so I skipped the PvP section. Seriously, I was trying to survive here.

Origin time. This was what Doctor Omega-Alpha had been referring to. I could take a new body here. If I picked Drop-In, I was just me, and I'd need to take Body Tune-Up to survive my cancer, and then waste a bunch of other points to get up to par with the rest of the world at large. It didn't seem very… cost-effective. And if I'm being honest… I'm not terribly attached to this body of mine. It's mine, yeah, but it kind of sucks. And once you erase a lifetime of being sick, what's left could barely be called my body to begin with. Plus then I'd have to deal with being in a world without any paperwork, and… yeah.

Extra would give me a new body, as would Substitute - one being a background character of sorts, and the other replacing a cast member. In both cases, though, I'd be… highjacking their bodies. That was a moral line I wasn't sure I wanted to cross. Even if I chose a villainous girl to hijack, like Toga, that was still… I was erasing them and taking over. That sounded even worse than slavery. Worse than death.

Possess was my other option. "Be the companion" it said. It sounded like it… used a clone, here. I wasn't erasing somebody's identity and taking over. I was literally being given a body that had never lived, a blank slate, and going "I guess this is me now." I was immediately leaning in this direction, though it did have its drawbacks. Like dropping in, I'd be in a new world with a body that categorically did not belong there. I'd be Quirkless by definition, have no home, no paperwork, no registrations, no history, no family. It was a lot to make up for. But I also had 140 points to make it up with. And I could just… find somebody with powers that could easily be taken for a Quirk. That shouldn't be too difficult.

There were plusses, too. I could, more or less, determine how I look - or at least, I could possess somebody I'd enjoy looking like. Can't do that with Drop-In, and with a Body Tune-Up I'd probably end up even taller. Who wants to be a super tall girl? (Ignore that I am attracted to tall girls - I want girls taller than me as a rule, okay?)

It was an important choice, though. I needed to consider three things:

One, survivability. I wanted a body, skills, abilities that could take me through a shounen and survive it, thrive in it, even if MHA was on the lower-end of shounen danger scales.

Two, my "Quirk." I needed something that could convince the people of the world that I was using a Quirk. As widely varied as Quirks were, this shouldn't be too difficult. But it was something to keep in mind. I probably wouldn't want somebody casting actual magic spells, for example, nor just somebody with improbable martial arts.

Third, cuteness. Cuteness reigned supreme. Non-negotiable, if I'm going to be facing danger in a new world I wanted to at least do it while looking as cute as possible.

Four, ratings. I know I said three things, but this is the secret, cool kids criteria. I had to pay for my new body like I would a companion. Tier 4 was around where the other students were, but if I wanted to ensure my survival, I'd probably need to be looking for a Tier 5. But! But. If I could find a good target that was, maybe, rated a tad too low? Or maybe just like, right at the cusp of a higher tier? I'd really be min-maxing then, baby!

I hated min-maxers, as a rule - good for theorizing, maybe, but in practice it just kind of ruined fun. But this was about survival. I could have my fun with it, but I needed to consider surviving my main goal. So I'd embrace the nerd, embrace the min-maxer. Let's a-go.

Hours later, darkness visible out the window, I was beginning to regret. Every time I thought of something good, they were rated even higher than I thought they'd be. Unaffordable. I was… running out of time.

My music playlist, something I threw up on my computer an hour (or more?) ago to help me think, switched to the next song. Gawr Gura's voice came through - a vtuber, though not my favorite one.

That got me thinking though. I checked. Hololive. All characters are drawn from the Hololive Alternative setting, it said. Which just meant they were lore-compliant. Holy shit?

I checked the girls out. A lot of them were near what I expected, or rated higher than I thought was fair - much like the other characters I'd checked out. Until I got to Hololive English. Gawr Gura, tier 4. Weakest on the Myth girls - okay, maybe fair. But tier 4?

I was itching. This was it. Could I stand being Gawr Gura? I thought I could. She was short and cute, which is something I liked being myself. Some fans thought she looked like a child, though I didn't - she was short and petite, sure, but I never saw her as an actual kid. Anyway, I was sure she could pass for 15, at the very least, like the girls in My Hero Academia.

Her powers, as far as I knew them, were messing with water and being a super-strong shark girl. And a berserk mode. But, hey, I was actually on the swim team before I got sick! It all fit together. And she could definitely pass for a hero - a mutation shark Quirk, and some inherited water stuff. It made more sense than somebody inheriting both fire and ice powers.

And, bonus: she was already immortal. At least of the unaging variety. After all, "canon" Gura was like, five-thousand. One of Those, but I wasn't gonna be mad about it when it meant I could skip out on the Everlasting pick for a bit. I'd still probably need to pick it up later for any companions I had by that point, but it could wait.

Gura, you and I are gonna make an awesome combo. Or, I guess, me in you. Right, there would never be an actual Gura in this scenario besides me, that's why I needed it.

I'm the shark.

Bindings and Lures came next. Right. This part.

I glanced outside. Fighting against time now. I took too long on the last portion, so I needed to get my groove on.

No Bindings was a choice. It gave me pause, though. It gave me discounts, but without even the most basic of bindings, why would a bought companion even give me the time of day? And, worse, if I ever needed, for any reason, pick a different choice, I'd be retroactively charged the discount I got, putting me in debt. I really did not want to ever risk going into debt with this Company. I was sure that was a one-way ticket to… well. Being on the other end of this, at the hands of people who would love searching a "Waifu Catalog."

A Basic Stamp wasn't terrible, honestly? Loyalty and interest, that's it. It didn't override their will. But still… a moral dilemma. How much was too much? How little was still morally bad? How do you quantify that sort of thing?

I flipped through my other options as I considered. Shroud was like a combination fighting power-up and binding. It'd be a great pick… if I didn't already have my "Quirk." Hypnosis App got an immediate no, as did the Symbiote. Rituals, no. Jewelry?

I was intrigued by the Tempest Jewelry and Runes. Well, less the Jewelry and more the Runes. The Jewelry made a wearer, well, hornier, and apparently more submissive towards any dominants in the group? But that just meant I shouldn't pick up anybody naturally submissive, and that was worked around. Or not give somebody the jewelry? That seemed possible. But man, the Runes, they gave you the ability to change your appearance.

As I was going to be in the body of a shark girl, this struck me as something I could use well. Even if it was just a disguise, being able to hide my "mutation" in MHA could be a benefit sometimes, as could simply disguising myself, and it was sure to be useful once I made it out of MHA. Plus it also came with translation functions and a communicator, which was pretty dang cool.

I picked up both the Jewelry and Runes and moved on.

The Lures section had some weird stuff in it. Like Faerie Feast, it just made you so good at cooking that people fell in love with you? Honestly, that was more like Skills+ than mind control. If I took Faerie Feast but toned it down a notch, I would just be a world-class chef instead.

I didn't really like cooking, though. So I picked up Sticky Fingers instead. Look, just because I was going to be moral didn't mean I was going chaste necessarily, and who didn't wanna be a god or goddess in bed?

I also threw in Arlo as a bonus - I wasn't sure if it was ever going to be needed, but it felt prudent to have some sort of backup, just in case. With my looks, I was sure I could get it working - and since it involved a specific act, I could be sure I'd never do it on accident.

I checked out the heritages, but checked out of them almost just as quickly. I had my "Quirk," anything else was asking for trouble. I didn't need multiple, unrelated powers. Not yet. If the day came when I did, well, they'd still be here. A huge point sink.

Talents & Perks would be where I would spend the rest of my points. A Ride, though, no. I couldn't drive, what was the point? The Demiplane though, oh yes. I quickly picked up Pocket Space, both levels of Pocket Apartment, All Roads Lead To Home, and then Sweet Home as well. Then I looked at my points total. Slowly, I took off Sweet Home. It was just me, I didn't need something that big. When the time came that I did, I could afford it again.

Talents! Talents. The big'un.

Everlasting was the Immortality option, but I was already immortal. It would, however, affect any Companions. Of which I had none. And even when I gained some, it wouldn't be needed for at least several years down the road. I held off.

I scanned over most of the talents. Some of them looked useful, some did not. I chose the most immediately useful first - Martial Talent. I took some martial arts classes, and I absolutely knew that meant jackshit in a shounen world. Assuming I got Gura's skill, which seemed likely, I'd be pretty well off though. But this was an area she - I mean, I could improve in without it being seen as strange. You train, you fight better. This would simply help me increase those yields, and ensure my survival. Which, again, top prior.

Soul Talent and Psychic Talent both seemed very useful. But also like they might attract some attention. Maybe in another world, or at least later. I put a pin in it.

Lastly were the skill-skill Talents. Art better, sing better. I mean, I was Gura now - or I would be - so I was sure my singing was top-notch. Communication Talent was the weirdest of the bunch though. Besides instantly mastering any language, which seemed to be an afterthought, it was just meant to… make socially awkward people talk like a normal person. Who was this catalog aimed at again?

I could speak well enough. It's true I never had a lot of close friends, but pretty much everybody liked me at least a little. I was sure I'd do fine on my own. (Famous last words.) And besides that, it seemed to be brushing dangerously close to altering my own mind, so just, nah thanks.

Lastly, I considered Added Potential, which just let you pick up a skill from a world. In this case, a Quirk. I ruled it out, though. I was already faking a Quirk, I didn't need to mess it up by getting a "second" Quirk.

I had to REALLY pause when I got to Defenses, though. I wanted… all of them. I could not afford all of them. I decided to come back later, once I saw how much I had left to work with.

From the Other Perks section, I took Universal Calibration immediately. I knew what my "strike zone" was and I was very curious to see how it'd work it out. I also took Exit Stage Left and We Will Meet Again, my panic get-outta-here button. I wanted it early, so I wouldn't end up putting it off for too long and not having it when I need it. Pursued By Bear would wait, though.

35 points left. Let's take a look at Defenses.

The cheaper defenses were Body and Wild. But Body required Body Tune-Up, which seemed weird to me - what if you just… didn't need a Tune-Up? I didn't. Wild Defense wasn't too high up on my list of importance here either.

I could basically buy ONE real defense, and not even all of them. I needed, at some point, to pick up Mind, Possession, Soul, Information, and Trace Defenses. Maybe in that order? But to start, if only one, Mind seemed the best pick, so pick it I did.

10 points left.

I considered what I had and what I needed. I realized one hole in my plan, and thought about how to fix it.

My eyes started drooping. I was starting to drift off. Not… not great. If I didn't finish, I was going to die, wasn't I? Maybe they exaggerated. Maybe I'd survive the next day, or week, or month, but if they took this pad regardless, I'd lose my chance at a new life.

I suppressed my morals for a moment to make the necessary choices. One. Two. A quick refund, and I was done. 5 points left.

I slapped the "Confirm" button. And then sleep took me.

As blackness overtook my vision, my last thought was, "Wait… Omega. Mother f….Chapter Two: Pocket Apartment

Have you ever woken up in a strange place with no recollection on how you got there?

If so, damn you lead an interesting life. Something like that has never happened to me.

Or… it had never happened to me. This was my first for me, and hopefully a last.

I woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling. Unlike the cliche, though, there was no bed underneath me, just cold hard floor. I groaned, reaching for my head. I felt like… I should have had a headache. Like a hangover. Or recovering from a head injury. But actually, I was feeling pretty great? Huh. So what was…?

That's around when I started remembering exactly what was going on. Cancer. Not-a-doctor. Waifu Catalog. Gawr Goomba.

A mirror! Was there a mirror?

I looked around quickly, head whipping back and forth (giving me a view of some white and blue locks of hair as I did so) and taking in my surroundings. I probably should have done that for its own sake instead of in an attempt to look at myself, but it was the same result, right? That's how I realized I was in some sort of… storefront. But abandoned. There was no furniture except one built-in counter and a single shelf pushed up against a wall. The entire place, from its tiled floors to said countertop, was covered in a layer of dust. One wall was a glass storefront, devoid of any descriptive writings for me to learn what kind of store it was, though it did have a couple posters taped on (facing outside, so I couldn't really see anything) and provided a good view of an outdoor shopping center of some kind.

I guess there wasn't really a better place to put me. I didn't have a house here, being a drop-in - sorry, Possession (which is just a Drop-In for characters.) And if I was put somewhere more important, like U.A. itself, I'd just be arrested probably. After all, I was somebody without registration in the entire world, somebody who didn't belong. Being dropped into U.A. and all of tis defenses like this? I'd rather not test my ability to escape confinement right now.

Anyway! A mirror! That's what I was looking for! A glass storefront wasn't exactly a mirror, but it was pretty close! I headed over and tried to get a good look at myself. It was only a glass reflection, but I could make out the important stuff. I was a short, petite girl with white hair and blue highlights. Gura's iconic hoodie was on me, with a side-zipper that showed an open, sharp-toothed mouth when unzipped. It came down to about mid-thigh and showed bare legs underneath - a quick check confirmed spats underneath - with my legs ending in short blue and white boots.

Gosh, I was so cute! I had the impossible urge to give myself a hug, and hopefully that need would transfer to other ladies that saw me. I would not turn any of those down.

Being so close to the glass now, I had a better view outside as well. That's how I realized this shopping plaza was facing a beach. It was a pretty beach, nice and clean, except for one small pile of… trash? As I watched, though, I could make out a small figure dragging trash away.

That rang a bell. Pristine beach… trashed beach… right! That was how I…zu… Deku trained up his body before he got One For All. He took a completely trashed-up beach and hauled off all the trash.

As a shark (for all of five minutes,) I naturally approved of cleaning up a beach. But that beach was practically clean by now. Which meant…

It meant something. Let's see. Deku cleaned the beach, then he got One For All, and… and then he immediately took the U.A. Entrance Exam. That was all the same day.

Ah. Right. So in other words… that was my time limit.

The sun in the sky told me it was somewhere near noon, either late morning or early afternoon. Exam wouldn't be today then. But Deku was close to finishing up that beach. I had… somewhere between one day and a week, depending on how fast he was.

And I still wasn't a citizen. I had a lot of work to do.

Just before I turned away, I caught a glimpse of a mountain of a man joining Deku on the beach, two hair-tenna pointing to the sky. I realized I was looking at All Might himself. Huh.

Some part of me was excited, but honestly I wasn't too much of an All Might fan. So my honest thought, at the moment, was just that it'd be very inconvenient if he saw me loitering in an abandoned store and thought I was suspicious.

Well, let's not press fate. As much as I'd love to head down to the beach and laugh at a kid's training montage or just relax, I had work to do anyway. I backed away from the windowed storefront.

"Right! It's time to…. Pocket Apartment!" I gestured at the back wall, near the counter and as far from the storefront as I could get.

Unfortunately, nothing happened.

"...." Okay, that wasn't how it was done! Let's just try again. "Pocket… Apartment!" I tapped on the wall this time as I said the final word, hoping the physicality was the missing part.

The wall was still there, though, unblemished by a portal of any kind.

"I… I did get the apartment, didn't I?" My plan revolved around it! It was where I was going to live!

Try again! "Transmute… portal!" I slapped my hands together, then smacked my palms against the wall, channeling my inner Edward Elric (now a fellow shorty.) Unfortunately, I did not transmute an entrance.

…Huh. This kind of sucked.

Well! Nothing to it! How many different ways were there to try, anyway? Not that many, this couldn't possibly take too long.

"Abra-kadabra!" "Open sesame!" "Open door!" "Door, open!" "Portal time!"

I wanted to tear my hair out! Why was nothing working!? No magic worlds, no gestures, not even outlining with chalk helped! (I found the chalk outside, don't worry about it.)

Hmm. Maybe I needed… something else? But I was sure this Waifu Catalog wouldn't sell me an option I couldn't actually use. If it needed something else…

Rifling through my shark-hoodie pockets netted me a smart-phone, with a dark blue case and a stylized version of my hoodie's zipper-mouth as an image. The phone, thankfully, wasn't locked, giving me access to a phone filled with rhythm game apps and one icon that looked like a heart.

I recognized that heart. Clicking it brought up what was obviously some sort of app connected to the Waifu Catalog. There was its own "Apps" section, which brought up a selection. "Pocket Dimension" was right there. I clicked it, and a portal appeared in front of me - an upright oval of swirling blues, about what you'd expect from a portal.

"Yeah…. Let's not tell anybody about this." I clicked off my phone screen and shoved it back in my pocket before stepping into a portal with far too much casualness. It was a PORTAL. That was cool as hell! But I was too caught up in the last twenty, thirty minutes of failures to properly appreciate it, grumbling to myself instead as I entered.

The first thing I noticed about my new apartment: Man, ceilings are high. I didn't really notice it inside the abandoned store because those ceilings are usually high anyway, even to my normal (previously normal) height, but I was really feeling my new (lack of) height here.

The second was that it did seem like a fairly normal apartment. 75m squared - that was about 800 square feet. There was a small living room, a small dining room that was in the same space, a small kitchen, and then a small hallway showing off three doors - one bathroom and two bedrooms. And I could barely see over the kitchen counter, being shorter was wild.

The decor was what I'd call "thrift store chic" - some nifty looking furniture, but chosen without a thought to matching, picked up second-hand wherever you could get it. Like, there was a couch and a recliner in the living room, right? But the couch looked like a vintage 80s brown-orange floral pattern while the recliner was broken-in black leather with a couple white and black checkered cushions. Then on the wall there was a "Eat, Sleep, Roblox, Repeat" decoration.

…Roblox? No, that was going.

As I was examining the decor, a voice spoke directly into my ear. "About time you joined me, amiga."

I jumped. "Waugh!" Spinning, I got a close-up view of a pair of boobs appearing in my face out of midair. Not naked ones, they were constrained by a jacket, but I was just the right height to have those be directly in my face. I would have praised myself for choosing a great height to be if I was thinking more, but honestly I was just still in a state of surprise as the woman appeared out of nowhere.

She was somebody I should have expected, honestly. An adult woman, tanned skin, a full eight inches taller than my current height. Brown hair that turned into purple towards the ends, done in a half-shaved style that showed off some glowing purple cybernetic implants on her head. Actually, they might've just been fashion accessories? I know her arms and spine had real implants, at least, and they glowed purple so they were impressive regardless.

Her name was Sombra, and she was a villain from Overwatch.

"Jeez, don't scare me like that!" I said, taking a couple more deep breaths.

"Relax, short stuff. You'll give yourself a heart attack." Her tone was lightly teasing, but also a little mocking. It was the kind of tone where somebody was obviously poking fun, but you didn't know if they were laughing with you or at you.

Sombra stepped back, casually leaning her butt against the back of the couch. "I've been waiting for you to come in," she continued. "I was beginning to think you'd abandon your purchases."

I winced at that. A person, a purchase. It was… true. She was the last-minute purchase I had made. "You don't have to… phrase it like that," I muttered.

"Oh?" She leaned forward, a not-so-nice smirk appearing on her face. "But it's the truth, is it not? You used the little slave catalog and bought me up."

I took a deep breath, trying to organize my thoughts. "Okay, yes. But you're not going to be forced to do anything you don't really want to do. And the world we're in, not nearly as bad as the one you're from." Pause. "Or, originally. It's not like you were kidnapped, you're a-"

"Copy, yes. I am given some knowledge on purchase." Sombra, she honestly didn't seem bothered by any of this. It was more like, she was trying to bother me with it.

And it was working.

"Look, I'm not some villain, okay! I'm gonna be a hero!"

"Interesting start to your journey then, choosing to consort with a villain, little hero." Sombra continued looking amused at my expense. She made a few motions in the air, and it was obvious from her eyes that she was looking at something I couldn't see. "Enhanced libido, enhanced submissiveness…"

"You sure as hell don't seem very submissive to me," I muttered.

"And that's just from this!" She holds out her arm, a silver bracelet dangling on it, a black diamond front and center. The Tempest Jewelry. "Not to mention you can punish me by messing with my emotions-"

"I'd never do that!" I argued.

"You say that now," Sombra intoned. "And again, that's just from this. Basic enchantments keep me loyal, liking you…" A pause. "Attracted to you." She raised an eyebrow.

I blushed slightly. "It's not that bad, is it? If we're working together, that's just basic… team-building? Except that last part, fine, but you don't need to act on it. I'm not forcing you."

"Ah, so you think it's not mind control if it's just manipulating emotions?"

She brought up a point. And I had thought about it. But these things were complex issues. How gentle of a nudge was still okay? How much was too much? And the descriptions didn't necessarily tell you how much they were actually affecting a person, either. I assumed, if a person could still argue with me, disagree, show their personality, it wasn't at a level where it could be really considered "control."

But it was SOMETHING. I couldn't argue with that.

"You do get some good things out of it," I said, weakly. "The Tempest Runes let you disguise yourself. That should help you out a lot. And besides that, it's how I can share all of my own Perks. Things like defenses, and immortality… eventually."

Sombra seemed to be reading through something again. "But not now, no?"

"...Not yet," I replied. And then I sighed. "Look, I think I can remove all your bindings, if you'd rather. Though I don't know if you'd be able to access the apartment if you do that."

"And you're willing to do that?" was the quick response, Sombra looking at me with a more serious look than I'd seen so far.

"...Yeah. I'm not a monster," I replied.

"You are, actually. A shark one." Sombra gestured at all of me, a light laugh playing on her lips.

"Touché." She had a point there. "But yes, I will. I just… after we do one thing. The reason I… brought you here." I almost said 'bought,' and that made me pause for a moment before continuing. "If you do that one thing, I'll try to remove all the bindings."

"Good." Sombra leaned forward, and I thought she was going to shake hands on it, so I extended my hand. Instead, she ignored it, and booped my nose. "You're cute when you're all flustered, you know."

Ghfghdagsgkl, my brain helpfully supplied.

"I do hope I don't lose the apartment, though," she said, gesturing back to the hallway. "I already claimed my room and everything."

Sure enough, one of the bedroom doors was marked with her symbol, a cybernetic-looking sugar skull. A quick check also confirmed it was both the larger bedroom, and the one with direct bathroom access - the bathroom had two doors, one to Sombra's room, and one to the hallway. Even though this was a small apartment, that would be considered the master bedroom…

Well. I could let her take that. I was smaller myself, after all.

"So what is my mission? What did you need me for, little hero?"

…Right! Right. "Right as I was finishing, I ran through a mental checklist of what I needed to live a life here. But in a place like this, where we're coming from another world, we're missing something everybody needs."

"Records," Sombra finished.

Sombra and I were walking down the road together, having made our exit from the apartment and the abandoned storefront.

"This world is a lot like yours, in some ways," I said casually as we walked. Some people gave us looks - our clothing was fairly thematic, in an almost superhero way. Well, whatever. "No Omnic Crisis, but instead, humanity developed powers called Quirks. They generally let a person do one thing, like control fire or move things with their mind. Villains made use of them first, and then heroes. They're a lot more prevalent than Overwatch."

"I thought you said this was a better world than mine," she said, reminding me that she was, in fact, a villain. But I had my morals, and she just wasn't one to cross them. She stole and blackmailed, sure, but only those who could afford it and definitely deserved it. Dirty politicians, dirty corporations - more of an antihero, really.

"...Yeah, honestly the heroes here put up with even less than they do where you're from. But they have more oversight, too." A considered pause. "Which is actually gonna cause us some trouble here, too. We don't need to just have records of our lives, we need to have our Quirks registered."

Sombra huffed and rolled her eyes. "They make nothing easy, do they?"

"Oh?" I grinned, finally finding an opening to get back at all of her earlier teasing. "Are you saying that you're going to have trouble with that?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" she replied with a scoff. "We'll have our identities before the day is out. You just think about how you want to register your 'Quirk' until then."

"Sea Shark," I said quickly. She raised an eyebrow, so I continued. "Mutation-type quirks where you take on animal features are usually just the animal name. Tacking 'Sea' on front is because I can manipulate water."

"Being a shark isn't enough, hm?"

"It also comes with superhuman strength, speed, endurance…. Probably… shark teeth, shark tail, gills… Make sure to include all that in the information! You get in big trouble if you display anything not in your registry. And I'll be using my powers a lot if I get into the local hero school."

A roll of her eyes was the only answer I got, and then she stopped. "Ah, this is it."

Department of Family Registry

The two of us stepped just into the entrance of an alleyway nearby - enough to offer some privacy, but not going in enough to look suspicious.

"Good luck," I offered a little lamely.

"Little hero… you'll find that I make my own luck."

"...Wait!" Just before she left me, I passed her something. A piece of paper.

"...And what is this?"

"Psychic Paper," I answered. "If you say what you want it to be and show somebody, they fill in the blanks, see what you want them to see. A badge, an ID. Whatever." I paused. "It's gonna be useless if somebody looks up your information, like if we tried to use it to register for school or something. But it's perfect for infiltration."

"You got it for me?" Sombra hmmed thoughtfully. "It's not something I need, but I'll be able to make use of it." And then, she grinned. "You'd make a decent villain, you know."

"I'm gonna be a hero!" I replied.

Her response was to disappear with a wave.

Sombra took care of the Quirk Registry just as easily, in and out. You'd think these places have better security, what with everybody having Quirks and all, but then again… I did pick Sombra because she was the best.

We were back in the Pocket Apartment - we entered through the abandoned storefront again, because it was out of the way and nobody should oversee us using a portal there.

Sombra talked as I went through the closet in my room. Amazingly, Sombra having claimed the other one meant that all of my stuff - the original Gura's stuff, really, or the stuff that she would have had if I had purchased her - was in the other room already. Three outfit changes - her casual overalls-dress, an idol outfit, and an Atlantean toga. Nothing I'd normally wear, except maybe the dress, maybe. I'd need to go shopping. There was also a trident, which was cool.

"Your Quirk is registered, just like you said," she was saying from the doorway while I rifled through my own things. "Your mami was a Japanese fisherwoman with water manipulation powers, your papi was from Greece with a shark mutation. They're both dead, you poor orphan, and then you were adopted by me."

I glanced at Sombra, actually not expecting that. "Wait, you're my mother?"

"You can call me mami if you'd like," she said with a grin.

I could feel the flush in my cheeks. "I don't know about that."

Sombra shrugged, choosing to abandon her teasing at the moment and talk business. "Your name is registered as Gawr Gura, like you asked. And I am registered under my real name, Olivia Colomar."

Olivia… right, that was her real name. Sombra was her code name. Which, in this context, would be like her hero name. Or villain name. "Should I be calling you Olivia, then?"

"If mami is too much for you, and you want to not give everything away… then yes."

Calling her mommy, I thought about that. Flushed again. No, bad shark, mind out of that gutter. "Your Quirk?"

"Quirkless," she replied simply. "No reason for me to lie, and…" She smiled. This time not jokingly, or sarcastically. A little… villainously. "It'll make them underestimate me."

I briefly reconsidered whether having Sombra - Olivia - here was such a good idea.

I'm a hero. Gawr Gura, shark hero. That's my aim. Just keep that in mind. This is fine.

"Should I… try removing the bindings now?" I asked. I actually wasn't sure I could. I know I could remove the Tempest Jewelry, but it left a stamp behind (even though I didn't have Stamps?) and I didn't know what I could do about that, or how it worked exactly in this context.

Sombra waved a hand. "Don't worry about it. I got to use those Tempest Runes earlier, and they came in handy."

…I felt my eyebrow twitch. "If, if you didn't want them removed, then why did you argue with me so much about it?"

Sombra leaned over, and put a hand on my head. Then she used it to ruffle my hair. "Because. You're cute when you're flustered." She laughed when she saw me blush again, but only a little before she spoke a little more seriously. "And it was something you needed to hear, little hero. I might still take you up on the offer later, after all. I don't like the idea of something messing around in my head. But it is useful, and I don't think it's doing much, as of now."

I tried wrapping my head around her logic. If she just wanted the benefits, then I could remove it and… try to put it back on later? But maybe that wasn't the only point. Reading between the lines, maybe she was trying to gauge how much it affected her, figure out its limits and her own.

She sounded serious here as she continued. "But if you ever use that…. Punishment option, then I am out."

"I won't, promise."

"And I get to choose what you spend points on next time," she added on.

"I- what?"

"It's only fair," she said with a shrug. "You chose one-hundred and thirty-five points worth of things you wanted, including me."

"...Okay, fine." It may be a test of hers. A test of character, to see if I'd follow through on my promises. But also, I only have five points left. And I didn't plan on going capture-crazy.

…She couldn't do anything crazy with five points, right?

Chapter Five Three: Leading Up to the Day

It ends up that U.A.'s Entrance Exam (capital Es) would be in two days. That didn't give me much prep time, but I was making do.

The Pocket Apartment we were living in had internet access and, while we didn't have a physical computer between us, Sombra could hack the television to run the internet off of her implants, and I had a smartphone. So it wasn't too much of an issue to work on my application, even if I was mere hours from the deadline.

We were both chilling in the living room, me on the couch and her lounging on the recliner, her feet dangling over one arm instead of sitting in the chair like a normal person.

"What were your plans for spending points, little hero?" Sombra asked, flicking her fingers through the air and working through a copy of the Waifu Catalog being displayed on the TV. I didn't ask how she had access - I'm assuming one of the options I chose somewhere gave it to her, if it wasn't by default. I did assume she couldn't have hacked it - there was a limit to how good one could be at hacking, and I was pretty sure anything involving the Company was past that limit.

"Ummm, good question," I replied, taking my time with my answer. "I think I was kind of looking in two directions. First, once we get the upgraded apartment, and then the house, we unlock the option for a portal room. That way we can move on to other places and still keep our lives here intact, yeah?"

Sombra - no, Olivia, sorry. I needed to get used to calling her that, even in my head. She was silent for a moment before saying, "You already have the 'We Will Meet Again' option, yeah?" I grunted an affirmative, and I could practically hear her eyes rolling. "Then you can already do that. Just through your phone app."

…I paused. "Wait, really? It's that easy? What's the point of the portal room, then?"

"Dios mio, that's it, you're running any purchases past me first. You can't be trusted with this."

"Hey! I think I did pretty good!" I pouted from my position on the couch. Which, by the way? Very awkward when you have a huge tail. That was taking some getting used to. Being on the couch, that is, not the pouting - that came naturally.

Sombra responded by swiping through the Catalog, pulling up an option I hadn't seen before. "Paper Trail," Sombra read off. "This perk retroactively modifies all records - paper, digital, and even memories - to create a legal existence for your-" she pauses in her reading, scowling slightly, "-waifu."

"That's– where the heck was that!" I cried out. "I read that thing like three times! That wasn't in there, I swear!" I frantically looked it over, realizing what it was. "Oh, oh! It's under the Generic Waifu Perks section. I skipped both of those perk sections since I hadn't planned on getting a companion."

"And see how that worked out," Sombra said bitingly.

"Besides, I mostly needed it for me so I could even attend U.A. Giving you a paper trail is, I mean no offense, it is a step up, but that doesn't solve my main problem. And it couldn't have solved anything if I didn't have you to begin with."

Sombra scrolled down with a flick of her finger. Reading again, she said "You may also purchase and apply this perk to yourself."

"....Then why isn't it in the Other Perks category!" I felt very sure in my defense here. "That's dumb! That's cheating!"

"Read everything, idiota." Oh, at least I had a new nickname now. "Especially in something like this." She flicked back a few screens before continuing. "But you were saying you were looking in two directions. What else were you considering points for?"

"Defenses," I answered, sure that she couldn't poke holes in this one. "There's a lot of, well, unfair bullshit out there. We have Mind Defense already, well the first level. But I was looking at Possession Defense, Soul Defense, Information Defense, and Trace Defense as well."

Sombra read through each one's description, and I went back to filling out my U.A. exam application. "Wait, what middle school did I go to?" I asked as I reached a question I honestly didn't have the answer to. Sombra hacked in my identity, she was the only one who'd know.

And she didn't even answer me, instead just flicking her hand towards me and my phone. The information filled itself out.

"Hey!" I called out. Then, realizing I didn't really have an objection, objected anyway. "Why didn't you do that to begin with?"

"Aw, do you want mami to do everything for you?" she asked sarcastically.

If she kept that tease up, I was going to stop blushing. Eventually. Not this time, but maybe next time.

"Oh, and I found what I wanted."

There wasn't a lot you could do with 5 points. I was a little worried she'd pick Body Tune-Up, which seemed to make everyone taller against their will. Otherwise, I was fairly certain she'd choose to hold off until we had more points. Or maybe get the expanded multiversal internet option? Yeah, that seemed pretty Sombra.

Without me having said anything, she continued. She pulled up the Rides section.

"I can't drive," I intoned.

"Why should I care about that?" she asked. "I can."

...Touché.

Sombra had left to give her new ride a, well, ride. I declined, and was relaxing in my new bed instead.

It wasn't a big bed - a Twin size, which seemed like it'd be awkwardly small if I brought home a girl - though it was honestly big enough for me to sleep by my lonesome. I wasn't big, I didn't need much space for myself. But it was a comfortable bed, in the kind of way that a mattress gets once you've worn it in some. And the sheets were blue… I had a feeling I was going to have to get used to that color scheme.

It was strange. A new life, a new me. Literally a new me - an entire new body. Hell, just being able to lounge around without pain was a new experience. How long had it been since I didn't need to keep myself on at least some level of pain killer?

I felt at home, at that moment. Even if I had questioned my decisions, things were coming together regardless. I had my new life and health, I had an application in to a fun school where I could hit things, and even spending time with Sombra had been more fun than anything else. Or "Olivia" I guessed.

Maybe her registering herself as my adopted mother wasn't the best. But besides that, everything had worked out really well.

And nothing was going to ruin it.

Without realizing how much I was jinxing myself, I decided to go to sleep after that thought. I didn't even think about what Sombra was doing at the moment.

"We really need to expand your wardrobe, little hero." Better than idiota, I mused.

It was the next day. A bright, sun-shining day, though a little chilly - it was still late February. Sombra and I were walking through a shopping area. Not ours, though, this one had stores that were open.

She was wearing a brown, hooded outfit, but one that was nonetheless eye-catching with its design. In contrast, I was wearing a white T-shirt, a denim overalls-style dress (with a single red stripe, ending in white triangular teeth,) and a pair of sandals. Gura's first alternate outfit. It was also the closest she had to real casual wear, and thus, the closest that I had. The hoodie was good, but even it by itself drew looks. This was real incognito, which is what you wanted to be when just walking around.

"You do too," I shot back. "You might have a lot more outfits than I do, but they're not great for… blending in." Also, neither of us had anything resembling pajamas or loungewear. Sleeping in the nude was for some people, and those people were not me.

It might be for Sombra, though. Olivia. God that was taking a lot of getting used to. Anyway, I hadn't asked how she slept and, unfortunately, I hadn't gotten a look at her before she was changed and ready to go in the morning either. Sometimes, circumstances don't conspire in your favor. Also, most people are careful not to expose themselves to people who they don't want to expose themselves to.

We had walked the way here instead of taking her new ride. It was a bike - well, a motorcycle - and while it could carry two passengers, it wasn't very shopping-friendly.

The area we were in did have a lot of clothing shops. It also had an electronics store, though we surely didn't need any of those (did we?) and a few restaurants.

Sombra led me into one of the clothing stores. It wasn't quite Uniqlo, but it did seem to be just kind of, like, generic clothing at low prices. Perfect for blending-in clothing, and probably pajamas.

We grabbed a couple essentials first - underwear (I tried to get some cute ones, while Sombra, I noticed, tended towards risque… and sports bras, which made sense given her profession,) pajamas and loungewear (I got a couple nightgowns and a couple oversized T-shirts, then a couple comfy pairs of shorts for lounging around, while I noticed Sombra sticking mainly to shorts and T-shirts,) and then a few simple articles of clothing everybody needed. You know, the plain T-shirts and whatnot. Shorts and pants of the generic variety. I mostly got skirts, though - that tail of mine didn't like the idea of pants.

From there, Sombra forced me into trying on a few new outfits while she judged me.

"Too boring," she insulted a cute otter-print T-shirt and jean-skirt combo I tried. "Are you actually in kindergarten?" she asked when I tried on a striped shirt and floofy skirt. "Leave the scene for people who know how to work it," was her comment on my rock band T-shirt and ripped black leggings.

"Ugh, what do you think I should wear then?" I was getting tired of this, and I should be loving being able to play dress-up as Gawr Gura.

Sombra had several articles of clothing shoved into my hands, then I was promptly shoved back towards the dressing rooms.

…Okay then! I could work with this, probably. Let's see what she picked out…

Except, the dressing room I had just been in had the door closed. Did somebody sneak by me?

I snuck a quick peek under the door, as this dressing room had a gap on the floor, just to see if I saw any feet. I didn't - though I did, oddly, see a pair of shoes and nothing else.

I opened the door and stepped inside. Somebody really just left their shoes here, huh? Some other clothes were sitting around the cramped dressing room, but I paid them no mind. Cleaning wasn't my job! Instead, I immediately stripped off my shirt and began sliding off my leggings…

That's when I heard a small "eep." From. Right. Next to me.

I glanced up from my position, half-crouched, taking off my leggings. My head bumped into something hard, but movable, squishing against my cheek. Confused, I finished standing up and reached out to confirm what was there, and my hand went right into something soft and squishable.

And that's when I also noticed the shirt I had casually taken off and tossed aside was hanging off of something, in mid-air.

The dressing room had been occupied. I just couldn't see the occupant.

I pulled my hand back immediately. I liked girls, that didn't mean I wanted to assault them. "Sorry! Sorry! I'm so sorry!" I backed up, even though there really wasn't any room to do so. "There's - you're a person, right? A girl? I'm so sorry, I didn't realize!"

Toru… something. I remembered her, Invisible Girl. Usually visible only by her clothing, which is why she had to strip for her hero "costume." Of course, we were in a changing room, and most of her clothing was off. Except her shoes. I should have paid attention to the shoes.

"Um, it's - no, I didn't say anything when you came in, that's my fault. I'm sorry." Her voice was pretty typical, for a girl's, notable only in how it came from empty air.

God, I had just - wait, back up, before I groped her, what was that hard thing against my cheek? ….Oh. Oh, Universal Calibration. Invisible Girl Plus Ultra.

I must have looked like a tomato at this point, the blush was overtaking me. "I'll, I'm gonna, I'm going!"

I sped out of the changing room as fast as I could to give the poor girl some space. Unfortunately, I was currently naked myself, sans the leggings currently dangling off of a single leg and my underwear… of which I was only wearing panties.

Sombra raised an eyebrow, looking me up and down. "Got scared of the clothes?" she ventured.

I burned in my face, and somehow got even more embarrassed than I had been. Just that morning, I had been disappointed to not get an eyeful of her, and now here she was getting an eyeful of me.

I meeped, then turned around and went back into the changing room.

Toru was mostly dressed by this point, a shirt and shorts visibly floating in the air over the shoes on the floor, stretched out into the shape of a shapely teenage girl.

But, now that I was thinking properly (mostly?) I realized that she was also getting to see me.

"Gah!" I cried out eloquently.

Toru didn't leave, instead lifting up the shirt I had thrown at her and slipping it over my head. "There you go!" she said. "And, um, put on some pants?" Then the door opened and the floating clothing stepped out.

It took a second, but once she figured out what had happened, I heard uproarious laughter from Sombra.

This shopping trip sucked.

The rest of the clothes-buying went fine, as utterly mortified as I was having my first meeting with a future classmate be that. She saw me, unclothed! And granted, I'd done the same to her, but (and this is important) she's invisible.

Sombra led me into the electronics store, obviously in need of something despite my earlier thinking. "What are we here for?" I asked, wanting this shopping trip to be over, even if this was a distraction of sorts.

"A computer," she intoned, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She expanded upon her statement without my prompting, which could be considered an improvement of sorts. "Some things just work better with a real one at your fingertips."

"Where are we gonna put it?" I asked, envisioning the kind of gaming rigs I'd set up in my past life. I missed those, honestly - apparently my dad has started using my last one for work when I was stuck in the hospital. That's not what it was built for! But the main point is that they were big, and our apartment was small.

"A laptop does not need much space," my companion replied with a roll of her eyes.

Right, those were things. Actually, if I had one in my last life, I could've had it with me in the hospital… whatever! No thinking about previous lives! "All right, all right." I accompanied her further back into the store.

As we passed by a display of televisions, I noticed how they were all playing the news, showing off a cordoned-off bank. And then, almost as soon as I noticed that, Sombra's hands glided over the displays and they all turned to playing some anime about making pizzas.

Weird. What kind of anime could they possibly make about making pizzas?

Sombra picked out the laptop herself without any input from me, but honestly that was fine. Computers were her thing. Maybe I'd get my own later, you know, for video games, but right now I had other things to worry about, like entrance exams.

However, one thing bothered me about all of this. As we made our way through checking out, I finally realized what it was. "Hey, Som- Olivia?"

"Mm?"

"...Where'd we get the money for all of this?"

A grin was the only response.

I had a lot to ponder that night, my second night in Musutafu. Like why the city had such a weird name - okay no, not that. More like the fact that on our very first day here my companion had gone out and… did something illegal. I wasn't quite sure what, but it had gotten us a lot of money and yes that money paid for things we needed but also I was a future Hero, dammit!

Then there was that whole embarrassing incident in the changing rooms, which I could not get out my mind, even though I wanted to. That was a terrible way to meet a future classmate (assuming things went as canon.) Then there was her…. I blushed. Well, it was good to know Universal Calibration did that, at least. Though coming into close contact with the results, I wasn't sure I was ready.

I didn't get to make any conscious decisions using Universal Calibration, but I knew it would, at least, make most of the girls, well, be into girls, whether that made them lesbian or bi. I didn't think it would change the gender of any guys - I wasn't so desperate for a date that I needed more than half the world population to be girls - but I did consider if it would… endow a portion of the female population. People can't help what they're into, all right?

It was good to know, at least. I wouldn't get caught off guard. Assuming I even got a date with a girl, anyway.

I shook my head, clearing away those thoughts. Not helpful right now. It was definitely something to consider, but I'd have time after this upcoming superhero school entrance exam to think about it.

Exam Day was tomorrow. I know it consisted of a written portion, then a practical portion. I was honestly more prepared for the practical than the written. But also, the written portion would be… what? We were entering high school, even if an elite, specialized one. It couldn't be more than a check to make sure we knew everything we needed from middle school, and maybe a couple questions on heroics that could be figured out with common sense.

I'd ace it, I was sure.

Then there was the further future to think about. Classes at U.A., that rescue training arc that turned into a villainfest, the hero-killer, and all of the events after those… I had a lot to ponder. And beyond canon, I had to consider keeping the truth of my existence secret, how my actions would affect things going forward, or even how Sombra fit into things…

UuuUuUUu…. You know what? Let's not worry about anything. My brain was about to explode.

I slumped into my bed. At least things should be okay for a while. Nothing would go wrong.