Chapter Text
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I asked aloud. I found myself in the middle of the street, staring up at the Mustafa General Orphanage.
What makes it general? Is it like a hospital? Are there special orphanages?
I felt my ears twitch nervously, and reached up to comb my fingers through my hair. What if this doesn't work? I really don't want to stay on the streets any longer than necessary. I don't think criminals will treat a young woman that looks like a rabbit super well.
And that's what I was; turned into a fuckin' furry and dumped into some random world with another idiot who didn't know the first thing about Japan. I'm going to get rejected, or never adopted and then rejected, and then I'm going to-
"Kanya!"
I was jolted out of my head as Aria yanked on my arm, almost pulling me over. "Ow! Don't do that, what is it?"
"Oh my god, you weren't listening!" My companion yelled, way too loud for my sensitive ears. I shoved her back with a huff, glaring at her before remembering she was blind. She still did her best to glare at me through the fancy little blindfold she wore. She was noticeably shorter than me, unkempt black hair partially hanging in front of her face. She was also wearing some kind of school uniform, which clearly needed a thorough wash by now. The eight black tentacles blooming out from under her skirt didn't dissuade from the fact that she looked like shit.
Aria, the second worst thing to happen to me besides being turned into a furry.
"No, it's not a good idea, but do you have anything better?" She snapped, free hand on her hip. The girl wasn't actually blind, but could only see things within a small radius around her, and nothing beyond that. I basically had to act like she was functionally extremely near-sighted.
Perhaps I'm getting too far ahead of myself -
There were two of us, me, Kanya, and Aria, my companion. Both of us had been dumped into this world unceremoniously, effectively orphaned and alone except for each other -
"And me."
- sorry, except for each other and my Ghost, who I still hadn't named yet, but gave me the powers of a Lightbearer from another world. It had taken us almost 4 days to find this fucking orphanage, and if we got rejected, I was genuinely afraid of what we'd have to do to survive. Two young women, one of who had a power involving guns and the other who's wasn't working right yet, out on the streets?
"No," I muttered miserably, slumping.
A black tentacle poked me in the side.
"Less moping, more trying to get us a roof over our heads," Aria chided in her usual half-sarcastic lilt. Her composure had been steadily eroding over the past few days; apparently, not even the thrill of getting superpowers was enough to make up for our shit situation. It seemed like being homeless and hungry could ruin everything.
"You are really bossy for someone who relies on me to find their way around the city," I shot back, masking my worry with more frustration.
"At least I can actually defend myself against some random hobo," she replied testily, her tentacles curling in barely concealed anger.
"I can too defend myself!" I replied hotly, stomping my foot. It didn't matter that my powers weren't working right off the rip, just that I had them, and that was all that mattered. I'd figure it out, and I wouldn't be useless.
"Can you now?"
I growled, baring my teeth at her. Before our argument could escalate any further, a man unceremoniously shouldered me aside, slamming us together before yelling something rude over his shoulder at us. All thoughts of arguing with each other fled with him, and I huffed, glaring at hole at his back. Aria head briefly followed the rude fuck, before she seemed to come to a decision. She then proceeded to jiggle my hand again.
"Quit agonizing and just go," she urged me. My face screwed up, but I listened. With Aria in hand, I marched into the orphanage. It had a big lobby where a woman with glasses sat at a desk, typing something into a computer. She didn't seem to have a heteromorphic quirk or anything, just looked like a regular woman.
"Excuse me?" Aria called out, apparently having sensed that someone was there, even if the woman was out of her visual range. The woman in question perked up, before giving us a warm smile that drooped a little as she took in the state of us. I suppose being two dirty, homeless orphans had some use.
"Hello! May I help you two?"
Oh god, she's opening up with the fucking baby voice-
Aria pinned me in place with a painful squeeze of her hand as she forced a smile onto her face, preventing me from escaping.
"Yes, we kinda need it," she told the nice lady. I looked anywhere else but the woman, not really able to hide my scowl. "Do you guys accept walk-in orphans?"
"Are - do you two need a home?" The woman asked, adjusting her glasses. "There's usually a few steps before you end up here, are you two in any danger?"
"In danger of going hungry, maybe," I muttered. Aria squeezed my hand and I groaned. "No, no danger, we're fine, we need help. Homes. We're homeless and not from around here."
"Uhm. Were you two-?"
"Yes, we escaped from someone trying to diddle us - stop hitting me!" I recoiled from Aria again, letting go of her hand.
"Let me call someone," the nice lady said, her smile a little strained.
She made me talk to a cop. I don't like cops, and this guy was a tool. He also had a weird head and kept trying to insinuate I was a rich girl running away from my family out of spite or something, which, if I was, why wouldn't I have taken any money or valuables with me? I don't look that stupid, do I?
I at least didn't have to come up with any bullshit on how we escaped, just told them about how we got super lucky and got out of the van, and the people that took us didn't cotton on until we'd already made it too far to track. I didn't need that many details, but I did yell at the guy when he started calling me a liar.
I got yelled at, Aria got yelled at, the cop got yelled at and then so did the woman (who's name was Yumi and apparently did paperwork for the orphanage/watched the entrance). A lot of people got yelled at and it was kinda funny when it stopped being my turn. Aria wasn't happy about it, but she was never happy and watching her get yelled at unfairly made me laugh.
Am I a terrible person for that?
"You might be," my Ghost replied. "It was quite the sight, though. That was a lot of yelling."
I have never seen so many people yelling in my life, I agreed.
"You're horrible at lying," Aria muttered.
"You didn't give me any suggestions," I shot back. My ghost wisped into existence over my shoulder just to bob like he was nodding in agreement. "See? Even Ghost thinks so."
"You did lock us into the sex trafficking backstory with the diddle comment. Not exactly much room for me to change script after that," Aria explained, shuffling through the forms lying on the desk.
"I didn't know what else to say!" I protested, slamming my hands down. I swore, watching shit go flying around me and tried to gather it back up. "You just kept glaring at me, how the fuck do I explain that I'm not from this planet?!"
"…fair," she conceded, taking out her phone and starting to do something on it. I frowned.
"When did you get a phone? I want a phone too."
"I arrived with it; perk of my power... more of a system really… eh, you get the idea," she responded absentmindedly.
"Shit. Whatever. I'll get one eventually," I sighed, trying to find my place in the paperwork again. "I don't know why you're complaining anyway. It worked, kinda. I mean, we might even end up going to school again."
There was a lengthy pause before I slammed my face into the desk with a bone-deep groan. Meanwhile, Aria just rubbed at her face with one of her own. Neither of us wanted that.
"I'm shooting that place up if they try," she dryly said. I couldn't tell if she was joking or serious.
"I- please don't," I asked. "I can suffer through more school if it means I'm fed."
I've put up with a lot of bullshit; going to school a second was likely the least humiliating thing I'd have dealt with.
"UA? If we have to go to school, we might as well try to go for the best option."
"What's the age cut-off for UA? Do you think either of us can actually make it in? Wait if that tail guy can make it in, I can fucking make it in. Does that mean I have to be a superhero?"
"Does it? Heroing is more of a job around here anyways. Kinda like on Bet with the Protectorate when you think about it," Aria reasoned, giving up on the paperwork in front of her and making it disappear with a touch. I blinked, and promptly remembered she had an inventory power before dismissing it from my mind.
"But I still have to do it," I pointed out.
"Better than normal school, no?"
"I'm gonna have to deal with super retards," I shot back. "Oh, God, what if I end up in a class with Bakugo?!"
I retched, causing Aria to snicker, lips curled into a smirk.
"Normal school wouldn't be much better," she countered, getting her amusement under control.
"No," I agreed, "but I'd have less obligations."
There was a knock on the door of the little office that made both of us jump. I turned my head as it opened, and a young girl with dark hair poked her head in.
"H-hey, Yumi wanted to know how you two were doing in here?"
"We're doing fine, Izumi," Aria answered with a sigh, burying her face in her hands. "We're almost done."
"Oh, um… did you guys need anything?" She asked shyly. I glanced over at her.
Izumi had been introduced to us not too long ago by Yumi, ushering us off to an unused room. She looked to be around 8-10 years old, still boasting the soft, round face of a little girl that still had some baby fat - that, and a bunch of scales and spikes all over her body, masking some of that chunkiness. She seemed to be healthy and happy, but I'd heard nothing but horror stories about orphanages in my old world.
"Is there anymore food for us?" I tried hopefully. Not eating for several days straight had left us with a deficit, and I think I'd lost a few pounds off of my already scrawny frame. Izumi's eyes widened, and she glanced over her shoulder.
"I can see if Ms. Nakamura can get you two some more food," she whispered conspiratorially, like it was supposed to be a big secret. I felt a smirk tugging on my lips when Izumi didn't immediately leave; instead, peeking around the door like a curious cat. I turned in my chair to give her my full attention.
"Something the matter?" I asked. For a moment, Izumi pulled back a little farther so that all I could see was the tip of her nose and two big eyes peering at me curiously.
"What're your quirks?" Izumi mumbled. I blinked, looking over at Arai, who's tentacles were wiggling energetically. I wasn't quite sure if I should answer that
"Gu- mmph?!"
I slapped my hand over the octo-dork's mouth, giving Izumi a big, toothy grin before Aria could ruin the singular chance we had to live under a roof.
"Ahahaha, she was gonna say a really bad joke," I growled at Aria through my teeth. She licked my hand, only to recoil with a disgusted noise as I pulled away just to rub it back on her face. "A bad adult joke not to be told to kids."
Aria let out an irritated scoff and turned away. Crisis averted, I twisted a bit to give Izumi my full attention once more. "Well, we're both magical girls sent from Planet-"
This time Aria smacked the back of my head with a tentacle, and Izumi giggled at the sight of me trying to push it away.
"Alright, alright," I huffed. "We're not aliens-"
"Technically," Ghost weighed in.
"-but we're also not from around here. Aria's quirk lets her make magic weapons, and I have a bunch of small ones that do a whole lotta everything."
"What kinda everything?" Izumi asked, with the big, wide eyes of a little kid who was about to ask fifty million questions.
"Yeah, Kanya, what kinda everything?" Aria chirped, in a fake-happy voice. Izumi's eyes shone.
"Yeah! Can you turn into a cloud? Are you related to the rabbit hero, Mirko?! Are you already heroes, is that why you were so dirty? Do you know All-Might? Do you-"
My ears wilted. I think I'd just locked myself into a two hour conversation.
I was wrong, it was three, fuck my life.
Izumi asked so many fucking questions that I didn't have any answers for and it was just… ugh.
I let my face slam into the pillow of the bed I'd been given. The orphanage had dorms, and chests to put our shit in, sorta like a less shitty version of a military barrack. Since neither of us had any stuff to store, we didn't exactly need the chests yet, but one of the caretakers - another woman, this time named Masuya - had at least gotten us both a change of clothes. So long, sweaty rags.
Granted, we had both been given sweatpants and hoodies alongside ill-fitting bras - I'd skipped putting mine on, because I didn't wanna deal with it - and underwear that did fit, but free clothes were still clothes, and I felt significantly cleaner after a shower.
Also, Izumi had pulled through and gotten us more food. After asking seven billion god damn questions about my powers that didn't even work.
Ugh.
"Is that gonna be a regular thing?" I asked, my voice muffled by the pillow I'd slammed into. At least it was a nice one.
"Did you say something?"
My ears twitched. I lifted my head up to look at another girl - thankfully, Izumi was not in the dorm with us or I'd have killed myself. Some girl, I didn't look at her face, I just sighed and flopped back down. I wanted this day to be over, I wanted to stop dealing with people, I want-
"It's probably gonna be a regular thing, Kanya," Aria called out. I bit my pillow very angrily and rolled over to glare at her. We didn't have beds right next to each other, hers was in the corner while I had mine in the middle of the room, opposite to her.
There were 8 beds in this room, and 7 of them, including us, were occupied. Little spaces around them had been decorated as best they can with the limited room each other had. It reminded me of having to share a room with my siblings at one point.
"What is?" A different girl asked this time. Me and Aria were the only real heteromorphs; this girl was the only one who'd already been present with any noticeable appearance differences, and it was just blue skin and a slightly wider mouth. Kinda made her look a little fishy.
"That little Izumi girl asking me a thousand questions," I replied, sighing. There was a collective 'ah' of both agreement and acknowledgement from the girls. Well. At least we had a home now. That was something to be thankful for. And as tired as I was -
"I'm going to walk around," I muttered, to which I got various apathetic affirmations from the girls, and a sharp glance from Aria that I waved off. If she needed help, she could ask someone else while I was away. She'd be fine, she was a big girl. I couldn't sit around right now. Doing paperwork and answering endless questions was emotionally exhausting but not so much physically. I at least needed to pee before trying to sleep.
I found my way to the bathroom to… I just needed to confirm a few things. The door locked behind me and I stared at my reflection.
Soft and round, just like a rabbit. Shocking. I had round eyes ringed with thick, full lashes and yellow pupils. My hair was dark and curled up around my face in fluffy plumes. I quietly ran my nails through my hair, preening myself slowly. Two long ears poked out of the sides of my head, turned outwards to listen to the world around me in more detail. Thin white fur covered most of my body, soft like peach fuzz. I looked down at my figure, and I still barely recognize what I've been turned into.
Growing hips, meager breasts - I twisted around to look at my tail, and managed to make it flick a little. The worst part about all of this was that I was fucking fourteen again. I felt skeevy just looking at my own teenage body.
How the fuck am I gonna deal with this for the next four years? I fumed, looking back up at my own scowling expression. I mean, at least I was healthy and pretty, but it was still weird.
I cupped my cheek, stretching my mouth open. My teeth looked a lot sharper than they felt…
I still can’t believe I’m a goddamn furry now. I sighed.
I glanced down at my forearm and pulled my sleeve up to look at the to rings of the Tatau encircling it, before rolling down again. I should... work on trying to unlock my powers properly, but that really sounds like a lot of work.
Whatever, I'm gonna go bite Aria or something.