Chapter Text
“Who are you really?”
I was shocked. How was I already found out?
Then I remembered; Alexandria had a thinker rating, didn’t she? I couldn’t remember the specifics at that time, but that was probably how she did it.
I weighed my options; either I tell her the truth, that I’m from another world where this world is a story that I’ve read, and get forced to play help Cauldron with whatever it is they do; or I try to lie to her, she finds out I’m lying, and I end up being locked away in the birdcage.
Neither of those seemed like great options, did they?
Though, maybe I didn’t have to pick either, instead going with some sort of middle ground.
With my choice made, I spoke up.
“Damn, was I really found out that quickly?”
There was a look of surprise in her eyes for a split second, almost like she didn’t expect me to admit it so soon, before she spoke.
“You have 30 seconds to explain yourself, so you had better make it quick.”
I thought for a moment, and just like how I’d planned in my head, I began to explain.
“I’d like to start by clarifying; I did not choose to be here. One minute, I was playing games, and the next thing I know, I woke up in this person’s body” I said, “At first, it seemed like your classic Isekai scenario”
She held up her hand, signaling me to stop, and asked me to clarify what an ‘Isekai Scenario’ was, and I obliged.
“Well, an Isekai is when someone finds themselves misplaced from their own world. There's lots of ways they can happen, from getting hit by a truck to your closet becoming a gateway to another world.”
She stopped me again, and asked me if this was something that happened often where I’m from.
“Well, no, Isekais are just a popular story genre where I come from. Heck, before today, I’d thought it impossible for superpowers to even exist!”
She seemed satisfied with my answer, and asked me to continue with my story.
“Well, I guess I have something else I should clarify. I know for a fact that the original Michio is still in there. I can feel parts of his personality bleeding into mine, and I can even access his memories when I need to. In fact, depending on how you think I was isekai’d, I might actually be the original Michio.”
When she asked me about what I meant by that, I was happy to explain.
“Well, I have a few main theories on how exactly I was isekai’d. The first one, requiring some sort of god or godlike being existing, is that they did it. Maybe they did it because they thought it would be funny, or maybe they want me to save the world somehow?”
“Another theory is that reincarnation is real, and happened when I was supposed to be reborn. Maybe I died before I was supposed to, and so this is some sort of repayment.”
“The last theory I have is simply that some sort of multiversal event happened, and knocked my mind into Michio’s. Heck, maybe Michio’s mind actually swapped with mine, and now he’s in my world. Though, if that is the case, then I definitely got the better end of that deal, seeing as to how this world actually has confirmation of the multiverse existing.”
With my theorizing done, we returned to the original topic we were discussing.
“So, how did you even find me out?” I asked
“I didn’t, you admitted it yourself. We had detected a dimensional anomaly similar to the ones that happen when someone travels between universes. You happened to gain your power on the same day.”
I couldn’t believe it; I’d been tricked. If I had kept my mouth shut I might’ve been able to keep my status secret. Though, she also mentioned a ‘we’, and though she didn’t say who ‘we’ were, I knew she was probably referring to Cauldron. Not that it mattered, though I did have another question.
“But what if I wasn’t the guy you were looking for? How would you have handled it if that happened?”
“Simple,” she responded, “if you weren’t our guy, I would’ve clarified by saying that I meant what kind of person do you see yourself as”
Ah, that made sense. Honestly, I feel stupid now; Of course I couldn’t have been found out right away. There wasn’t anything to indicate that I wasn’t Michio Nishi, and any personality discrepancies could be explained away as simply a byproduct of my trigger event. Though, speaking of that, I suppose I should put a bit more work into learning things that the public doesn’t know about parahumans so I don’t have to explain how I knew things I shouldn’t.
“So, Miss Costa-Brown, I was wondering; How exactly do people become capes? I mean, when I first woke up, I didn’t have any powers, but after going back to sleep, I somehow gained powers.”
I only half-listened to what she was saying, only paying attention to what I could and couldn’t reveal that I knew. The rest of my attention was on the clock on the wall. More specifically, how a lot more than 30 seconds had passed. I guess she had been satisfied with my initial explanation, then.
She finally finished giving me her explanations, ending on how different trigger events lead to different power types (something I actually had very little memory of from my past life) I had another thought pop up in my head.
“So, based on your explanation, my trigger event was probably me realizing I was in another world, right? But I triggered as a tinker, which doesn’t line up with what you said. You’d told me that tinkers happen after long periods of time, but mine happened much shorter than that. And it’s not like the original Michio had any problems either, so it can’t be that his stress ended up transferring to me.”
I continued, “In fact, a tinker is one of the most unlikely classifications I could have gained. In fact, I’d probably have expected to get a thinker power!”
She looked at me with surprise, probably at how quick I was able to put that thought together, but I didn’t really care at that moment; I had other things to get off of my chest.
“In fact, even ignoring my weird trigger event, there’s also the fact that my specialty is from a video game!”
“I suppose I should actually tell you about the game now, actually.” I said, though I definitely wouldn’t tell her everything about the game.
“So, where my powers come from is a game series called Pikmin. Yeah, I know, that’s also what I called my creations, but that’s what they’re called in the game. It’s about this tiny spaceman, named Olimar, an alien from the planet Hocotate, who crash-lands on Earth. On it, he meets the Pikmin, and leads them around, collecting various materials for a variety of reasons. In the first game, it’s his ship parts he needs, and you only have 30 days to get them all before he dies. The second game is different, and Olimar is sent back to Earth with his coworker, Louie, to collect treasure to pay off the space loan sharks that his boss borrowed money from. The treasure is actually random trinkets that would seem quite small from our perspective, though because Olimar’s really short, I think only like 3/4 of an inch, they seem really big. In the third game, you actually play as 3 new characters, Alph, Brittany, and Charlie, from a different planet, called Koppai. They’re on a mission to collect as much fruit as they can, because their planet is going through a heavy food shortage problem. In the 4th game, which is the most recent, you actually get to create your own character to play as. In it, you are the newest member of the Rescue Corps, and it is your mission to save Olimar. Also, he essentially accidentally pressed the ‘send all’ button when sending his rescue message, so you also have to save anyone else who got stranded trying to save him.”
I stop, realizing I’d gotten a bit off track, and that I should probably get back on track.
“Anyway, my power just lets me make any living or nonliving thing from the series. I don’t think there will be any problems with copyright, seeing how, as far as I can tell, the games I’m talking about don’t actually exist on this Earth. Oh, also, I can make a list of as many things I can remember from the series, if that would be useful.”
Wow, that was a lot to get off my chest, but now that I’d done it, I felt way better.
It seemed like we were almost done, this time for real, with the questioning, and so she looked straight at me, and she said.
“I think I will take you up on that offer, ‘Mr. Nishi’.