A silence overtook the room, until Misogi had collected his thoughts.

「That shouldn't be possible. Anshin'in… I've been here for a year and a half. You know about Gravity. Speaking of, since I'm in another universe, can you finally tell me if Araki-sensei has an Abnormality or not? You have to admit, some things do line up too close for comfort.」

"I refuse." That's cold, Anshin'in, that's cold.

「Right, then. You know about Gravity. If there were any other Abnormals here, Plus or Minus, or even Not-Equal, as unlikely as that is, I would have encountered them by now.」

"Which brings me to my second point." A pause.

Anshin'in seemed to be waiting for a response.

「…Go on.」

"FOR YOU SEE!" Oh for the love of… "With my skill, Eyes of Potential, I am able to view anyone's hidden potential!"

「And you call me a chuuni.」 He mumbled.

"Shut, before I use Mute Button on you." He took the hint. "Thank you. Since my omniscience fails to function in this manga, I've had to do something that I've never found myself having to do! Hypothesize!"

Another pause.

「…and your hypothesis?」

"There is something in this world that is naturally suppressing abnormalities."

A dramatic pause.

「…what? The quirk factor?」

"If it were that, Answer-kun would have an abnormality. From what you've told me, unless his abnormality is Waterfall Tears, which would be… disappointing… it's not the Quirk Factor. No, rather, it is something far more rooted into the world: a law of this reality."

Another pause. Anshin'in was clearly having a grand old time.

「Just get on with it.」

"But Micchan! This is fun to watch!" Ah, Himi. He almost forgot Himi was there. She's clearly enjoying this.

「… fine. What law?」

"Bzzt! That's the wrong question! The real question you should be asking is 'Anshin'in-sama, would you please grant our lowly selves the privilege of hearing thyne second hypothesis about this reality?'"

Another pause.

He sighed.

「Anshin'in-sama, would you please grant our lowly selves the privilege of hearing thyne second hypothesis about this reality?」 He said, with a forced monotone.

"There are two separate law systems governing this reality. One superior to the other."

Another pause.

「And this matters… why?」

"Hmm… here's a better way to explain it. You're not in a second-rank manga. You're in a fanfiction for a second-rank manga."

Another pause. She clearly intended for her reveal of this new layer of her simulation complex to shatter his mind.

「…Cool. I don't care. Explain the systems.」 He was starting to get annoyed with this performance. At least Himi seemed to be invested. Thank god she was briefed about Anshin'in's eccentricities beforehand, or she may have taken that comment seriously.

"Predictable. Shame. For a second, I'd thought I'd induce a lovecraftian existential crisis on you, but the author seems to have a decent enough grasp on your character to know that even though you reference the world in Jump terminology, your major disagreement with me has its roots in you refusing to believe in your non-existence." His annoyance was starting to flare up over his mask of insincerity.

「Again, I don't care. We've been over this already. I'm Kumagawa Misogi. I refuse to be a fragment. Cogito, ergo sum. And I just found someone who I believe is the embodiment of an absoluteexistence. Can we save the simulation complex for later? We were talking about the laws of this reality.」

"Fine. Feel free to delude yourself as you like. I'm still using the terminology. Anyways, the first system, the original system, is that of the manga. If this were the original manga, your abnormality would cease to function, and you'd either manifest a quirk or live totally quirkless. That would be a law in… if we're moving away from my personal worldview, let's call it the inferior system. In the inferior system, the only power that exists is that of quirks."

"The superior system, on the other hand, is a rough approximation of the inferior system that attempts to accommodate for the existence of Abnormals. And since it governs the laws of reality, it simply cannot apply to sole entities. Laws of reality aren't fine like that. They're grand, macroscopic, and must equally apply to everyone who doesn't specifically have the power to subvert them."

"So, to accommodate for the existence of Abnormals in this universe, the superior system was jury-rigged. Now, unless an Abnormal is involved in a situation, the laws of reality will tend to default towards the inferior system. Don't get mad at me for this, it's just terminology, but think of it as the "Canon Unless Stated Otherwise" law. CUSO, if you would."

「Very mature, Anshin'in.」

"I pride myself on it. But, through our lens, reality will only function through the superior system. And, unless the author of this fanfiction is an awful writer-"

「Anshin'in.」

"Fine. Unless this reality has continuity inconsistencies, those who are viewed through the lens of the superior system stay being viewed through the lens of the superior system."

"And anyone viewed through the lens of the superior system has the potential to develop an Abnormality."

A triumphant pause.

「So.」

"You can ask the obvious question. I'm clearly waiting for it."

「…What's keeping them from developing Abnormalities?」

A pause for anticipation.

"Me."

Another pause.

「You?」

"Yes. Whatever's affecting me. Either that, or an unknown variable."

She started pacing.

"You've got to remember, there's something about this world that's nerfing my powers. I've… well, I've lost the plot. I don't know what will happen. I can only peek into people's minds with their consent. I'm not omnipotent, or omniscient anymore. Over time, I might discover even more nerfs to myself. Previously, I've only been able to lose to protagonists. Now, I might lose to antagonists. It's a bit freeing, if I'm being honest. But I ask myself: why? What's doing this? What is the cause? And unlike before, I can't even know if I'm right or not about this, which is infuriating!" A genuinely frustrated Anshin'in. The last time he saw this was when she was sealed by him, and she couldn't free herself with her skills. "The only reason I'm even able to form a coherent hypothesis about this topic is because I've been dealing with this type of metareal functioning shit before existence even was!"

"Is Anchan okay?" Himi seemed to have come up with a suitable nickname for her.

「She'll live.」 He whispered back.

"So here's my hypothesis. My hypotheses. The first hypothesis I have, and the most… not feeding into what you call a simulation complex, is that there is an entity equivalent to myself or greater than myself in this reality that is doing this. It's also the least likely possibility, but we should still look into that Symbol of Evil that Eraserhead was talking about anyways. Might get some leads, given the implication that they have a similar powerset to myself."

"My second hypothesis, is that the inferior system is not as inferior as it seems to be. Something about the original reality is pushing back against the modified reality. 'Why?' you may ask. What would cause this pushback? It's simple. Remember when I said the superior system was jury-rigged to deal with the reality inconsistencies brought through the presence of Abnormalities? Key word: jury-rigged. The superior system is fundamentally unstable. It is fraught with inconsistencies. It's very function may change on a whim. Have you ever heard of the false vacuum hypothesis?"

"Ooh! Ooh! My physics teacher talked to me about this! Isn't it, like, the idea that the quantum electrodynamic vacuum we exist in has false stability? It's… what did he call it… metastable! Like a ball on a hill resting in a trough midway! If you push it a bit, it rolls back into the depressed area, but if you push it hard enough, BAM! Rolling down the hill!"

Hey, Toga Family? Newsflash, your biological daughter isn't dumb, she was being starved and it affected her ability to learn, be fully attentive, and express her knowledge. You wouldn't be fully there either if you had a fundamental necessity being deprived of you. Thank god for online schools, since she can't even go to school anymore because of what you did, and it turns out she has a passion for learning when she isn't being starved. You quirkist scum.

"I… huh, I expected to have to explain that. Good job, Himiko."

"Hehe, thanks." Himi bashfully rubbed the back of her head. She wasn't used to being praised like this, Misogi only found her a year and three months ago, so she was gradually adjusting to… normality, he'd like to call it. As normal as life can be around an abnormality.

"So, anyways, think of it like this. There's two sets of properties. One is rolling down a very long hill. The other is at a metastable state. Reality seeks stability. It seeks a normality. It seeks vacuum, or at least a semblance of one. But, something that threatens the metastability of reality has been introduced. An anomaly. An abnormality. So, in order to prevent the collapse of reality as it is, a new set of laws are introduced by a miracle. For example, someone with the Minus that allows them to exist in a metareal plane that happens to be the perfect counter to a Minus that allows its user to deny reality, having the ability to banish their enemies to alternative realities, subconsciously having their abnormality do an incomplete patch job on said alternative reality to accommodate for the anomalous existence they've introduced to it. I don't know, does that sound familiar to you, Misogi?"

Oh.

"But the patch job is incomplete. This is why the CUSO law exists. The superior system, that accommodates for both the existence of Abnormalities, and the existence of Quirks, is currently too unstable to rewrite the entirety of this reality around. It would return a jumbled mess of history. There's too many variable changes. It simply cannot process it quick enough, it overloads. So, it has a failsafe. It superposits the superior system and the inferior system. Over a period of time, as the superior system starts becoming more and more stable, consistent, there is a background process analyzing the data spewed out from the stabilizing superior system seeing what it can introduce to the composite reality while maintaining metastability. When the superior system stabilizes completely, there will be a singularity. The inferior system will subsume the superior system's compatible functions, and will erase the incompatible functions of the superior system from existence. This singularity will be important later. I've waxed technical long enough, and I don't even personally believe in this theory, it's simply the model I believe will be used to analyze the situation in the future, so I'll be brief about the rest. Basically, there's a natural pushback against instability being introduced to reality from the inferior system. It's why many of my powers are being suppressed, in part because there isn't a definitive reality right now, and in part because reality is quite literally resisting me and my twelve quadrillion abnormalities. I'm… I'd say I'm slightly more powerful than that All Might you've been talking about. In terms of versatility and strength combined. He'd pummel me if it was just strength." Wait.

「If baseline reality is resisting Abnormality, then why am I still at full power?」

"Oh, I DON'T KNOW!" She shrieked. Thank god for soundproofing. "MAYBE THE PERSON WITH THE ABILITY TO LITERALLY DENY ASPECTS OF REALITY ON A MICROSCOPIC AND MACROSCOPIC BASIS MIGHT, YOU KNOW, HAVE AN INNATE PRIORITY WHEN IT COMES TO DEFINING REALITY! HUH, I WOULDN'T HAVE CONSIDERED IT! WHO THE FUCK WOULD HAVE EVER GUESSED THIS?! CLEARLY NOT HIM!"

Holy shit, he's never seen Anshin'in so angry. Holy shit.

An awkward silence hung over the room as Anshin'in heavily breathed. Himi was hiding behind her arms. He'd probably dropped his mask due to the shock.

"Sorry. Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not used to… not being in control of these things. I miss it more than I thought I would. I… really didn't think- It's clearly getting to me more than I'd like to admit. I guess it's why I dare to somewhat believe you actually found an answer, since I no longer have nigh-absolute control in this reality. Can I move on to my third hypothesis now?"

"…Holy shit, Anshin'in… I agree with Himi now, are you… okay?" He'd dropped his brackets. He'd recompose himself in a second, but… now wasn't really the time for insincerity.

"Never have been. Probably less so now. I've been in this reality for five hours and it's already turning against me like a faulty anti-virus, or something. Can I move on to my third hypothesis now or will I have to Mute you?"

「…N-no, go ahead.」 He was… actually pretty scared. Anshin'in may claim to be depowered, but even then he wouldn't want to fight an angry All Might, or an equivalent in power. Medaka-chan already pummeled him into submission once. He'd like to avoid a similar future.

"Thank you. Now, my third and final hypothesis. The one I believe to be true, but if it is true, I will never be able to prove it. Tell me, Misogi. Have you ever heard of the Theory of Narrative Causality?"

Something tells him she'd elaborate even if he explained it in full, for dramatic effect. 「I'm familiar.」 He wouldn't waste the air.

"Things happen because the plot says they should! I've dealt with this phenomenon my entire life. All 3,402,193,822,311 years of existence! You wouldn't even begin to understand. People who have no justification to be able to stand up to a nigh-omnipotent entity defeating them after a group hug with their posse. Why secret plots stay buried until it's the right time for them to be revealed. Why there's always something else to discover, deeper than the surface problem! Why certain individuals have a perfect win ratio on million-to-one chances! It's why people get out of situations they have no business getting out of, simply because they're important! It's why life feels like it conforms to certain story genres at times! It's why Murphy's Law is nigh-immutable, except when you're aware of Murphy's Law itself! Then it's a fucking coin flip!"

"My third and final hypothesis is that there's a different author at the helm then before. One that's trying to merge these two conflicting sets of concepts and is coming up with a retroactive justification for everything on the fly. And for some reason, they've thought it good to nerf me specifically to the power level of this world. I can't even begin to comprehend why, except through the lens of the Theory of Narrative Causality. I truly believe this is the case, but if the author thinks I need to be downgraded for whatever reason, then they don't want me as the nigh-author surrogate anymore, and that means I will never be able to prove it, and I hate it."

"So, back to Himiko's latent Minus. There is a hypothetical way to unlock it. You, Misogi."

「Me? Oh, I see where you're going with this.」 Her outburst will be burned into his mind, for the rest of his life.

"Look at you! Someone's learning. You want a medal?" She mocked.

「Get on with it already, Anshin'in, it's like… five in the morning. I need my three hours of sleep.」

"Oh please, like you were planning to get it in the first place. Yes, as you might have guessed, you seem to have the power to override both the superior system and inferior system with All Fiction. You could theoretically unlock Himiko's Minus, but there's a coin flip on whether that stays as just her Minus being unlocked or has a reverberating effect on anyone with abnormal potential viewed through the superior lens, and that's only because I'm invoking my fear of Murphy's law right now. Congratulations, Haruhi. You've bumbled into a protagonist role, through some cosmic prank pulled on me specifically. Fuck. Fuck. Fine. I'll join your goddamn SOS Brigade. If my theory is correct, I'd find myself stuck with you anyways. Answer-kun better fucking be as absolute an existence as you believe him to be, or I'll never forgive you. Remember, I'm stuck here for now. Here and the blasted empty classroom. So you better make it worth my time. You asshole."

「I'll… try my best.」

Anshin'in sauntered off to the couch, where she… fell asleep. Huh.

…

"I think I followed, like half of that, is that bad?"

「No, Himi, you're doing great. We'll… discuss your latent abnormality… later. When we have… maybe more than 3 hours of sleep?」

"Fine with me, Micchan!"

It was the start of April, and Midoriya Izuku was starting his first day of his third year of junior high. It was a day like any other, well, except for the new face at the front of the class. The smiling brown-haired girl at the front of the class standing next to the teacher, that is.

"Good morning, class. Today we have a new transfer student to start off the year! Introduce yourself, young woman, name and quirk!"

"I am Ajimu Najimi, it's a pleasure to meet you. My quirk is Alibi Block, and it allows me to be wherever I want, whenever I want. I won't demonstrate, though, that's illegal. Thank you for having me."

A/N: And here is the obvious metafictional element! It wouldn't be Medaka Box without it.