Prologue
Consequences

"How did you mess that up!?"

"It's not my fault, the instructions were not laid out in a logical manner!"

"It's an oven, not a time machine!"

Another morning, another rude awakening. I couldn't help but sigh at my unfortunate luck. How did it all start- wait, no, better yet, why did it all start? Because I had a moment of sentimentality, that's why. They often say that in life, you live with the consequences of your actions, but they also say that good actions are usually rewarded. So why am I only getting the consequences and none of the reward?

Doesn't matter, I have to deal with said consequences now that I'm awake. I groggily get up from my bed, the sheets dragging on my skin as I try my best to motivate myself. My body involuntarily shivers at the contact of the cold wood under my feet, my throat itching for a curse to throw around in vain. I truly hated mornings.

Not only is your body not completely awake but your brain is trying its best to catch up and shake off the static from the night. Your legs feel wobbly, your muscles ache and your skin feels too sensitive to any shift in the temperature. Every awakening feels like a coma ending abruptly, your mind trying to recall what dream, illusion, or past life it made up but constantly forgets little by little as it prioritizes booting back up instead, leaving you frustrated and bitter. Every sight is too bright, every noise is too piercing and every word that leaves your mouth comes out irritated and half-assed.

I could be here all day, monologuing to myself about this issue while getting dressed up but there's only one conclusion to take away from my ramblings.

I despise mornings.

Now mix all what I've talked about and add the consequences of my actions and you get a wonderful blend of frustration welling up inside.

I grab the doorknob and take a deep breath of anticipation. I will scold them, yell at them, hell, I'll even spank them like children if needs be, but they will learn to not wake me up this early in the morning.

"Good job, you dumb shark, now there's water EVERYWHERE!"

"You couldn't find the red thingy to stop the fire-"

"It's called a fire extinguisher!"

"It doesn't matter! Water beats fire, fire is gone, job is done!"

My thought process was thrown out the window as I saw...what the fuck was I seeing? The oven was blackened with soot, multiple utensils laying around on the floor, stuck on the wall and...how did a spatula get stuck in the ceiling? Chairs were piled up toward the door like someone desperately fought off a horde of the undead, the table casually thrown to the side. I did not need to look down to know that my ankles were completely immersed in water as it flowed endlessly in my room. Multiple pieces of stray food floated around in the water like sunken ships destroyed on the battlefield. In front of all this mess stood two girls arguing like an old married couple, completely unaware of the chaos and madness they created. One was even wearing soggy socks for crying out loud, how do you not notice soggy socks?!

It was all I could take.

"What the fuck did you two do?!" In my head, I wanted to sound menacing, threatening and almost parental in a way. What came out of my mouth however, was a screech of despair and absolute melancholy as I saw the state of my kitchen. The two of them immediately stopped arguing and turned their head to look at me, then looked back at each other.

"It was all her fault!" they both yelled at the same time, pointing their index finger at the other one with almost practiced timing. My eyes simply shifted between the two alternatively until I did the only action I could manage to do in my tired state.

I sighed.

"So, let's go back to how this all happened, step by step, alright?" After three hours and possibly a miracle, the kitchen was back to somewhat-normal. The ceilings and walls had scars of this fateful day and the floor still felt cold and wet but it was in an ordered state. The two girls stood in front of me as I pinched the bridge of my nose, finally discovering the reason for my various headaches during daytime. "Alright, Gura, you go first."

The girl named Gura was short, almost child-like. Her messy hair was almost entirely white, with a couple of stray hairs of various blues. Stubby twintails adorned the sides of her head, shark-styled pins holding the two. In common with the pins was her teeth, which were sharp, spiky and, to no one's surprise, very similar to a shark. They were especially noticeable right now since she was giving a full blown smile but her eyes couldn't help but tell the opposite. They looked to the side with worry and a hint of nervousness, twin sapphires glinting with radiance. Her hands were tugging at the hem of her white tank top, a cartoony looking anchor drawn at the front, with red shorts complimenting her top.

Overall, a normal girl...if you ignored the giant shark tail behind her tracing circles on the floor.

"Well...you see, I wanted to make breakfast…" She said as her eyes swiftly took peeks at me, her feet softly kicking rhythms at the ceramic floor of the kitchen as she desperately stalled for time.

"Go on…" I urged, my foot giving a different beat at it tapped impatiently.

"...and then the oven exploded." She finished off with a proud smile, like she told the best tale of her generation.

"Where's step two, three, and POSSIBLY FOUR!? How is cooking breakfast resulting in the oven exploding?!" I quickly lost my cool, the shark-girl in front of me giggling nervously at my lack of patience. One deep breath and I was back on gnawing my bottom lip. "And what about you, Watson, what's your role in all this?"

The girl known as Watson looked up from her notepad, her pale blue eyes looking surprised and almost excited. She quickly put the notepad...somewhere, and crossed her arms, giving the best thoughtful expression she could muster. Her pale skin contrasted the black shirt and grey sweatpants she was wearing, her face almost as child-like as Gura. Her height almost seemed similar to the shark gal, but she was definitely taller than her partner in crime. She also won in the chest size department but this time, it wasn't a competition. After thinking for a long time, she brushed off her short blonde hair from her face and gave me the most smug smirk I've ever laid eyes on.

"I wanted to help Gura!" She proclaimed, almost yelled even. My silence was all she needed to continue as her shoulders rose up, her arms following suit and her head tilting to the side. "Then the oven exploded!"

"Keep saying that and I'll be the one exploding! There was water everywhere! There was food floating all over the place! There was a fucking spatula stucked in the god damn ceiling! I want explanations, now!"

"Don't worry Hunter, life doesn't matter anyway, so we should do our best to enjoy it while we can and forget about past incidents like these." Gura joined the blonde girl in her smug attitude, both of them nodding their heads as if they've bestowed a wise axiom.

"Nihilistic thoughts were not what I demanded, damnit!" I gritted my teeth as I massaged my temple, sighing out of frustration. My eyes glanced at the two of them, the girls snickering to themselves as they completely ignored my presence.

A moment of weakness caused these events to happen. A moment of kindness caused these two forces of nature to wreck my kitchen in pieces. If I had simply continued my path without crossing her, I would not have to deal with the consequences right now.

BAM BOOM THUD

"Ouch! What was that for?!"

Another consequence to pop up, what a wonderful Monday…

I turned my head behind me as the two girls in front of me stepped to the side to see past my body, Gura putting her hand above her eyes as if to shield non-existent sun rays while Watson immediately took out her notepad. Where she kept it and how she kept it was information I did not care for. Behind me was the cause of the ruckus we had just heard.

Laying on the floor in an intensively uncomfortable position was a woman with bright, long fiery red hair, the lower part of it being of an ocean shade. Moaning in pain, her hands reached for one of the steps of the stairs in front of her, panting as she slowly rose up from the floor. Judging by the tears threatening to spill from her shining pink orbs, it was safe to assume that the fall must've hurt. My eyes couldn't help but roam her body as she was only wearing a blue-ish bra and panties, before I forced my perverted brain from looking away. Say what you want, I'm still a young man and can respectfully appreciate the body of the opposite sex.

"You're a phoenix, you'll live." said another voice coming down from the stairs, their steps as uncaring as their voice sounded. The first thing to witness from this woman was her long straight sakura colored hair, in a complete mess right now due to the common condition known as 'bed hair'. Her eyes followed the same color, looking down at the so-called 'phoenix' from above the stairs. Black boxers with a simple yellow shirt were her pyjamas and she did not care what the peons thought with the way she walked.

"That doesn't mean I don't feel pain!" The one with absolutely no decency simply whined as she put her hands on her hips and gave her best pout to the other girl...said girl being busy downing the milk jug from the fridge. She finally came back up for air after almost drinking the entire thing, swishing the jug to hear a slooching sound before shrugging and carelessly throwing the thing back in the fridge.

"Sorry, want me to kill you? That way you won't feel the pain anymore." She smirked as she raised her right arm, black energy swirling from it. In a second, a wicked black scythe appeared with a burst of black fumes, pointed directly toward the whiner.

"Oh Calli! I didn't know you cared that much about me!" She enthusiastically bounced back from her previous mood, jumping in the air as her chest couldn't help but follow gravit-

"PUT SOME CLOTHES ON FOR FUCK SAKE!" I was at my limit, my face flushed from all this...spectacle in front of me. This got the attention of both girls, who looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"Come on man, it's been like 6 months, you should get used to that kinda shit." The girl known as Calli simply shrugged as she tossed her scythe in the air, the thing dissolving into smoke immediately as she was once again, on the hunt for something in the fridge.

"How could I get used to it, I'm the only guy in the house, please have some common sense already…" I moaned in irritation. Always help people in need, they said. You'll be rewarded, trust me, they said.

"Shouldn't you be happy about it?" Gura chimed from behind as she tilted her head in confusion.

"You got it wrong Gura, men will act like they don't care to be seen as decent but deep down, I'm sure he's in heaven right now." Watson stage whispered to the girl with the tail, getting a 'a' from said shark, like she had discovered the answer for every problem in the world.

"...I hate you." I simply relinquished the incoming battle. Maybe she was right, maybe she was wrong. I did not want to know, nor care about it. All I wanted was to stop having to look away from the girl with no clothes on. "In any case, go wear something now Kiara."

"Fine, fine." The phoenix, now known as Kiara, simply accepted the order like a child getting a chore from her parents, preparing to go back upstairs before one of the doors downstairs slammed open with incredible force, making everyone in the room jolt in shock.

A purple tentacle patterned in yellow slowly crawled out of the room, worming it's way toward the kitchen. Nobody dared to move as it casually passed by everyone to head for the counter, tapping it as if it was demanding something. Watson, being the closest, quickly grabbed a stray bottle of Dr. Oopsies and slid it in front of the appendage. The tentacle slowly tapped it before wrapping itself around the bottle, quickly going back to its original location. Another jolt of shock alarmed everyone as the door shut, once again at brutal speeds. Everyone looked at each other in silence before Kiara snickered to herself, gaining the spotlight of the house.

"Well well well, You only see that once Ina special day...heh?"

Everyone couldn't help but groan, with the additional "Goddamnit, Kusotori." from the girl ravaging the fridge.

These five entities were the cause of my actions, from my moment of weakness, from my kindness and whatever synonyms you wanna give to this whole rambling. It was far too late to go back and change my actions, I had to simply work harder to make my life the way I wanted it to be. To think it all started with a normal day at the job. Even if I imagined a million scenarios of what-if's, nothing would change. Even if I had a one in a lifetime chance to change it all, would I still walk the same streets, work at the same pace and turn at the same corners? Who knows and to be frank, who cares? All I know is this:

These five girls were the consequences of my action.