A/N:

Alternate Title: "Chitose teams up with Izuku to uncover what REALLY happened during the Deika City terror incident"

Jokes aside, I had several other ideas for the title but finally settled on 'The Mine Woman'. At least it's direct-to-the-point on who the main character's going to be.

(And also because it's the best soundtrack of Season 5)

December 13 – [Day 1]

…

Chitose slowly opened her eyes.

Amidst her still-blurry vision and overall drowsiness, she tried her best to sit up straight, with one hand instinctively going up to her forehead to finger-comb her messy hair away from her face. After a quick yawn, she swung her left hand to her right, landing directly on the phone sitting on the nightstand beside her.

She then brought the device in front of her and had her thumb press the middle portion of the screen to cancel out the blaring alarms.

She felt her thumb go through the phone she's holding and go straight towards her palm. Turns out she didn't press anything, nor there's an alarm currently going off, nor she's holding a phone, nor is she in her apartment's bedroom.

Her eyes instantly shot wide open upon realization. Immediately swiveling her head around to try and analyze the situation she's in, Chitose found herself sitting on a small patch of grass underneath a miniature bridge that passes over, what looks to be, a storm drain river system. She scratched her head in utter confusion. 'What's going on?' a question formed inside her mind as she suddenly stood up, immediately bumping her head on the bottom of the bridge with considerable force.

"What the…?" She blurted out loud, cursing under her breath and placing a hand on to the painful area on her head. With a sour expression, she then turned to look towards the underside of the bridge, expecting an odd lowered brick or anything she could have hit her head on, but found none. She managed to hit her head hard by simply standing up. Lightly confused, she looked down on her dress and noticed that her legs are sticking out farther than usual.

It's almost like she somehow grew a considerable height.

"Well that's strange…" she whispered to herself. She was about to inspect her surroundings when her attention immediately shifted towards her head after feeling an inexplicable sensation on her scalp.

Her hair got drastically shorter.

"What…?" Chitose muttered as she brought both of her hands to her face. Noticing something odd, with both her face and her voice, she immediately dropped to her knees and checked her reflection on the relatively shallow murky waters of the storm drain river system just right beside her. It took a while before the water cleared out from the impact from her hands, but the reflection that eventually stared back at her is unmistakable.

It was her, but from around 20 years ago.

Chitose could only gasp at what she saw, her mind immediately getting swarmed with a myriad of random questions. What could it be? Is she still dreaming? Is that really her? Did someone put her under an illusion Meta Ability? Or did she get trapped in a pocket dimension? What happened to her? She looked again at the shallow stream to double-check and saw that she still looks like her younger self.

Maybe she just hit her head very hard on the pavement and is now hallucinating?

'Hit hard on the pavement…'

Chitose sighed and stood up, making sure to move out from under the bridge first before she did so as to not accidentally bump her head again. Right off the bat, she felt something's off with her height being a little over six feet tall, even though she used to be at this height from around 20 years ago before aging took its toll.

Brushing off the thoughts about her height, she then looked around and inspected her surroundings. The bright red and orange hues of the sky signify late afternoon. It was truly a marvelous sight, especially the way the sun weaves across the rows of semi-destroyed buildings-

"What…?" she blurted out in confusion upon seeing the ruined structures blocking the spectacular sunset. Scanning her green eyes from left to right, she realized that she's still in Deika, at the general area where the Revival Party took place no less. But compared to the mass chaos that ensued right after Trumpet signaled the attack, this time everything is awfully silent, almost as if the entire city is deserted.

'What happened here? The battle's over….?' she thought to herself just before a glint from underneath the shallow waters of the storm drain river system caught her attention. She was about to head over to check what could it be when she noticed something odd from the spot where she woke up just minutes ago. The patches of grass around it are significantly shorter, and the exposed concrete is also strangely cleaner, extending all the way towards the portion of the bridge closest to it. It's almost as if there's a radial burst of energy with her at the central point and that's the one that caused all the abnormalities she's seeing.

"Well that's certainly ominous…" Chitose muttered to herself as she turned her attention back towards the glint she saw some distance away. She then walked towards it and plunged her hand straight into the murky water to pick the object up. It was the entire cartridge of a Quirk-Erasing bullet. Sliding it around her delicate fingers, she couldn't help but question the existence of such an object, especially as to why it's a full cartridge, which means it wasn't fired from a gun like it's intended to. Could this bullet be part of the League's arsenal?

She pocketed the cartridge on her coat and walked on towards the ruins of Deika City, thoughts slowly accumulating inside her mind once again. Why is she somehow younger? Why is she sleeping on Deika's storm drain system? Why is there a Quirk-Erasing bullet nearby? Why is Deika in ruins when the enemy is entirely composed of only six easily-beatable people?

As she walked closer and closer to the city, the rays of the setting sun highlighted the destruction even more.

Worry welling up inside her, she walked faster, her increased height allowing her to cover more ground with each stride until she eventually reached the closest area from the storm drain system she woke up in, which is coincidentally the place where she fought Toga just this morning. Furthermore, in another streak of oddness, the whole place is relatively unharmed, despite everything else towards the inner city being nothing but ruins.

Chitose's green eyes scanned the area, hoping to find anything strange that could give her answers to her current predicament, yet found nothing noteworthy. The whole place is still exactly the same as she remembered it. The cracks on the road where she detonated her Landmines earlier were still there, the specific building Toga went flying into is still ruined, and the alleyway connected to it still has miniature craters onto the walls.

So far nothing has changed.

Chitose walked further into the road and stood on a particular spot.

'This is where Toga suddenly got a new Meta Ability out of nowhere…' she thought to herself as she stared at the spot for a good five seconds, remembering how the event played out earlier. It was certainly out of the ordinary, not only Toga unlocked a new anti-Gravity Quirk out of nowhere just as she was about to be defeated, but the entire blast of the Curious Flattener is somehow redirected backwards, making her launch herself high into the sky but leaving Toga where she is – and not even blown back by a single inch.

Chitose's brows furrowed, her mind replaying the odd string of events once again.

She could clearly remember as she was launched up, Toga then started running through her troops, touching them, and making them float, and no one fought back like they all froze in place. Furthermore, no matter how much she commanded them to bombard Toga from above, none would move nor answer. The strangest part is that when she called Geten for help, the cryomancer simply responded with a mocking salute while he stood on his floating icy platform.

And that was the last thing she saw before plummeting down 5 storeys high.

Hitting the ground at such a height is nothing to the modern Post-Quirk human. Ever since Meta Abilities emerged, the durability of people increased drastically, a strange phenomenon colloquially known as Backforce. This is the same reason villains can easily survive being smashed by All Might straight onto solid concrete and suffer no more than a knockout, on top of light wounds.

Amidst her thoughts, Chitose turned her attention to the cloudless sky, still filled with red hues courtesy of the setting sun, specifically towards the area she floated into. She kept her gaze locked onto it for a few seconds before going down and staring onto the area she landed. While she could clearly remember she hit the ground head-first, that should result in nothing more than an instant knockout and a light headache – which she didn't have when she woke up. On top of that, there's also no reason why did she woke up in Deika's storm drain system.

Chitose thought for a bit, did her headache just clear out on its own because she spent the entire day knocked out? Did she wake up in a storm drain because she just sleepwalked there? Her thoughts got even more into a tangled mess as she stared down the spot where she landed. In a world of Backforce, her impact should have left a crater, or something similar, yet there's none.

'What happened?'

Chitose shook her head, sighing shortly afterwards. The odd string of events that led to her suddenly being twenty years younger doesn't make any sense at all no matter how much she tried to piece things together. But on the other hand, could everything just be a prank on her? Now while it would make sense seeing as Christmas is just a few weeks away, she's part of the MLA top brass, and that means any pranks targeted at her is nothing but a quick way to get yourself out of the organization as fast as possible.

Chitose paused for a bit, before walking towards the nearest wall and leaning on it, while keeping her ears alert for any odd sounds. While deep in thought, a cold winter wind blew upon her, making her greatly shiver as she now has more of her legs exposed due to her increased height. But even when faced with the elements, her thoughts continued.

'Is it some rogue Meta Ability that targeted me out of nowhere? Maybe? Maybe some MLA troop misfired and hit me instead? Is that the reason why all my troops are unusually unresponsive the moment I'm lifted up? Maybe that explains Geten's mocking salute? Maybe…?

Chitose shook her head, trying to get the thoughts away before walking off. She turned her head to one side, and as she saw the silhouettes of destroyed buildings, she couldn't help but wonder, did the League win? Did the MLA literally just lost against six people? Could it be related to how Toga suddenly got new abilities out of nowhere? Did Nomus arrive? Did the League's Meta Abilities suddenly evolve and allowed them to win?

Taking a deep breath and sighing, Chitose turned her direction towards Re-Destro's tower, her mind suddenly shifting towards the concept of Quirk Awakening as she saw more and more destroyed buildings, with a significant number of them charred black.

As much as she knew Re-Destro would tell her what happened to Toga was Quirk Awakening, she knew it is not the case. Not only she spent countless hours of her time researching about it in the hopes of awakening her own, but there are no documented cases of it ever since Meta Abilities manifested. The MLA had over a hundred thousand troops, with most of them training their abilities almost every day, and yet not a single one of them gained an evolution out of nowhere.

As a whole, Quirk Awakening just exists within people's minds, although that doesn't stop people using it as a go-to term for when their powers level-up, when in reality they're just aging and their Meta Abilities are automatically improving because of it. It's a very well known fact that Meta Abilities also power-up as one grows (with some improving better than others), and people could experience possible improvements all the way into their thirties without any training. Is that what happened to Toga, she just 'grew' a new Quirk just as she was about to lose? Convenient, a little too convenient, but still possible.

Another cold wind blew by, kicking up dust and slowing down the woman in her tracks, as well as making her zip up her jacket.

"I swear I'm going to blow up who-" Chitose suddenly stopped when she noticed something that's tugging onto the sleeves of her coat. Much to her relief it's just her Curious Flattener currently in its armband form. She was about to continue forward when she remembered something strange about it that happened during her fight against Toga earlier:

The first time she activated Curious Flattener this morning, she felt a light sting in the middle of her encased hand, which is something that didn't happen in subsequent activations. The sting only resulted in a few seconds of pain and didn't even leave a mark. Is the sting related to what she's going through now? Is it part of a prank? Or is it just how it worked?

Chitose scratched her head as she inspected her armband. Is the sting really just part of how it works? She raised an eyebrow in wonder, as she really doesn't get to use her support equipment enough to know how it truly functions. She eventually shrugged it off and continued walking.

At the end of the day she may just be dreaming from the knockout she got from falling from a high place. There's not much sense taking everything too seriously.

'I'll probably wake up in an hour or so…'

Chitose continued to make her way through the ruins in almost total silence, with the only sounds coming from crickets and the clacking of her own shoes onto asphalt. The skies may be darkening with the day finally making way to night, but the exchange didn't unsettle her one bit. With her blue skin, black sclera, and green pupils that emit a faint glow that's easily visible in the dark, she's far more intimidating than regular run-of-the-mill street villains. And now armed with her young form's towering height, it only ramps up the intimidation factor even more.

Walking further, she passed more and more ruined buildings, her head slowly being filled with more and more thoughts and questions as to how did the small clash managed to do so much collateral damage. She hastened her pace until she reached an area of the road that's broken in the center, with ruined water pipelines visible underneath.

"Geten," she said to herself. While it may look irresponsible from the iceman's part, the MLA had tons of people with Meta abilities capable of easily repairing such damages within seconds.

The concept of collateral damage caused her to remember something and made her activate her Mine Vision, or what she calls a particular part of her Meta Ability that allows her to see any explosive she planted and detonate them. In this 'mode', her entire vision becomes like that of a 3D artist's unfinished project, with her surroundings turning like blue untextured polygon shapes. Additionally, white grid lines surround everything, giving it a blueprint-like look. The current light level has no effect on this innate ability, Mine Vision sees all the same regardless of the time of day. And as for the sky, it's always a constant white.

Now with her alternative vision on, Chitose turned around to look at the general direction of the area she fought Toga earlier. There she found multiple blue glowing dots scattered all throughout the buildings, as well as the alleyways between them. They were the explosives she set on them just this morning, and they may be behind solid objects, but her Mine Vision allows her to see them regardless.

But as a whole, there's nothing strange about that particular area, in which Chitose confirms as she detonated a whole row of concealed Landmines lined up on a wall of a particular building-

Only to discover that she can only detonate them one by one, with a short cooldown time between each explosion. Not only that, but the explosions are somehow significantly weaker than what she can throw out just earlier this morning. After a brief period of utter confusion, she remembered that is how the explosive power of her Landmines used to be back when she was younger.

'Am I just in an illusion or did I really get younger…?' Chitose whispered to herself upon glancing at her palms.

She then proceeded to blow up the next set of mines, once again with a short cooldown timer in between. And once again it dealt pathetic damage to the wall of the building it's attached to. Chitose detonated more, and still they behave the same. No matter how many mines she detonates, all of them are somehow weaker and with an added cooldown.

Letting out a loud sigh in frustration, the blue-skinned woman turned her attention forward while still in Mine Vision. Much to her shock, from amidst the ruins ahead of her, there is a tiny blue dot miles away from her location. It stood out from everything within Mine Vision, because she is always sure to deactivate any explosive she plants whenever she exits an area, and she didn't turn anyone into a bomb earlier until they were deliberately sent in to explode, so what is that one lone Landmine doing miles away from her position?

"Toga…?" she muttered to herself, remembering the fight earlier where she got close enough to her interviewee to activate her Meta Ability on her, effectively turning Toga into a living bomb as a further attempt on blackmail. But on the other hand, if it's not her, then what could it be?

Despite having the capability to 'defuse' her explosives from any distance, she chose not to, on the thought it could be useful later on.

Chitose walked on forwards, aiming to go towards the location of the now non-existent Re-Destro's tower. Amidst the darkening sky, she maneuvered carefully across chipped roads, fallen walls, assorted debris, and destroyed buildings. It took her a short while, with all the twists and turns and various roadblocks, but she eventually reached an open area with even more destroyed structures.

The entire sight stood out to her, for the buildings in the area look like they're not conventionally destroyed, and more like flattened, almost as if a massive being went in and plowed through them, tearing everything in its path.

"Huh? I thought the League doesn't have Nomu-" Chitose abruptly stopped as she noticed the row of flattened buildings lead directly to the now-gone Re-Destro's tower. Wide eyed, she didn't waste any time and sprinted towards it. Whatever caused this damage must be either a phenomenally powerful being or an extremely powerful Quirk. With its path going straight to the tower, what happened to Re-Destro?

She kept her sight locked onto the location of the tower that used to stand at the end of the stretch of road she's on, questions once again swirling inside her head. Where is everyone? What happened? Where's the MLA? Where's the League? What is this unknown force that plowed through the area? Is Re-Destro okay? Why is she suddenly twenty years younger? Is this just an illusion? A nightmare?

Maneuvering through the chipped roads and debris littered on the ground as best she can, Chitose continued her sprint, even as her sweat poured down over her eyes. She didn't let a few trips stop her, even if some drew blood, and she pressed onwards. She had to get to the tower's location to check on the most important person in the entire Liberation movement.

After a few minutes, she eventually reached the end of the road, or what's left of it.

Just beyond is a huge crater where Re-Destro's tower used to stand.

Surging with adrenaline and with her mind racing full of random incoherent thoughts, Chitose made her way down into the crater. She was managing her descent well when she stepped onto a stone which easily gave way, sending her tumbling down and adding more injuries on top of her current ones. Yet despite that, she stood up and pushed through, running towards the only suspicious thing left in the entire crater.

It was just a plain piece of metal, around a meter on each side, with dents around the edges.

'But what happened to the tower? What is thi-' She instantly stopped upon kicking away the piece of metal, revealing two severed legs with the feet portion all gone looking like it was disintegrated. She was about to brush it off when she noticed the legs were encased in a fabric with a pinstripe pattern with the same coloration and design Re-Destro was wearing just earlier today.

She stared at it with wide open eyes, her mind that was previously full of thoughts suddenly going blank. A trembling hand went up her mouth as she kept her gaze locked onto the severed limb. Did Shigaraki managed to Decay Re-Destro? But that's impossible! Based on her research, Shigaraki's Decay has no ability to go through energy barriers, especially the stress energy coating that surrounds Re-Destro everytime he activates his Meta Ability. The Grand Commander losing against Shigaraki is literally impossible!

So what happened here…?

Chitose, with a trembling hand, slowly picked up one of the severed legs. She ignored the stench as she stared at it for a good few seconds, sweat still continuing to pour down her forehead. And then after a sudden spark of thought inside her mind, her mouth slowly opened and turned into a wide almost-inhuman grin before letting out a series of loud awkward laughter.

"THIS CAN'T BE REAL!" Chitose yelled onto the heavens, tossing the severed limb away as her legs began to shiver from the cold. "None of this is real! I'm just in an illusion! Or a sick Christmas Prank from an MLA devotee that really needs its brains blown out!

Chitose straightened her posture and hastily looked around the fringes of the crater she's in. "This is not funny anymore! Release me at once!"

There was no answer.

She called out again, her voice echoing throughout the landscape.

Still no answer.

"Am I dreaming or what?!" Chitose yelled out loud, raising her right hand, shortly before sending it crashing towards her face, effectively slapping herself in the most exaggerated facepalm she could muster. It was painful, yes, but it didn't snap her out of whatever dreamworld she could be currently in.

In frustration, the blue-skinned woman threw down the severed limb with all her might, before kicking it towards the other severed leg in front of her with considerable force. She then proceeded straight towards the edge of the crater and began climbing up, ignoring the numerous stings from all her wounds combined. She failed multiple times, but eventually managed to get herself out of the crater.

Muttering profanities under her breath, Chitose looked around the destroyed city, still in pure bewilderment in her current situation. Still, not a single person was there, everything is empty and silent except for crickets and the cold winter wind blowing about. She was about to bask in her thoughts again when she heard fireworks to her left.

'What the hell…?"

It was a complete fireworks show spanning a whole one minute, coming from the direction of the neighboring city of Masami. There were also helicopters flying about, shining their spotlights onto the ground where the firecrackers fired from.

'Wait… this entire city is dark and empty, surely the helicopters will notice something-'

Chitose started walking slowly to the direction of the helicopters, still circling about. She was fully expecting at least one of them to notice eventually as they turned their direction to where she is. But no matter how many rotations the helicopters do, they never seem to notice.

More and more questions welled up inside her as she continued walking in the dark, aided only by her Mine Vision allowing her to effortlessly navigate through the ruins in almost pitch blackness. In all the thirty minutes of walking, she was fully expecting at least someone she knew to suddenly pop in and explain everything to her, yet nothing happened. The streets continued to be dark and silent, with not even the street lamps turned on.

The helicopters are still up and about, circling the same area in the sky they've been circling over this whole time, but still not noticing anything.

Chitose took a few more steps forward and then stopped. After so much walking, she's now far beyond the area where the Revival Party took place. The houses in the particular area she's in are still fine and perfectly intact, yet everything is dark, including the street lamps that litter the roads. It's as if the entire city has been deserted. But where did everyone go? What happened to the fight? Did the MLA win? Did the MLA lose? What's going on?

She raised her right arm and slowly wiped it over her forehead, with her coat effectively soaking up the sweat. Taking a deep breath and exhaling, she took one step forward, and immediately cursed under her breath as her heart continued to pound in her ears with no intent on slowing down. She took another deep breath and exhaled in her continued attempts to calm herself down, before deciding to just walk to the nearest wall and lean on it.

She very well knew palpitations lasting more than half an hour when outside of exercise is definitely a cause for concern, especially for middle-aged women such as herself. But at this point she doesn't even know anymore. Not only she looked physically younger, but she noticed her stamina also significantly increased, which may or may not be attributed to the adrenaline coursing through her system.

With another sigh, Chitose turned her head towards the location of the helicopters, still circling about with none of them noticing anything strange from her location. Taking yet another deep breath, she continued walking towards it.

After a while of walking in total darkness, she instinctively raised her left arm to check her wristwatch, only to notice she's not wearing any. It took a while before she remembered removing her highly expensive wristwatch this morning as to not get potentially damaged in the upcoming battle.

After a few more minutes of walking, Chitose noticed she can't hear her heart through her ears anymore, which is a good thing. But as she walked, she continued to hear faint rapid thumping noises centered directly on her chest, easily audible especially in silent areas like where she is now. She ignored it altogether as it's just an annoying side-effect of her strange internal anatomy caused by her physical mutation. The most important thing is that she's beginning to calm down.

-[o]-

Chitose reached some considerable distance away from the main battlezone, slightly curious as to why she's still not tired yet despite the distance she travelled on foot. Bringing up a hand to scratch the back of her head, she turned to look at the well-maintained houses to her right, and noticed that some of them even have a car parked in the driveway, yet the entire building is dark and abandoned. Some of the houses on her left also have vehicles parked beside them.

Turning her attention forward, she noticed that the helicopters are now gone. She turned off her Mine Vision to double-check, and the aircrafts are indeed gone. Instead there are now two spotlights waving their beams to the skies.

The now-young woman stopped in her tracks and turned around, her gaze shifting towards the doors of the houses nearby. She was half-expecting the entire neighborhood to suddenly light up and then reveal that everything is just a huge Christmas surprise, but still nothing happened. She waited for a couple of minutes, but still nothing. She waited a bit more, but still nothing. No matter how long she waited, nothing happens.

Sighing, she continued her way towards the location of the spotlights, just making sure to stay in the middle of the road as possible to avoid any potential tripping hazards.

She took a few more steps before suddenly hastening her pace. There's no sense slowing herself down getting confused every few turns, it's best to brush off everything for the time being. Ignoring the darkness and other threats that might come for her in the dark, she continued walking…

Up until she bumped into a whole array of metal signs that she didn't see from being too hyper-focused on the spotlights. At this point her eyes have fully adjusted to the darkness and she could see that all of them were "No Entry" signs – which are exactly what Skeptic planned as to prevent people from checking into them in the middle of a clash with the League.

But the League doesn't have Nomus with them, and they're only six people, so why bother blocking the roads if Geten can just end the fight once Re-Destro orders him to? Even with her fight against Toga, she could easily end it if she wanted to, but she really wanted to have the girl get recorded first saying something about her Meta Ability making her the way she is.

Now that she thought of it, why bother sending an entire army against six people with no notable accomplishments?

Chitose thought for a bit as she inspected the various signs. It was Skeptic who insisted it, but beyond that she found no other reason for it.

Shrugging off the thoughts, she activated her Mine Vision once again and turned her head towards the location where she can still see multiple glowing dots – the general area of her 'battle' with Toga. Like her usual thing when leaving an area, she started deactivating all of them. And just like the weakened detonations earlier, she noticed the deactivation times are also a lot slower – like her Quirk is now somehow functioning in the same way it is back when she was still in her late teens, some time before getting actual training.

Once done, she looked at the only dot that's separated from the rest, which she assumes as Toga. Chitose ignored it and switched off her Mine Vision, returning everything to one dot should stay, as it could give her a clue as to what's really going on – if she's not under some illusion Meta Ability in the first place.

Chitose took one last glance at the signs and then proceeded towards the direction of the spotlights, only to have her vision suddenly distorted for a brief moment as if she passed through a strange transparent portal-like force field. It was viscous-yet-dry, and the texture was comparable to that of silk that can somehow pass through her entire body.

"What the-?!" Chitose said out loud in surprise, before immediately turning around as the entire neighborhood behind her suddenly lit up like normal, complete with some people walking about, some even greeting her. Feeling relieved that the illusion is over, she walked back, only to enter the seemingly-invisible force field again and have the city return to its dark lifeless state. Confused, Chitose walked out the field and back again. What she noticed is that there's a huge illusion field that's covering the entire city and making it appear as normal from the outside, and this could be the reason why the helicopters are not noticing anything.

The entire illusion field appears to be well-done, even Re-Destro's tower is visible in the background. But if there's one thing that she couldn't understand about the whole thing, is that the 'No Entry' signs are present regardless whether she's inside or outside the field.

"I don't remember planning about an illusion field…?" Chitose said to herself as she scratched the back of her head. Curious, she then reached her hand inside the dome, but doesn't seem to change anything until her entire head got in – and then the bustling night life of Deika's residential area becomes empty, dark, and lifeless.

"Okaaaayyyy… this is weird…" Chitose muttered as she backed out the illusion field, immediately noticing the lights coming out of the illusory lamp posts within are somehow lighting up the surroundings outside said , the entire scene is almost indistinguishable from the usual night appearance of Deika's residential area, with all the accompanying noises being 'rendered' as it was real. Raising an eyebrow, Chitose's attention then went to the very few dark and unlit houses just outside the illusory field.

"This doesn't make any sense…" the young woman said to herself as she slowly backed up a few steps to analyze her surroundings, but before she could fully take four steps, she instantly stopped as a thought suddenly entered her mind.

"Wait… if I just came out of an illusion field… shouldn't that mean I'm-"

Chitose immediately turned her attention towards the glossy and reflective back surface on one of the 'No Entry signs blocking the road and walked towards it, but made sure to maintain distance as to not accidentally enter the field and darken everything. With her reflection, she carefully inspected her appearance.

It didn't change anything. She's still somehow looking like she's in her early twenties.

"I better contact Re-" Chitose stopped as she remembered she didn't bring her phone with her today, in the same reason she left her wristwatch. All in all, she has nothing on her: no method of communicating with her allies, and no money, not even knowledge of what's going on. The only valuables she has with her right now is her Curious Flattener and her triangular gold earrings. On top of that she's also currently in an empty city with no means of transport.

Chitose started pacing around back and forth, trying to think of what to do next. Luckily, the nearest town of Masami is just a manageable walking distance away from her location, so at least she has something going for her.

As for the ongoing question of whether she may or may not be under the effect of an illusion Meta Ability, Chitose knew, basing off of her research on this type of ability, that Illusory-type Meta Abilities just last only a few hours long, with the world record as of the current date being 3 days.

She suddenly stopped pacing around and instantly turned towards the direction of the spotlights. A little hesitant at first, but she eventually decided to begin her journey.

The plan is simple: Sell the gold earrings on a pawnshop and get enough cash for a three-day stay at a local hotel to wait out the possible illusion effects (Or until she 'wakes up'), all while trying all methods to gain contact with her allies. But make sure to save just enough money to be able to return to one of her many readily-available luxury apartments across the country if the need arises. Either way, the most important part is that she stays as close to Deika as possible in case Liberation members might be looking for her.

On the other hand she's not even sure if she's just under an illusion this whole time, but at least the plan covers both possible routes.

'I hope this is nothing too serious…'

Note:

Young Curious being very tall is inspired by the 'animation error' in her very brief flashback, where she's somehow drawn unusually stretched out, making her seem as tall as, if not even taller, than young Re-Destro.