A Very Brief Off-Off Chance Encounter

By Rob Morris

The world can seem as chaotic as we want it to be, but in fact it always has rules. Different worlds have different rules, some subtle, some profound.

In one world, 'superpowers' can be the most common thing going, so common not having them is the exception.

In another world, verifiable superpowers are just not a 'thing', and if anyone, say a girl with pink hair who escaped an experimental regime (no, not that one, this is a 'family' story) it would go largely unknown, though people of remarkable focus and ability were, while still uncommon, not a culture-changing shock.

Contrary to some narrative, there does not need to be a strange glowing portal or hideous explosion for such worlds to meet. The first world had a very mad mad scientist who could dabble in such a thing (and the second one had some amoral doctors itself) but his hands were clean in this, perhaps for the first time ever. Here, the convergence happened, and then dissipated just as quickly. Call it a 'thinny' as seen in other works, without the demonic presences implied there, or just view the encounter, for it shall be brief.

Himiko Toga saw the small café, and having 'obtained' some money, decided she would eat there, and despite some logic, it was the right sort of money to not be noticed till later. She chiefly picked up that no one seemed to recognize her increasingly well-known face, and she could eat as peacefully as she chose to. Toga in later days would look for this same place and only once more find it, shrugging it off as most people, and certainly one as mercurial as her, would do.

Seated near enough to clearly view was a married couple and their little girl, a new family recently forged, and in fact their name was Forger. The parents immediately drew Toga's attention. They looked about at their surroundings without looking like they were doing so, something she had only seen the pros on both sides in her world capable of.

They also looked poised. Primed. Ready to strike or just enjoy themselves all the same. Not a wasted movement or gesture. It was eerie – a quirk? The father looked to be all focus, and the mother? Toga was reminded by her aspect of the most frightening thing she knew of – herself, and somehow picked up that maybe, just maybe this woman had shed even more blood than her. It was hard to tell which of these parents was the more dangerous, the one who was all control versus the one who, once she got going, could not be controlled at all.

You just learned how to read these things when you spent all your time on the run.

Maybe her own powers and abilities would quickly shock and overwhelm the pair, but for once she was in serious doubt of how much of her own blood she would have to exchange to obtain some of theirs, and whether it would be worth it.

Then, another face caught her attention. The little one's obvious joy at belonging also reminded her of herself, and brought to mind someone who hadn't always belonged – and even of Ocha-Chan. A smile emerged as a big plate of bacon was placed before the girl, a reward for a high grade that – without going too deeply into it – was unwitting and inadvertent - and in all this she showed plenty of wasted movement and energy. Toga couldn't help but smile.

"What an adorable little girl."

The pink-haired tyke seemed to turn at this, and briefly glanced at Toga, who waved back.

Anya Forger for her part stopped in the midst of her feast and spoke to her parents.

"Can Anya have a box for the rest?"

She also began to hope the rest wouldn't come up on her. She hated when that happened.

*That woman – her thoughts – they felt to Anya like that soup you left in the fridge for too long and know that you probably shouldn't have.*

Toga had no more sense of another's 'quirk' than many other users, but again, her life meant that she could very broadly pick up when a quirk – or very like ability – was in use regarding herself. Perhaps Anya's telepathy had a footprint no one from her world could pick up, but in any event, Toga felt that this child had something she could really use – this was no can-opening or door-unjamming quirk, this was a game changer. Indeed, it might have been, if the parents, their own senses sharpened to razors by spy and assassin work, hadn't noticed a shift in the room, and that shift was all they needed. The bill already settled and a tip already left, they departed, again, no wasted movements and their exit area one easily defended. Nonetheless, the scent of something she could maybe bring back to the aforementioned mad doctor had Toga ready to take the otherwise dicey risk.

But convergences also end.

"Hey you, this money is counterfeit!"

The waitress felt a scrape to her palm, and then to her shock, was staring at herself before being cold-cocked.

"Taking my break."

Darting out in pursuit, Toga cursed the blood-donor for his delay. The couple had made supreme use of their brief lead, all with a little one in tow, and all without raising a fuss that would at least give her a hint. Oddly, the signs on the streets and roads also shifted back to more familiar looks and a few glances told her (after she reverted) that she was being placed and should get to her safe spots. On occasion, she would think of that brief touch from the little one and sigh for an opportunity missed.

Away from the now-ended convergence, two parents talked, their talk slightly less euphemistic than normal, and if they had not been focused solely on their daughter, it might have compromised their mutual secrets.

"There was someone there, Loid-San?"

"Yes. A threat to Anya – maybe. But I couldn't see anyone. But it was like – the smell of a soup pot that's been left in the cooler for too long, and should probably be thrown out..."

Yor Briar Forger completed the thought without ever meaning to.

"…but you hesitate, because you feel bad for not getting to it sooner – like it could have been saved."

In the living room, Anya was snacking on carrot sticks, which she hated, but their taste cleansed her palate and made her not think of bad soup.

*Maybe she just needs friends, like Becky-san. If she knows what those are. Maybe – she can't know, which is very sad.*

Convergences come and go, but the Forger family never went to that café again. Someone else did, though, in the days when a great and final war was approaching.

Seated as before, and staff changes meaning no one knew her face from before, Toga thought she saw her.

"Growth spurt? I mean, it could happen."

Maybe the little one had been older than she looked (in fact she had been younger, but she wasn't there today so this does not matter) but the opportunity could not be passed up again.

She (the girl who might have been the other, but wasn't) was with friends, not guardians, and while they looked protective, they also looked dithering and utterly unfocused, and more, they left her alone for some reason.

The convergence (for such had indeed occurred, another world with hidden quirks and more) already began to end, and perhaps she felt it this time, for Toga moved in on her target.

"Remember me?"

The pink-hair looked ready to bolt, so Toga jammed a think steak-knife into the table, quietly to avoid attention.

"Just give me what I want and I'll go away."

The girl stared blankly at her, looking more a toddler than the last one.

"Nyu?"

Toga took the girl's statement completely wrong.

"Got a problem with my boobs?"

In fact, the girl sometimes called Nyu had no problem with 'boobs' – no problem at all. But Toga drew back a blade, maybe aiming to take a bit more blood than she originally intended.

"So I'm not Oppai City – but I can't let you get away with—"

The sight of the blade awoke something – or someone – inside Nyu – and this was that one. Toga felt herself pushed back hard, well out of the café, which this time vanished before her eyes, with the glare of the girl called Lucy fixed on the other young killer, who fled again to await the word from her leader that all had come to a head.

Toga would leave her world never fully realizing how much in common she had with either pink-haired girl, and that only one of these three even had a chance – in this life- at a real happy ending.