The afternoon sun was always a bit too bright on the walk home from school. I kept my head angled slightly downward, mostly to make sure the wind didn't catch the front of my hair. It took me exactly thirty-five minutes every morning to get my pompadour just right, using a specific comb and my favorite brand of strong-hold gel. If the wind messed it up, the whole day felt off.
Right next to me, struggling to keep up with my longer strides, was Hayata Nemura.
"Katsuya-senpai, wait up a little bit," Hayata said, his voice quiet and slightly breathy.
I slowed my pace. "You walk too slow, Hayata. Your legs are shorter, but you could take faster steps to make up for it."
"I know, I know. I'm trying," he mumbled, jogging a couple of steps to fall in line beside me.
I glanced down at him. Hayata was fourteen, two years younger than me, and still in middle school. He was a really small guy.
Honestly, he barely came up to my chest. He had messy black hair that always looked like he had just rolled out of bed, and he kept his middle school uniform jacket completely buttoned up to his chin, even though it was a pretty warm spring day. I figured he was just insecure about being scrawny. Late bloomer, probably. His voice was still completely high-pitched, hasn't dropped at all. But he was a good kid.
We had a routine now. Every day when my high school let out, I would walk past his middle school. He would always be waiting by the gate, kicking at the dirt, looking nervously at the other kids until he spotted my pompadour. Then his face would light up, and he'd run over.
It started about a month ago. I had skipped my afternoon classes that day. I didn't usually skip, but a stray football had hit my head during P.E. and dented the front of my pompadour. I couldn't sit in class with asymmetrical hair. It would distract me too much. So, I hopped the fence to go to the convenience store down the street to buy more gel.
On my way back through the alley behind the middle school, I heard some scuffling. I peeked around the corner and saw three older middle schoolers cornering Hayata. They had grabbed his backpack and were dumping his notebooks on the ground. One of them shoved him hard into the brick wall.
I didn't like bullies. They were annoying and loud. Plus, they were standing right in the path I needed to take to get back to my school's side gate.
So, I walked up and told them to move. They laughed at my hair. I didn't like that either. I ended up grabbing the biggest guy by his collar and throwing him into the garbage cans. The other two tried to swing at me, but they were just middle schoolers. A couple of quick punches to the gut and a harsh glare sent them running away, crying about how they were going to get me back. They never did.
Hayata had been sitting on the ground, shaking like a leaf, staring up at me with these huge, watery eyes. I helped him pick up his notebooks. They had little cartoon dogs on them, which I thought was a weird choice for a guy, but I didn't judge. Since that day, he basically attached himself to me. He was very dependent. If I wasn't around, he looked like a lost puppy.
"Did anyone bother you today?" I asked, looking straight ahead as we walked past the neighborhood park.
"No, senpai. Everyone left me alone today. Mostly because they know you walk me home now." Hayata smiled, looking up at me. He had a smudge of dirt on his cheek.
"Good. You should still learn how to throw a punch, though. If you plant your feet and twist your hips, you can generate enough force even if you don't weigh a lot. I can show you the mechanics."
"Ah... n-no thank you, Katsuya-senpai. I don't really like fighting." He rubbed the back of his neck, laughing nervously. "I'm just glad you're around."
I nodded. That made sense. Not everyone was built for it.
We kept walking in silence for a few minutes. I liked the silence. Sometimes people talked too much and it got overwhelming, but Hayata was quiet. He just liked being there.
"Hey, Hayata," I said as we approached the intersection where we usually parted ways.
"Yes, senpai?"
I stopped walking and turned to face him. I needed to tell him the plan. I like giving people clear information so they know what to expect.
"I won't be walking you home anymore starting next week."
Hayata froze. The slight smile on his face completely vanished, replaced by a look of pure panic. His hands gripped the straps of his backpack so tight his knuckles turned white. "W-what? Did I do something wrong? Are you mad about my slow walking? I can walk faster, I promise! Or is it because I talk too much? I'll be quiet—"
"No," I interrupted him calmly. "You didn't do anything wrong. Your walking speed is inefficient, but I don't mind it. I am moving."
"Moving?" His eyes got wide, and I saw a bit of moisture gathering in the corners. Man, he was a really sensitive dude. "Where? To a different prefecture?"
"No. To America."
Hayata's mouth dropped open. "America?! But... why? That's so far away!"
I crossed my arms, making sure not to brush my hair. "My biological father is a jerk. He was cheating on my mother. She found out a while ago. There was a lot of yelling, and then he left. It was a very loud and bad time in the house."
Hayata looked heartbroken, sniffing a little. "I'm so sorry, Katsuya-senpai..."
"It's fine. It's better without him. My mother married my step-father last year. He's a good guy. He likes fixing radios and he showed me how to make scrambled eggs without burning the pan. He's originally from America, but he lived here for a long time. Now, he wants to take us back to America to visit his family and live there for a while. We leave on Sunday."
Hayata just stared at me. A tear actually spilled over and rolled down his cheek, cutting a clean line through the dirt smudge. "So... you're just leaving? Just like that?"
"Yes. The plane tickets are already bought."
He looked down at his shoes. His shoulders were shaking. I didn't really know what to do when people cried. It always felt awkward. I reached out and patted him stiffly on the top of his head. His hair was surprisingly soft.
"Don't cry, Hayata. You're fourteen. You need to stand up straight. And you don't have to worry about those bullies anymore. I told the leader of the delinquents at your school that if I hear they mess with you, I'll come back from America just to throw him in a river. He believed me."
Hayata let out a wet, choked laugh. He reached up and wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve. "Thank you, Katsuya-senpai. I'm... I'm really going to miss you. More than you know."
"I will miss our walks too. You are an acceptable walking partner."
He smiled a little, though it looked sad. "Will you ever come back?"
"Maybe. I don't know the future." I looked at my watch. "I have to go home now and pack my room. Make sure you tie your left shoe, the laces are getting loose."
Hayata looked down at his shoe, then back up at me. "Okay. Goodbye, Katsuya-senpai. Please be safe in America."
"Goodbye, Hayata."
I turned and walked the rest of the way home. I didn't look back, because looking back while walking can mess up your balance.
"Order for table four is ready, Katsuya."
"Got it."
I picked up the tray. Two iced coffees and a slice of blueberry pie. I carried it over to the table by the window, placed the drinks down first, then the pie, making sure the fork was perfectly aligned with the edge of the plate.
"Here you go. Enjoy."
"Thanks, man," the customer said.
I nodded and walked back behind the counter. It had been four years since I moved to America. I was twenty now. A lot had changed, but a lot stayed the same. The town we lived in was quiet, not as busy as the city back in Japan. My English had gotten a lot better, though I still had a bit of an accent and sometimes people used slang that I didn't understand. When that happened, I usually just nodded and walked away. It was easier.
I wiped down the espresso machine with a damp cloth. I liked working at the cafe. It was orderly. You follow the recipe, you pull the shot, you steam the milk. There is a right way to do it and a wrong way. If you do it the right way, people are happy. It made sense to me.
I caught my reflection in the chrome of the machine. My hair was flat. Normal. Short on the sides, a bit longer on top, but completely flat. No pompadour.
I stopped doing the pompadour when I turned twenty. My step-dad had sat me down one evening while we were fixing a lawnmower. He looked at me and said, "Katsuya, you're a grown man now. That hair takes you forty minutes a day and makes it hard to wear a winter hat. Plus, you keep hitting the doorframe of my truck."
I thought about it logically. He was right. It was a massive waste of time and hair gel, and the aerodynamics were terrible in strong winds. So, I shaved it off the next day. I kind of missed the weight of it sometimes, but waking up and just brushing my hair in two minutes was incredibly efficient. My step-dad was a smart man.
"Hey, Katsuya, your shift is done," my manager, a tall guy named Dave, called out from the back room. "You can head out. I'll close up."
"Understood. Thank you, Dave."
I took off my green apron, folded it into a perfect square, and placed it in my cubby. I grabbed my jacket and my backpack, pushing the back door open to step out into the evening air.
It was getting dark. The streetlights were humming, casting orange glows on the pavement. I started my walk home. It was exactly a 1.2-mile walk from the cafe to my house. Usually took me twenty-two minutes at a brisk pace.
I put my hands in my jacket pockets. The weather was getting colder. I wondered briefly how things were back in Japan. I wondered if Hayata ever learned how to throw a punch, or if he finally hit a growth spurt and stopped looking like a little kid. I hadn't talked to him since I left. I didn't have a phone back then, and neither did he. Just out of sight, out of mind, I guess. Though I did hope he was doing okay. He was a good kid.
My route home took me down Elm Street. It was normally a quiet residential road, but for the past month, they had been doing heavy construction on a massive old brick apartment building. They were gutting the inside to renovate it. There was scaffolding covering the entire front of the six-story structure, a mess of metal pipes and wooden planks.
I usually crossed the street to avoid walking directly under it. Falling debris was a statistical probability at any active construction site.
I stopped at the crosswalk, waiting for the pedestrian signal to turn white. I don't cross against the light. It's against the rules.
Suddenly, I heard a sound. It wasn't a loud sound at first. Just a deep, heavy creak. Like a massive piece of metal bending under too much weight.
I looked up. The pedestrian signal was still red.
I looked across the street at the building. The scaffolding wasn't just creaking. It was swaying. The whole structure shuddered. I saw a shower of dust and small pebbles fall from the third floor, bouncing off the wooden planks.
Then came the crack. It sounded like a cannon going off. A main support beam on the ground floor, right behind the scaffolding, had snapped.
I watched it happen, my brain processing the physics of it. The load-bearing wall was failing. Without that wall, the upper floors had no support. Gravity was taking over.
The building started to come down. It didn't fall to the side. It collapsed straight down on itself, blowing out the front wall in a massive explosion of brick, mortar, and steel.
The wave of debris surged forward, pushing the heavy metal scaffolding out into the street. Directly toward me.
I needed to move back. I knew I needed to move back. But the scale of it was so massive, and it was happening so fast, my legs didn't react in time. The shadow of a massive steel I-beam, carrying tons of brick behind it, blotted out the streetlights.
It hit me.
There was a split second of intense, crushing pressure on my chest and head. I heard my own ribs crack, a sound that felt more internal than external.
And then, nothing.
No pain. No sound. No light. Just an instant, absolute switch from being alive to... not.
It was dark. But it wasn't the darkness of having my eyes closed. It was a vast, empty darkness. A void.
I felt like I was floating, though I couldn't feel my arms or legs. I didn't feel panicked. I didn't feel much of anything. My last memory was the I-beam. Logically, the weight and velocity of that beam meant I was dead. My brain had been crushed instantly. Therefore, I was dead. This must be whatever happens after.
Ding.
A soft chime echoed in the emptiness.
Suddenly, light flared in front of me. Two massive, glowing structures materialized out of the dark. They were wheels. Like the prize wheels you see at a festival, but gigantic, towering high above where my head should be. They were made of a shimmering, semi-transparent material, bordered with glowing golden runes that I couldn't read.
I stared at them. I didn't have a body, but my consciousness was completely focused on the structures.
Text appeared floating above the wheel on the left in crisp, white Japanese characters.
[DESTINATION WORLD]
Text appeared above the wheel on the right.
[CHEAT / POWER]
There were dozens, maybe hundreds of tiny, glowing slivers on each wheel. I couldn't read the text on the slivers themselves. They were blurring slightly.
A mechanical, genderless voice echoed around me. It didn't come from anywhere; it just existed in the space.
"Soul anomaly detected. Premature termination confirmed. Compensation sequence initiated. Spinning..."
I didn't say anything. There was no one to talk to, and arguing with a giant glowing wheel seemed counterproductive.
Both wheels began to move.
Slowly at first. Click... click... click...
Then faster. They picked up speed until the colors and slivers blurred into solid rings of light. The clicking sound turned into a continuous, high-pitched whir.
Whirrrrrrrrrrrrr.
They were spinning incredibly fast. I watched the blur of light, waiting to see what would happen when they stopped. The wheel on the left, the World wheel, started to slow down just a fraction.
Click.
Click.
Click.
The massive wheel on the left began to slow down. The blur of light separated into distinct slivers again.
Click... click... clack.
It stopped. The golden pointer rested on a bright, blood-red sliver. The white text floating above the wheel shimmered and changed.
[DESTINATION WORLD: RWBY]
RWBY. I stared at the letters. I recognized the name. My step-dad's younger nephew used to watch an animated show called that on his tablet whenever he came over for Thanksgiving.
The wheel on the right started to slow down next.
Click... click... clack. It stopped on a pale blue sliver. The text above it updated.
[CHEAT / POWER: DIMENSIONAL SELF-GROUPCHAT]
A groupchat. With other versions of myself.
I frowned slightly in the empty void. That sounded incredibly chaotic. I liked my alone time. If there were other Katsuyas out there in different universes, would they all want to talk at once? Would my phone just constantly buzz? More importantly, did they all have flat hair, or did some of them still rock the pompadour? Having a conversation with a version of myself who still spent forty minutes on hair gel sounded exhausting.
Before I could think too much about the logistics of interdimensional texting, the mechanical, genderless voice spoke again.
"Selections confirmed. Commencing transmigration."
The two giant wheels shattered into a million pieces of light. The light rushed toward me, blindingly bright, wrapping around whatever was left of my consciousness.
Then, there was weight.
Gravity returned instantly, pulling me down against a hard, rough surface. The smell of damp asphalt, old rain, and something rotting hit my nose. I heard the distant hum of car engines and the faint sound of people walking.
I opened my eyes.
I blinked a few times to clear the blurry spots from my vision. I wasn't floating in a dark void anymore. I was lying flat on my back on the ground.
I sat up slowly. My joints popped a little. I immediately reached up and touched my chest. No crushed ribs. I patted my head. No caved-in skull. I ran a hand through my hair. It was still flat. Good.
I looked down at myself. I was wearing the exact same clothes I had died in—my favorite pair of dark blue jeans, a plain grey t-shirt, and my black sneakers. My work jacket was missing, but it wasn't that cold out anyway.
I looked around to take in my surroundings. I was sitting in an alleyway. There were tall brick walls on both sides of me, and a large green dumpster sitting a few feet away. That explained the rotting smell. It looked like a completely normal city alley. It was nighttime, and the streetlights from the main road at the end of the alley cast long shadows on the ground.
I needed information. Standing up, I dusted the dirt off the back of my jeans. I started walking toward the street exit to see where I was.
As I walked past the green dumpster, something caught my eye on the ground. It was a crumpled piece of paper, half-stuck in a shallow puddle. It looked like a page from a newspaper that had blown away in the wind.
I leaned down and picked it up. I shook the water off it and smoothed out the wrinkles against my leg. Reading the local news was a logical way to figure out what city I was in and what the current date was. The text was in English, which was convenient since I spent the last four years learning it.
I looked at the top of the page. The date said *Remnant*, which didn't sound like a month, but I ignored that and looked at the largest text printed in bold, black ink. The main headline.
"MEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVISTS SEE RISING SUPPORT IN VALE: PROTESTS DEMAND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IN HAZARDOUS FIELDS"
I stared at the words.
Vale. That must be the name of the city. But the rest of the sentence didn't make any sense. Men's rights activists? Demanding equal opportunity in hazardous fields?
I squinted in the dim light and read the smaller sub-text below the headline.
"...groups are pushing back against the societal norm of male homemakers and female-dominated workforces, stating that men are just as capable of serving in Huntsman academies and Dust refinement facilities as their female counterparts..."
I stopped reading.
I slowly folded the wet newspaper neatly in half.
Societal norm of male homemakers? Female-dominated workforces? Men protesting to be allowed to do hazardous jobs?
I stood there in the middle of the dark alley, processing the information. The breeze picked up, rustling the trash bags nearby. This wasn't just a different world where people fought monsters with gun-swords. If men were the ones staying at home and fighting for the right to work dangerous jobs, did that mean the entire societal structure was reversed?
Is this... a gender-swapped society?
I walked out of the alley and onto the main sidewalk to clear my head. The city of Vale was really bright. There were neon signs flashing everywhere, and the buildings looked cool, a mix of old and new. I just stuck to the right side of the pavement to stay out of everyone's way.
Suddenly, a loud, ringing sound started playing.
I stopped walking. It was coming from my own pocket. I reached into my jeans and pulled out a flat, rectangular device. It looked like a scroll or a really high-tech phone. The screen was lit up, and it said 'Dad' was calling.
I stared at it. I guess this was my phone now. I pressed the green button and held it up to my ear.
"Hello," I said.
"Katsuya! Where are you?" a man's voice demanded. He sounded completely stressed out. "It's dark outside, and there are women roaming the streets! Do you have your pepper spray?!"
I blinked. "I'm just walking on the sidewalk. And no, I don't have pepper spray."
"You forgot it again?! Unbelievable," the man sighed heavily. "Listen, get somewhere safe immediately. But before you do... I have news. The letter arrived in the mail ten minutes ago."
"What letter?" I asked.
"From Beacon Academy!" His voice suddenly got really high and loud, hurting my ear. "You got in, Katsuya! You were admitted! Oh, my little boy is going to be a Huntsman! I was so worried they would reject you, but you actually did it!"
I froze.
Beacon. I remembered that name. That was the Huntsman academy from the show. The school where they train people to fight those scary black monsters.
My stomach dropped. I felt horrible. That sounded awful. I didn't want to fight monsters. They were gross and loud. I just wanted to work in a quiet cafe and go home to sleep. Going to a school to learn how to fight for my life was the exact opposite of what I wanted to do.
But my dad—or this body's dad—sounded so incredibly happy. He was literally sniffling on the phone. If I told him I didn't want to go, he would probably start crying harder or yelling. I really hated loud arguments.
"Wow," I forced myself to say, faking a bright tone. "I am so happy. This is really great."
"I know!" he cried. "I'm so proud of you! But listen to me very carefully, Katsuya." His tone suddenly changed, getting really strict. "I know how those academy girls are. They're aggressive, they're loud, and they only want one thing from a decent young man. You better not fool around with any girls there. You focus on your classes and don't let them sweet-talk you. Do you hear me?"
I let out a long, heavy sigh. I couldn't help it. I was already exhausted.
"Was that a sigh?!" he snapped loudly, making me pull the phone away from my ear. "Are you getting an attitude with me?! Are you planning to go there and throw yourself at those brutes just because you're away from home?!"
"No! No, I'm not," I answered quickly. "I swear I won't fool around. I don't want to fool around with anyone at all. I just sighed because my legs are tired from walking."
"Good. See that you don't. Keep yourself decent, Katsuya. Now, hurry up and get back to the house. You need to pick up your admission papers and start packing your bags."
He hung up.
I looked at the screen. Thankfully, there was a little map app that had a pin labeled 'Home'. I started walking in that direction, dreading the fact that I had to go pick up papers for a school I really didn't want to attend.
As I turned the corner, I stopped.
A little ways ahead of me, a guy was backed up against a brick wall. He was holding a bag to his chest, looking really nervous. Surrounding him were three tall women. One of them had her hand planted on the wall right next to his head, leaning in way too close and grinning at him.
I just stood there and watched them for a second.
I clicked my teeth together.
Honestly, I felt a tiny bit jealous. I mean, I definitely didn't want to be cornered, but it was a bit annoying that no one ever paid attention to me like that. I was standing right here in plain sight.
I followed the little blue line on my scroll's map for about twenty minutes until I reached a small, neat-looking house in a quiet neighborhood. The pin on the screen said I had arrived. I walked up the pathway, turned the handle, and opened the front door.
The inside of the house smelled like lavender and cooked rice. Before I could even take my shoes off, a man rushed out from the kitchen. He looked a bit older, with worry lines all over his face and an apron tied around his waist.
"Katsuya! You're finally back!" He grabbed my shoulders, checking me over frantically like I had just walked through a warzone. "Are you hurt? Did anyone bother you? Did any women try to follow you home?"
"I'm fine," I said, stepping out of my shoes and placing them neatly by the door. "No one followed me. I'm sorry for worrying you and being out late."
He let out a huge breath and pulled me into a tight hug. It was a bit uncomfortable since I wasn't used to it, but I patted his back awkwardly. He was just being a worried parent.
"I'm just glad you're safe," he sniffled, pulling away. He wiped his eyes with the corner of his apron. "Now, hurry upstairs to your room. You need to pack your suitcase tonight. You leave for Beacon first thing tomorrow morning."
I paused, my hand hovering over my jacket zipper. "Tomorrow? Why is it so rushed? Doesn't a school usually give you more notice than one day before it starts?"
My dad suddenly looked down at the floor, his face turning a guilty shade of red. He started wringing his hands together in the apron fabric. "Well... the letter actually arrived two weeks ago."
I stared at him. "Two weeks ago?"
He looked up, his eyes watering all over again. "I hid it! I'm sorry, Katsuya! I was just so terrified. My little boy, going to a school full of dangerous Grimm and aggressive huntresses? It's too much! I thought if I just ignored it, the deadline would pass and you'd have to stay home where it's safe."
I honestly agreed with him. Staying home where it was safe sounded like a great plan.
"But then," he continued, wiping another tear from his cheek, "I thought about how hard you worked on your application. I realized today that I can't keep you locked up forever just because I'm a scared father. I can't ruin your dreams. So I pulled the letter out of my desk. You can go. But you have to leave tomorrow morning to make it to orientation on time."
I didn't remember applying to any academy, but I guess the previous Katsuya did. I really didn't want to go. But if I said that now, after he just made this big emotional sacrifice to let me go, he would probably start crying harder and asking a million questions.
"Okay," I said simply. "Thank you. I'll go pack."
"There are some extra self-defense classes you can take on campus," he called out as I walked toward the stairs. "Sign up for all of them!"
"I will," I lied, walking up the carpeted steps.
I found my room at the end of the hall. It was a pretty basic room. A bed, a desk, and a closet. There was a large suitcase already sitting open on the floor. I spent the next half hour taking clothes out of the dresser and putting them in the suitcase. I made sure to fold everything into neat squares so it fit perfectly. It was calming.
While changing in the bathroom...I noticed my body...new body...I had a pale white hair and my left eye was a beautiful crimson and my right eye was a dull color of Grey close to silver but not the right shade
...how did i not check my appearance when I woke up in this world?!
When I was done, I grabbed a plain set of gray pajamas from my drawer. I changed out of my jeans and t-shirt quickly. There was a tall mirror attached to the closet door, but I didn't look at it. I never really liked looking in mirrors anyway; it felt like a waste of time when I already knew what I looked like.
I turned off the bedroom light and climbed into bed, pulling the covers all the way up to my chin. Tomorrow, I was going to a school to learn how to fight monsters. It was going to be awful and loud.
I closed my eyes, deciding to just worry about it in the morning.
I fell asleep.
———
I woke up to the sound of a bird chirping loudly outside my window. I stared at the plain white ceiling for a minute, just letting my brain catch up to the fact that I was in a new world, I was going to a scary Huntsman school today, and my bed was slightly softer than the one I had back in America.
I sat up and rubbed my face. I remembered the giant wheels from the dark void. It said my power was a 'Dimensional Self-Groupchat'.
I didn't really want to talk to anyone so early in the morning, but I figured I should at least check how it worked so I wouldn't be surprised later. I sat cross-legged on the bed and just thought about opening it.
A semi-transparent blue screen popped up in the air right in front of my face. It looked just like a normal messaging app.
I looked at the member list on the side.
[Katsuya]
[Scathach]
[Koneko]
[Esdeath]
I froze. My hands gripped the bedsheets.
I watched a lot of anime before I moved to America. I knew those names. Scathach was an immortal warrior queen. Esdeath was a terrifying ice general who tortured people. Koneko was a demon neko girl and the scariest thing alive...A LOLI.
These people could kill me easily. A heavy feeling of dread settled in my stomach.
I slowly reached out and typed a message on the glowing keyboard that appeared.
[Katsuya]: Hello. Please don't kill me.
[Esdeath]: Oh, the new guy is awake. We aren't going to kill you.We can't anyway. We are you.
[Katsuya]: You are me? Like, we are all me?
[Scathach]: Yes. We all died from that scaffolding collapsing on us. We all spun the wheels. I landed in the Fate world and my body became Scathach.
**[Esdeath]:** *I ended up in Akame ga Kill as Esdeath. I woke up in her body when she was around 19. I just played along and acted like a bad guy doing the Empire's bidding just long enough to get the Teigu I wanted—the Demon's Extract. Once I drank it and got the ice powers, I completely turned on the Empire. I spared the Emperor though, because he's just a little kid being groomed by that fat minister. I didn't want to kill a kid.*
**[Koneko]:** *I got dropped into High School DxD. Reincarnated as Koneko Toujou. It sucks.*
I processed this for a moment. Hearing what the Esdeath version of me did made a lot of sense. Playing along until you get the cool ice powers before running away was exactly what I would do. Then, something else bothered me.
[Katsuya]:Why Koneko? That is a very bad roll. She is entirely flat. If you went to DxD, why couldn't you be Grayfia? Or Akeno? At least the other two of us got lucky. Esdeath and Scathach have amazing figures.
The chat went silent for a few seconds.
[Koneko]: HEY! I AM YOU! You are insulting yourself! I'm still growing, you jerk! Do you know how annoying it is to be this short?!
I ignored the angry message. I had a more important question. Since I was talking to myself, I didn't need to be polite.
[Katsuya]: What is it like masturbating as a female? Is it better?
The chat went dead silent again. It stayed quiet for almost a whole minute.
[Scathach]:...I miss having a penis.
[Esdeath]: God, yes. It's just not the same. It takes too much effort now. I miss my penis so much. I want it back.
**[Koneko]:** *It's awful. Everything feels wrong. I miss it too.*
I read their messages, and a deep, heavy feeling of melancholy washed over me. My poor other selves. Trapped in terrifying worlds, fighting wars, and they didn't even have their original equipment anymore. That was incredibly depressing.
[Katsuya]: I am very sorry for your loss. I will cherish mine for all of us.
[Esdeath]: Wait. You still have your male body?
[Scathach]: You didn't get gender-swapped?
[Katsuya]: No. I am male. But my body did change a bit. When I looked in the bathroom mirror last night, I saw my hair is messy white now, and I have two different eye colors. My right eye is gray and my left is red. Also, I am in the world of RWBY. I think you already know my power is this chat for us. Also, I read the news, and society here is gender-swapped. Women do the fighting. Men stay home. I really hope it's just the society that is flipped and not an actual genderswap for the people. I don't know how a male Yang would be, but it sounds scary.
[Koneko] The groupchat isn't your power. We all have the groupchat automatically to talk to each other.
[Scathach]: She's right. The chat is a shared system feature. You must have rolled a specific power on the second wheel.
Suddenly, the screen glitched, and a loud, mechanical voice echoed in my head, typing a message in bright gold letters.
[SYSTEM]: ERROR CORRECTED. THE DIMENSIONAL SELF-GROUPCHAT IS A PASSIVE BINDING SKILL FOR ALL HOST ANOMALIES. YOUR INDIVIDUAL CHEAT / POWER IS: ALLEN WALKER (D.GRAY-MAN)
I blinked at the golden text.
Allen Walker.
I suddenly felt really bad. I completely forgot about the other cool one-eyed, white-haired boy from anime. Kaneki just came to mind first because of the red eye. I mentally apologized to Allen Walker for forgetting him.
The chat interface seemed to vibrate slightly.
[Esdeath]:Wait. You're still a man? With white hair and heterochromia? Katsuya... turn on your camera function.
[Koneko]: Turn it on right now.
[Scathach]: Turn the camera on. I want to see.
I stared at the messages popping up on the screen. They were getting incredibly demanding. They were thirsting over me. Which meant they were thirsting over themselves.
Was that gay? Was it straight because they were in female bodies? Was it just extreme narcissism?
I didn't know. And honestly, I did not want to find out. I had a scary Huntsman academy to go to, and I didn't have the energy to deal with the intense, crazy libidos of three extremely powerful, gender-bent versions of myself.
I frantically swiped my hand through the air, closing the screen completely. The blue light vanished, leaving my room quiet again.
I refuse Selfcest!!!...without a doubt I will not crumble to the attractive body of Scathach and Esdeath