Sushi! Sushi! Sushi!

Somewhere, deep in the urban sprawl of Downtown Tokyo, inside a towering building that stood as the Japanese Police Force Headquarters...

...there was a nondescript room with plain furnishing, long couches, and cleanly-kept counter tops. It was a break room like so many others situated on every block of every city in Japan. It was something Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi had become well-accustomed to seeing, and if he squinted his eyes tight enough the various different rooms would all blur together and become the same nebulous domain, re-experienced ad nauseam over and over again throughout the extent of his career.

Being as he was quite used to this, Naomasa easily engaged in his second greatest talent besides detective work: serving tea to exhausted companions.

In this particular case, the guests in question turned out to be Mt Lady, Kamui Woods, and Death Arms—all three of whom were sprawled out on the couches with multiple scrapes and bruises, looking as if they had just limped home from barely surviving a triceratops stampede.

“Eugh...” Mt Lady took Naomasa's cup of coffee while melodramatically groaning and rubbing her head with a free hand. “Is my head still spinning? Or do I hear hundreds of people squawking in the streets down below?”

“There is quite the media presence outside the front gates to the Police Force headquarters,” Naomasa calmly said. He had long-discarded his trenchcoat and stood in a simple vest and slacks as he handed cups of coffee to the other two disheveled pro-heroes. “It's to be expected—what, with all the chaos that unfolded through several city blocks of Shibuya. No doubt the tv vans will be here until sundown... perhaps beyond.”

“Damned sharks...” Death Arms grumbled, doing his awkward best to daintily hold his cup of tea with enormous hands. “They smell blood in the water and now they're all in a frenzy...”

“Let them feast,” Kamui Woods—easily the most exhausted of the trio—fought the urge to outright faint in that room. “After my dishonorably pathetic performance today, they deserve to eat as much as they can sink their rabid teeth into.”

“Shinji, don't say that,” Mt. Lady mewled, throwing him a sympathetic look. “You were on vacation when you bravely answered the call of duty~”

“Some of us were even retired,” Death Arms muttered, sipping more tea.

Mt. Lady ignored him. “Surely, the reporters will understand that you meant to stop a violent villain's rampage. And the rest of us...” She sighed sadly into her own cup. “...we did our best to follow suit.”

“None of you failed to the extent that I did,” Kamui said, refusing a sip for the time being. He gazed a thousand miles straight ahead, gripping his knees with angry fingers. “I was completely at the mercy of those vixens' quirk. My mind and body were seized by... b-by abject witchcraft! With my strength and quirk completely compromised, I was as much a danger to the public as those robbers were!”

“Actually, from the looks of it, you barely maintained control of your quirk during the duration of your 'episode,'” Naomasa declared. “If those three women had desired for you to add further mayhem to their rampage, they were quite bad at the execution. And—while on the topic—I do not believe they were actual robbers in the traditional sense.”

Death Arms sniffed the tea before giving the Detective a curious glance. “You puttin' something funny in this brew, Tsukauchi?”

“You're not actually taking the sides of those criminals, are you?!?” Mt. Lady grimaced. “We're miserable enough in our defeat as it is—without you having to twist the knife and all!”

“My apologies, friends.” Detective Tsukauchi waved his hand and offered a calm smile. “Please—my very job is to contemplate, speculate, and determine. I simply mean that there appears to be more to the criminals' action than a mere jewelry heist, and everyone they confronted was just a means to their mysterious ends. I meant no disrespect to the sacrifices you've made today. In fact, I was the one who interrupted your time off and requested an intervention.” He gave a slight bow. “Which you did so—quite honorably, I might add.”

“Oh yeah...?” Death Arms huffed. “Did you determined just how damned powerful those three harpies were going to be when we were summoned?”

“I knew that they needed to be confronted by pro heroes,” Tsukauchi declared. His expression went serious briefly as he recalled: “Captain Kondo had them underestimated at every turn, and nothing about the daylight robbery made sense from the start. They went above and beyond to hide their multiple quirks, and every action they committed was simply an attempt at baiting both you and the Police Force—up until their very last act that preceded their disappearance.”

“Whatever the case, that was easily the most humiliating defeat I've suffered in the line of duty,” Kamui Woods muttered, rubbing his head. “Not since my first week of internship during my academy days have I been made such a fool of...”

“If they had truly intended to capitalize on the power their quirks had, I don't think the four of us would be having this conversation right now,” Tsukauchi stated. “In no way am I attempting to excuse what they did earlier in Shubaya, but it's clear that every bit of resistance they met meant very little to them.”

“Just how is it that they have multiple quirks?!?” Mt Lady exclaimed. “I thought only Nomu were capable of that!”

“This shit seems bigger than a mere robbery, alright,” Death Arms grumbled, staring intently at Tsukauchi. “Could they be working for the League of Villains? Something bigger?”

“I've thought that myself,” Naomasa said with a nod. “But it doesn't check out.” He rubbed his chin in thought as he paced through the room slightly. “The League is usually far more lethal... with even greater disregard for life. Today's villains—for all of their flashiness—did not inflict a single fatality.”

“Isn't that just a spectacular coincidence?” Mt Lady remarked. “Not that I'm complaining, of course...”

“Normally, I would think so—and I would express pure gratitude at the supposed miracle.” Naomasa stopped and pivoted to face the three. “Except that there's a pattern here that I recognized from the start—even before Captain Kondo and the majority of his forces were neutralized.”

“So you have met these three before,” Death Arms stated.

Naomasa shook his head. “Met them—no. But while working on my own cases as of late, I've... reviewed multiple reported instances potentially related to these three. Consider it a hobby—to look up on cases—both cold and otherwise—in between the personal research I am always doing on a regular basis.”

“Wow...” Mt Lady shook her head with a faded smirk. “...to not be able to switch off like that...”

“What did you discover, Detective?” Kamui asked. “If anything?”

“Not a great deal, unfortunately,” Naomasa said with a sigh. “Except that what happened today matches up with random, isolated reports of three young female suspects wearing dark body suits that obscured their features... who proceeded to cause a great deal of chaos before vanishing without a trace. After a certain degree of vandalism and collateral damaged had been incurred, the encounters ended without severe injury... however...”

“What?” Kamui asked.

Naomasa's eyes narrowed. “Each event curiously coincided with a missing person's case.”

“So, abduction, then?” Mt Lady asked. “Just like today?”

“If these mysterious cretins have been abducting people with random acts of violence...” Death Arms blinked across the room as he thought aloud: “Then how come this isn't a bigger case than it already is? Hell—why isn't it the biggest case in all of Japan?”

“Probably because most of the missing persons were ascertained long after the fact,” Naomasa said. “Very few people took notice immediately.”

“You mean these three are kidnapping mere nobodies?” Kamui Woods asked. “Couldn't criminals like this do such heinous things under the veil of secrecy?”

“For whatever reason, these suspects choose to do so in open public—for the most part,” Naomasa declared. “Maybe it's a means of drawing their targets out...?”

Kamui Woods tilted his head aside. “Just who was abducted under our watch today? I'm ashamed to say I was too encumbered by their mind-control quirk to notice.”

“Shinji Kazan, woof...” said a deep voice at the entrance of the breakroom.

Naomasa Tsukauchi turned and immediately gave a polite bow. Mt Lady and Death Arms stood up at attention while Kamui Woods struggled—wincing—to bring his bruised body upright. “Mrmmff... d-dammit...”

“Please...” Kenji Tsuragamae held his hand out. “As you were.”

The Chief of the Police Force was a tall man dressed in a black vested suit. Aside from his human features, the one truly quirky thing that stood about him was his head—which resembled the cross of a basset hound and a beagle. Despite the canine distinction, he carried himself with calm, serious poise as he stepped into the center of the room and addressed the group.

“Following Detective Tsukauchi's lead, I immediately led an investigation into the people present at the last known sighting of today's three criminals,” Kenju Tsuragamae said. “The last known position of the three women was on the north end of Shibuya Crossing, where they forced a quirk-bearer into a portal of sort... after which the four swiftly disappeared. Cameras identified the abducted individual as Shinji Kazan. There's a singular record for the individual. After the incident in downtown Shibuya, I sent special forces to his last known home address to investigate, woof. The wild chaos that took place in the streets of Tokyo today will not so easily be forgotten, and it's important that the Police Force extract some sort of information from the incident in order to prove to the public that we can stand the black eyes we've suffered, woof.”

“Chief Tsuragamae,” Kamui Woods spoke in a somber tone. “We have let you down. I let you down. For that, I am immeasurably sorry.”

“From what Detective Tsukauchi here has explained to me, you were irreversibly affected by a mind-altering quirk—but you were far from alone. Everyone named 'Shinji' within earshot of the suspects was likewise affected.” Tsuragamae folded his arms. “It would appear that this was a precisely-targeted assault, and the three individuals made off with their target: the elusive Shinji Kazan, woof.”

Naomasa spoke up. “It would appear—from both camera footage and eye witness account—that Mr. Kazan was also manifesting multiple quirks.”

“Yeah...” Death Arms nodded. “That bastard had a torso like a shell and he was splashing around while setting stuff on fire.”

“Hardened skin. Lava elementalism and water elementalism.” Tsuragamae nodded. “While multiple quirks do manifest among the human gene pool, that many instilled in one person is statistically improbable.”

“Even more improbable for four people—much less one—to be wielding multiple quirks on the same city street,” Mt Lady remarked.

“Quite so, woof.”

Mt Lady asked: “What was found at the home of this 'Shinji Kazan'?”

“Enough evidence to suggest that he may very well have been responsible for the arson that led to the fires in Yokohama today,” Tsuragamae declared. “Among other incidents, woof. Mr. Kazan essentially lived in a hole in the wall in Edogawa, socializing with no one and building for himself a little workshop of horrors in his apartment. Already, my men are parsing through collected evidence, and we've already discovered connections that Mr. Kazan had made with multiple criminal organizations—many of which we've been following on separate investigations.”

“What a creep,” Mt Lady remarked. “Almost seems like a favor was done in getting rid of this guy.”

“I would rather us not adopt that attitude, Ms. Takeyama, especially about today's suspects who brought Shibuya down to its knees, woof.”

Mt Lady winced. “I am sorry, sir.”

“You three risked your lives to assist the citizens of Tokyo—and that selflessness deserves respect,” Tsuragamae stated. “You must not fear any needless marks on your records. If there's anyone taking a fall for this, it's clearly Captain Kondo. Tsukauchi was right in assessing that today's incident required heroic intervention far earlier. Kondo's failure to request help sooner—as far as I'm concerned—directly led to the eventual abduction of Shinji Kazan. But, for the time being, it's far too early to tell if this is in any way a good thing, woof.”

The Police Force Chief turned to face Naomasa directly.

“Detective Tsukauchi. You are currently working with Gran Torino on the investigation for All-Might. Is that correct?”

“It is, sir.” Naomasa said with another bow. “I just happened to be here in Tokyo when the incident took place.”

“Let it be known that I appreciate you putting in the call to assist in matters, woof. The public will be wanting to know that justice is being dispensed with, and—for the time-being—we haven't a whole lot to give them.”

“If you're asking me to find time to investigate the three suspects today, I would gladly say yes...” Naomasa smiled helplessly. “But unfortunately I'm stretched thin enough as it is, and I really can't see myself abandoning this investigation I'm performing for All-Might.”

“And yet, it is my understanding that you have keen intuition regarding previous incidents involving these three. Is that correct?”

“For the most part, yes, sir. It is.”

“Then I simply task you with this.” Tsuragamae gestured. “Your skills are admirable, Detective—but your connections are just as enviable. It would do the Police Force a great service if you can find someone you trust who's capable of working on this case. If a person was able to track down those responsible for abducting Shinji Kazan—and the connections that Kazan and other missing persons have with their operations—then it will give the Tokyo defenders of justice something to lean on, woof. The people of this great city deserve an explanation, and I for one would be greatly put at ease to know what we are dealing with.”

“It would be my honor, sir,” Naomasa said. “Already, I know my first choice of where to go.”

“Where's that?” Death Arms asked.

Naomasa looked over. “Juzo Moashi. Ever since the passing of the late Mirai Sasaki, Sir Nighteye's Hero Office has been conducting several independent investigations, utilizing the greatest detective heroes Japan has to offer. Surely, their skills and resources will be more than enough to tackle this particular incident.”

“If you think so highly of them, then they have every bit of my confidence as well, woof.”

“In the meantime, should we be doing anything about these three?” Mt. Lady asked.

“Yes...” Kamui Woods finally found the strength to stand up, despite his aching limbs. “Just say the word, Chief, and we will patrol the streets of Tokyo for signs of these violent miscreants...”

“I would highly advise against that,” Chief Tsuragamae said with the wave of a hand. “We've already witnessed what these three are capable of doing to a large group of people, woof.” His canine eyes narrowed with icy seriousness. “Until we know more about them, we can only assume that these three women are nothing short of the most formidable demons to prowl the streets of Tokyo. Just who is to know what devious plan they may be up to now... what horrible conspiracy they could be concocting exactly as we speak... … …?”

“~A hurricane of jacarandaaaaaaas~” Sonata Dusk sang, gripping a microphone in two hands and bending over dramatically with each exhaled lyric. “~Strangling figggggggs. Hanging viiiiiiiines~”

A widescreen television shimmered brightly, silhouetting Sonata's lithe figure and flouncing ponytail at the end of a small room. Two hermanas from Disney's Encanto danced vibrantly among splashes of colorful flowers on the monitor. In the meantime, lines of text—both English and Kanji—rippled across the screen, splashing from white to gold in time with the cinematic singing. Sonata did her enthusiastic best to keep in tune:

“~Palma de cera fills the air as I climb and I push on throughhhhhh~” Sonata spun and gestured towards two other young women seated at a table booth in the room with her. “~What else can I dooooooo?~” She twirled back, faced the karaoke machine, and pumped a fist while caterwauling to the ceiling. “~Can I deliver us a river of sundewwwwww?~”

“That's it.” Adagio, her orange hair now reaching down past her shoulders, raised a half-full glass of alcohol and smirked. “...sing it like you mean it, girl.” She raised the drink to her lips when she heard an off-cadence grunt beside her.

“Mrmmff...” Aria Blaze sat slumped against the tabletop, her twin ponytails draped beside her like heavy chains. “Someone slap her. She's stuck.”

Dagi lowered the drink and squinted at her less-rosy sibling. “Keep that up, and we can use you for an anchor next time we have a mission in the Sea of Japan.”

“Meh...” Aria's eyes reflected a half-empty glass lying before her smooshed-cheeks against the table top. “They need far sadder songs on the playlist for these places.”

“Not... exactly the locals' style,” Adagio remarked. “Besides—why so sad-sacking?” She finally sipped her drink and exhaled. “Figured—out of all of us—you'd be the cheeriest. What—with you having gotten a new quirk and all.”

“Pffft. Some new quirk.” Without looking, Aria punched the bottom lid of the table. The resulting thud was barely enough to throw Sonata Dusk out of “perfectly” mouthing Lin-Manuel Miranda's songwriting, much less rattle the glassware assembled before them. “...did the table flip?”

“Erm...” Adagio squirmed in her seat. “...no?”

“See what I mean?” Aria swirled the drink and sighed melodically—a sound remarkably sad, even for her. “Mount Blankeriino. That monkey ripped us off.”

“Aria...”

“Ripped me off...”

“All quirks take time to master,” Adagio stated with a hopeful smile. “Remember my Number Two?” She reached a hand up to fluff her swiftly-grown hair. “At first, I thought I could just become a tomboy with the flick of a wrist. Turns out it was all about what was in the wrist. Then I discovered how my requested force blast beams manifested—”

“I asked for super strength...” Aria gnashed her teeth. “What's to 'master' about that?!? It's been hours since we portal-hopped from Ikeshima to Shinjuku—and the quirk's had all that time to manifest!” She took a heavy swig of the glass, fought the alcohol all the way down, and growl-belched in misery. “I should be pissing jagged holes in squat-toilets by now. Hell... urp... in about an hour or two, I'll be doing that anyway... quirk or not quirk.”

“You have to learn the trick to it, Aria.”

“You mean the 'gimmick'.”

“It's always a gimmick.” Aria rolled her eyes, ultimately smirking. “Quirks function like muscles—for all the give there's also a take.”

“You'd think they'd come with a warning or some shit,” Aria grunted.

“Well, most people in this world were born with 'em.” Dagi sipped the last of her cup. “But us?” She exhaled through clenched teeth as she examined her glass. “We and Lord Sarumaru's other agents in the field? We gotta adapt the hard way.”

“What a bullshit arrangement,” Aria growled. “Goddess on a sybian...”

“I'm pretty sure we're the only human beings on this entire planet who inherit quirks~” Adagio said. “And we're ungodly powerful for it, too. You were there earlier, Ari~” She gestured vaguely out the door to the karaoke booth with a smirk. “Out in Shibuya—we practically owned Tokyo for a good half-an-hour! The Police Force... Shinji Kazan... three pro heroes all at once...!!” She shook her mid-length head of hair. “None of them could stop us! Now... that's just with having five quirks between the three of us! Imagine how unstoppable we'll be once you figure out how to work your Number Two as well!”

“I'm telling you...” Aria glared daggers up at her eldest sibling. “That freaky dimension-hopping lemur pulled a fast one on us.”

“Wouldn't that disrupt the pattern of things?” Adagio squinted back. “He's not let us down before... and we've performed honorably for him.” She reached towards the center of the table and poured another glass from their shared bottle. “If things were different, we'd be sharing Shinji Kazan's fate right about now.”

“Yeah—but what if that's the fate of everyone who works with the dude?”

“Pffft...” Adagio smirked as she swirled a fresh glass of alcohol. “You'd think I'd trap us three in a hole that obvious?”

“The dude's gifted us with fucking monkey paws for Christ's sake!!!” Aria gripped the totem in question with a heavy fist. “That we wear like nooses around our fucking necks!”

“Careful, Ari...” Adagio waved a finger. “Now would be a bad time for your quirk to manifest.”

“Believe-you-me.” Aria's nostrils flared. “I'd kill to shatter the damned thing.”

Adagio leaned back and crossed her legs while swirling her glass. “Maybe...” She sighed. “...filling you up with sake and bourbon was a bad idea.”

“Yeah, well...” Ari slumped against the tabletop once more, glaring at the monitor in front of which Sonata was dancing. “...maybe coming to this stinkin' universe was a bad idea.”

“~I wanna feel the shiver of something newwwwwww~” Sonata Dusk danced and swayed her free hand like a sailor senshi. “~I'm so sick of pretty, I want something trueeee. Don't youuuuuu~”

“Hmmmfff...” Adagio couldn't help but bear a half-drunk smile as she gazed at Sonata. “Isn't it fantastic, though?”

“What?” Ari droned. “The stink?”

“Her... singing...” Adagio waved a lazy hand across the karaoke booth. “Any of us singing—for that matter. We're actually not half-bad, y'know. Since we've arrived from that previous dimension that imprisoned us.”

“Meh.” Aria stifled a yawn. “I haven't noticed.”

“Don't lie.”

“I'm not being dishonest. I just don't give a shit.”

Adagio squinted at her. “You don't think it's remarkable that—in crossing the threshhold from one parallel universe to another—we've lost the dissonance and cacophony that's plagued our vocal chords ever since that disastrous battle of the bands?”

“Yeah, well, we still can't control anyone with our voices,” Aria said. A beat—and her eyes rolled. “I mean, you can, but—”

“It's not the same,” Dagi grunted.

“Fuck no, it ain't.” Aria managed the slightest hint of a smirk, and a venomous one at that. “I always thought it was pretty damn cheeky that your first choice for a superpower from Sarumaru was the ability to put spells on others by talking to them.”

“You must have found the annoying side effects of the quirk to be quite hilarious as well.”

“Damn straight.” Ari leaned back, cracking her neck and back. “Hrmmmff... … ...I'd be lying if I didn't say it was just desserts.”

“In what fashion...?”

“You were always the most gung-ho about coming to this freaky place,” Aria Blaze said. “Seems natural that you'd fight so hard to get something back that you lost.”

“Does that truly make me so selfish? My Number One doesn't hold a candle to the original sorcery we carried over from Equestria into our last domain.” Adagio stared into her drink, sad-faced. “I suppose I was quite hell-bent on believing that we could climb back up.”

“Up where?”

“To a position of power comparable to what we once had. In truth—I still believe it. But... you two made so many sacrifices in following me here.” Adagio took another sip and exhaled. “Is it so strange that I opted to make myself a guinea pig?” She tongued the inside of her mouth as she looked past Sonata's song-and-dance number. “It's been rather useful in our missions, most certainly—but it is far from feeling even remotely like we once have. Sure... maybe you and Aria have a right to be jealous, but I assure you it's more of a weight than an asset.”

Aria Blaze's eyes fell. She squirmed a bit where she sat. “Y'know... before we got the van, I barely drove anything.”

“Even in all our years?”

“Just never cared for it. Y'know. But then—once we got here—it became clear to me that we needed to get around super easy. So that's why I said 'sure, why the fuck not' to getting some transportation quirk,” Ari explained. “I figured Sarumaru had plenty of useful shit to pull from under his many-many-many sleeves. But... beyond that? I didn't give it much thought.”

Adagio smiled. “Your Number One is quite the impressive one—”

“Yeah, but it's not flashy.”

The eldest sister scoffed: “You honestly think that driving a muscle car sideways across the building faces of downtown Shibuya isn't 'flashy?'”

“Where are the explosions?!?” Aria barked. “The sense of unbridled power??”

Adagio gestured. “Earlier with the semi-truck—”

Aria raised both clenched fists for emphasis. “I want complete control! On my lonesome! Not shit that... like... involves using a car or a moped as proxy!” She slumped sideways, blowing a dangling ponytail out from her face. “Only when things started getting... kinda cool did I start actually thinking about these super-powers that we're being loaned.” She folded her arms. “I may not be a huge fan of this whole operation—and that's no big secret—but I do wanna make the best of it.”

Adagio swirled a glass in her hand. “So...” She gave Aria a small, sideways smile. “You're starting to find things here to be 'kinda cool?'”

“Mmmmm... don't get a big head about it,” Aria grumbled. “I'd have rather chosen to hang out in another country within this dimension. Like America—”

“That place is a chaotic, violent dystopian Hellhole—”

“Yeah. But it's more my style.”

“So...?” Adagio shrugged. “Eventually we'll make this place more your style.”

“That's an upward fucking climb if I ever heard one.”

“You just have to have patience—”

“With Sarumaru?”

“For the time-being,” Adagio said with a nod.

Aria turned to blink at her.

“What?” Adagio smiled. “You really think we'll be working with him forever?”

“He always prattles on and on about forging 'order.'” Aria blew sideways. “That unnerves me. And the more we work for him—the deeper we sink into his web of plots.”

“Supervillains always go in over their heads,” Adagio said.

“What does that say about us?”

“We've got three heads,” Adagio said, resting a hand on Aria's shoulder. “Heh... I'm certain we can manage.”

Aria squirmed a bit more. “You... really don't enjoy your Number One quirk, do you?”

“You're not the only one who chose to go for something practical in the second choice,” Adagio said.

“Yeah... but your blast beams are so...” Aria grimaced. “Lame.”

“Uh huh...”

“When you really pour in the juice, it lasts barely a minute, and you transform into something like a ginger Ellen Degeneres.”

Adagio shrugged. “It's just the right kind of quirk we need to fill in the gaps between each other's talents. And the moment you master your super strength, you and I will complement each other nicely. Then when it's time for our third go-around, we'll add even more to the arsenal!”

“Yeah—but how deep will that put us in Sarumaru's pocket?”

“Doesn't matter.” Adagio smirked. “We'll have gone further up the ladder than any of his previous servants—even the ones who didn't turn on him. He won't ever want to take us out of his pocket.”

“Surely he'll predict us wanting to make a move on him,” Aria said.

“Not if we play our cards right.” Adagio freed a finger from gripping her glass to point. “If we become indistinguishable from the fine cloak he clothes himself with, he won't see the twist of the knife coming.”

“Then what...?”

“Once we take Sarumaru's place, all we have to answer to is his so-called 'Master.'”

“You really think he could give us three something close to what we had before?” Aria asked. “The ability to control and feed off of so many people?”

“Hey...” Adagio shrugged. “If what he's after is complete harmony over the whole of Japan—then who better to manifest that than sirens who can lull the entire archipelago with a song?”

Aria sighed. She gripped her head and leaned over in the booth.

Adagio blinked. “What's wrong?”

“How in the Hell...” Aria Blaze clenched her teeth, as if suffering a migraine. “...do you keep your eyes on such a big fukkin' picture all of the time...?”

“Mmmm...” Adagio sipped from her glass. Swallowed. Spoke. “Sometimes—most of the times—it involves painting it.”

“Guhhhh... sure... sure... what-the-fuck-ever...” Aria hugged herself, staring lethargically across the small room as the music persisted. “... … … you suppose my new quirk will manifest in the morning?”

“Or tomorrow afternoon. Or the night after. Or the week after.” Adagio patted Aria's shoulder again. “We're playing the long game, Ari. I know it's not your cup of tea, but that's fine. Leave it to me—and one way or another we'll figure out the gimmick that makes your new quirk tick. I have full faith that you'll be kicking a great deal of posterior quite soon. And you can bet your teats it will be 'flashy' when you do.”

“Heh...” Aria finally reached out for a drink. “'Posterior.'”

“Finally gained your thirst?”

“If only to forget half the shiet you just rambled on about.” Aria swigged from her glass and exhaled. “Mmmm...” She slapped a fist over her chest and belched. “...I hope my pubic hair doesn't grow in order for me to punch a hole in the wall or some crap.”

“That would require a massive wardrobe change.”

“Or you could coerce everyone named 'Kevin' to close their eyes.”

“Pffft. Why 'Kevin?'”

“You fukkin' kidding? It's always a 'Kevin.'”

“In Japan??”

“Why the Fuck not. Cross the goddamn Pacific Ocean to sniff some supervillainess pubes.”

“Pffft—and what if they're Australian?”

“Nah—they got emus for that.”

“Heheheh... s'trewth.”

“Whewwwwww!” Sonata Dusk slumped—sweating and smiling—into the booth beside them. “Hah! I was totally on tune that wholllle time!” She winked and held the microphone out to Adagio. “Beat that?”

“Why must I?” Adagio droned. “When you're on such a role?”

“Okie Dokie Sushi Rollie!” Sonata hopped back up and fingered the karaoke machine's console. “Nobody's stopping the melody express!”

“Just whatever you do...” Aria desperately waved. “Don't select—”

“~We don't talk about Bruno-no no no...~”

“God fuckkin' dammit!” Aria facepalmed, slumping into her booth.

“Eh...” Adagio poured another glass. “Let her have her fun.

“~We don't talk about Bruno~” Sonata paused, struck a pose, and jerked her head towards the other two with clenched teeth. “~BUT—~”

Late at night, along the fringes of Kabukicho, and deep within six narrow side streets that formed a shantytown arrangement of tightly-tightly-packed two-story buildings, a cluster of ridiculously tiny bars resided, and within one such cramped interior there were three sirens with long hair who sat shoulder to shoulder with merry little drinks raised in their girly hands.

“Mmmmm...~!” Sonata Dusk finished taking a heavy swig of sake. She slapped the glass down onto the bar counter and held two fingers out at a meager length. “Ten and a half centimeters!”

“Get out of town...” Aria Blaze droned, shaking her head.

“What—you think he was bigger?”

“When you got him talking about what he did to Darius III, chhhtyeahhhhhh...” Aria Blaze nodded enthusiastically. “Fucker really did like having his ego stroked.”

“Hrmmmfff...” Sonata pouted, arms crossed. “Even if there wasn't much of it to stroke.”

“Case in point...” Adagio smirked while swirling her glass. “Alexander wasn't quite as 'Great' as his title suggested.”

“He could still give ol' Genghis a run for the money~” Sonata declared.

“Pfffft. Fucckin' wild...” Aria chuckled. “Considering how many fuck-babies that crazy-brains asshole made.”

“You'd think it would fall off!” Sonata exclaimed.

“Who says it didn't?”

“Heeheehee!”

“Well, I suppose he did wield it decently enough,” Adagio suggested.

Sonata grimaced at her. “A pecker that tiny?”

Adagio pointed with a finger. “The bigger they are—the harder they fall.”

“Well, yeah...” Sonata Dusk leisurely looked up at a dusty widescreen tv propped crookedly against a wall full of retro movie posters. “Point well made. Or perhaps un-made.” She pepped up at the sight of muted news footage showing three lycra-clad vixens wreaking havoc in the heart of Shibuya. “Hey look! Memories!”

“Besides...” Adagio went on, taking another sip. “...it was Genghis' jewels that mattered more than his scepter.”

“Right...” Aria yawned. “Or else where would half the population of modern-day Mongolia be today?”

“More like one percent,” Adagio claimed. “He wasn't that loaded in the chamber.”

Sonata Dusk her nose—and tongue—into the conversation. “Oh go soak your fat head.”

“It's been a long time, Sonata.”

“I said! Your head! Soak it!”

“What about DB Cooper?” Aria Blaze asked.

Sonata Dusk frowned. “What about him???”

Aria squinted. “Nobody else here remembers DB Cooper's cock?”

“Why should we?! It was a cold night in Oregon when we found his body.”

“I always thought they'd shrink after suffering frostbite. Ah well.” Aria Blaze took a sip. “Damn if that wasn't a good Christmas shopping spree after snatching that briefcase...~”

“I have to say...” A young adult barkeep smirked from across the counter. He was dressed in white-and-tan casual wear and had a towel draped over his shoulder while he cleaned glasses beside an arrangement of vodka and sake bottles. “...most patrons take a while to get tipsy enough to talk about strange things.” He threw forth a good-natured chuckle. “But you three show up, firing on all cylinders!”

“That's us, alright,” Aria droned over her glass. “Machine gun massacre of dick jokes.”

“Heeheehee!” Sonata Dusk hugged herself and kicked her feet against the bar while giggling.

“Now...” Adagio raised her glass. “Nobunaga...” Her eyes twinkled a bit. “There was a dude who could get it on.”

“Pffffft. Yeah.” Aria rolled her eyes. “Cuz his married wife was barren.”

“Ain't that the truth?” Sonata swirled her drink. “The dumber the marriage—the bigger the harem you can slip into on the side.”

“You don't suppose Hideyoshi would ever have forgiven us for that whole mix-up with Mitsuhide?”

“Shhhhh!!” Adagio leaned in, eyeing the bartender warily. “We don't talk about that on this archipelago!”

“Shit. My bad.”

“Heh...” The bartender shifted awkwardly. “You three talk like you've lived for hundreds of years.”

“Bro...” Aria arched an eyebrow. “We've fucked for thousands of years!”

“So to speak...” Adagio toyed with her growing hair.

“Living is temporary,” Aria mused. “Fucking is forever~”

“Woohooo!” Sonata Dusk pumped a fist. “Praise the Fates for genetically incompatible fish wombs! Bruhhhh!!!” She belched, inadvertently conjuring a Koopa Paratroopa from Super Mario Brothers 3.

“Geeeeeuhh—!” Aria Blaze leapt up and clapped both hands over the entity, reducing it to a dark blue mist.

The bartender did a double-take, clearly missing the phenomenon by a hair. “What was that? A mosquito?”

“More like a horsefly.” Adagio—bearing a tipsy smile—leaned over the counter. “What if I was to tell you, dear sir, that the three of us were personally responsible for the first shots fired at Lexington, Massachusetts?”

“Is that...” The bartender made a face. “...a yankee thing?”

“Heheheh—yes. It is indeed quite the American thing.”

“I'm afraid I'm not too terribly caught up on American history.”

“That's okay.” Aria Blaze shrugged. “The British reserves sure as fuck got caught up after someone accidentally tripped on the mayor's loaded musket on her way to the outhouse at sunrise.”

“Hey!” Sonata Dusk frowned. “Just that one time!!!”

Adagio laughed.

“Mmmmhmmm...” Aria Blaze smirked into her drink. “Tomahawk missiles? Aircraft carriers? Nuclear submarines? None of those hold a candle to a trio of immortal snatches that can't ever get knocked up.”

“For what good it's done us...” Sonata rolled her eyes.

“Hey...” Adagio Dazzle gestured. “I—for one—enjoyed our extended stay with the Romanovs~”

“Yeah.” Sonata blew some bangs out from her forehead. “Then Vlad had to go and ruin things.”

“It's always a 'Vladimir,'” Aria groaned.

“His bald head felt good to straddle, at least~” Sonata said.

“Pffffft!” Aria Blaze spat out half of her last sip and face-planted on the bar counter, pounding it with her fists. “Fuckkkkkkk! I forgot he was into that shit!”

“How could you, girl?!?”

“Hahahahaha!”

“I dunno about you two girls, but I'm rather glad that we switched entirely to the song-spells instead of the sex-spells,” Adagio said. “The world just got... considerably grosser over time.”

“You mean 'unsexier,'” Sonata said.

“Yeah, well...” Aria Blaze sat up, finishing her drink. “World Wars will do that to the global libido.”

“That and the Internet.”

“Right. But one made it slightly harder to live in Japan than the other.”

“Well said~”

“Whew...” The barkeep shook his head while cleaning more glasses. “I'm going to have an interesting journal entry tonight.”

“Don't ever jot your thoughts down,” Aria said. “Just keep your feelings held deeply inside your head until you feel like screaming.”

“Yeah!” Sonata bounced in her seat. “Like the rest of us!”

“Heheheh...” The bartender chuckled, blushing slightly. “You're very cute when you bounce!”

“Thankies!” Sonata suddenly blinked. “Wait. What.”

“Erhm...” Adagio Dazzle leaned forward. “Where are we at with the tab, friend?”

“Oh! Um...” The bartender did some math, examined the empty drinks, then scribbled onto a sheet of paper that he slid over to Adagio.

While he returned to his business, Adagio studied the figures while Aria and Sonata leaned over her shoulders.

“Whoah... uh...” Sonata Dusk blinked. “Do we even have that much yen?”

“Of course we do,” Adagio calmly replied, her brow nevertheless furrowed. “We can last a century in this place. That's not the point...”

“Talk about over-charge,” Aria Blaze grumbled. “Toldja we shoulda gone over to Omoide Yokocho.”

“Well, duh we're being over-charged! Doesn't matter if it's here or there!” Sonata squawked out of earshot from the bartender. “We're foreigners!”

“The fuck?” Aria balked at her. “No we're not! We fuckkin' live here!”

“No, I mean we're foreigners!” Aria used her fingers to frame her own face. “Like—get it?”

Aria blinked. “You mean we're light pink, light blue, and yellow?”

“Who's yellow?” Adagio asked.

“You are, bitch!”

Adagio looked down at her own arms and upper shoulders. “Since when...?”

“Point is...” Sonata gestured. “We don't blend in with the Japanese.”

“For fuck's sake—people in this world have shark teeth and flaming dicks growing out of their faces,” Aria droned. “Even the Japanese don't look Japanese.”

“Yeah, well—they can tell! And they overcharge foreigners!” Sonata said, arms crossed. “I learned it from Abroad in Japan.”

“What the fuck is Abroad in Japan?”

“He's a Youtuber.”

“You're Mom's a Youtuber. Why the fuck should I care?”

“Cuz he totally gives an informative perspective on a foreigner living in Japan and what other foreigners can expect! And the sad truth is that most bar establishments charge more if you don't look like you're from Japan!”

“Is that this dude's quirk? To be full of shit?”

“He's not full of shit! He's a famous Youtuber!”

“Do you even hear yourself right now?!?”

“Ah-ahem...” Adagio smiled across the bar counter. “Excuse me, sir...”

“Oh here we go...” Aria Blaze face-palmed.

“How are we doing??” The bartender shuffled over, smiling. “Ready to pay your tab?”

“Oh! Absolutely~” Adagio smiled as her younger familiars looked on. “I take it you've never been to the States?”

“Hmmm? Oh! America? No—but... uhhhh... I'm a big fan of their culture!” He smiled, giving a “victory” symbol. “Kobe Bryant!!”

“And do forgive me.” Adagio's eyelshes fluttered.” I don't believe I got your name,” she said while Sonata and Aria looked knowingly at each other.

“It's Tanaka.” He gave a slight bow. “Tanaka Sota.”

Adagio winked. she spoke in English, her voice echoing with an ethereal energy.

A beam of rose light transferred from Adagio's eyes to the bartender's. The man named Sota jittered slightly in place, blinked, then robotically reached for the bill. “My apologies, madame. I seem to have done my math wrong. How foolish of me.”

“Whoopsie Poopsies!” Sonata exclaimed, stifling a giggle.

After a brief moment, the bartender handed the girls an edited tab. The three looked at it again.

“Only two thousand yen less?!?” Aria wheeze.

Sonata frowned at her. “I didn't say they overcharged by much!”

“Man—fuck you and Youtube with a ten inch bamboo stick.”

“That's Pornhub, fuzzhead!”

“Did you just call me fuzzhead—?”

Adagio coughed before patting Aria's shoulder.

“Hmmm? What?” A blink. “Oh, right.” She reached into her pocket and produced several notes and coins. “Gotta fill in for the inexplicable mute.”

“Huh?” the bartender blinked.

“Nothing, handsome.” Aria placed the money on the counter as she stood up. “Nice eye color, by the way.”

Sonata snickered while Adagio smirked.

“Hmmmm?” The bartender looked into the shiny plastic of a menu placard, observing the slight rose glow to his eyes. “Huh... that's weird.” Another blink. “Wait... are you three...” He turned to look towards the steep stairwell leading down to the streets. “...quirk-users?”

The three had left, leaving only giggles and the echo of foot-steps in their wake.

Several hours and barhops later...

“I may not live to see our gloryyyy~”

“I may not live to see our gloryyyyyyyyy~”

“But I will gladly join the fight~!!”

“But I will gladly join the fiiiiiiiiiight~!!”

Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk sauntered down the Golden Gai—arm in arm—as they caterwauled to the neon skyscrapers of Tokyo above. Adagio Dazzle, still mute, walked slowly behind them in a relatively more sober gait. She dug her hands into her hoodie's pockets and breathed evenly, watching her two siblings with a lingering smirk.

“And when our children telllll our storyyyyyyyy~” Sonata Dusk led.

“And when our children tell our storyyyyyyyyyyyyyy~” Aria Blaze followed.

“They'll tell the storyyyyy of toniiiiiiight~!!”

“They'll telllllllllll the story of toniiiiiiiiiight~~!!”

Both women leaned into each other, rosy-cheeked and sweat!smiling up a liquid storm.

“Let's have anotherrrrrr round toniiiiiiiight! Let's have another round tonighhhhhht~~!!!” they sang in unison. At one point, their ankles got caught with each other, and the two nearly tripped—forcing Aria to side-belch an errant “FUCK!” before throwing her throat back into hormal.

Adagio giggled breathily.

“Raise a glass to freeeeeeedommmmmm~!” Sonata Dusk sang, raising her hand towards the streetlamps and stars. “Something they can neverrrrrrrr take awayyyyyyyyyy~~!”

“Mmmmm—No matterrrrrrrrr what they tell youuuuuuuu~~” Aria Blaze barely held Sonata up as she teetered in mid-uvulation. “Raise a glass to the four of ussssssss~~!!!

“Wait wait wait...” Sonata Dusk skidded to a stop on drunken feet. “Four?!?” She squinted dizzily at Aria. “Since when—HIC!—were there FOUR of us!”

“Bitch, there's always been four of us!!”

“Ohhhhhhh yeahhhhhh?”

“Yeah!” Aria counted her fingers. “You! Me! Dagi's left tit! And Dagi's right tit!”

“Girl, you actually see them?!?”

“Shit—I am drunk, after all!”

“Pfffft-heeheehee!” Sonata Dusk swung on Aria's body like a tetherball circling a pole. “Anotherrrr! Another barrrrr!”

“Nuh uh!” Aria yanked Sonata back upright and trudged towards the end of the street with her. “You're summoning us a fart-door home!”

“HIC! How come?! The night's still young!”

“Adagio said it's time to go to bed.”

“She didn't say fluff!” Sonata frowned. “She's still mute from talking down the tab earlier!”

“She hand-signed it!”

“JSL, ASL, or BSL?”

“Fish fingers! Fish sticks! Whatever—fuck you. We're taking you to bed.”

“Hahahaha!” Sonata Dusk belched a blue tanuki onto the street which Sonata quickly stamped to misty vapors with her boot. “Fuck me! Take me to bed! Hic! Not necessarily in that order!”

“You gotta make a door first.”

“Are we gonna play some Fortnite still?”

“Fuck off about Fortnite! Make us a portal, bitch!”

“Nuh uh! I wanna do trios!”

“Fine. Fine. The moment we get home, we'll drop in.”

“Do I get to choose—”

“Rocky Reels.”

“Whaaaaaaaaaat—?!? How'd you guess?”

“Bitch, it's always Rocky Reels.”

“Heeheehee! Vamos a morir!”

“Make. Portal. Casita. Órale.”

“Si si si...” Sonata Dusk leaned against the maintenance door of a random building on the edge of the Shinjuku shantytown. “Mmmmmm...” As she concentrated gray-glowing energy into the frame, she chuckled limply aside. “Sus si sus si sus si! See? Get it?” A crooked grin. “Spanish Among Us! HIC!”

“Fuck me, you're so drunk.”

“I'm not as fuck as you drunk I am.”

“Hahaha—Christ. DOOR, girl!!”

“I'm dooriiiiiiiiiing!”

“I swear—if I spontaneously get my quirk, I'm tossing you all the way to Shikoku on my own.”

“Better have a good aim!”

Adagio Dazzle hung back at a distance. She gazed at the two, entangled in each other's arms, full of mirth and whimsy. The eldest siren hugged herself, gnawing on her smiling lips as she drank in the moment, allowing it to fill her more than any alcohol could.

“So, what's the sound of one hand clapping?”

“... … …?” Adagio turned, blinking dizzily towards her side.

The first thing she saw was the color green—neon and vibrant, even under Shinjuku night. A young man stood in a vibrant hoodie, his hair frosted with the same emerald to match. His eyes were a rounder almond than she expected, but the warmth of the stranger's smirk was all-encompassing.

“Heh... doesn't really matter, does it?” He winked, and Adagio saw a flicker of that same green vibrancy. “With three sets of arms, you can always count on applause.”

Adagio could only blink and stare at him. Her throat tightened, shadowed and useless.

“But hey...” He shrugged, that same smile receding—along with him—back into the shadows. “...with so many hands at your disposal, you're bound to catch more than the cat fetches tongues.” There was a twirl of sneakers, and he wandered off in the opposite direction, as relevant as a passing dream. “May luck be with you, all the same~”

Lost in night, Dagi shifted where she stood. She felt a cold metal prick in her hand, and she realized that she was clutching her monkey paw totem. The woman's eyes fluttered lazily—contemplatively—along the neon signs as they flickered out one by one, and even the darkest and seediest place of Tokyo faded before her.

Another eclipse. Another sliver of light forever being chased, but its shimmer always a grasp further.

She pursed her lips, as if to beckon the edge of night with a kiss—

“Hey! Dagimon!!”

“???” Adagio spun.

Aria Blaze stood before a glowing gray door that opened to a mountain drenched in starlight with a lone cabin awaiting them. She was bridal carrying a dead-asleep Sonata whose snores threatened to summon blue misted kami at every wave.

“Hop on through!” Aria hissed. “Cuz she ain't makin' a new portal for hours!” A tired smirk. “You really wanna try stowing away on the bullet train at fuck-o'clock'-a.m?”

Adagio shook her head briskly, skipping into action.

In a singular, shared jump—the three sirens hopped through the exit and returned home, with the world swallowing itself up behind them.