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In the beginning—
In the end, everything started with a group of magical creatures thinking they held the right to interfere with human lives, that for the greater good, they would solve the declining birthrate problem rather than letting humans resolve the problem on their own.
“So many assumptions,” Anzu muttered, “From creatures that don’t even understand the concept of romance or love in the first place beyond that man plus woman equals babies. And for some reason, the one assigned to me thought since they couldn’t, you know, give me anything to motivate me to do what they want, they thought taking away things so they could give me something to motivate me was the way to go.”
“But it should have worked!” Riri muttered, floating in the air, frowning. “You should have fallen in love by the end, but you instead, for some reason I can’t even begin to fathom, choose to lose those things you love so much!”
“And you don’t even begin to fathom,” Anzu said, “Because you’re trying to replace one love with another. No, you’re not trying to force what someone loves in their lives to change, nor are you doing it naturally or organically. And as much as it hurts, I’d rather lose everything than give up on my morals regarding being forced to fall in love with someone.”
“So if it happened naturally or organically…”
“Don’t!” Anzu lifted a finger. “Letting it happen naturally or organically means not interfering at all.” She took a deep breath. “And what does the declining birthrate have to do with you, wizard, huh?”
“What does it have to do with us?” Riri floated in the air, suddenly grinning ear to ear. “Why, a lot of the elders wished there was a solution to the declining birthrate, so we decided…”
“Stop!” Anzu held up her hand. “Were to even begin with how wrong that is? Like, to answer the wish of the older generation, you wizards are willing to torture our younger generation the same as the older generation does? Why do they take priority over us?”
“Well…”
“And let me get this straight?” Anzu said. “This is the direct result of you wizard answering wishes?”
“Well, yes, so…”
“So you decide to go and answer the wishes of the older generation by taking away the wishes of the younger generation? In other words, you wizard aren’t doing your job, are you? Honestly?” Anzu took a deep breath, folding her arms. “You wizard are no different from Tsukasa’s stalker.”
“What? No. How?”
“Let’s see,” Anzu said. “You don’t care about how the other person feels? Is it all one-sided?”
“That’s not fair!”
“Oh, it’s completely fair,” Anzu said. “Nor are you doing your job, no matter how much you dress it up with pretty words. So, how are you going to make this up to me?”
“If you’re asking me to give back Momohiki, video games, and chocolate—in this world, I can’t.”
“Hmm. Yes, but there still must be a way for you to make things up to me.”
“Well, perhaps…”
“Perhaps what?”
“Nothing,” Riri said.
Anzu frowned, not knowing the ending was now a beginning, as she headed to bed, still irritated at the interference of wizards in her life.
...
In the end, the end was a beginning.
When Anzu woke up the next morning, her red hair disarrayed as ever, she didn't realize as much. In the back of her head, a fluttering began in the back of her head as the new beginning, the new reality, began setting in.
—late—
Her mind registered running late for school, despite the memory of having graduated, but then—
Reaching out, her eyes blinked, taking in the school uniform, a middle school uniform.
“Huh?” Anzu thought to herself, tilting her head slightly. Confused, she felt something fluffy brush against her legs, then glanced down, frowning. “Momohiki?”
The cat flitted around her legs, purring as he did so.
“Eh?” Anzu asked. “Hey, Riri?” She glanced up, catching the sight of one of her posters, her mind registering no answer from Riri while recognizing the person on the poster was All Might before striking a pose and saying, “I am here!”
Her eyes blinked, her head tilting, confusion setting in, but then her attention turned back to Momohiki, scratching his chin. “How’s my beautiful Momohiki?”
—thud—
“Riri?” Anzu said, turning to look at the door, nearly jumping out of her skin.
“Riri who?” Saki asked.
“Ah,” Anzu felt the corner of her mouth twitch. “Can’t exactly tell Saki about Riri without coming off as a nut job, can I?”
“Anyways, we need to get going!”
Anzu waved her hand. “I know. I know. I’m always late for school.”
“Not school! The exams to get into UA!”
“Ah. Yes. All Might’s alma mater,” Anzu laughed. And then panic set in, as the memories—
Anzu shoved Saki out of the room, hurrying to get dressed in her school uniform before rushing out the front door with toast in her mouth.
“Curse Riri. The fact I’ve memories of this world, and I want—I mean, how can I resist being a superhero? And this is your usual rom-com toast in the mouth after I said not to meddle, so…”
Yet, no guy bumped into her, and Riri never appeared. Anzu bit down on her toast. “Are you ready, Saki?”
“I’ve plenty of bubblegum?”
“Huh?” Anzu turned her head.
“The plan was for me to use my bubble ability and for you to smash it with your superpowers,” Saki said. “I mean, that’s the only thing I can do with my candy power, and you…”
“Oh! Yeah. Candy power,” Anzu said, trying to smile. “I don’t exactly remember any of this, right?”
“You’ve already forgotten the plan, haven’t you?”
“Yes, I think?”
“Well, I’ll make giant bubbles to float up whatever battle target they throw at us, and that way, you can take the target out, right? With your physical strength.”
“Yeah. Yeah. My physical strength.” Anzu laughed sheepishly. “Because while I can enhance the physical strength of my arms, I can’t enhance my speed. So getting into UA should be a breeze for us, right?”
“Yup.”
...
“I should have known.”
Anzu felt her jaw tighten, listening to the exam instructions, moving it back and forth.
“Of course, anything Riri obviously set up would have some kind of catch to it, right?”
“Well,” Saki said, looking just as nervous as Anzu felt. “I guess we should have known those putting us through the exam would want to prevent us from working together so they can examine our individual abilities.”
“Yeah, but what about those of us who want to form a hero team once we graduate?” Anzu thought, “But then, isn’t one of the reasons Saki and I considered forming a team to cover for our weaknesses, her lack of physical strength, and my mobility issues? At least that’s what the memories of this world say.”
“UA is a school that fosters the talents of the individual, you moron.”
Anzu turned, giving the young man who decided to chastise her a dirty look. “
Anzu turned, giving the young man who decided to chastise her a rather dirty look. “Excuse me?” Her eyebrow twitched. “ I don ’t recognize the guy, but is this another one of Riri’s romantic traps? I mean, they did chuck me into an actual setting I’d love and actually might… ” She shook her head, “ Nope. Don ’t go there mind. I’m interested in adventure and being an anti-heroine, not romancing my party members. ” Her eyes blinked. “ Wait. It is rather weird to say ant-heroine in the superhero genre, so I guess I ’m the antithesis of the typical heroine, so no romance? ”
“Ignore him,” Saki said. “We need to get changed into our gym clothes.”
“Gym clothes?” Anzu’s eyes blinked.
“Please tell me you didn’t forget them?”
“Hey. It means I can be the first on the bus to the urban setting exam site, right?” Anzu rubbed her hands together. “And it means Riri is less likely to try their usual game.” She glanced around. “Except I don’t see them, which is a bit odd.”
Anzu headed straight for the bus, taking the first seat to observe the others taking the exam at the same site as her while avoiding any romance traps.
And then—
“Be still my gamer heart!” Anzu’s eyes widened before quickly crossing her arms and making the worst thuggish face she could at the boy who just entered. “Riri actually added boys with elf ears in, but I absolutely will not fall for his beauty!”
She watched the young man cringe, reacting indifferently to her, when a blue-haired girl entered, her finger pointing right at Anzu. “Is that your Quirk?”
“Huh?”
“That funny face of yours? Is it your Quirk or a result of your Quirk?”
“Uh, no?” Anzu said as the girl turned towards elf-boy.
“Oh! And your ears?” the girl pointed. “Your Quirk?”
The elf boy hurried away while the girl with blue hair turned to interrogate the next student on the bus, only to be asked to sit down.
“What is with her? Is that, I don’t know, Riri in this world?” Anzu let out a shudder. “I hope not.”
...
—scoring points—
Once she got started, scoring points felt like something far easier said than done, and yet Anzu half expected a struggle during the exam, as she and Siri ended up planning on teaming up precisely to counter their weaknesses.
“I’m sure a few knockouts on my part can’t compare to what some of the other students are doing.” She caught sight of one of the students she quite sure thought was doing well, watching as elf boy manifested tentacles that obliterated quite a few of the machines, yet what she lacked in speed he didn’t. “I should probably think of a way to train that up, right?”
And then the big beast came out. Rumbling, huge, and loud.
Anzu—
She felt her jaw twitch. “ Of course, Riri would throw something like this, almost as if—nah. It can ’t possibly be that he threw a zero point in here to cause one of those incidents, right? ”
She turned, only to see the guy who talked smack nearly have debris fall on him and a few other students when she hurried forward, using the strength in her arms to hold up the debris only for the guy to go, “Well, smell you later.”
Which in turn left her prime for being run over by the giant robot pursuing them. She let out a major huff. “Oh, great. Just great.”
But then, tentacles rushed forward, yanking the debris away as well as pulling her away, catching her off guard, making her want to yell at elf boy, who looked right at the giant machine which continued—
Or didn ’t, as the girl with blown hair smashed the machine before turning and saying, “Are you alright?”
“Uh, yeah,” the elf boy muttered.
Anzu gave them a huge thumbs up while striking the dumbest face ever, not caring how off-putting it was. “ I likely failed, getting too few points, right? ”
The girl laughed, pointing at Anzu ’s face.
“How rude.” And also, “Can you let me down now, tentacle boy?”
“Sorry,” the elf boy muttered, looking away, catching Anzu a bit off guard.
He set her down, and Anzu pointed into the air. “Now get more points.”
“The test has ended!”
Anzu felt her mouth twitch slightly at the corner while the girl laughed, which Anzu found as rude as an elf boy ’s silence. She took a deep breath. “ Oh well, I guess. ”
The face she made only made the girl laugh even more.