Chapter Text
Everyone has a secret self they don’t show to other people. Not to friends, not to lovers, not even to family. They hide who they are and what they want behind lies and painted smiles.
And thus the world maintains its thin veneer of peace.
. . .
Growing up, you thought adult life would be like the dream you never thought was possible. The idea of having money you can spend on whatever you want, no parents to nag you, no one to tell you what you can or cannot do, was addicting.
You had no idea just how bad it was to live alone. Now working a boring 9 to 5 job for a company you could care less about, earning just enough to pay all your bills and taxes (and merch), don’t forget the oh-so little time to do anything!
. . .
Your life sucked.
The few escapes you had from reality was your favorite visual novel, To Eat A God, with such amazing and beautiful characters and plot. It’s set your standards so high for VN games. Of course, you had to lower them in order to enjoy any others. Oh, don’t forget your favorite Japanese manga, Spy x Family. You were constantly reminded of it, as your bank account was depleting every time you purchased a new book. In your sole defense, buying the physical copies keeps you from being glued to a screen all day! It’s worth it.
Exhausted after the longest, most brutal shift of your life, you collapse at your apartment door. Despite all of the years and hours you’ve spent at your company, you were laid off right at the end of your shift due to budget cuts.
What the HELL?! Not even a warning? It was just an instant ‘We need more money despite having billions already. Fuck you!’.
How will you pay your bills this month with no job? Will you even be able to find a new one? As much as you’d hate to admit it, your job wasn’t the worst. It paid well, and it had great benefits.
Maybe that’s why they ‘had’ to lay off people. What greedy bastards corporations can be.
Hey, at least you can revisit your visual novel tomorrow morning after job hunting! You have some time to continue reading the latest Spy x Family manga! At least there’s a bright side to being unemployed. Too tired to get up, you close your eyes right then and there at the door, thinking about your hyperfixations.
Drifting into a deep slumber.
Deeper,
And deeper,
And deeper…
………………………………………
You wake up, and the first thing you notice is that you’re no longer in front of your apartment. Did you wake up later, half asleep, and put yourself to bed? But with your vision clearing up, you realize this isn’t your room at all. This is one of the most depressing rooms you’ve ever seen. All there is to fill up the space and dreary walls is your bed, a simple wooden dresser, and yourself.
You get up in confusion. Were you kidnapped? You check your hands. No, you would be chained to the bed, or tied up, or have no windows. If there were any, they’d have them boarded up. Seems like nothing’s limiting you from moving. If not, then what?
Where do you explore first?
[ALL OPTIONS MUST BE EXPLORED TO MOVE ON]
>>Open the main door
>>Search the bathroom
>>Search through the drawer
>>Look outside the window
>>Open the main door
The main door opened freely, and you exit to see you were in an apartment. Not kidnapped. Good to know. It looks like a typical cheap complex, but way too quiet. No one in sight, either. You decide to save exploring outside the room for later.
>>Search the bathroom
You enter the tiny bathroom across from your bed, and the first thing you notice is your reflection. You look… different. Your jawline is softer, making you look younger and… feminine? You might be going crazy. Your hair looks drier than usual, and your body’s much slimmer and stronger. This doesn’t happen overnight. If you relax enough, you notice your eyes change. As if you’ve been through hell and back, they tell who you are. A tired, traumatized soul.
Huh?
. . . . .
You stop asking questions, choosing to leave the bathroom. Let’s look in other places to find more clarity.
>>Search through the drawer
You choose to look through the drawers. You’re met with dozens of outfits. Suits, casual shirts and jeans, elegant blouses, dress pants and two dresses. You rummage through the clothes, wondering if there was anything hidden between them or in the drawer itself.
No luck. You keep exploring.
>>Look outside the window
Heading towards the window, you find the street filled to the brim with people, ordinary folks walking in all sorts of clothing. Men in suits and hats, clearly heading for work. Women dressed in fashion that reminds you of the clothes worn in the mid to late 1900s.
And then you notice, some people are awfully taller than the rest. Sure, tall people exist, but you’ve never seen so many people well over six feet in one place. Some even dressed differently, too. While most wore casual attire, the few that didn’t wore completely foreign outfits, with flowy gowns, their faces almost entirely hidden by a mask. Some even wore elegant masks, which, when you looked closer, reminded you of a certain game…
. . .
Hah. Funny. You keep looking around. The store names around you remind you of German, and despite not knowing any, you do have a gist of how it looks and sounds like. Thanks to all that binge reading and watching, of course.
Wait… German? You turn your head to look further down the streets, and with a poster for a café just barely in sight, you see in bold letters;
“Best coffee in all of Ostania!”
………….
There’s no denying it now. A strong body, a traumatized soul, a secluded building, not to mention the change of fashion and the mention of Ostania.
You’re no longer on your Earth.
You’ve been transported into the universe where Spy x Family takes place in. From the lack of items and the mostly deserted building your room is in, you must be in the role of Loid Forger, a.k.a the Spy. You definitely kept your true features though, you just became more fit. And quite gender neutral. Is that really it? It feels as if something’s missing. The masks, the taller than average people and their odd but faintly familiar outfits…
You had to see this for yourself.
Getting dressed into a fancier outfit, you walk out the door of your supposed apartment. Not knowing your way around this city, you follow where your legs feel like going. It seems this body has excellent muscle memory, as it takes you down onto a random bench, waiting for a train to arrive. Getting a newspaper from a nearby stand, you sit there and wait patiently. Soon enough, an older man sat next to you. You knew exactly what to do.
No time to hesitate, the two of you place your papers down in the same spot and ‘accidentally’ grab the others. The other man got up as he said one word to you before he left.
“Meow”.
The C cipher, you thought to yourself. You’ve re-read the first book of the series countless times, you remember this scene first-hand. It’s pretty funny how the guy has to meow, though.
Now on the train and settling down in a booth, eternally grateful for the body you now have maintaining its spy skills, you examine the newspaper closely. Despite knowing what universe this is, you’ve always wanted to read those tiny incoherent texts in newspapers that the authors want you to overlook. The first story didn’t look like much, just mentioning the occurring earthquakes in the nearby countries. About to the page to see the rest, you noticed something. The heading of the next page catches your eye.
“MEETING BETWEEN PRIME MINISTER AND LEADER OF SYMBOLS TO ARRANGE PEACE DEAL”
Leader of Symbols? What Symbols?—
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The sight of the image on the next page made you drop the paper. The prime minister was smiling for the camera, with the most recognizable blonde hair man you know.
.
.
.
.
.
Septem?!
Are you okay? He wasn’t wearing his usual outfit he wears in the game. Rather, he wore a light beige colored suit, satin white gloves, black dress shoes and a pin on his chest with an eye on it. No visible eyes or anything abnormal circling around him, however.
You blinked once, twice, thrice, countless times. You’re hallucinating, you think. Rubbing your eyes, you look again. And again. No, that’s definitely him. No mistake there.
Damn, he looks good.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
What’s going on? You’re in the world of Spy X Family, why is Septem in here?
It’s hitting you. From all the clues you gathered earlier today, the tall people, the unique masks, Septem’s the nail in the coffin.
This isn’t just Spy X Family. This is Spy X Family and To Eat A God all merged into one world. You keep reading the paper. However, the text is altered ever so slightly, and your mind reads the cipher instead.
“GOOD DAY, PUPPET. EXCELLENT WORK ON YOUR PREVIOUS ASSIGNMENT. I’M AFRAID YOUR JOB IS NOT DONE. WE NEED YOU ONCE AGAIN.”
You know how this pans out. You keep reading.
“HEAD TO VOID’S HOTEL IN 7 DAYS AT 14:00.” Well, this part was new. You keep reading again, yada yada Operation Strix, that’s not a shock. You need to secure a spouse and child within a week.
You finally stop to process what you just read. Not only does it say Agent Void’s hotel, which you instantly knew it meant Nulla—The idea of having Nulla on your side makes you smile—but it tells you your target is no longer Donovan Desmond, the original target in Spy X Family.
It’s Septem. Again. Geez, whoever put you in this world really likes him as a villain. Wasn’t he just on this paper to arrange peace? You read further and see that Septem’s true desire is to take over this world, reshape it to the domains that all the people in To Eat A God are familiar with.
Wow. You can’t let him do that. He’d have to kill off the whole human population! No wonder why you’re being assigned this mission. But this task isn’t just difficult, it’s damn near impossible. How are you, a human, going to get close to Septem? Especially when he plans to kill all humans, which you are? He’s not very friendly in the actual game, and it takes you all the way towards Act 2.5 to gain his affection! How will you pull this off? Your mind buzzes with questions that have no answers.
Before nearly descending into madness, the train comes to a halt. Feeling this is your stop, you get off the train and toss the fully read newspaper away in the trash.
Fine. Time to go get your condo and child, you suppose. Follow the original plot. Say, if all these roles have changed… could the child you adopt change as well? Drowning in your thoughts, you keep walking and
.
.
.
Ding Ding!
“Woah!—“
CRASH!
.
.
.
Unaware of how fast you were walking, your speed interrupts someone on the sidewalk. You have to say something! It’ll only take a minute or two. Turning around, ready to profusely apologize to the person whom you startled, you come to a halt. You notice their height first, forcing you to look up to see them clearly.
Spikey red hair, tan skin, grey eyes with two golden stars as pupils. With the help of the cloudy sky, you can see he has a light but warm glow to him.
You’re at a loss for words.
…Did you just bump into Unum?