"Where am I?" Yuuji asked, looking at the unfamiliar surroundings around him.
"New York?" he said, recognizing a bit of the atmosphere of the place.
However, what he did not recognize were the people flying everywhere with various strange costumes.
Not only in the air, the ground was also full of people with strange mutations, some wearing bizarre outfits, others dressed normally as if it were completely normal in this world.
"Based on all this and what I saw before, am I in a superhero comic?" he muttered.
Just like Rito, Yuuji saw a kind of comic approaching him and transforming everything before he fainted and suddenly appeared in this place.
[Congratulations, you entered a false world, you achieved a great feat, reward, Gold Ticket]
"Does this thing give tickets for anything?"
[No, it is your world's fault for being so strange. What kind of world suddenly sends you to another world?]
"I guess you are right. Do you at least know how I got here?"
[No]
"If it has nothing to do with you, then I will guess it is Lala's fault for now."
[Isn't that a very biased thought?]
"You have your rules, I have mine.
In To Love Ru, every strange event is Lala's fault until proven otherwise.
Instead of that, use the ticket, let's see if something useful comes out that lets me leave this place."
[Audacity
Elite Ability
Allows you to go unnoticed by people, they try to ignore you to the best of their ability. You can pick the lock to someone's house, grab their wallet while they are having dinner, kill their wife and leave without them even commenting on it. Stronger targets are less affected by this and will notice actions that are drastic. This ability consumes energy and stamina to keep active.]
"Oh, not bad" Yuuji said. "Although for some reason the description refers to doing things, it also works to go unnoticed without doing anything. It is basically a superior version of Shadow Cloak."
At that moment Yuuji's D-Dial vibrated. As expected, it was a message from Zastin.
[There is a situation. Yuuki Rito's house has been wrapped in a strange state. There is a kind of reality barrier around it and nobody can enter, not even me. Luckily you were nearby so you ended up inside. Protect Lala and, if possible, find a way to break the barrier.]
"Nearby? What do you mean I was nearby?"
Yuuji had assumed he got caught in it because whatever happened affected the entire world, or at least the entire city. Seeing a whole city in front of him only confirmed his suspicions.
But now it seemed that was not actually the case, and even the area of effect had been quite small.
Even so, this answered another question Yuuji had.
"I see, I was wondering why Mom thought I would like the house so much. So I am Lala's neighbor."
After realizing this, Yuuji explained the situation inside the barrier to Zastin.
[It seems Miss Lala has created another mini world. She used to do that a lot when she was little before His Majesty allowed her to travel through space. If that is the case, then there is nothing to worry about, Lala can deactivate the device at any moment.]
Zastin's reply arrived almost immediately and Yuuji nodded.
"In that case let's just waste time until Lala gets bored."
Thinking that, Yuuji simply lay down on a rooftop watching people fly by from time to time when he received a call.
This time it was not on his D-Dial but on a flip phone he did not have before entering this world.
Checking the caller ID, Yuuji saw it said Boss, so he answered with some curiosity.
As soon as he picked up, a cheerful female voice spoke.
"Mr. Everything, come to the base, we have a new job."
After saying that she hung up without waiting for Yuuji to say anything.
"Mr. Everything?...you have got to be kidding me" Yuuji muttered in embarrassment, assuming it was some kind of superhero name he had in this world.
"Is she not even going to tell me where I have to go?"
As if the world itself were responding to him, a giant red arrow that moved with him appeared in front of Yuuji like a videogame guide.
"Then I guess I will follow it" he said, and started following the arrow moving in front of him in a certain direction.
[Weren't you going to kill time doing nothing?]
"This is basically a videogame, let's see what happens" Yuuji replied as he jumped straight off the building, floating before hitting the ground and avoiding the impact.
[Sometimes I think you are only lazy when it comes to completing missions] the system complained.
Twenty minutes later, following the red arrow, Yuuji arrived at a completely white and smooth building, it looked so perfect it was strange.
Whether it was the windows or any decoration outside, everything was perfectly symmetrical from one side to the other.
At the top, in golden cursive letters, the word "Order" was written in enormous letters at equal distance from the left and the right.
"Order eh?" Yuuji muttered as he approached the building's door.
On each side of the glass door stood two identical people, twins, dressed exactly the same, wearing an elegant white uniform with thin golden stitching.
As soon as they saw Yuuji they both nodded and stepped aside.
"Secretary Thing, good morning."
"Good morning" Yuuji replied without reacting to the name.
He had already read on his phone earlier his full name and knew it was Evan Victor Thing.
However, Evan hated that name because it had been given to him by his father, who later killed his mother, making him hate him and everything related to him, including his name.
Luckily, before Evan could take revenge with his own hands, a famous supervillain killed his father first, preventing Evan from becoming a criminal.
Instead, Evan devoted himself to studying, managing to change his situation of poverty and becoming the secretary of the president of Order Companies.
Because everyone knew the story they always avoided saying his name. Even when it is necessary to say it they use abbreviations, eventually calling him E.V. Thing.
Yuuji discovered all of this by searching his own name on the internet, discovering he was quite famous.
Once inside he headed straight to the elevator without greeting anyone. Everyone was used to Secretary Thing's seriousness so nobody was surprised.
"Sir, where to?" the elevator operator asked once he arrived.
"To see the boss, she said we have a mission" Yuuji replied.
Hearing this, the operator's face visibly changed, shifting from a polite and serious expression to one of amusement and malice.
He quickly pressed the buttons for floors number 12, 1, 12, 1 in that sequence.
To Yuuji's surprise, who did not understand what was happening, instead of going up the elevator began descending into a basement that should not exist at full speed.
Less than five seconds later, with a ding, the door opened.
Yuuji stepped out somewhat confused.
"Let chaos descend upon this world" the operator said before returning.
With another ding the elevator doors closed, leaving Yuuji in the unknown place.
Not fully understanding the situation Yuuji looked around. Contrary to the complete order in the building above, this place was total chaos with strange devices everywhere. The place was quite large, at least several hundred square meters filled with devices everywhere, as if someone had not bothered to make rooms and had preferred to put everything in the same place.
After looking around searching for something specific he finally found a room.
"Thank god" Yuuji thought when he saw that there actually was a separate bathroom.
While Yuuji was looking at that, a woman appeared in front of him.
"Everything, you arrived. Where is your suit?"
She was wearing a very eccentric outfit, perfectly in tune with the rest of this world.
She wore a long black coat fitted to the body, with golden buttons at the front and a high red collar that opened like a cape behind her. Beneath it a bit of cleavage could be seen. She wore black stockings, white gloves, and a black hat with a red ribbon above her pink hair tied in a high bun, and finally a dark mask around her green eyes.
Yuuji recognized this person immediately.
He had briefly seen her when he searched his information earlier on the internet, her name was Lady Chaos and she was the one who killed Thing's father.
'Do I work for the one who completed my revenge? Then... am I a supervillain?' Yuuji thought, realizing his lore was deeper than it seemed, but he quickly ignored that and focused on something else, 'No, more than that...'
Although at first glance when he saw her on the internet he did not notice it, now that he was seeing her up close he was completely sure.
"Lala?" he asked.
"What are you talking about, Everything? Who is Lala?" Lady Chaos asked.
At first glance Yuuji could tell she was not lying and was genuinely confused, which made him think he might have been mistaken.
"Can you take off your mask for a moment?" he said, wanting to confirm.
"Sure" Lady Chaos said, doing what he asked as if it were nothing important.
Although Yuuji had already been quite sure, now that he saw her without the mask he completely confirmed that it was Lala.
After a second Lala put her mask back on and pointed at Yuuji with a pen she took from her pocket.
A light blue beam came out of it and passed through Yuuji completely, changing his clothes and dressing him in a black suit similar to hers, with the appearance of a medieval noble along with an elegant mask.
"There is no more time to waste, Everything, come on, it is time to commit some crimes." Lala said and pulled something from her pocket.
Without really aiming, she fired at one of the only empty walls. Where she shot a portal opened and Lala crossed it instantly without waiting for Yuuji.
Yuuji only watched her leave with a slight headache.
"It seems everything just got more complicated."
______________________________________
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)