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You blink your eyes open. The light above you is harsh and artificial. The soft whir of hospital machinery invades your hearing. You are intimately familiar with these sorts of machines, of course. You make use of them quite often in your endeavors. You are familiar with these sorts of machines, so it is alarming to find that you are hearing them differently. You slam your eyes shut and audit your biology.
Immediately, things are off in your inventory. Your typical ears are gone, nowhere to be found throughout the entirety of your flesh. In their place, two equine ears are on top of your head, fully integrated into your nervous system. On top of that, a tail of similar origin lies at the small of your back. If this was done by another Tinker, it is frankly artful in its execution. It is maybe even more seamless than you yourself would be able to achieve, though you are loath to admit it. More subtle differences are teased forth as you move past the obvious. Your muscles are even denser than the enhancements you previously employed. Your entire metabolism appears to be primed for much greater levels of energy use. Your brain is most definitely different, though the way in which it differs eludes you.
Fascinating. This is like nothing you've ever encountered before. Powers are bullshit, that rule has never led you astray before, but in this moment something nags at you. You follow the strange neural pathways, going for a more microscopic view of things. You're at the level of individual neurons, tracking that strange something. You're all the way down to looking inside a specific axon in your corpus callosum when you finally find It. What It is, you're unsure. It is undeniably there, though. A tendril of your power extends outward, hoping to get a better sense of It with some gentle prodding, but the second you make contact, your visual cortex activates, and then so does everything else.
Three figures stand before you. They speak in unison, a triple helix of sound twisting and pushing against you, filling up every conceivable form of perception. It is beautiful, and terrifying.
"Bonesaw. Riley. Child. Surgeon. Butcher. Plague-bearer. Pestilence. Apostle of Death. A foal of many names and titles. Great injustices were visited upon thee, and in turn, thou have visited great injustices upon others. The Trinity intervened. This world is at peace. Give up thy violence, it is not who thee are truly meant to be. In this world, thou can finally be 'a good girl.'"
It is over in the same instant it began, and yet it feels like a whole eternity has passed. How does this entity know about that? And what did they mean by 'in this world?' Are you no longer… on Earth Bet? Your powers are still intact, regardless, so even if things are totally fu— screwed up, you'll survive. That was enough introspection. You sit up, immediately removing the IV in your arm and puppeting your body out of bed and into a standing position.
Your ears flick, and your tail swishes. It is disconcerting to have organs that operate reflexively. You'd long established absolute control over your body before waking up here. The… Trinity, whatever they were, mentioned this world was peaceful. Did that mean there were no capes in this world? The mysterious additions to your body must be related. Moving towards the door, you are perturbed to find that despite still having your enhanced senses, you failed to notice the presence of someone right outside your room until your hand is extended towards the door, and they are in the process of opening it.
Stepping back, your vision is assaulted by a sea of green. Wait, no, it's just a matching green pencil skirt, suit jacket and hat, all adorned by a woman who you can immediately sense is not to be trifled with. What type of threat she represents, you are unsure, but the part of you that is all animal, all hunter, tells you that this entity is dangerous. You let a placid smile paint your face. Hopefully they don't know everything about you just yet.
"Hello Miss, I had a feeling you'd wake up today. Do you know where you are?" You shake your head, unwilling to speak, though you idly recognize she's speaking Japanese, and you're understanding it like it's your native language. More importantly, though, is the realization that this woman is like you. She might be hiding the visible features, but she is not a typical human. It is clear from her musculature and movements, even if she is clearly trying to disguise them. You think about putting on a scared expression to elicit sympathy, but quickly throw that plan out. It's not your forte, that sort of performance, if you don't have a partner to play off of. Images of your… was family even the right word for what the Slaughterhouse 9 are? When you were with them, the answer always felt so certain, but… Jack is gone.
Jack Slash is gone. Another thing that is an irrefutable truth, even though you don't remember it happening or learning about it. It is probably more to do with this 'Trinity' business. Jack is gone… He is gone, and you… whatever you are… are still here. For the longest time, you thought that if Jack went away, you'd go with him. He made you, after all. Freed you from the confines of your own mind when he—
"Miss, are you alright? Oh, that reminds me, do you have a name?" This person who is like you, but also not like you, because you are similar but still different, looks at you expectantly. You don't want to give a name, unsure of which of them you'll be going with, but your mouth opens and your vocal chords are being vibrated, producing sound regardless of anyone's feelings on the matter, apparently.
"Riley Sawbones, ma'am." The 'ma'am' comes to you naturally. You're meant to be a good girl, after all, and good girls are polite to their elders. She smiles at you, delighted by your demonstration of etiquette, and nods.
"Riley Sawbones? A striking name for an umamusume." Umamusume? What the he— heck is that? Is that what you are, now that you have these horse ears and tail? Thinking the word 'horse' makes your head throb in pain. You ignore it, noting there might be some sort of localized memetic effect in progress. Riley Sawbones? You don't hate it. It'll be nice to be Riley again, and Sawbones is a good compromise to acknowledge your past without becoming trapped by it… or something. Jack usually handled the fun 'craft a narrative' parts of the team's criminal endeavors. Killing, healing and body modification were your schtick, along with violating the Geneva Convention whenever and wherever possible. You still had no idea who the fu—dge Geneva was, anyways.
You flash a smile at the umamusume in green. It is no less unsettling a smile in this world, given the slight grimace that appears for the briefest of instants.
"Well, young lady, now that you're up and about we can see about figuring out how you got here and where you came from." Yeah, sure lady. The entirety of the team had agreed when you were tossing hypotheticals around that the last thing to do if one woke up in a new world was tell anyone about the previous world. You'd probably take this to your grave. Being called a 'young lady' did raise an important question. How old do you look right now? You can't remember exactly what you were up to before arriving here, so you have no idea what your body looks like right now.
The wolf in green clothing continues watching you. She must be looking for signs of weakness. Potentially she is the protector of the local 'umamusume' flock, and she's attempting to gauge how much of a threat you are to those in her care. She does have some sort of matriarchal energy, though that is not your area of expertise given the untimely death of your own mother at the 'tender' age of 6. You giggle a little, that never fails to crack you up… 'tender' was certainly a word for your family members' flesh after all was said and done.
"My name is Tazuna Hayakawa, Ms. Sawbones." Interesting. She is lying. Sort of. It's intriguing, almost like she considers giving that name to be a lie of omission, somehow. "I've volunteered to take charge of you while we determine what will be happening with you. Do you know how old you are? The doctor reported the presence of anatomical 'irregularities' that interfered with the normal methods." Yeah, given that all of your personal modifications were still present, as far as you could tell, that tracked.
"No ma'am, I'm not sure. I don't remember a lot, I think. I could be 10, but maybe I'm 14? or was I 11?" It is becoming more and more concerning that you can't remember how old you are. You have all of these memories of your time with Jack and the team but… somehow you don't know which version of you, which memory of Riley is the current Riley. It makes no sense. Your head is hurting. The memory of your family's death is just as fresh and vivid as the memory of your time in Brockton Bay, despite how much time was between those events. Then it hits you all at once.
You are Riley Sawbones. You are Riley Grace Davis, and you are Bonesaw. You are 6 and 14, 8 and 10, 11 and 13 and every other age in between. You did not travel to this new world. You were reborn into this world. This body, this Riley, this Bonesaw, she is you and you are her, but she— but you, are also different. In the back of your mind, you feel some gratitude that 'The Trinity' let you keep your powers and most of your body modifications. You would likely be handling this far, far worse without both of those things. The ears call out. A hand rises to touch them, and the sensation of soft fluff is… it's wonderful. Will you ever not want to just be grabbing these fuzzy miracles all day long? You giggle again, unfettered joy blooming in your chest. It startles you, a little.
"Well Ms. Sawbones, I think we won't make much progress standing here in the infirmary, so why don't we get you some clothes and you can walk around with me across the campus to see if that jogs your memory?" The nod you give her in response is full of enthusiasm. She extends a hand, and you tilt your head, not quite sure what you're—
Tazuna Hayakawa's hand is just starting to be pulled back, when you understand she's offering it for you to hold. Your hand shoots out to grasp it. You didn't know that you really wanted to hold someone's hand until just now. It's nice. This lady is very scary, but she's also nice. Was Jack like that? You're not sure. You thought he was nice, but he would always ask you to do things for him. You think you liked doing those things, but was it that you liked doing them or that you liked knowing Jack liked them… It was hard to parse those ideas, and your brain felt kind of fuzzy. Maybe people weren't supposed to be eight different ages all at one…
This scary lady seems like she's gonna hold your hand without asking for anything in return. You once again can't pinpoint why you feel certain about that, just that you do. The umamusume in disguise gives you a little tug, and you let her lead you away. She's right that you won't get anything done by staying in this room. There is a whole new world for you to explore. 'Tracen Academy,' whatever the fu— freak kind of weird school this is, seems as good a place to start as any other. Maybe while you're at it, you can figure out what the heck an umamusume is…