Sunset's Isekai

by Wanderer D

It wasn't Bunny the First Time (Zootopia — Movie Pt. 7)

Snarlov was a big, tough bear of a cop. He was also really scared of ghosts, and for whatever reason had let that slip at the station recently and so Chief Bogo had decided he needed to confront his fears and keep watching the damn museum.

It didn't help that he had grown up hearing all sorts of weird stories about the museum statues and skeletons coming to life, or mystical evil artifacts on display summoning powers from far beyond the understanding of animal kind.

But it was worse when the place had gone up in flames and he would see off of the corner of his eyes movement. He had though they were kids… at least that's what he wanted to tell himself, but he knew… there was no reason for a bunch of children to be running around the place so soon after the fire had destroyed it.

Still he was a cop, dammit, and he hadn't joined the force to cower while strange things happened. He snorted and turned around, ready to step into the wreckage when something glowing nearby caught his eye.

He approached slowly, readying his taser... and saw it.

Jenner looked up, ears twitching. "You guys hear that?" Being the leader of a group of rat-thieves had been pretty much an easy gig for the most part. The Zootopia PD was mostly a bunch of gullible clowns, and as such, he had been able to slip by them at every turn without a problem. At least until he had taken the last job.

"Y-yeah, boss, do you think it was… it?" Sullivan, the other rat of the team muttered. "M-maybe we should leav—"

"None of that! Especially after you screwed up and caused this whole thing to happen!"

He wasn't sure why he had broken his own rule about not knowing who his client was, but the promise of cash had been too compelling, and the job had seemed simple: go into the museum and get a box.

Of course they hadn't told him it would be basically part of the floor, so he had decided to open it and get whatever was inside to his contractors. Afterall, it had been in the museum for close to a century, right? As long as they treated it carefully they shouldn't have any issues.

Which was why he was ready to kill Sullivan the moment this whole thing was finished. He glanced at Nita, the raccoon. An experienced thief he had managed to get into the contract, just in case. So far the addition hadn't been impressed, and it was all Sullivan's fault.

"My job is stealing," Nita replied, glancing at him. "We shouldn't be here, we…" he grimaced, "dropped the ball as it is. We should have gone our separate ways as soon as it went sideways."

"We can't!" Jenner replied, marching up to look at the taller animal straight in the eye. Sure, the racoon was bigger, but he was pretty hefty for a rat, and he knew enough tricks to make the fight a painful one. "If we don't bring the creature, we're done for!"

Nita's eyes narrowed. "So you say."

"You saw what they did to Erol," Jenner snapped. "Can't say he was my favorite weasel in the world, but he didn't deserve that!"

Whatever Nikol had wanted to say died in his throat quickly enough with that reminder. They were not dealing with normal things now. They had dug too deep, his pockets had been too thirsty… and now they were here, hunting down a strange creature, and working for clients that could do horrible, inexplicable things to them.

"Shh," Sullivan dared speak up. "I think I saw something."

Forgetting about murder, Jenner and Nita approached the other rat, who pointed silently at a nearby column, where a light glow of some sort emanated.

Jenner's eyes narrowed. The creature had been fast, and quick to hide before, but his contractor had assured him it would be tired and weak by now. He nodded at the others, and they spread around, trying to corner it—and off it went! Slower than before, however.

Grinning, Jenner gave chase after the glowing rabbit-like creature, trying to herd it into a corner for the others to tackle. In the last few nights he had gotten very acquainted with the layout of the destroyed museum, so he knew where he needed to go, and where he needed to push the creature towards.

The box glowed faintly from the inside, where a rabbit-like creature could barely be seen shifting around. Other than the few lamps that still worked in the warehouse, everything else was pitch black even beyond his nocturnal sight.

A slight chittering sound made Jenner growl, while Nikol crouched, whether ready to run or fight was anyone's guess.

"Hey, Jenner, Nikol! So glad to see you both here." The voice came from their right, but there was nothing… nothing more than a slight silhouette. "Where is Sullivan?"

"He didn't make it… he was too scared to come, so I got rid of him." Jenner forced himself to calm down, the image of what had happened to Erol was enough to sober him up. "And um... Yes, here we are."

"I have to insist, I am so sorry about what happened to your buddy Erol, I know you remember him, right? Trust me, it brought me as much pain as it brought you to see him reduced to… well. Mush. But he was misbehaving, and you do know what we must do to misbehaving children, right?"

"We brought the item."

"We punish them so that the others take heed of the example, of course!" the voice continued as if Jenner hadn't spoken. "So I just want to remind you that his example was for a reason and that reason was that he had not done the right job."

Nikol and Jenner exchanged glances, then looked towards the exit.

"Ah, ah, ah." the voice said. "No running away. You can't escape anyway. But it doesn't matter! It seems like my lesson did work and you two managed to do the job! How excitingly fantastic! I now know you mammals can be smart with the right encouragement."

"Listen, we brought the thing," Nikol spoke up. "Think we can just take the payment and go?"

"Hmm." Something approached, and the two thieves' eyes went wide, as they took a step back. The creature was biped, but it was like a giant fly of some sort, dressed in a formal suit, it's red, compound eyes studying them closely as they cowered, while one of its claws held up some sort of gun. Presumably the same that had done in Erol the previous night. "How about we check the merchandise first?"

Jenner and Nikol stepped back as the creature went over to the box and flipped it open, staring at the glowing rabbit inside. "Wait, that's not—"

Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by the rabbit jumping straight at his chest, and pushing him back. Both thieves turned around to leave, but stopped as they bumped into the large figures of Chief Bogo and Officer Pennington. 

The creature recovered enough to point its gun at the rabbit, when it exploded in its claw, making him cry out and fall on its knees. It quickly grasped something in its other claw, a device of some sort, and pushed the button on it, giving them all a smug look that came across despite its alien visage.

A smug look that slowly faded as it pressed the button again and again and nothing happened. It turned around as Snarlov and Nick stepped in behind him.

"How?!" it screeched, "your civilization cannot even comprehend what's going on! How did you trick me?"

"It's called a hustle."

The creature turned to face the wolf that approached him. "Y-you! I know you! You're Isekai Shimmer!"

The wolf grinned, crossing her arms as the creature struggled while being handcuffed. "You'll pay for this, Shimmer! You're not supposed to involve yourself!"

Sunset shrugged. "And you're supposed to be dead."

The creature stopped struggling.

"I thought I recognized you, Cornvelius, wasn't it?" Sunset leaned in, picking up the device he had dropped. "Definitely not one of Rick's. Who gave you this?"

"None of your business!" Cornvelius Daniel growled.

"Ah, well, I've already alerted Shleemypants that you're here." Sunset said, looking up. "Speaking of which, I suggest the rest of you guys get out… probably for the best if you don't meet this particular guy."

"So walk me through this again," Chief Bogo said as they all sat in his office, later on in the day. "How did you figure out who the culprit was, and how to get to him?"

"It was simple," Sunset said.

Grinning, Jenner gave chase after the glowing rabbit-like creature, trying to herd it into a corner for the others to tackle. In the last few nights he had gotten very acquainted with the layout of the destroyed museum, so he knew where he needed to go, and where he needed to push the creature towards.

It was now just a matter of—his eyes went wide when the creature stopped in its tracks and turned, smashing its paw into his face and sending him rolling onto the floor.

"Oh, no! It's going to kill me!" he screeched as he felt the creature land on top of him and… handcuff him?

"You," said a female voice, "are under arrest."

"Who?" he muttered as he was roughly turned around. He heard two thumps and turned to see Nikol and Sullivan similarly cuffed, next to him. Slowly the glow died away, revealing a very normal rabbit officer, who was grinning at them. "Zootopia PD."

Behind her, the cowardly Polar Bear they had scared away the night before and a fox officer stepped up, glaring at them.

"We are so dead."

Jenner wanted to shout at Sullivan to shut up, but unfortunately, that was true. They were all dead.

"Now, that's not necessarily what will happen," a wolf… he recognized her—she was the one that had saved the kids from the fire they had started by accident—said, crouching down to look at him in the eye. "I know that you're working for someone from… out of town."

"You have no idea who we are working for!" he snarled. 

"Oh, you see, I'm from out of town too, Jenner." And he saw it in her eyes, a glow that had no explanation. "You see, I'm not happy with what you were about to do here, but I know how terrifying people from out of town can be. How about you help us stop them, and then all you have to worry about is being arrested?"

"We left Sullivan behind with Snarlov since he looked so terrified we were afraid he was going to get us all killed," Nick added.

"But that doesn't explain how you knew it was the thieves and not the creature that would be in the museum tonight."

Judy smiled. "When Sunset told me that there couldn't have been more than one creature in that box, I remembered Pennington had said that there had been some kids running around and spooking Snarlov. And that's when I realized that if the creature was so valuable, what he had heard was probably the culprits trying to catch it."

"So we sat down and thought of a plan," Nick continued. "We knew that the creature was supposed to look like a glowing rabbit, so Carrots was the perfect bait. Some help from Sunset in making her glow, and we were ready."

Chief Bogo gave them an unamused look and dragged his hoof down his face in frustration, as he turned to look at Sunset. "So you're some sort of… what, mystical detective?"

"Nope!" Sunset said, "I'm just a bartender. The multidimensional cop is the one that arrested the guy behind it all."

"Right." Bogo's eyebrow twitched.

"So we told you about it, chief," Nick said, "because we know how crazy this all looks. There's no way we can explain this whole inter-dimensional thing and not look like we went bonkers."

"So what do you suggest we do, then?" Bogo asked. "Cover it up?"

"Might be for the best," Sunset spoke up. "There are a lot of things out there that are pretty bad, just as there are a lot of fantastic and beautiful things. But this world is not ready to be part of that yet. You have your culprits… three thieves that were trying to get to a very old, very expensive item that was destroyed in the fire. Now that some time has passed, all the things that phased out are there again, so you have prints and dna samples, and also Jenner and the others are ready to confess."

Bogo sighed. "Fine. But I'd rather not have to deal with this kind of thing ever again, Miss Shimmer."

Sunset raised her paws. "Don't look at me, I'm on vacation!"

The trio walked through what was left of the museum, and Judy took a deep breath. "So, Sunset, I didn't want to bring this up… since you've helped so much, but I have to know. How did you know Jenner's name?"

Sunset chuckled. "I've met him before, when I was a mouse in another world."

"Right, right," she sighed, giving the wolf a glare. "That can't be your excuse for everything."

"Oh, it's not. I also have, 'I'm Sunset Shimmer'."

Nick snorted.

Judy shook her head, unable to hide her smile. "Fine. So, any sign of our misplaced visitor?"

"Let's sit here and wait," Sunset suggested, finding a cleaner area. "It'll come to us if it sees we're not aggressive. It should already sense me as it is, but it must be pretty cautious."

Judy shared a look with Nick, and shrugged. "Sounds good."

They all sat down, staring at the sky and the clouds.

"I used to think that the universe was huge," Nick said, "but now I'm just starting to realize how inadequate that statement is."

Judy nodded, cuddling up to him, and sighing when he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"It can be really overwhelming," Sunset agreed, also glancing up. "When I started… I had no idea what my life was going to be like… and I've seen and done so many wondrous things… I'd never change it for anything, despite the ugly that I sometimes have to bear witness to."

"Was that a jab at Snarlov?" Nick chuckled.

Sunset laughed. "I guess it is now?"

Judy shook her head, about to say something when she noticed it, standing next to a column, cautiously looking at them. "Guys?"

Sunset and Nick followed her eyes to the creature, Sunset stifling a gentle gasp. "Oh my goodness… a Spirit Guardian."

The creature was indeed rabbit-like, and like Judy, it stood on its hind legs. But where she had paws, it had small hooves. Between its two rabbit-like ears there were two fluffy, almost moth-like antennae, and its arms ended up in sharp claws.

It slowly made its way to them, seemingly ready to bolt at the smallest provocation, until it reached Sunset, who extended a paw. Carefully, the creature touched it, muttering something in a melodic, too-innocent-sounding voice.

Sunset gulped, eyes watering a little. "No, I'm sorry… this is not your home."

The creature said something else, it's tone tugging at Judy's heart, and she could feel Nick's arm wrap a bit tighter around her shoulder.

"I'm sorry…" Sunset said again. "But… it's gone, Ori."

The creature looked down, shoulders slumping and ears drooping. Unable to help herself, Judy pulled it into a hug, surprised at the gentle warmth it irradiated. The creature seemed stunned for a moment, then gently hugged her and Nick back.

Sunset stepped closed and patted Ori's shoulder. "You can come with me for now, Ori, I'll help find a world where you can be."

Ori looked up and said something to Judy, which she couldn't understand exactly… but she was compelled somehow to respond. "Judy… and this," she motioned at Nick, "Is Nick."

"Judy. Nick." Ori nodded, repeating their names in its chime-like voice.

Sunset grinned. "Congratulations guys, you will always be remembered."

Judy let out a laugh-turned-sob. She didn't know why, but she knew it was not an exaggeration. "Hey, since we're not on duty…"

Sunset chuckled, and motioned at the door to the bar. "Sure. Why not?"