Brand New Isekai (BNA — Complete)
Sunset's Isekai
Brand New Isekai (BNA — Complete)
By Wanderer D
Michiru sighed and put her phone away, shoving both her hands into her pockets and kicking a can despondently as she made her way through the city. All around her people chatted, argued, played and generally seemed to be in a good mood, isolated as they were from the rest of the country.
A gap between the buildings allowed her to see the mainland beyond the bay and she sighed once more before she shook her head and slapped her cheeks with her hands to wake up. "This is getting ridiculous!" she half-growled, half-screeched, drawing the attention of a passerby who blinked owlishly at the racoon girl before shrugging and continuing on his way. She grimaced and turned into a nearby alleyway to get out of the crowds.
She pulled her hair in frustration as she walked, looking up into the sky, which was clear from what she could see from the gaps between the buildings. "Gah, this is so stup—ack!" she stumbled forward and rolled on the floor, thankfully not getting hurt worse than a scrape which soon faded away.
Shaking her head, she pushed herself up and glared at the thing she had tripped on. The glare faded into confusion. "A blackboard?" She looked from the blackboard, which had several interesting drinks listed on it to the door next to it. "A bar?" she looked down one way of the alleyway, then in the opposite direction. "Here? What? Why?"
She jumped to her feet and brushed off the dirt, looking curiously at the wooden door, then down to the blackboard. "And isn't this like… the side of the library? Why would there be a bar here?"
She hummed and approached the door, looking at the sign again. Before her transformation, she had visited Nara with her mother once, and had Matcha Parfait for the first time ever. For the next couple of years (besides baking her a cake) her mom would take her out in search of new places to have it.
Her hand slid into her pocket, where she took hold of her phone, her mom's most recent message coming to her mind. A whole day had passed and she hadn't mustered the nerve to write back. What could she write to her? She sighed, resting her hand on the wooden door, then glancing at the blackboard. She exhaled, chuckling as she pulled out her purse and glanced inside. "I guess I can do it for old times' sake."
She opened the door and stepped inside. "Hello! I'm coming in!" What did you even say when you walked into a bar? She blinked when she found herself in a small hallway that stretched just a few feet before it opened into the type of bar she'd expect to see in a mobster movie.
"Hello!" a cheerful voice answered from deeper within, "Come on in!"
Emboldened by the female voice, Michiru did just that, walking into the bar and taking it in. It was… comfy, although it had that speak-easy vibe that made her wonder if Giuliano Flip himself frequented the place. The bartender was smartly dressed, lean and sharp-eyed, with her red and gold hair falling around her shoulders. She was just placing a menu for her at the bar, and given that there was no one else around, Michiru figured that she might take her up on that seating arrangement, all the while wondering what type of beast hid behind the human look of the young woman.
"Welcome to Sunset's Isekai, my little bar in the multiverse," the bartender said, smiling warmly at her. "I'm Sunset Shimmer, and I'll be taking care of you today."
Wow, she owned the place? "Um. M-Michiru Kagemori," she replied bowing slightly. She looked up. "I uh, I'd like a Matcha Parfait please?"
Sunset nodded. "Coming right up, anything to drink?"
"I'm uh, too young to order alcohol… I hope you don't mind."
Sunset giggled. "Not at all, take a look at the menu and see if anything strikes your fancy."
Feeling more at ease since that wasn't a problem—she knew some businesses didn't like it if people walked into a place that was clearly not cheap and essentially just ordered the cheapest thing—she glanced at the menu, blinking when she realized all the drinks listed were not alcoholic. She glanced up. How had Sunset known? Scent?
Her thoughts were interrupted when Sunset gently slid the most amazing looking Matcha Parfait she had ever seen in front of her.
"So, have you thought about what to drink?"
"M-melon soda."
Sunset nodded, allowing Michiru to gaze in awe at the tall glass in front of her. Creamy and smooth-looking vanilla ice cream was layered with matcha jelly and ice cream, creating a white and green look that made her mouth water, and on top, of it, dense whipped cream held in place a slice of matcha-swiss cake roll that almost defied gravity in its slight, tilted angle. She was just picking up the long, silver spoon Sunset had provided when the bartender came back with her drink.
"Thank you!"
"You're welcome," Sunset replied, grinning as Michiru took the first bite out of the ice-cream and practically swooned. "Oh my gosh, this is fantastic! I'm so happy I decided to come in!"
The bartender chuckled. "Glad you like it, so… what brings you in today?"
Michiru stopped, tilting her head in confusion with the following bite still in her mouth. "Hm?"
Sunset shrugged. "Usually people come here when something is bothering them… most of the time it's an existential crisis."
Michiru giggled. "You're funny. So, what type of beast are you, if you don't mind my asking? I've been trying to guess since I walked in."
Sunset blinked. "Beast?"
"As in animal?" Michiru prodded. "Come on."
"Oh. Uh, human I guess?"
This made Michiru pause. "Wait, you're... human?" she studied Sunset, then tried to sniff her scent. It wasn't… it wasn't a beastman scent. "For real?! I thought there were no human establishments allowed in Anima-City!"
Sunset grinned. "Well, I'm human right now, but I've been other species." She started counting with her fingers. "Wolf. Unicorn. Cat. Demon. Dragon. Saiyan. Smurf..."
"Hold on, that makes no sense."
Sunset tilted her head. "It doesn't?"
Pointing at the bartender with the spoon, Michiru nodded firmly. "It does not! You can't be all of those!"
"Hm." Sunset waved her hand and Michiru turned to see where she was pointing, then nearly screamed when several pictures removed themselves from the wall and floated over to them to land gently on the bar. In the pictures, she saw a wolf who could only be Sunset hanging out with a fox and a rabbit. And a cat… who could only be Sunset, hanging out with a bunch of other cats. And a demon or gargoyle (who once again, could only be the bartender herself) hanging out with some sort of harlequin demon. And she was a unicorn in this other picture! And a dragon! And… a human with a monkey tail. And a tiny blue creature!
"W-buh-how?!"
Sunset grinned and shrugged. "I did say it was my little bar in the multiverse."
Michiru took a second, awe-infused look around the bar, this time noticing that the creatures in the pictures weren't animal people at all, but different creatures altogether. Aliens. Monsters. Demons. All of them… she turned her gaze back to Sunset, lifted her spoon and took another bite of her parfait. "Wow."
"Yes." Sunset grinned. "And since it's your first visit, the first drink and parfait are on me. All I require is a picture together before you head out."
"Deal!" Michiru said, her enthusiasm overpowering her awe. She took a sip of her melon soda—a drink that was woefully missing from Anima-City—and leaned back, sighing in content. "Wow, this is… I had no idea my life would change that much since turning into a beastman and coming to Anima-City." She chuckled, gently swirling the soda with her straw and watching the bubbles foam up at the top of the carbonated drink. "It seems that I left behind so much, but I've also learned things and, well…"
Her thoughts were interrupted when her phone buzzed. She picked it up and opened the message.
From: 🐬Nina🐬
Hiiii! 💜
I got checked out by the 👩⚕️ and everything is okay! 🥂 It was quite a scare though! They had to give me a 💉 and I'll be taking 💊. Glad you were there to save me! 🌻
Lisa texted me. OMG, she was soooo sorry! I had to tell her that it was okay. But it will be a blue🌛before I venture outside of Anima-City again.
I know she really didn't intend to harm me, but... well.
Anyway Let's get together for some 🍛and 🍣 next time, alright? My treat! My dad likes you so it should be fine!! 📱 me!
Michiru chuckled, shaking her head.
"Friend?"
She blinked and looked up at Sunset before nodding. "I think so?" She sighed. "Nina… she's always been a beastman. She's half dolphin, and she's been really into human society. When she found out I was human, and that she had a chance to go to the mainland, she sorta stuck with me… needless to say people didn't really understand what to do with her when she accidentally revealed it and she almost drowned."
"Oh my goodness, I hope she's okay.
"She is," Michiru replied and pressed her lips before releasing a reluctant sigh. "At least… I guess Lina wasn't really xenophobic or racist. She was just ignorant in the end." She shook her head. "We were lucky."
Sunset looked at her. "I mean, no offense, but how did they not know you two were beast people?"
Michiru blinked in surprise, her mouth going round in a silent 'Oh!', then she focused and changed into her human form. "This is what I looked like before I—um, became a beastman."
"Oh, wow," Sunset said, coming around the bar to sit with her. "So what happened?"
"I don't know. I suddenly became a beastman one day. It's some sort of beastman disease… we're trying to find a cure but… I don't know if it will ever happen. I couldn't go to school anymore, and just getting out of the mainland and into Anima-City was almost enough to get me killed," Michiru answered, returning to her racoon form. "It's funny… even though I can technically go back now that I can turn into a human, I still feel much more comfortable like this."
Sunset shrugged. "Having changed species for long periods of time… I can tell you that even though you remain the same inside, sometimes your body understands better than your head what is actually more natural to you. Wearing the wrong skin is sometimes like wearing high-heels all the time, you know? Sure it can look nice, but it just gets to be a bit much."
"Heh, I like that analogy. I think I'll use it." Michiru bit her lip, looking away from the bartender. "You don't think it's weird?"
"Not at all," Sunset said, drawing a smile from her. "You should be comfortable with your body and who you are… sometimes they match immediately, and sometimes they don't. But if you find your truth, and embrace it… well, you'll discover a lot more about yourself and others."
Michiru giggled. "I hope so." Her smile faded as she glanced down at her phone. "Humans fear and hunt beast people, you know? They chase them, and make them hide. Almost everyone out there in Anima-City looks human because they are so used to hiding who they are… even in a city where they should be safe, they are still afraid of offending humans somehow." She sighed. "Before they were discovered and made public I guess they just mingled. Now we have a city just for Beast People, and I don't even know if I belong with them."
Sunset reached out to pat her shoulder. "What happened to you is fairly recent, and you now have some control over it. With some work you could go back to being fully human all the time, or at least being able to pass as such without problem for extended periods, right? And that is provided the cure is not found."
Michiru frowned and ate some more parfait. "I guess."
"But that's not what you want, is it?" Sunset asked. "If you did, you'd be practicing constantly to stay human, even if some sort of medicine to change you fully into a human is to be discovered, I get the feeling you might not take it."
Michiru snorted and instead sipped her soda. "I don't know. I've made really good friends… the people here are kind and supportive. Even when they know I was human once. But everyone in the mainland—they just… they just hate everyone here." She looked down at her phone again. "I can't even visit my mom. I can't even tell her I'm okay. I don't even know what to do with her. And myself here. How do I tell her that I feel… like I belong here?" She groaned, running her fingers through her hair and feeling the slight scratch of her claws on her scalp. "It's too strange! Too unfair to feel better in a body that is not what I was born in!" She pulled out her ID. "Look! I'm a student! I'm human! I'm also a registered Beastman! I pay taxes and I have government-provided health insurance!"
"So, don't you think that being a Beastman is not so bad?" Sunset asked. "The way you talk about it being a disease… how do your beastman friends feel about that? You're treating their very existence as something that needs to be cured."
The comment hit her like a ton of bricks. Her thoughts went to the pained grimaces that crossed Melissa and Gem's faces when she spoke like that, or Shirou or Marie's reactions when she made those comments. A flash of pain, betrayal, and anger.
A disease.
Was being born different a disease? Was she just… as bad as Lisa had been? Ignorant?
She chugged down a whole bunch of parfait before the ice cream started freezing her brain and she had to slow down and moan pathetically until it went away. She clenched her teeth until the pain was gone, then morosely brought her phone over to log into Facelook. "Yesterday was my birthday," she said. "I got a bunch of messages from my classmates… people I thought were friends but now… I have heard them say horrible things about beastmen. What would they do if they found out I looked like this?" She gritted her teeth. "What would Nazuna say? What would my mom say…" She sighed, showing Sunset the picture of the cake. "...I couldn't even tell her I'm alive and well. And she made me a cake… I didn't even dare 'like' the picture on Facelook. What kind of daughter does that?"
Sunset gave her a gentle hug. "Does she know you're a Beastman now?"
Michiru shook her head. "I transformed at school, I was just lucky that none of my friends were around to see..." She felt a pang in her heart. "I couldn't face them. I locked myself in my room, only coming out at night to get food… I don't think my parents ever really found out what happened to me. I just left them a note telling them I was running to Anima-City. I never—they never saw me like this."
"Maybe…" Sunset hesitated. "Maybe you should tell her. This is who you are now… or at least until you decide who and what you want to be. And if you miss her, and she did that for you, I'm sure she misses you."
"I—" Michiru stopped herself from ranting. Could she do it? But even if she did, what would she do if her mother rejected her? What if her mom… was the type of person to hate Beastmen? What if she gave up on her? Even if she found the cure, would she ever be able to return to her mother if that happened? "I don't know."
Sunset hummed. "Let me ask you, do you really think this is a disease?"
Michiru grimaced. "I was human once, and I caught this and I am not anymore."
"But is it a disease… or is it just a change?" Sunset asked gently. "Do you really think you'd be so comfortable in your body if there wasn't something right with this change?"
"I—"
"Or do you think that your beastman friends are also diseased?"
"No!" Michiru snapped. "They are not! I'm just afraid that I'm—that I'm not me!"
Sunset hugged her fully. "You are you. I promise. I think you have been given a very rare chance. Something that the vast majority of people in the multiverse never get: an opportunity to embrace yourself as a new you, to be who you want to be, who you feel is right. You can choose, and you can be happy as long as you accept that while this was unexpected, you, and only you can decide what and who Michiru Kagemori is." She grinned and booped Michiru's nose. "And here's a tip: there is no wrong choice as long as it's you who makes it."
"Geez, you sound like you have practice doing this."
Sunset shrugged. "I've gone through my own identity crises before. And I'm sure I'll go through that again at some point." She elbowed Michiru. "So, your parents?"
"Maybe," Michiru sighed, clicking on the picture of the cake one more time. "My birthday was yesterday. They went out of their way to do this for me, and I wasn't around to thank them. I feel rotten inside. And scared."
"Being scared is only natural, but… what if—" Sunset spoke up, drawing her attention back to her "—you could come clean to them, and celebrate your birthday with them?" She grinned. "What if you were not alone when you came out to them, and there was a convenient place to celebrate together after?"
Michiru looked up at her.
Sunset had needed a slightly bigger frame for the picture, but Michiru's mom had insisted they print a bigger one, and to give her a copy. It wasn't a whole bunch of people, but it was full of heart.
Michiru held the cake her mom had made her in her paws, while her two parents watched proudly. She had only been able to give Michiru a brief period of time with her parents, but hopefully even at a distance they would be able to talk and understand each other more.
While Sunset didn't feel Michiru's father had really understood the changes in his daughter, Sunset could tell her mother had. She had seen who Michiru was becoming, and rather than fight it, had embraced it more fully perhaps, than her daughter up to this point.
But Michiru would get there… she was sure. And whenever she needed a parfait or some melon soda, well… that was what the Isekai was for.
End Chapter
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Never heard of this series, one of those put-all-the-plague-victims/survivors-in-one-place deals? Those are always interesting, a societal microcosm as everyone figures things out and a little culture shakes itself out.
Less zombies this time I take it?
Woo I love this show! It’s so fun and exciting! This is a great little bit, would be nice for a revisit at the end of the season or the next when it (hopefully) comes out.
10503508
Are you talking about BNA?
Would not be surprised if sunset knew a certain immortal wolf.
I would love for there to be a chapter featuring Bioshock, ideally after Burial at Sea Episode 2. Maybe give Elizabeth the endings she deserves, may be give her the ending featured at the end of infinite's story. Give Anna and Booker a happy ending.
Maybe the little sister Sally comes in trying to find help for Elizabeth and sunset discovers there's just enough life force in her to save.
Although I would suspect Sunset and the twins don't get along well. Something about the way they manipulate events strikes me as too coldhearted, though logical, for sunsets taste and the mechanics of sunsets bar is one of the few things they still can't figure out despite their so-called ultimate knowledge.... Those trends do have a tendency to have differences of opinion regarding certain matters.
Hmm, this was an interesting chapter. And a new series to watch. Did you really write this with the author of BNA?
10503525
I don't know, am I? Is that what it's called? Some sort of anime I take it?
Sounds like an anime.
10503550
It's an anime. Netflix jumped on the rights and started streaming it after its run on Japanese TV finished earlier this year.
10503508
The whole premise is that beastmen have been on the earth as long as humans, but since they can hide in human form they have only recently been discovered, and with humans being humans, this lead to a lot of xenophobia. The government made a city with the promise that all beastmen would be safe, so long as they stayed inside the city, with one of the compromises being that humans weren't allowed inside. Michiru is a special case in that she started out human and got transformed into a beastman (how it happened is explained later), and fled to the city when she started being hunted.
10503560
Ah. I could swear I've heard that one before.
Also had to look up Brand new animal(BNA). From they synopsis and what I read here it seems more x-men mutant thing then a zombie/plague thing. Or it's a furry thing, it could very well be a furry thing.
I watched BNA yesterday and is a good premise with good animation but is a bad anime in general. I really liked how you aborded this
I kinda expected something like this;
Michiru: What? You've been to Roman Empire? But that's several thousands years ago... wow... I can't believe I would meet someone older than Shirou.
Sunset: That is rude, you know.
So... Is Michiru being more comfortable in her new body a metaphor for being trans?
Anyway, I've been looking forward to this since you got the new cover.
Also, the purple text in the description is hard to read in night mode.
Good, thoughtful chapter. One thing, though...
Sunset was a Smurf?!
10503508
10503550
Check out these links:
(1) https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/BNABrandNewAnimal
(2) https://randomc.net/category/bna/
Awwww that was sweet.
10503576
I also thought that it seemed to be a metaphor, guess great minds think alike, huh?
but fools seldom differ
10503641
Yeah, there’s the obvious racism metaphor (the imagery of protests in the first episode will hit close to home for Americans), but when Michiru said “I don’t have to hide who I am anymore!”, my first thought was coming out.
10503622
Nifty. I think I'll pass on watching the fever dream of Adam Taurus though.
Alright! Almost have the full cast of the cover art introduced! LET'S GET KIPO INTO SUNSET'S BAR NEXT!!! WOO!!!
10503542
what!? *scrolls up to the header*
No, it was just WanderD writing this.
interesting.
do you trouble writing these kinds of chapters?
It would be interesting if a Group of customers showed up and saw the Sunset in the form they needed to see.
Said form being different to each person. Only realizing that each person saw something different as they talked about it in the bar.
When are you going to do Kipo and the age of the Wonderbeasts
10503528
Elizabeth... is kind of cursed, I think. She's the daughter of a time-traveling man who is also her kidnapper in some version of events. In fully half of the split realities, that same father is responsible for drowning the other half the split realities' fathers, and she rewards the survivor by drowning him so as to undo all of the realities and collapse the entire cluster of universes in the multiverse until nothing is left.
No matter where she goes after that, Death is chasing her down. Which is why Burial at Sea ends in horrific ways. She can only cheat it for so long. Eventually, it collects. And it isn't gentle about it. I really doubt there's anything Sunset could do about that. Elizabeth sets events in motion by killing her father before she is born, and destroying her own timeline. It would be like offering sanctuary to Clara Oswald at the end of her Doctor Who arc. You know she's got a timer counting down. The moment she leaves the bar, that timer hits zero. Do you really want to do that to yourself?
As for the twins... that's just incest taken to a whole new level. Just thinking about that would probably weird Sunset out. Especially since it doesn't take much to consider the possibility of a male Sunset alternate out there, and a certain reality-hopping bar. That's just a dive into "ick" territory, there.
Although on another angle, I wonder what advice Blake Belladonna would have for Michiru, if they met?
now this is a sweet moment. no pun intended.
I love BNA, great job, keep it up.
Michiru in her world has a happy continuation, for now, but how many bloodthirsty authors are demanding dark apocalypse conspiracies and others, where however many alternative realities, the reason for making a secured island for an , infestation, is to be able cleanly, cauterise, such infestations.
Next time Sunset meets her, will she be with freinds, turning up after freinds, or to make freinds in the bar?
As for Elizabeth. Theres been physical research into temporal paradoxes. They found that if you waited until after the starting event occured, then changed the outcome to force a paradox, the starting event altered to fix the paradox. At the moment, I only know they can reach back and change history by 10 nanoseconds deliberatly. But the Hubble Space Telescope collapses the early universe into a state for it to evolve to where the Hubble can be created, with every image it takes. Its just, how many other lifeforms can build something that works like the Hubble, in the Universe?
I felt BNA was incredibly rushed. I also feel that the show should have focused more on the mystery element. But the entire show was a rush job so I can’t fault the show for not liking it.
Yeah, Sunset's a good person to turn to in matters of species dysphoria. And the underlying metaphor's pretty clear. Good to see it turned out well for Michiru; not everyone's so lucky...
Still, lovely stuff. Thank you for another delightful installment.
10503579
Either Smurfette was having a crisis over the whole "literally tiny blue Pandora" thing or the customer spent a good five minutes losing their smurf over another female.
Smurfs!? Bah.
In before Figments shows up.
Anyhow, this chapter was okay. I feel like Shirou has more emotional baggage to unpack, but this works well enough. If you really want a good anime to use, Made in Abyss would be perfect. I'm hard pressed to think of characters more deserving of respite than Riko, Reg, and Nanachi.
Kind of waiting to see if Sunset's bar will ever appear inside a bar say someplace like Louis's Place from Tale Spin
This paragraph right here is gonna resonate with a lot of people, i think.
10503528
No hecking doubt.
10503563
It’s furry x-men.
Hrm. Isn’t Michiru a tanuki?
10503803
Yeah. Wonderful concept crammed into 12 episodes. Should’ve been standard MLP season length.
10503905
Yeah, but she’s ignorant/in denial for a good portion of the 12-episode run.
“Complete”? Season 1 is, yet there’s a running post-show manga and hopefully there’ll be a season 2.
10503688
Huh, D must have updated it since I read it when it came out.
I like to think that one day King Zuko will walk into the bar and sunset will be like, "Hey there hot head! How is the nation." Zuko will be very confused till sunset says that they met before and she shared tea with Iroh. They then have a chat about the world and Iroh.
10503576
Ehh, more about becoming comfortable with changing circumstances, I'd say. Someone who is trans will almost always have the feeling they were born in the wrong body and so transition to get rid of the dysphoria that often comes with it. Michiru, on the other hand, was always human and comfortable with being human, but became a beastmen because of an accident. She's adapting to her new life and finding it to her liking, not fixing something she always found inherently wrong with herself.
10503805
I made a similar joke in the Offprint Discord server earlier. Hmm.
I really think BNA needs to be remade with a focus on several seasons rather than having a new season.
On top of that I think it needs to focus more on the mystery angle with a slightly different ending
I don't know why, but somehow I can't wait for Zeratul to paid a visit to that bar... not that he would be able to drink anything, but still, his talk could be... interesting to read. :)
Really cool chapter!! I keep hearing about BNA, and this might be what convinces me to actually watch it :)
10503916
Yeah but the story says "raccoon."
Aww! This was a wonderful chapter to read. Especially having seen all of the episodes of BNA. What a cute-sounding photograph.
I mean, objectively speaking, it’s not a naturally occurring metamorphosis, so I would classify it as a disease.
It’s sort of like the Conversion Bureau situation, just a lot milder. There’s a difference between having the choice to become someone else, and having that choice forced on you and adapting to survive with that choice.
She feels better off with the changes that happened? Good on her. But not everyone would want to remain as something they’re not.