Miss Kobayashi's Road Trip To Brockton Bay

Cosy chaos meets cape noir as a Japanese salarywoman, her overprotective dragon maid, and the perpetually peckish Kanna stumble headlong onto the cape scene of Brockton Bay—a hard-edged hero city where paperwork bites, villains circle, and getting home means righting a few local wrongs.

Prologue

Morning slid into the apartment like a cat: unhurried, curious, determined to sit somewhere inconvenient.

Today was one of those rare Saturdays where everyone had somehow ended up gathered together—not for any particular reason, just the natural gravity that seemed to pull their strange little family into the same orbit.

Tohru hummed contentedly from the kitchen, her tail swaying as she prepared what she insisted was "just a light snack" but looked suspiciously like enough food to feed a small army. The scent of grilled meat and something sweet—probably those cream puffs Kanna loved—drifted through the apartment.

"Miss Kobayashi, would you like your coffee now or after the food?" Tohru called out, already knowing the answer but loving to hear it anyway.

"Now is good," Kobayashi replied from her spot on the couch, not looking up from her laptop. She was supposedly catching up on some documentation for work, but the reflection in her glasses showed she'd been browsing programming forums for the last twenty minutes.

Kanna sat cross-legged on the floor, meticulously arranging her collection of acorns and interesting rocks she'd found during their last park visit. Each one had to be in exactly the right spot, though the pattern made sense only to her. Occasionally, she'd hold one up to the light, examining it with the serious concentration of a museum curator. Ilulu was sprawled on her stomach beside her, chin propped on her hands. The older dragon had been trying to understand Kanna's organisational system for the past ten minutes with limited success.

In the corner, Fafnir's fingers flew across his handheld console, the rapid clicking providing a steady background rhythm. Takiya sat beside him, offering occasional commentary that Fafnir either acknowledged with a grunt or ignored entirely, depending on how the battle was going.

"You should use your special move now," Takiya suggested.

"Hmm."

"Or... not. That works too."

Elma had claimed the other end of the couch from Kobayashi, a box of doughnuts balanced on her lap. She ate them with the reverent attention of someone performing a religious ritual, occasionally making small sounds of appreciation that made Tohru shoot disapproving glances from the kitchen.

Near the window, Shouta sat at the small table Kobayashi used for meals when Tohru wasn't insisting on elaborate dining arrangements. Lucoa lounged beside him, supposedly helping with his studies but mostly just leaning close enough to make him blush every time she "accidentally" brushed against him.

"Shouta, you're so tense," she said, stretching in a way that was definitely not necessary. "Magic works better when you're relaxed."

"I-I am relaxed," Shouta muttered, very obviously not relaxed at all. In his hands, he held a small crystalline orb that pulsed with a faint inner light. He'd been practising basic manipulation exercises—making it float, changing its colour, simple things.

Kobayashi looked up from her screen to stare at the orb suspiciously. She had long since stopped being surprised by casual displays of magic, though she drew the line at anything that might damage her apartment or require explaining to the landlord.

The orb flickered between blue and green as Shouta concentrated, his brow furrowed with effort. It was a focusing crystal, something Lucoa had given him to help channel his growing magical abilities. "Like training wheels," she'd explained, though Shouta hadn't appreciated the comparison.

"You're doing well," Lucoa said, and for once her tone was genuinely encouraging rather than teasing. "Try expanding the matrix a little more."

Shouta nodded, taking a deep breath. The orb's glow intensified, spreading outward in gentle waves. It was pretty, actually—like looking at sunlight through water.

Tohru emerged from the kitchen carrying a tray laden with cups and plates. "Coffee for Miss Kobayashi, tea for everyone else, and—" She paused, sniffing the air. "Shouta, what spell are you practising?"

"Just energy manipulation," Lucoa said, waving a hand dismissively. "Nothing dangerous…"

Lucoa trailed off as the orb suddenly turned the colour of a thunderhead smoothed by a river. Tohru’s eyes narrowed suspiciously at the Runes that began pacing across its surface.

"Lucoa?" Shouta said, voice rising slightly.

Concerned, she tapped a finger gently against the object, as one would smack the side of a faulty TV.

Ping.

The orb thrummed. Not loud. Not dramatic. But the air drew itself a little tighter, as if the room were a sweater being knit one stitch smaller.

"Oh my," Lucoa sat up straighter, her usual lazy demeanour vanishing. "That's not supposed to—"

The orb pulsed once, twice, and then erupted in a burst of light that made everyone shield their eyes. When the spots cleared from their vision, a tear hung in the air above the table—a jagged rip in space itself, edges crackling with unstable energy. Through it, they could glimpse what looked like a city street, but wrong somehow. The architecture was different, foreign.

"Nobody move," Lucoa said sharply, but it was already too late.

The tear began to pull, gently at first, then with increasing force. Papers flew off Kobayashi's laptop, Kanna's rocks scattered, and Elma's doughnuts went tumbling (she made a truly heartbroken sound at that).

“Shut it down,” Fafnir hissed, sounding mildly annoyed.

“I’m trying!” Shouta said in the thready pitch of panic as he tried to turn off the orb.

"Grab onto something!" Tohru shouted, but the apartment was small and there wasn't much to grab that wouldn't just come along for the ride. She lunged for Kobayashi, wrapping her arms around the human woman protectively.

"Tohru, what's—" Kobayashi didn't get to finish the question.

The pull intensified dramatically. Lucoa lunged, snatching Shouta out of the way before he could be pulled in. Fafnir’s sleeve snapped in the wind of it; he distractedly grabbed Takiya by the collar; Elma’s hair whipped; Ilulu braced herself against the table, eyes wide. Kanna, being the smallest and lightest, went first—not with fear but with a surprised "Oh!" as her feet left the ground. Without thinking, Tohru reached out with her tail to catch her, still holding Kobayashi with her arms.

It was exactly the wrong thing to do. Or perhaps the right thing, depending on how you looked at it. Connected as they were, when the portal's pull finally overcame the strength of the furniture Tohru grabbed onto, and all three went together.

"MISS KOBAYASHI!" Tohru's voice dopplered strangely as they tumbled through the tear, Kobayashi clutched against her chest, Kanna wrapped in her tail.

The last thing Kobayashi saw was Ilulu lunging forward, Shouta's horrified face, and Fafnir actually dropping his game console—which, more than anything, drove home how serious the situation was.

Then reality twisted, colours that didn't exist burned across her vision, and everything went sideways in a way that had nothing to do with direction.

###

The sensation of falling through the portal was like being turned inside out while someone played all the radio stations at once directly into your brain. Kobayashi had experienced some strange things since Tohru came into her life, but this was new levels of unpleasant.

Then, as suddenly as it began, it ended.

They tumbled onto hard pavement, Tohru somehow managing to twist in midair so she took the brunt of the impact, with Kobayashi and Kanna landing on top of her. For a moment, they just lay there in a heap, trying to remember which way was up.

"Ow," Kobayashi said eloquently.

"Are you hurt, Miss Kobayashi?" Tohru was immediately trying to check her over for injuries while still lying on the ground, which resulted in a lot of awkward squirming.

"I'm okay," Kanna announced, sitting up and looking around with bright curiosity. "Where are we?"

Good question. Kobayashi adjusted her glasses (miraculously unbroken) and took stock of their surroundings. 

They were in the middle of a bewildered crowd in what looked like a city plaza or small park. Booths and tents lined the edges—some kind of community fair or PR event. American flags hung from several of the tents, and all the signs she could see were in English. "Brockton Bay Community Outreach Day", read a large banner strung between two poles.

The architecture visible beyond the park was distinctly American—all brick and steel in a way that Japanese cities rarely were. Even the smell was different, salt and industry mixed with the more immediate scents of food vendors and fresh-cut grass.

"I don't think we're in Japan anymore," Kobayashi said slowly, helping Kanna sit up.

The crowd's murmuring grew louder. She caught fragments: "—out of nowhere—" "—cape business?—" "—call the PRT—" "—are those meant to be costumes?—"

Before anyone could decide whether to approach or run further away, three figures pushed through the crowd with practised authority. Kobayashi's brain took a moment to process what she was seeing because it looked like something out of one of those American superhero movies Takiya sometimes made them watch.

The one in front was covered head to toe in blue armour, high-tech looking with lights and what might have been weapons built into it. He moved with purpose, crowd parting before him automatically. Beside him strode a woman in military fatigues with an American flag bandana covering the lower half of her face and a rifle that, while not pointed at anyone, was very obviously not a prop. The third figure was in a red costume with a lightning bolt design, and he'd apparently just zipped in from another direction entirely, given how some people were still pointing where he'd been a second ago.

They'd been up on the stage, Kobayashi realised. This was their event they'd crashed.

"Everyone, stay calm," the armoured one commanded, his voice carrying through some kind of speaker system. "Please maintain a safe distance."

The crowd backed up further but didn't disperse. If anything, more phones came out.

The three cosplayers (because what else could they be?) formed a loose triangle around Kobayashi's group, not quite surrounding them but definitely cutting off easy escape routes. Not that they were planning to run, but still.

"Portal manifestation," the armoured one said, though he seemed to be talking to someone else, touching the side of his helmet. "Three subjects. Appear to be... civilians?" He sounded uncertain about that last part. His attention turned to them when he spoke again. “Identify yourselves."

Kobayashi frowned. The armoured man’s tone wasn't quite hostile, but it wasn't friendly either. His eyes flickered between the three of them, lingering on Tohru’s horns and tail.

Tohru stepped forward slightly, putting herself between the strangers and Kobayashi. Kanna pressed closer to her side. The temperature around them dropped noticeably, though maybe that was just Kobayashi's imagination.

"We don't want any trouble," Kobayashi said in stilted English, grateful for all those hours spent documenting code with international teams. She put a restraining hand on Tohru's arm, feeling the tension there. "We're just... lost."

"Lost," the armoured man repeated flatly. "You appeared out of a spontaneous rift in the fabric of space. That requires a more detailed explanation.”

"Armsmaster," the woman said quietly, some kind of warning in her tone. Her eyes—the only part of her face visible—were studying them intently. "There are children present."

The woman turned back to them, her tone conciliatory. “Apologies. My colleague is perhaps a bit too… direct,” she said, offering a slight, professional smile. “But he’s right. Your arrival is highly unusual. My name is miss Militia, this is Armsmaster, and my colleague over there is Velocity. We’re heroes—members of the Protectorate. We protect this city from threats, and right now we need to understand what happened here."

Kobayashi sighed. This was a nightmare. Surrounded by a crowd, confronted by what appeared to be the local authorities. She looked at the three 'heroes,' weighing their options. They were clearly out of depth, in an unfamiliar place, and had no idea how to get home. These people seemed official, or at least organised. And despite Tohru's protective instincts, starting a fight here would only make things worse.

"Sorry," she said finally, choosing her words carefully. "But we don’t understand it either. One moment we were at home, the next we were here. We’re just as confused as you are.” She met Miss Militia’s gaze, trying to convey sincerity. “If you are the authorities, then perhaps you can help us. We’d be happy to go with you somewhere… less public, to sort this all out.”

Miss Militia studied her for a long moment, then nodded. “That seems reasonable. We appreciate your cooperation. Our headquarters isn't far. We can discuss everything there."

"And you'll help us get home?" Kanna asked, looking up at the woman with those big eyes that usually got her extra dessert.

Miss Militia's expression softened slightly behind her bandana. "We'll certainly try."

She glanced at Armsmaster, who frowned but ultimately gave a curt, almost imperceptible nod of his own.

“Very well,” Armsmaster declared. He turned to the crowd. “The situation is under control. Please disperse in an orderly fashion.” He then gestured with his halberd towards a sleek, armoured vehicle parked nearby. “Come with us. We'll take you to our headquarters now.”

Kobayashi nodded, gently nudging Tohru and Kanna forward. As they walked towards the vehicle, the whispers and stares of the crowd followed them. The name of the city, which she had seen on the banner – Brockton Bay – echoed in her mind. She had never heard of it. As she stared at the ‘Heroes’ leading them away, Kobayashi couldn't shake the feeling that they'd fallen into something much more complicated than a simple magical accident.

###

Back in Kobayashi's apartment, chaos reigned.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Ilulu shouted, grabbing Shouta by the shoulders and shaking him. "WHERE DID THEY GO?"

"I don't know!" Shouta wailed, tears streaming down his face. "I didn't mean to! The orb just—it wasn't supposed to—"

"Ilulu, stop," Lucoa commanded, pulling her away from the boy. Her usual playful demeanor had completely vanished, replaced by something ancient. "Shouta, I need you to tell me exactly what you were thinking when the crystal activated."

"I-I was just trying to expand the field like you said!" Shouta hiccupped through his tears. "But then I thought about how nice it would be if I could make portals like the ones Tohru uses, and the crystal just... reacted."

Fafnir stood at the spot where the portal had been, one hand extended as if feeling for something invisible. "The space is torn," he said quietly. "But already healing. Whatever that portal was, it wasn't meant to stay open."

"Can you trace where it went?" Takiya asked. He'd immediately started taking photos of the area with his phone, documenting everything he could see.

"No." Fafnir's expression was grim. "It doesn't smell like our world. Or any of the connected realms."

"What does that mean?"

"It means," Lucoa said slowly, "that they're in another world entirely. One not connected to our dimensional network."

The room fell silent as that sank in.

"But... but we can get them back, right?" Shouta looked between the dragons desperately. "There has to be a way!"

Lucoa pulled him into a hug, and for once, it wasn't flirtatious or teasing. Just consoling. "We'll find a way," she promised. "No matter how long it takes."

"I'll contact my father," Fafnir said abruptly. "He knows more about dimensional magic than any being alive."

"I'll reach out to the harmony faction," Elma added. "Maybe they've encountered something like this before."

As the dragons began making plans, Takiya quietly began searching online for any reference to interdimensional portals, magical accidents, or anything that might help. It was a long shot, but with Kobayashi's life potentially at stake, he'd try anything.

Outside, the sun continued its lazy afternoon descent, indifferent to the drama that had just unfolded. Somewhere, in a world none of them could reach, three members of their strange little family were about to discover just how different a place could be.

And back in the apartment, a small boy cried in the arms of an ancient dragon, wishing more than anything that he could take back that one moment of idle curiosity that had changed everything.