A far more expected sight met Mateo's eyes as he opened them this time, met instead with a hospital ceiling. The hospital definitely had him on something, because he didn't feel much pain. Which was a relief in its own way. Considering what he'd heard from Viola, he figured he was better off numb. Though that came with another issue. Now that he was back in the real world, he realized how hazy what he'd just experienced was. Everything about that felt very dream-like, especially how easily he'd accepted everything that'd happened. He began to dismiss the dream as something that came as a result of the medication; yet something in his mind refused to let him fully let it go. It took him a second more to realize he wasn't alone in the room as he saw a nurse checking his IV. When she noticed his eyes open, she gasped and ran out. Rude.

Taking a second to gather his surroundings, Mateo realized that yes, he was in fact in a hospital room. Quite the revelation there. With a little more examination, he figured that with the sheer amount of equipment he was currently hooked to, it was guaranteed he was in the ICU. Wouldn't be the first time. Though he wondered why the nurse had that shocked reaction.

A moment's later, it'd seem he'd get his answer as 3 doctors and that same nurse all came back into the room at once. The doctor standing at the front immediately gave him a once over, a look of mild bewilderment on his face.

"You're not supposed to have woken up for at least a week!"

Well that was news to Mateo. He wanted to say something snarky, but when he tried to open his mouth to speak he found it was so dry that he just mumbled some garbage instead. Instead, he elected to utter the word 'water', causing the nurse to leave the room in a bit of a hurry. While he was surprised, he wasn't worried like one normally would be. He and his sister had always healed pretty fast after being hurt, and was used to surprising doctors with that. Honestly, that's what was leading the most credence to what this so called 'Viola' had revealed to him while he was asleep, assuming that was even real at all, though he was confusingly inclined to believe it was. Before he could get lost in that train of thought the doctors immediately began running a few tests on him. One muttered in shock about how the previously needed organ transplant was now seemingly unnecessary as the one ruptured lung was miraculously healed. Okay now THAT was more news to Mateo, prompting a bit more of surprise to him.

Maybe a Goddess had worked a Miracle after all.

After the baffled doctors concluded testing and were satisfied with the state of his health, they finally said something about allowing visitors. This prompted a mixture of relief and dread in Mateo. He knew his sister was supposedly (if the dream was to be trusted) already at the hospital. She likely hadn’t gone home for the entire duration of his stay if he’d only been here for the night like the doctors said. Knowing her, she’d immediately rush to check on him, and would scold him for jumping in the middle of the road to save a random kid he didn’t know. Add that to the fact that they hadn’t seen each other in months and he was going to get yelled at for not calling.

As expected, not 20 minutes after the doctors left the room (with the kind nurse still returning with some water here and there), his sister exploded into it.

"You don't answer my calls for FOUR MONTHS, and the next thing I hear is that you got hit by a TRUCK."

Mateo, instead of answering elected to take a sip of his water, waiting tentatively. So his sister continued on;

"And besides that, what's this about you jumping in front of it yourself? You...!" she then sighed. "... you really, really haven't changed."

She seemed to calm down, anger being replaced with a more tired expression that highlighted the worry in her face. Her ordinary bright, blue eyes were now darker, almost matching Mateo's natural hue. Her pitch black hair was unkempt, the dyed dark red bang a complete mess. As some of the linger fire left her, she slouched. Though she was still imposingly tall. In most ways they looked alike, their eyes being their most distinctive difference.

Mateo broke the silence after a pause.

"... Hey, Bea. Missed you."

"If you missed me you should have called back, dipshit."

Mateo adjusted himself to sit up more, sighing. His blood sister, Beatrice. They were second generation Americans, born to immigrants who were also born to immigrants. Mateo had been named by their mother, who was Spanish and Japanese, while Beatrice had been named by their father, who was Italian and German. It was a bit of a messy family tree in general, though Mateo currently suspected that might have been the draw for Viola in the first place. He paused upon contemplating the accuracy of what all Viola had said. Though he didn't have much time to consider that before Beatrice snapped a few times in his face.

"Hey, Earth to dumbass, you sure you didn't suffer any brain damage? I'm asking if you think you'll be checking out today or if you're gonna stay another night. If you are heading out I can give you a ride home."

Mateo shook himself back to reality with a smile as a doctor walked back into the room.

"Yeah, I think I'm fine enough, let's go ahead and check out."

-

After some protesting from the doctors and a mountain of paperwork, he finally managed to get discharged. Normally hospital bills would have had him stressed out, his grandparents had overheard that he'd gotten hurt saving someone else, and had elected to pay it off for him. Normally they were pretty strict and would have made pay it himself. Out in the parking lot however, he was stopped by a woman and a familiar child. She immediately ran up, tears in her eyes as she thanked Mateo over and over. The mother of the child he'd saved. She called him a hero.

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Mateo gave a tight smile in return as he scratched the back of his head.

"I was just doing what was right, ma'am, anyone would have done it. I'm no hero."

After turning down an offer for monetary compensation, he elected to at least accept a cup of coffee from her, before finally getting in his sister's car to head on home. On the car ride to his apartment, he stared out the window, watching a cloud. three minutes in, his sister spoke up.

"So, when are you going back to college."

"And you WONDER why I don't answer your calls!"

"Oh don't you start with me, why the hell would you drop out when you were like, a couple of credits short of an engineering degree?"

"Because I just didn't feel like finishing, okay? I like the job I have now."

"No you do-fucking-not. You're always telling me about how much of an asshole your manager is, though I was pretty close to getting some revenge for you."

"... Elaborate."

"Well, when I went to your work to tell your boss why you were out, he said something stupid, so I tried to deck him."

Mateo held his face and groaned hard.

"If I get fired because of you..."

"Hey, your detective friend happened to be there and grabbed my arm before it landed, so no charges were pressed."

"Oh, what was Elijah doing up there?"

"Looking for you, apparently. Don't be surprised if he's on your couch when we get back, apparently it's important."

"Oh, no..."

Elijah was an old friend of his, from back in high school. Pretty odd guy, ended up denying a nice scholarship to instead be a private eye. Though Mateo was pretty sure he was doing it more for fun more than any real desire to be a actual detective. He was pretty good at it though, so he usually had work. Even if it was benign stuff like finding missing dogs.

Mateo looked up at the rearview mirror, and nearly jumped out of his skin. In the backseat, through the mirror, he saw Viola sitting there, waving at him with a quick smile. He quickly turned around, but no one was sitting there.

"... you okay dude?"

"Yeah, just. Thought I saw something in the mirror."

He let out a small exhale. When he looked back at the mirror, he saw only an empty seat this time.

"Maybe you should have stayed checked in a bit longer."

Mateo snickered at that.

They finally pulled into the parking lot of his apartment. Stepping out of the car, Beatrice walked in front of Mateo till they reached his door, where she pulled out a key and unlocked it. Mateo looked at her inquisitively.

"Where did you get a key to my place?"

"Stole yours and made a copy."

"When was that?"

"Last year, around when- whoops."

She dodged his hand as he tried to swipe it from her, tripping into his room.

"What? Don't trust your dear sister with a key to your place?"

"Absolutely fucking not."

"Sucks to suck."

Mateo sighed as he stood back up. Walking into his kitchen, he grabbed a clementine and starting to peel it as he began to sit down at the counter, before realizing someone else had also broken into his apartment. Though, at least this guy had permission. Elijah, the 'so-called' detective, was sitting on the couch, playing a game on his console.

"Ah, took you long enough to get here."

He paused the game and walked into the kitchen, fist bumping him, before pausing as he looked into Mateo's eyes. Elijah squinted.

"Something good happen?"

"..? Not especially."

"Huh. You look a bit different though."

Elijah knew him better than anyone, and they'd been friends for a long time now. Even still, he didn't tend to come over unless it was important. Though Mateo did consider that being hit by a truck did constitute 'being important' enough.

"Hey Bea."

Elijah waved at Beatrice, who was already making herself at home with a pack of beer from the fridge, much to Mateo's annoyance. Mateo finished his clementine before standing back up.

"You two chat and put something on the TV, I wanna rinse in the shower before I do anything else."

Beatrice tossed Elijah a beer before cracking open one herself.

"Right, don't take too long, we got some catching up to do."

-

Mateo waved his hand dismissively as he went into his room, taking off his shirt as he stepped into the connected bathroom. Looking in the mirror, instead of himself, he saw Viola there, smiling. He blinked a few times, but this time she didn't go away.

"Sorry I took so long to contact you, it was harder to get a working connection to here than I thought."

"... I'm not hallucinating right now am I?"

A cold sweat went down his back.

"No, you aren't. I thought I'd do you the courtesy of confirming that what you experienced was in fact not a dream. The fastest way I could do so was appearing in your waking world. Though this is the only way I really can. By the way, I have your first hit lined up!"

She excitedly waved a paper around in the reflection.

"It's a request from the God of Mirrors, apparently after killing the Demon Lord, his chosen hero decided to 'unite the world's kingdoms' with himself as their ruler. Real nasty business there, he's pretty much enslaved half the world at this point."

Mateo gulped at the implication of that all.

"I'll start preparing a vessel for you to move around in. You'll be heading out tomorrow at 12, so make sure you get your affairs in order, because you won't be able to come back until you've offed your mark!"

"Wait, I thought you said I could move freely between worlds?"

"I said more freely than most Transmitigators. It still takes a chunk of my Divine Power to move you between worlds, and right now I have virtually none besides what I put aside specifically to move you to this next world. Once you finish this hit and I've gotten some more divinity, you'll be able to move more freely."

Mateo considered that, before nodding.

"Alright, that makes sense I guess..."

The image in the mirror flickered a bit.

"Ah, seems I don't have much longer. I'll see you in your dreams tonight to go over some more. Have fun with your sister and friend for now! Make sure you come up with some excuse as to why you'll be disappearing."

"Wait, does the time that passes go 1:1 between worlds?"

"Well, no actually. Your world moves through time a little slowly. So any time you spend in another world will only have half the time pass on your Earth. Regardless, you'll be gone for a while. Don't worry about aging though, as soon as I gave you my blessing it extended your lifespan well beyond natural limits anyways."

"One more question before you go, some weird popup said I got two skills. Gun Generation and Bullet Generation. What do those mean..?"

"Well, they do what they say on the tin, but we can save the real magic lesson for tonight. I'll let you go for now!"

Mateo blinked at the non-answer as she disappeared from the mirror, leaving him staring at his own reflection. In doing so he noticed had a new scar on his chest. Quickly dismissing that as apart of the accident, he removed the rest of his clothes, before stepping into the shower, beginning to consider just how much his life was about to change.