In all honesty, Ryan was ready for anything, but not the person he was currently staring at alongside his grandpa.
The tension held for one last beat. Ayanokoji stood poised, expectant, coat gently shifting in the heat of the firelight.
Ryan stared at him flatly.
Then he exhaled through his nose and rubbed his temples like a man whose caffeine had just worn off mid-war.
"You know what?" he muttered, glancing at Andreas. "No. Nope. Not tonight. I've hit my bullshit quota for the day."
Ayanokoji blinked. "I—"
Ryan raised a hand to silence him and turned toward the fireplace.
"I've been awake for nineteen hours. I've psychoanalyzed five teenage walking trauma bombs, got mildly threatened by my grandfather over ginger tea, and now you—some multiversal trench coat messiah—waltz in glowing like a nuclear paper cut."
He pointed to the still-open rift behind Ayanokoji.
"Portal. Out. Now."
Andreas let out a short, amused snort behind his tea.
"Come back tomorrow," Ryan added, without turning. "Breakfast is at 9. If you're still around at 9:01, I'll listen. But right now, I swear to every god across every pantheon, I will tase you in the jaw and file it under 'alternate therapy.'"
Ayanokoji blinked again. Then, surprisingly, he smiled.
"Understood. I'll see you in the morning."
He turned and stepped backwards through the glowing cuboid, trench coat flaring slightly.
The rift snapped shut with a soft click, like a door gently locking.
Silence returned.
Ryan slumped into his chair and muttered, "I need stronger tea. Maybe a caffeine shot"
Andreas sipped his own blend, still steaming in the quiet.
"Told you it works, and don't take caffeine like that.
The boys were gathered around the long quartz breakfast island, bowls and plates stacked high. Pancakes, pork belly, tea, and ramen clashed on the table in a glorious mess of cultures and cravings.
"Man, Anicon was so much fun," Naruto grinned, lifting his third bowl of ramen with the gleam of a man who'd fought gods and still chosen carbs. "Can't wait for next year."
"You already miss it?" Eren muttered, chewing on pork belly, savoring the smoky crisp. "We just got back."
Asta nodded toward the tattoo on his bicep. "Still can't believe the Doom Slayer panel had those ink booths. I'm keeping this till I die."
"Which you won't," Tanjiro added with soft conviction, placing a warm towel under Izuku's teacup.
Izuku chuckled. "I swear I'm still emotionally recovering from that Attack on Titan panel. The guy dressed as Floch was too accurate. I thought Eren was gonna deck him."
"I almost did," Eren muttered.
The table erupted in laughter again.
Everyone was talking.
Everyone except Ryan.
Across the room, he sat at the head of the table, hands laced under his chin, eyes flicking to the antique clock on the wall, then to the middle of the room.
Still no portal.
Andreas, ever the cryptic intruder-grandfather, had decided to crash for the night, uninvited but not unwelcome. He was currently lounging on the nearby couch, sipping his now-cold lemon-ginger-lime blend like he owned the damn house. Technically, he could claim partial rights. Unfortunately.
"Hey, Ryan?" Izuku's voice broke through the chatter. "You okay? You look like you're calculating planetary orbits."
Tanjiro looked over as well, concern gently blooming in his expression.
Ryan didn't speak. Instead, he lifted one hand.
Five fingers.
Then he slowly, deliberately, dropped one.
Four.
Another finger fell.
Three.
The table began to quiet as the boys noticed.
Two.
The room stilled.
One—
Nothing.
Ryan exhaled and muttered under his breath, "Shit. Off by one."
WHOOMMMM.
Right on cue, a vertical pulse of orange energy split the air across the kitchen's far wall. Glowing from the center outward, it stretched into a full portal — the same opaque TVA cuboid from the night before.
Out stepped Ayanokoji, trench coat crisp, face composed, expression unreadable.
"Good morning," he said like this was a board meeting. "I hope the waffles are good. You'll need the carbs."
Silence.
"Who the hell is this?" Naruto whispered loudly, chopsticks paused mid-bite.
Ayanokoji gave a small nod. "Naruto Uzumaki. Asta. Tanjiro Kamado. Izuku Midoriya. Eren Yeager. A pleasure to meet you... formally."
Ryan pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
"Everyone," he said flatly, "this is Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. He's with the TVA."
"The what now?" Asta blinked.
Andreas raised his tea with an amused hum. "Told you that tea works."
"Now, where do i start...", muttered Kiyotaka
About an half an hour later, The boys sat on the long sectional couch, now facing Ayanokoji like a panel of confused, overpowered interns in pajama pants. Ryan leaned silently against the mantle. Andreas remained standing, arms crossed behind his back, observing like an old general watching a chess match.
Ayanokoji stood calmly in the center, hands behind his back, perfectly composed.
Naruto was the first to speak.
"So let me get this straight—you're from the TVA? Like Loki TVA? That place with the clock lady and the alligator and... pruning sticks?"
Ayanokoji's lips twitched. "Yes, but... not exactly that one."
Asta leaned forward, frowning. "I thought they deleted people who stepped off their paths. Aren't we all, y'know... very off-path?"
"You are," Ayanokoji agreed, tone calm. "Which is why I'm here. But not to delete you. That's not what my branch does."
Izuku narrowed his eyes, gears visibly turning. "Wait... your branch? As in... there's more than one TVA?"
"Now there is," Ayanokoji answered. "After the Sacred Collapse, the Authority split into multiple units, each with autonomy over different multiversal sectors. Mine is... different."
Eren's eyes darkened slightly. "Different how?"
"My division is made of variants. People like you. People like me." He paused for effect. "We exist to protect others like us—not erase them."
The boys exchanged quick glances.
Tanjiro asked softly, "Then why are you here?"
Ayanokoji turned his gaze slowly to Ryan, then back to the group.
"Because all five of you are connected by a singular anomaly. A deeper one than timeline tampering or variant status. Something... rooted. And because of that, your case may define how the new TVA moves forward."
Silence followed.
Then Naruto raised a hand like a student in class.
"...So, you're not here to prune us, enslave us, or make us join some weird time cult?"
"Not unless you ask nicely," Ayanokoji replied without blinking.
Asta whispered to Tanjiro, "Is that a yes?"
Tanjiro gave him a polite but helpless shrug.
Izuku's hand was half-raised now. "Wait—so if you're not deleting us... what are you offering?"
"A tour," Ayanokoji said simply. "And a choice."
That drew everyone's full attention.
"If you're willing," he added, "I want to show you what we do. What you could help protect, if you so choose."
Ryan finally pushed off from the wall. "And after that," he said, "I'll be having a very long conversation with him... in his office. Off-world."
Andreas sipped his tea. "Better bring a notepad."
The portal snapped open again, this time stable and circular, suspended in the air like a doorway into eternity.
Ayanokoji stood beside it, trench coat fluttering lightly despite the still air.
"Step through when ready," he said. "There's... a lot to see."
The boys hesitated for only a breath. Then one by one, they stepped into the light.
Ryan and Andreas followed at the rear, the elder Mydent muttering, "Feels like we're walking into an interdimensional IKEA."
The room they emerged into was nothing like the TVA from the Loki series.
Gone were the amber-lit, analog-drenched offices with retro paper trails and humming computers.
Instead, they stood on a platform overlooking what could only be described as a living city. The architecture shifted organically, built of metal and crystal, its walls lined with massive glowing branches that pulsed like veins through reality. Data flowed across translucent conduits like water, branching into the multiverse.
At the center: a radiant white tree forged from energy and anchored to a suspended spire—the heart of the Variant Rectfication Division.
"Whoa," Asta whispered. "Is that the Tree of Life?"
"A construct based on it," Ayanokoji said. "Our central AI—code-named Yggdrasil—manages timeline flow within our assigned cluster. Built after the Sacred Collapse. And yes—I named it."
Naruto's mouth was wide open. "This makes Konoha's tower look like an outhouse."
"It's also not the only one."
The visitors turned their heads towards the host in confusion.
"Their are more of them?" asked Andreas in curiosity.
As if on cue, lights flared along the trunk. From its radiant crown and its deep digital roots, eight figures began to materialize—holograms perhaps, or something older dressed in modern skin. Not human, not quite.
A tall woman emerged first, wrapped in silver, her eyes glowing like distant stars.
Ayanokoji gestured lazily. "Skuld. Forecasting subsystem. She sees probabilities... and when they're likely to go wrong."
Skuld's gaze swept the room. "Current probability of Naruto Uzumaki tripping over a cable in the next ninety seconds: 92%."
Naruto stiffened. "Hey! I'm not that clumsy—"
"Updated: 94%," Skuld said calmly.
The next to appear was a woman in radiant gold, eyes warm, smile even warmer. She floated rather than walked, her robes flowing like real sunlight.
"Verdandi. Present monitor," Ayanokoji explained.
Verdandi tilted her head toward Tanjiro. "Your heart rate increases every time someone says Nezuko. That's... endearing."
Tanjiro's ears turned red. "I—it's not—! She's my sister!"
Ryan covered a laugh with a cough.
A cloaked figure stepped forward next, her robe ink-black, fingers stained with scrollwork. Her presence felt like the weight of memory pressed into silence.
"Urðr. Keeper of the past."
Urðr didn't smile, but her voice was soft. "Asta... you remember your first battle more than you think. The silence after the scream. The weight of what came next. You wear it, even now."
Asta looked down. Just for a second.
Above them, two shapes descended—birds, yes, but not like any found on Earth. One shimmered with thought, angles sharp and ever-shifting. The other pulsed with warmth, a presence like a childhood lullaby.
Ayanokoji pointed. "Huginn and Muninn. Thought and Memory. Odin's ravens. Don't mind the whispering—they eavesdrop on everything."
Huginn landed squarely on Ryan's shoulder.
"Your thoughts are inefficient today. Running on caffeine and overcompensation."
Ryan frowned. "Is that a diagnosis?"
Muninn floated beside Izuku, her voice a breath.
"Midoriya Izuku. You dream like a child who still believes heroes save everyone. It's... hopeful."
Izuku blinked. "Are they sentient birds?"
"Smart birds," Naruto muttered. "Creepy smart."
Next came a blur of motion. A squirrel-like creature leapt onto a console, tail crackling with static, eyes gleaming with mischief.
"Ratatoskr," Ayanokoji sighed. "Our communication relay and resident chaos elemental."
Ratatoskr waved. "Hey, Naruto! Heard you challenged a Variant Darth Vader to a ramen duel. Respect."
Naruto beamed. "He chickened out!"
Then came the stag.
Massive, glowing, regal. Antlers like crystal branches, every step it took sent ripples through the air.
"Eikthyrnir," Ayanokoji said simply. "System health, balance, regeneration."
The stag turned its gaze on Tanjiro.
"Your presence is like spring rain. Gentle. Steady. Healing."
Tanjiro bowed, reverent.
Last came the shadow.
A long, coiled form slithered into view, its scales slick with voidlight, eyes burning like dying suns.
"Níðhöggr," Ayanokoji said. "He eats entropy. And dying timelines."
Níðhöggr's voice rumbled low and deep, like the cracking of a glacier.
"Eren Yeager... you've walked the edge of collapse. Danced with ruin. You haven't fallen. Yet."
Eren didn't flinch. "Then I'll keep dancing."
Andreas, sipping his tea, let out a long sigh. "So. You've got oracles, ravens, chaos squirrels, a memory witch, and a dragon running your backend AI?"
Ayanokoji didn't even blink.
"Would you prefer Microsoft?"
Ryan turned toward the boys. "You'll be working with each of them. Learning, growing. Sometimes being insulted by prophetic rodents."
"Only lovingly," Verdandi offered.
"No promises," Ratatoskr grinned.
Ayanakouji crossed his arms. "Welcome to the roots beneath reality, boys, and old man. And welcome to your next challenge."
Panels hovered midair, displaying variant activity, collapsing universes in stasis, and restoration efforts in real time. Technicians—some human, others clearly not—walked briskly in armored uniforms with colored visors and clipboard-like data slates.
Eren glanced around slowly. "They're all like us?"
"Most of them," Ayanokoji nodded. "Every variant here survived deletion. Some were hunted. Some fought back. Others... were simply lost. Now, they protect what they couldn't before."
Tanjiro paused at a holographic mural—one showing a ruined Earth being rewound and saved. His hand instinctively rested near his heart.
Izuku raised a hand toward the skyline. "All this... runs on AI?"
The idea that a bunch of lines of code decided the fate of millions of lives felt plain wrong. Choices like that were to be made by the heart, at least that's what he believed. Maybe he shouldn't have read Isaac Asimov's books on his own.
"Yggdrasil processes entropy leaks and allocates resources to preserve variant-rich timelines, Miss Minutes actually did the same thing. It's up to the TVA to decide what to do with the processed data, and unlike the main TVA, we do allow branches—as long as they stabilize."
"And if they don't?" Naruto asked.
"Then we send specialists," Ayanokoji said with a faint smirk. "Doom Slayer is one of them, but trust me there are others."
The boys went silent.
"Doom Slayer works here?" Asta nearly shouted.
Ayanokoji simply started walking. "Come. I'll show you your options. And your potential."
Within thirty minutes, Ryan and Andreas were sitting in Ayanakouji's office staring at him. Ayanakouji had his back on his chair.
"Well," he started, "any questions so far?"
"Are you sure the boys are gonna be okay?" asked Ryan, his voice tinged with concern.
The boys in question had been left under the care of one of the field agents, AJ-084 if he heard it correctly, who had offered to take the boys to the library, under Kiyotaka's approval of course.
"AJ may be a bit of an airhead but she is good at what she does." answered Kiyotaka.
"My turn"
Kiyotaka turned towards the elder Mydent.
"You said that the root cause linking the boys to their deaaths was shared, yes?"
"Theoretically, yes" answered Kiyotaka as he stood up. He continued, "We sent some field agents to investigate and the residual energies we found had near similar frequencies but similar characteristics, at least that's what Muninn and Huginn said."
The occupants sat in silence as they processed the information. Ryan slid back into the chair, one question in his mind. "Okay, but what of the boy's worlds? They were literally based on their lives. I bet something catastrophic should have happened to the timelines involved by now, right?"
"You're right about that," said Ayanakouji as he kept staring out the window. "However, we managed to isolate the timelines involved and stabilize them so we'll be expecting no major changes any time soon, however... "
He turned his head and looked the seated guests with an unreadable expression on his face. "That's where the boys come in."
"How?"
"Simple," elaborated Ayanakouji, " I want them to be foundations. I'm building a safe haven, where variants aren't condemned for making a decision they weren't meant to make. The old TVA was really strict on what could and couldn't happen, they could prune you if you used peanut butter instead of jam on your bread or I you spent ten dollars more when buying something online."
"Seriously?"
"Time is way too fragile to leave to chance so they just did whatever they did to keep it balanced. Can't blame them though, time is really that sensitive."
"Okay, next question," said Andreas " From what I know about you, you're not the type to hand out assistance unless you're benefiting the most out of an agreement. What's you're end goal here, in this deal you're making with us?"
"Don't worry about me stabbing you in the back." Replied Ayanakouji, "I don't do that anymore."
Despite the confidence in his words, Ryan still couldn't read him. Even with his doctorate in psychology, Ayanakouji proved to be a wall. unchanging and completely still. No cracks to see through or flaw to exploit in his favor. It was a bit irritating, considering how good he was at reading people.
"Before we go," He started. "I want to know. Did you find them, you're emotions that is"
Ayanakouji smiled, slightly, and Ryan could see a crack he could peak through. The smile was genuine. It felt...real in a sense.
"Yes" replied Ayanakouji,"I found them and more."
They understood immediately,
"So," started Andreas taking the initiative to ask, "who's the lucky lady."
"Who said it was a lady?"
Ryan and his grandfather froze, suddenly losing colour from the mental images their mind formed.
"Relax," said Ayanakouji," I'm just kidding.". He had already turned towards the window to hide his smile. Ryan and Andreas breathed a sigh of relief. In all honesty, considering the jurisdiction of this operation, Adolf 'Freakin'' Hitler of all people could be working here he chose to give Deutsch-speaking Jews a second chance.
Yeah about that.....
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The five boys stared unblinking and utterly shell shocked at the man in front of them. They knew who it was. The moustache was to... iconic.
"It's considered rude to stare." Said Hitler, gaze unmoving from the book he was reading.
"Don't blame us" defended Naruto "We never thought we'd meet one of the world's most well-known dictators."
Hitler chuckled in dry amusement. His eyes still never left the book when he spoke again. " I see that the director finally took the initiative. " he said.
"What do you mean by that ?" asked Eren, already on edge.
"Calm down, Junger Eren " Replied Adolf, still maintaining his composure as his nose refused to leave his book. " It's just that you five in particular have been a rather hot topic of discussion in the TVA."
"Are we famous or something?"
"More or less. Basically, most Type 1 variances cause near-irreparable damage to the timelines involved. Thankfully, they are as rare as they are destructive."
"Let me guess" Said Naruto," we're famous, aren't we."
"Not in a good way." clarified Hitler. " For a long time, variants like you would got pruned on sight. You're unique situation however saved you"
The boys stared at Hitler, silently demanding an explanation. Hitler noticed this but chose not to answer. Instead, he continued reading. AJ, who had stayed quiet for the whole exchange, spoke up. "Don't worry about him," she said. "He has a thing for suspense. Anyway, if you guys wouldn't mind, we can go on with a tour."
"Yeah, lets get out of here." said Asta, sparring the German one more glance before following the TVA agent out of the room with the rest right behind him.
For the first time since reaching the library, Hitler looked up and watched as the five variants left the room.
"How do you think they'll react when they find out what you're here for? "
"Silence, Rat."
"It's Ratatoskr." whined the holographic squirrel. "Will you never call me by my actual name? "
"Yes."
"Fine, just don't call me a rodent."
"Says the squirrel."
Ratatoskr flinched before his head sagged and dropped and a dark cloud hanged over it. Adolf smiled slightly in triumph.
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An hour or two later, everyone was splayed around the living room of the Mydent Mansion, minus the two Mydents themselves. They were in Ryan's home office discussing something.
"Still can't believe we met Hitler." Muttered Naruto." Too bad we didn't find out why he got himself into the TVA"
"I'd rather not think about it." returned Asta. Tanjiro could tell he felt irritated based on the stench his ash-blonde friend was giving off. He however chose not to probe into it. He's been like that since they ran into Hitler.
"Still," Said Eren, effectively changing the topic, as he glanced at the black gauntlet on his left wrist. "I'm actually shocked they gave each of us a tempad."
"Yeah" muttered Asta as he tapped his lightly, watched the screen flicker to life as quiet tone chimed. "These are way cooler than grimoire covers,"
"And way heavier," Izuku said, "Did you check the data storage cap? Fifty-seven yobibytes. That's insane."
"What the hell is a yobibyte?" Naruto asked from the couch, clearly already bored of tech-speak.
"A measure of data," Tanjiro explained. "About a billion terabytes."
"Oh. So a lot."
"Yeah," Eren muttered, staring at his own screen. "A whole lot of everything."
The tempads weren't just transport tools. They came preloaded with historical files, research logs, and comparative analysis models of their homeworlds. Chakra theory. Ki networks. Anti-magic pathways. Breath styles. Quirk genealogies. And so much more things that were just plain random. Who'd need a full step-by-step manual for building a life-model LMG? What were they, Americans?
Every system, every mutation, every energy flow — catalogued, charted, and explained in precise TVA detail.
It wasn't just information.
It was truth.
The kind of truth most people would never be allowed to see.
And with it came a helper.
A calm voice echoed in each of their minds as the devices calibrated.
"Initializing Temporal Archiving and Retrieval Operations Tool. Please assign your preferred name for verbal command prompts."
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Ryan and Andreas sat opposite each other in Ryan's office, going through the day's events. Between them on the mahogany table lay a tempad that Ayanakouji had give them both to 'share'.
"How convenient." said Ryan, both literally and sarcastically.
The instructions for use were clear and simple. Each tempad recognizes different worlds through dimensional coordinates. Basically, consider a Cartesian Plane with three dimensions instead of the traditional two, the X, Y and Z axes. Now assume the origin represents the first timeline to ever exist ( A.K.A the Sacred Timeline or Prime Earth depending on what's easy for you ) and the combination of coordinates of the other axes determine the position of a timeline in said Cartesian Plane. Apparently, the X-axis represents the scientific advancement of the Earth with the positive side representing technology wile the negative side representing mysticism. The Y-axis on the other hand represented the historical period relative to the Prime Earth with the positive side representing timeline older than Earth Prime while the negative side represented the opposite. The Z-axis was however special. Up until the Sacred Collapse it didn't exist. After the Sacred Collapse was contained and the multiverse stabilized, the TVA had to find way to monitor the new timelines hence devised the Z-axis to represent the parallel worlds.
Essentially, if a world recorded a Z-axis of zero or null, it was an original or Genesis Earth. It doesn't go into the negatives because it doesn't have a negative side.
The coordinates of each world were recorded in each tempad using digits starting from 0 and stretching into infinity. The only reason was included was because Earth Prime could not be reached by the Tempads. Key in the coordinates as 000.000.000 and all you'd see on the screen would be a big fat "Error".
Ayanakouji had done his visitors the pleasure of loading in the coordinates of the boys respective worlds and for added measure, Ryan's as well.
"So what do we do now? "
Ryan raised his head and looked at his grandfather, genuinely at a loss for words. He drooped onto his chair and sighed heavily. He took a moment to arrange his thoughts and get them straight.
"Well, I have an idea."