The socially awkward villain's furry superpower

Sienna's classes went fairly well. It was still early in the school year, and half of the courses had been simplified to an almost absurd degree.

She found herself spacing out more often than before, but then again, she did have more things to worry about now.

Trinity... she's such a worry.

She earned less than two thousand dollars from the "handshake" platform, and another thousand dollars was owed to her by someone else. This amount of money... couldn't possibly accomplish anything significant.

She is essentially a single mother of five children.

When it comes to buying clothes for herself, even though her taste is quite conservative, she can easily spend two hundred dollars.

If she mainly eats ramen and cheap meals, her weekly food expenses would be around ten to twenty dollars.

If you multiply these expenses by six, and include her own and her sisters' share, then it would be... a huge sum of money.

Perhaps she can save a little here and a little there. Maybe she can find a part-time job.

It's quite common for students to do part-time jobs... she hopes so.

When get out of class ended, she wasn't even sure if she had absorbed half of the material.

This gives me even more reason to find time to study later.

Sienna now has about the same number of friends as when she first started school, but she has twice as many reasons not to interact with others.

So she rushed back to the dormitory. She had to get food for her sisters, coax them into taking a shower, do some homework, and maybe even preview her lessons.

She still needs to call Aleya Iakta.

Then, she opened the dormitory door.

On her desk sat an empty peanut butter jar, next to a gleaming silver toaster covered in peanut butter fingerprints.

There was a bread bag on the ground, and it looked like all the bread crumbs had been licked clean.

The suspects who committed this "crime" are now comfortably piled on the bed, their stomachs, arms and legs exposed haphazardly.

"What the hell is going on?" Sienna asked, which was perfectly reasonable.

Trinity… or at least one of the Trinity, peeked out from among the others and grinned. “Hey there, best sister!”

She cheered, “Do you want to join us?” Another Trinity wriggled to the side, making room on the bed just big enough for Sienna to lie down.

“No,” Sienna said, “no, I don’t want to.” She closed the door. “Where did this toaster come from?”

“Found it,” Trinity said.

Sienna silently reminded herself that she must never let them deal with the police again. "Where did you find it?" Sienna asked.

Another Trinity rubbed her eyes. "Downstairs?"

"You stole the communal toaster?" Sienna asked.

“It’s right there,” Trinity defended herself. “The bread and peanut butter too. Now they’re all ours.”

Sienna momentarily forgot her own worries, mainly because there was something more pressing to deal with. "Alright, everyone get out of bed," she said.

This remark drew a chorus of complaints.

Sienna pointed to one of the dirty Trinity, then to the bathroom, “Go take a shower.”

"Take a shower!" the girl shouted and ran over.

Sienna had initially thought that taking a bath would be a bit complicated, but it was good that she didn't have to argue about it.

"Okay, Teddy, do you remember I showed you where the washing machine is?"

Teddy's head drooped. "I don't want to do laundry, it's too boring."

Sienna pointed to her stained sheets, desperately hoping that they were just peanut butter stains.

"You should have told me when you were eating in bed. You're the oldest here."

Teddy grumbled, but still started pulling the sheets off.

“Athena, go wash up, then help Teddy.” Sienna then turned to the remaining Trinity, “You two, tidy up this mess.”

“Oh dear,” both Trinity exclaimed in unison.

Sienna glared at them, then noticed the toaster was gone. "Where did the toaster go?" she asked sensibly.

Just then, a loud crackling sound of electricity came from the bathroom, and all the lights went out.

“Oh no,” Trinity said, “I’m dead.”

“What did you say?” Sienna asked.

The room was much darker now, but not so dark that she couldn't see the confused expressions on Trinity's two faces.

A figure next to Trinity began to glow, and then another body appeared, dressed in the same clothes as the other two. "What's going on?" Sienna asked again.

Does she have four Trinity now?

“I’m dead,” all three Trinity said. “Mr. Toaster doesn’t like water.”

Sienna walked to the bathroom, pushed the door open abruptly, and quickly glanced at the situation inside.

The showerhead was still spraying water, which was splashing onto a smoking, shiny toaster covered in soap bubbles.

"What?" Sienna repeated, almost instinctively turning off the tap.

“It’s alright,” Trinity said. “As long as I’m alive, I won’t die.”

Sienna felt a headache starting to ache.

"Does this mean I don't have to do laundry anymore?" Teddy asked.

There was a knock on the door.

Sienna took a deep breath to calm herself down, then strode over and opened the door a crack.

She bumped into Sam, the girl from the next room. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Oh! You're experiencing a power outage here too?"

“Well,” Sienna said, “you, uh, do you know what’s going on?”

Sam shrugged. "Someone charged too many toys at once? I don't know. I'm going down the stairs. There's a bunch of guys there who love to show off how manly they are by resetting the power."

“Do you know how to do it?” Sienna asked.

"I know, I'm not stupid. But I don't want to be crawling around in the basement of this building without any lights."

"I'll just smile at them, give them a wink, and someone'll take care of it." She glanced behind Sienna. "Are you alright? You look pretty upset."

"I...I'm fine," Sienna lied.

"Okay... well, be careful and stuff."

“Okay, thank you,” Sienna said. She closed the door and turned to look at the five shameless girls. She didn’t even have the energy to scold them anymore.

“Forget about the laundry for now,” she said, and Teddy cheered. “Let’s not worry about it now. At least until the power comes back on.”

Teddy pouted again. "We...we need to think about Trinity, and...um."

“Oh!” Trinity said, “My superpower is that I always have three bodies. So I can come back to life after I die.”

I don't need to do laundry or anything else; as long as I die once, I can wear clean clothes again.

Sienna didn't even know where to begin her critique of that comment, so she decided to just let it go.

"You know what? I think that works too. It would spawn a new...you' near you every time."

“That wasn’t the new me, it was just another me,” Trinity said. “I think I become a little dumber when I’m smaller. Maybe. It’s really hard to say.”

All three of her bodies were resting their chins on their hands. "Should I die twice more so I don't have to take a bath?" she frowned. "But I love taking baths."

Sienna considered the feasibility of using suicide to avoid taking a bath, but then dismissed the idea.

"No, please don't do that. Actually, try not to die, okay?" She hadn't expected to have to add "no dying" to the dormitory rules, but now it really was necessary.

The power came back on, and the light snapped on. "Ugh, what bad luck," Teddy grumbled, and started tidying up the blankets again.

Sienna looked Trinity up and down. "Can any of you see what the other is seeing?"

Trinity blinked her six eyes. "Really?"

Even when the other you isn't around?

"But all of me are still me."

“Alright,” Sienna said, “then how about this, one of you go with Teddy and Athena and keep an eye on things, and the other… stay here and let me know if there’s any trouble, okay?”

“I can do it!” Trinity cheered. “Can we hug while we work?”

"How about this, one of you go take a shower first, and the other stays with me, then we'll switch."

"Wow, then I can do three fun things at once!"

Sienna was a little worried.

She walked to the bedside, sighed, and sat down. Trinity climbed onto the bed, shifted her position, and sat on Sienna's lap, wrapping her arms around her waist. "Ah, this feels so good," Trinity murmured.

Sienna began to gently pat Trinity's head, as if the girl were an oversized, skinny cat.

Her ears were indeed soft and small. She... had so many things to worry about. A whole lot.

Sienna didn't know where to begin.

However, it's quite quiet right now, and she likes quiet; quiet is good.

“We need to get you some clothes,” Sienna said absentmindedly.

Trinity gasped, looking up at Sienna with wide, almost sparkling eyes. "Can I dress up as a robber?"

“A… robber?” Sienna asked. “The kind who breaks into homes and robs?”

Trinity nodded. "Robbers are cool because they can find all sorts of things. I could be a great robber, carrying a big bag and stuffing everything I find inside."

Sienna stopped patting Trinity's head and rubbed her nose. "We'll see."