In a puddle of murky water, a mix of clear water and dust, Li Xuan and Kiana stood as if mesmerized. In front of them was a glass bottle with several rings at the bottom, but that wasn't the main point... The main point was the palm-sized girl perched on the mouth of the bottle, rubbing her little head!
"Ugh... What just happened? After being bitten by that weird guy, I felt so strange..." the girl in the bottle said, opening her ocean-blue eyes.
"..." No, you went completely Spartan, transforming into the legendary fantasy monster 'tentacle monster' and nearly wiped us all out.
"Wow~ The water really can talk! So cute, is it a water spirit?" Kiana crouched down, looking at the adorable girl before her, a completely different person from the panicked mess she was moments ago.
'I've lost all hope in this world that judges by looks...' thought Li Xuan, who himself had a handsome face.
"Melk! Are you okay?" a voice suddenly called out from behind them.
It was the young boy who had been thrown into a pile of dirt and knocked unconscious by Melk when she transformed into the tentacle monster. Incredibly, he seemed perfectly fine now, still full of life, except for his slightly red eyes...
"I'm fine~ Just a little dizzy..." Melk said, sticking out her tongue while touching her azure hair.
"The water can talk! Ah, so cute..." A certain white-haired furball had already become a fan.
"Honestly! Why did we suddenly end up in such a weird place just by touching that ring?" the girl in the bottle, Melk, pouted, looking puzzled.
"This isn't some weird place~ This is Nagazora City," Raiden Mei explained.
"Nagazora City?! What's that? Yuu! Is this place on the map?" Melk turned her head and asked the boy. Even the knowledgeable Lady Melk had never heard of this place.
"No, this place isn't on the map of the Mefertahane Continent..." the boy named Yuu said.
"Mefertahane Continent?!" Kiana was stunned. Even a slacker like her, whose literature grades were abysmal, knew that there was no such thing as the Mefertahane Continent on Earth...
"Uh... this place is on a continent called Earth..." Raiden Mei explained.
The girl in the bottle, Melk, and the boy, Yuu, exchanged a look. "...Huh?!" At this point, even a pig would know they had transmigrated!
"So they're from another world!" Li Xuan said excitedly. Someone else besides me has transmigrated to this place! This fact brought Li Xuan a sense of relief and, at the same time, a glimmer of hope for returning home. Before, he was like a rootless duckweed, but now he had finally found hope of reaching the shore. After all, family ties are unbreakable. He still had his younger sister and parents.
"...Yeah," Kiana, Raiden Mei, and Bronya Zaychik were a little confused as to why Li Xuan seemed overly excited.
"Hmm... this must be a ring that can travel through space-time. I've heard legends about things like this before," Yuu said, looking at the silver ring in Melk's bottle.
"So we can go back just by touching it again?" Melk cheered up. She preferred the forests, oceans, grasslands, and towns of her own world to this place. This place called Nagazora City always gave her an uncomfortable, deathly still feeling.
"Yes, that should be it," Yuu nodded.
"What a magical ring..." Raiden Mei sighed, looking at the ring bobbing in the clear water. She wished she had a ring that could turn back time, so that...
"Thank you all very much, but we must be going now," Yuu said sincerely. He took out a piece of Fire Rat Fur from his pocket and stuffed it into Li Xuan's hands. "Uh, please take this Fire Rat Fur as a token of our gratitude."
"Yuu! You have to buy me that ring when we get back!" Melk reminded Yuu.
"I know, I know!" Yuu said with some resignation. We transmigrated because I didn't buy it for you this time. Who knows what'll happen if I don't buy it next time?!
The silver ring in Yuu's hand glowed faintly, and the next moment, it erupted in a blinding silver light.
Biu~
When the light faded, the spot where Yuu had been standing was... empty.
"What... is this?!" Li Xuan said, puzzled, looking at the fiery red and gold fur in his hand.
"...Did we just watch a sci-fi movie?" Raiden Mei was still in shock.
"Meh~ It's probably just some space-time distortion caused by a Honkai source, no big deal. We should get going too," Kiana said, unfazed. She didn't even show any interest in the thing in Li Xuan's hand. Fur... can you eat it?!
"Haven't we seen plenty of incidents of transmigration caused by Honkai energy? For example, that vampire named Lilo Ai and her partner Yeren; and 22 and 33, who invited us to hang out not long ago..." Kiana said with a yawn.
"...Food, food!" Kiana quickly rushed into an abandoned convenience store to search for food.
"..." Li Xuan stood there with a twisted expression. 'Lilo Ai'... the protagonist from the 'Bloodline' manga I've read. '22' and '33'... characters from a certain domestic anime website... This world is really something else... Li Xuan thought, rolling his eyes.
Heavens, are you toying with me! Ahhh!! Li Xuan's worldview suffered a heavy blow. He was dead...
(End of Chapter)