Ten minutes later.
"Ahh, just as I thought. Even as a Cat, I'm still unbelievably cute!"
Having fully grasped the situation, the pink fairy lady who had learned she could return to the Previous Era was now staring at herself in the vanity mirror, admiring her new feline form.
A perfectly round face, soft chubby cheeks, a wide forehead, big eyes, a tiny pink nose.
Too cute, meow.
Elysia Cat had officially surpassed Fairy Elysia herself and claimed first place on "Elysia's Personal List of Cutest Pets I Want to Raise."
What people loved most were her eyes.
Clear, brilliant blue, the kind that made you want to lean in without realizing it.
Unbearably adorable.
Even Elysia had to admit that her eyes were more captivating as a cat than in her human form.
"Hm… that's probably because a cat's face structure is closer to a human baby's. Your proportions right now are closer to when you were an infant."
Kiyono Inori said this out of nowhere.
"Huh?! How did you know what I was thinking? Do you have mind-reading powers, meow?!"
Elysia Cat jumped in fright.
"No… it's just that your nose was practically pressed against the mirror, and you looked completely enchanted by your own cuteness. I made an educated guess."
"I wanted to say this earlier, meow. Do you know me? I don't even know your name, but you act like you know everything about me. That's not fair, meow!"
Puffing up her round little cheeks, Elysia Cat leapt confidently into Kiyono Inori's arms.
"That's not nice, meow. If we're good friends, we should understand each other, meow!"
"Since when are we good friends if we don't even know each other's names…?"
Suppressing the urge to complain, the girl reached out and pinched Elysia Cat's ear.
"Elysia, your ears feel really nice."
"Thanks. The way you touch them feels really nice too. Next time, let me touch your ears as well, okay?!"
That single sentence startled Kiyono Inori enough that she immediately pulled her hand back and changed the subject.
"Kiyono Inori. If you use the naming style from your world, you can just call me Inori. Call me whatever you like."
"Inori…"
Elysia Cat repeated it blankly.
"That's such a pretty name. It rolls right off the tongue. I really like it. You really do know me, and our world too, don't you?"
"You can think of it as clairvoyance or future observation."
Kiyono Inori said quietly.
The world she had lived in, the world she had fought so hard to save, was nothing more than a game's background story.
She found that thought a bit cruel. Since this world did not even have Hoyoverse games, there was no need to worry about Elysia stumbling upon the truth, so she chose a gentler explanation.
"Ohhh, I get it. Like fate and threads and stuff the nun lady talks about sometimes. But…"
Elysia Cat glanced at her.
"Your vibe feels different from hers. Not as… heavy? You know the nun lady, right?"
"…."
Kiyono Inori froze for a moment.
Sixteen years had blurred her memories of Honkai Impact 3rd, but her reincarnated mind was remarkably sharp. After a few seconds, she matched "nun lady" to a familiar figure.
Aponia. Twilight Street.
A MANTIS. A psychic-type fighter whose power influenced others' actions and allowed her to foresee the future.
"The nun lady,"
she said instinctively,
"Elysia, are you talking about someone who lives in Twilight Street? Blonde hair, extremely sturdy frontal armor, and an aura like a sorrowful saint?"
"Wow, you really do know everything?!"
Elysia Cat's eyes sparkled.
"Inori-chan, my dear Inori-chan, please, I'm begging you. Onegaishimasu. There's something I really, really want to know!"
"Oh? Even the nun lady couldn't answer it?"
"She always dodges the question! And she looks at me with those weird eyes!"
"Interesting. Go on."
"Can you tell me when Mobius will finally, willingly wear a cute pink dress? I've been promoting it forever, but she keeps ignoring me!"
Elysia Cat asked with utter sincerity.
"…."
Her complete lack of restraint stunned Kiyono Inori for half a second.
"There it is! That exact expression! The same one the nun lady makes! Are all you prophets like this, hmm?"
Elysia Cat shouted excitedly.
That was how it looked on the surface.
What she was actually thinking was, yay, I unlocked a brand-new expression on a newly met cute girl. Hehe, she's adorable.
The pink pig-cat might not have much academic achievement, but when it came to charming girls, she was terrifyingly good. Kiyono Inori was no match for her.
"I don't know. That's probably never going to happen. But don't you want to know something more important? Like the fate of the world, or the future Elysia?"
"I do, meow."
Elysia Cat nodded.
"I can tell you. But first, answer me one question, my dear Elysia."
Kiyono Inori's expression was serious, without a trace of humor.
"If the ending of a story is already decided, and heroes cannot change their fate, does their journey still have meaning?"
"…."
Elysia Cat, who had dropped out of elementary school, furrowed her brows and thought for a few seconds.
"What kind of nonsense is that, meow? Are you hinting at something? Let me tell you, cute girls can do anything! I don't want to hear weird stuff like that, meow!"
"Ahem…!"
Kiyono Inori coughed a few times.
"I was just joking. You don't need to think too hard about it. And don't ask either. Beautiful girls always have a few little secrets, don't they?"
"It really feels like you're implying something… wait, wait. You were copying how I talk just now, weren't you? You're so mean!"
"Hehe."
Kiyono Inori smiled, a beautiful smile that froze Elysia Cat for half a second.
Cat and human chatted back and forth in surprisingly good rhythm. Kiyono Inori shared some basic information about this world with Elysia.
But.
She deliberately avoided spoiling anything about the Previous Era.
The reason was simple.
While chatting with Elysia Cat and examining the Cat System rules and gacha rewards, she discovered something interesting.
Four Star.
Destructive Accretion.
Blessing of the Destruction Aeon Nanook.
The more HP the equipped unit loses, the higher their base attributes become, and the more extreme their destructive impulses grow.
Note.
The player's talent Descender: Finality reduces durability by 70 percent and is treated as having already lost 70 percent HP.
Therefore, when equipping this blessing, the player can gain base attribute compensation equivalent to up to 170 percent HP lost.
That was right.
This four-star item from the ten-pull was absurdly powerful. Not only could she equip it herself, she could also give it to a cat.
In addition.
When she summoned the pink fairy lady, Elysia Cat was a weakened form and contributed very little combat power.
However, Kiyono Inori received a character skill book that came with the new character.
Is This Fairy Magic?!
Elysia, in a daze, figured out this magic using the authority of the Herrscher of Origin.
Elysia is usually too lazy to chant spells. She just throws out sparkly, heart-pounding pink fields and skill effects, then grabs a bow or wand and settles things physically.
Among Kiyono Inori's base stats, Intelligence was the highest at 10, and her talent provided an additional 140 percent independent multiplier.
This gave her extraordinary talent and sensitivity toward the mystical.
She was unaffected by perception filters meant to hide magical girls or monster executives, and could directly witness magical cannon duels between them.
She could identify which classmate was hiding under a superhero suit through faint, abstract traces of aura.
She was not a Stand user, yet she could see Stands.
So.
After reading a few pages of Fairy Magic, she realized she could understand it.
And immediately came to a conclusion.
She might actually be able to learn it.
It was a strange feeling.
Like a human child seeing one plus one and instinctively knowing it equals two.
She looked at the bizarre principles and extremely Elysia-style explanations in Fairy Magic and somehow grasped the gist of them.
Many parts were utterly nonsensical. If described with simple math, it was like one plus zero somehow equaling ten.
Kiyono Inori tried to make sense of it and concluded that this logic was completely impossible.
Most of it was probably brute-forced by the authority of Origin. Without Elysia herself casting it, success was nearly impossible.
Fairy Magic had almost zero practical combat value for most people.
But thanks to Intelligence 10 and Descender: Finality, Kiyono Inori could rely on instinct to assist in practicing it.
As long as she solved issues like "What do I do without Honkai energy?" and "How do I deal with Origin authority logic that was basically hand-waved?"
She could master a modified version, Fairy Magic Revised.
And, She still had the Cat System.
If she summoned a few more cats and pulled something like Ruan Mei Cat or Herta Cat, then casually helping Elysia deal with the Cocoon of Finality might not be unrealistic.
For now, without cat biscuits, she could only focus on studying Fairy Magic to strengthen herself.
So.
While pondering Fairy Magic and chatting with Elysia Cat, Kiyono Inori gradually sank completely into her own world.
"Huh…?"
Elysia Cat had noticed long ago that Kiyono Inori was distracted.
But that was just how Elysia was. Even if she knew the other person was thinking about something else, it never stopped her from chattering happily.
"Inori-chan!"
"Inori-chan, meow!"
"The cutest Inori-chan in the whole world!"
Elysia Cat called out several times. Kiyono Inori frowned slightly, clearly deep in thought.
You are not thinking about some other Cat, are you?
The thought crossed Elysia Cat's mind, but she quickly dismissed it.
First, she was not actually a cat, so competing with other cats would be silly.
Second, she saw a faint reflection of Dr. Mobius in focus mode when she worked in her lab.
Elysia often visited Mobius' laboratory to mess around, so she was very familiar with that look.
"Mmm."
Elysia Cat blinked, her bright eyes reflecting the girl's delicate, lovely face. She licked her lips, her smile turning meaningful.
She had thought of a big plan.
But she was just a cat, weak, pitiful, helpless, and at risk of being taken to get spayed.
So she gave up.
Life was hard. Cats sighed.
Elysia Cat hopped off the bed and silently padded into the living room, using the remote to turn on the TV that had been turned off earlier.
"This is the Far East Evening News. Good evening, viewers," a woman's voice said.
"Good evening," a man replied.
"Meow…!"
Elysia Cat huffed in displeasure. She had wanted to watch that program from when she crossed over, Active Idol Sumida Mana Answers Fan Mail.
But it was already over.
Now it was boring news. She did not know Kiyono Inori's phone password, so she could not play on her phone either.
Did she really have to keep flipping channels?
…
I have completed the author to TL pipeline, 1 chapter per day. Advanced chapters available on patreon.
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