"So, what did this person send to you, Boss...?"
The group whispered among themselves as they circled the massive delivery box Happy Wind Girl had dropped.
The box was covered in a layer of black cloth, and a rustling sound emanated from beneath it...
"According to the Fourth Herrscher courier... it's probably a cat? At least it sounds like one..."
Imhotep replied uncertainly, watching the box that continued to make noise...
Slurp—!
The sound from inside the box seemed to have no intention of cooperating with Imhotep's guess. Instead, it grew increasingly absurd... The girl picked at her ear, thinking she had misheard... intending to listen once more—
Slurp—!!
Yes, that was the sound of someone slurping noodles. She hadn't misheard it...
"What kind of cat makes a noodle-slurping sound...? A Kevin-cat???"
Burning with intense curiosity and awe, Imhotep unveiled the black cloth covering the delivery box...
Unsurprisingly, it was a pet carrier. However, it was significantly larger than the usual ones, seemingly expanded and enlarged to allow the resident of the box to move around more easily...
"..."
The true resident of the cat box caused everyone watching to fall into a stunned silence. After all, it... looked simply too bizarre—
"Cat ears, cat face, and a blue body with a white belly... Wait, why does it have six legs???? What kind of cat-worm is this—"
Raven's eye twitched repeatedly as she stared at the blue, unidentified creature in the box, which was hugging a ramen bowl and pouring the contents directly into its mouth.
"The little thing is quite unique..."
Jackal also wore an expression of profound astonishment—
"Is this biologically possible? Does this even make sense? And why could this blue, unidentified creature swallow the potato chips and milk tea, packaging and all, in a single gulp???"
Having finished slurping up the noodles, the blue cat-worm turned its gaze to the potato chips and milk tea sitting nearby. Before the incredulous eyes of Jackal, Gray Serpent, and the others, it swallowed the snacks and drink whole, packaging and all...
"Shouldn't your focus be on why this cat-worm can eat that stuff...??? Is this thing even a real cat?!"
Raven watched the unidentified creature gorging itself in the cage and tried to poke it, but the latter completely ignored her small gesture, keeping its head down and focused on eating...
"Sss... The little guy is actually quite cute..."
It seemed this blue unidentified creature had hit some mark for Imhotep; she opened the cat carrier, lifted it out, her face displaying a trace of satisfaction mixed with a bit of confusion...
"Little guy, how does your small body manage to eat so much food...?"
The white-haired girl bounced the blue cat-worm in her arms. It was only the size of a square throw pillow, and even holding it felt a bit light, about the same weight as a leather ball.
The little creature being held by her seemed to have confirmed something after carefully observing its future owner. Its six legs, or rather, hands, began rummaging through its own white, fluffy belly... Finally, the cat-worm seemed to find what it was looking for, pulling out a letter in a way no one could comprehend, and waved it in front of Imhotep.
"A letter...?"
The girl took the waving letter, broke the wax seal, and pulled out the paper.
[Dear "Me," I hope this letter finds you well. By the time you see this envelope, you must have already received the gift I sent you, as a reward for your tireless hard work over these past few months. As you suspected, I have already left the Sea of Quanta and returned to the Imaginary Tree... I look forward to our next meeting. As for this little animal... I picked it up on my way back. It looked quite cute, so I'm giving it to you to raise. I hope you like it. Oh right, it has its own name: Capoo.]
[Ah, there's one more thing I forgot to mention. When you see Kyuusyou, remember to make her kneel on a keyboard. She bullied my dear little Muninn a few days ago.]
[One last thing: I wasn't lying. My dear Imhotep... or should I say, Metatron?]
"...So you really did go back. But you didn't subject humanity to the Final Trial as I'd expected... Tsk, I can't tell if that's a good or bad thing."
The girl frowned, instinctively trying to ignore the last line's hidden meaning. She concluded that this had deviated too far from her plans.
"'I' wasn't lying... What were you doing behind my back?"
Folding the letter and tucking it away, Imhotep set aside her mounting confusion for a moment. She turned back to the extraordinary creature known as Capoo, who had already settled onto her shoulder.
"Capoo?"
The girl tried calling its name. At the sound, the cat-worm, who had been lounging comfortably on her shoulder, gave a startled shiver and tilted its head to look at her.
"Um, do you have any special abilities...?"
As Capoo's new owner, the girl decided to learn about its capabilities first. Capoo seemed to understand her words, raising a paw to point at the nearby table covered in snacks.
"The table...?"
Imhotep wore a confused expression... then she was shocked by the blue cat-worm's performance.
The tiny blue figure charged the table, clearing its surface clean before anyone could even react...
"What happened...?"
Cioara stared at the now-pristine table, her small face a picture of complete confusion...
"That blue creature just swallowed everything on the table... How did it even do that? Is its stomach capacity infinite???"
Nearby, Gray Serpent, who was also watching, recorded the whole incident with the high-speed camera in its cybernetic eye... letting out an exclamation of astonishment.
And Capoo, the star of the show, seemed far from satisfied—it opened its mouth... and, in a rather bizarre-looking gesture, swallowed the entire table whole.
"...????"
Having lost their refrigerator, table, and a huge pile of snacks in just a few minutes, the group fell into a state of utter bewilderment...
"Maybe we should have Owl bring back a new refrigerator and table later...?"
Cioara made her suggestion.
"Then you'd better have him bring some food back too. That Fourth Herrscher and the delivery she brought have, in a sense, swept away all the food reserves in this small base..."
Jackal rolled her eyes, watching Cioara prepare to use the dedicated communicator to contact the person who had been kicked out.
"Spit out the table... Capoo, you can't eat that thing—"
Imhotep finally seemed to understand what the blue little cutie's ability was and issued an instruction to the cat-worm...
Immediately, a table covered in an unknown liquid was "vomited" out by Capoo...
"Damn, that's disgusting, Boss, you should still let it eat it back in..."
Looking at the table coated in an unknown liquid and emitting a strange smell of mixed food, Raven and Jackal covered their noses and made their request...
"One more thing, Raven, Gray Serpent, you don't need to go steal a cat... Just proceed according to the original plan—"
"Sigh, you should just eat it back in, Capoo. By the way, I think I've found a very suitable rookie for your kidnapping plan that you've been doing out of boredom... No, sorry, a cat for you to pick."
Imhotep watched Capoo burp as a new idea took shape in her mind... While far away in the Schicksal Base, Stan, who was happily watching the drama of the "cat-owners," inexplicably shuddered...
"Perhaps she can bring me some of Father's recent intel?"