Sumita Mana saw that her message had been read but never answered, so she assumed something had happened.
Kiyono Inori had more or less guessed this already.
Sumita Mana knew about her physical condition. Whether her concern came from practical considerations or childhood friendship, reacting this way was only natural.
"Tell me about it so I can phrase an explanation properly," Kiyono Inori had said to Elysia Cat.
But… that was only half true.
She did not actually need to carefully word anything. A simple "she is just a friend" said in a cute tone would have been enough to brush it off.
After all, Sumita Mana did not really understand her social circle. She did not know that Inori barely had any friends at school. At an all-girls academy, classmates staying over at each other's houses was not unusual, especially now that band girls were all the rage.
What Sumita Mana truly cared about was this silver-tongued Elysia Cat saying something strange to other girls.
You did not go meowing at other girls, did you. I will seriously put a leash on you.
The thought popped into the girl's mind for no reason at all, only to be immediately suppressed by reason.
Elysia Cat was stared at by those ice-blue eyes. They were as clear as lake water, no different from usual, yet the pressure felt oddly intense.
"She cares about you a lot, meow. She thought you could not sleep and wanted to take you to see a doctor here. I tried talking to her, but she did not seem to understand meow."
Elysia Cat puffed out her fluffy chest, tail swaying back and forth, looking extremely upright and innocent.
"Huh… other people cannot understand you?"
This new piece of information made Kiyono Inori think.
"Strange. Is it my ability that lets me understand cat speech, or does the contract restrict you to only communicating with me? Is this also built through magic or sorcery or something like that?"
She was a little curious about the underlying mechanism, but now was not the time to dig into it.
Elysia Cat's righteous act did not last long. She yawned, and her whole body began radiating pure laziness.
"You are sleepy."
"Meow." Elysia Cat replied. "I was already really sleepy last night, meow, but I wanted to tell you about this, so I stayed up a bit longer, meow."
"Ah… then I will not question how you knew my phone password." Kiyono Inori rubbed the cat's head. "Anyway, you would just say something like, 'Cute girls are always connected at heart,' right?"
"Meow?!"
Already half-asleep and very comfortable from the petting, Elysia Cat no longer had the energy to talk. Everything in front of her eyes began to blur and feel unreal.
"Sweet dreams, Elysia."
The girl said softly.
"Meow…"
Elysia Cat's little head felt light and floaty. Just before her consciousness sank completely into darkness, she saw a pale white spark drift from the girl's palm and sink into her own body.
"Meow?"
Before she could understand what had happened, her head bobbed a few times, then she curled up neatly and collapsed onto herself.
Elysia Cat fell asleep.
A round little face, chubby cheeks, a broad forehead, big eyes, and a tiny pink nose.
Kiyono Inori admired the unbearably cute cat and came to a conclusion.
She was cute when awake, but even better behaved when asleep.
Just now, Kiyono Inori had equipped the achievement called Mysterious Slayer onto Elysia Cat.
The world she lived in was dangerous enough, but the Previous Era world where Elysia had lived was far more so.
Besides.
She could retrieve any item equipped on the cat at any time and put it back on herself. But to equip something onto the cat, she had to physically touch the cat while she was awake.
Putting items on the cat was the easier part.
After gently pinching Elysia Cat's soft ears, Kiyono Inori reluctantly left the room.
Brushing her teeth. Washing her face.
She put on Hanasakigawa's winter uniform and pleated skirt, tied the dark blue ribbon at her collar in front of the mirror, pulled on black knee-high socks, and picked up her neat, square school bag.
Just as she was about to head out, the girl suddenly stopped.
Well… how should she put it.
Leaving Elysia Cat alone at home made her a little uneasy.
If she thought about it carefully, there were so many potential problems.
Elysia Cat was not an ordinary cat. At her core, she carried a human soul. That probably made her lonelier than normal cats, more in need of companionship.
What if she got lost?
What if she went out and forgot to bring her key and could not get back inside?
What if she got tricked by a bad person?
…Actually, in that case, one should worry about the bad person's safety.
In short.
Kiyono Inori was extremely uneasy about leaving Elysia Cat alone at home, and she decided to use that as justification to bring the cat to school.
But… even though Hanasakigawa Girls' Academy did not care much about college advancement and had a very free atmosphere, bringing a cat to school still felt a bit over the line.
Do not be fooled by how Hanasakigawa now looked like a vocational school, with its loose discipline and band girls skipping class to cheers. On paper, its school rules were still very strict.
According to rumors.
A few years ago, Hanasakigawa had been even stricter than Tsukinomori. During the tenure of the senior Hikawa Sayo, the school underwent major reforms. Numerous policies were enforced, significantly raising both enrollment numbers and advancement rates.
But after her graduation.
The newly appointed Ayasa and Misaki launched a happiness reform, undoing all the hard work of their predecessor. The atmosphere became lax again, and band girls returned to sleeping in class and skipping lessons.
The rules about bringing pets onto campus had been established during the Hikawa era, so they were extremely strict.
Well… although most of those rules were basically dead letters now, no one had actually tried bringing a pet to class. Kiyono Inori felt she should still keep a low profile.
"Hm…"
She turned her gaze toward the instruments in her study.
Although she had no plans to form a band, she had learned some instruments before. The Cat System skills Mastery: Piano and Beginner: Violin were proof of that.
"In today's Hanasakigawa, carrying an instrument is nothing special. If it is a violin, no one will give me trouble."
First, first violinists were rare. Second, girl bands capable of handling a violin were also rare. The ones most likely to get stopped and dragged into a lifelong band were bassists and drummers.
That was what she thought.
She stuffed her textbooks into the extra compartment of the violin case, clearing out enough space for a cat. She laid down a fluffy little blanket and gently placed Elysia Cat inside.
"Ahh… am I going to be late again today?"
Yawning, the girl headed out.
Kiyono Inori's home was not far from school. Even with her frail body, it only took about fifteen minutes on foot.
A cool breeze brushed against her face, but her thoughts were elsewhere.
She thought about the Fairy Magic she had obtained when summoning Elysia Cat. So far, she had mastered enhancement, cleaning, and healing. As for boosting her own combat strength…
There was some improvement.
But it also felt like almost nothing.
That morning, she had also checked the Cat System shop.
The shop did not sell things like Herrscher cores, anomalous artifacts, or transformation devices that could directly make her stronger.
Instead, it offered things like Cat Transformation Magic Wand, Parallel Universe Walkie-Talkie Cat System Edition, and Trash Can Communication Master…
All sorts of bizarre items.
Kiyono Inori studied them carefully.
The effect of the Cat Transformation Magic Wand was that it allowed her to travel to another world, with the side effect of turning into a cat.
The Parallel Universe Walkie-Talkie Cat System Edition could detect tiny divergences during spacetime fluctuations and establish a connection between the two closest divergence points, enabling information exchange.
However, if the other world had no divergence point, the communication would fail.
In short, it was basically useless. Who knew whether another world even had a divergence point. And even if it did, the user would have no idea which world they were calling.
The Trash Can Communication Master granted the same ability as Stelle to talk to trash cans. With enough votes, one could even run to become the king of trash cans.
What even was all this.
In the end, she really had to rely on herself to grow stronger.
Just as she was about to open Fairy Magic and study it properly, Kiyono Inori shook her head and decisively cut off the thought.
Her talent after reincarnation was extremely high. She learned everything quickly. The downside was that once she got immersed, she entered a state of flow.
Yesterday, she had been so absorbed that she did not even pay attention to the adorable Elysia Cat. She was painfully aware of how deep her obsession could go once she started.
"If I practiced Fairy Magic now, I probably would not even make it to school today."
That was what she thought.
When she reached the school gate, she was, as expected, already late. Just as she was about to greet the guard, she saw another girl who was also late.
A blonde girl.
Misumi Uika.
Kiyono Inori's only two impressions of her were.
Before reincarnation, while watching Ave Mujica, that infamous scene of Saki-chan Saki-chan Saki-chan… crawling around in the dark.
After reincarnation, the god of copying homework.
Well… although she did not understand why someone who barely attended classes felt such a strong need to do homework, every time this girl showed up for class, she was always copying someone else's work.
…
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Let me know if I got a name wrong. I know basically nothing about MyGO.