Elysia's Turning-Into-a-Cat Diary, Day 2
"Well, well, isn't this our great hero of the Fire Moth, Elysia? Finally awake? I thought you'd sleep until noon."
Mobius tossed her phone onto Elysia's bedside. Elysia grabbed it reflexively. The time read 9:37.
Pink piggy-cat: (O_o)
Having just turned back from a cat and returned to this world, her consciousness syncing up with memories from when she was a cat, the pink-haired girl was a little dazed.
Huh? Only nine?
No school! No nine-to-nine office grind!
Pink piggy-cat had a very free schedule. At this hour she would normally still be lazing in the sun. Half-asleep, she instinctively reached for the curtains to bask a little longer.
Only to find the curtains were oddly far away.
Her memories slowly connected. Inori-chan had given her a blessing, and then somehow she became the great hero of the Fifth Eruption. More accurately, Inori-chan as a cat became the hero.
The higher-ups of the Fire Moth.
They sent over fruit, eggs, cat snacks, cat food. All sorts of offerings. They even upgraded her dorm to top-tier specs, all to better house this cat with miraculous power.
After she turned into a cat.
Kiyono Inori got sick. Outside, rain poured down. They played around for a bit, watched a show on the TV in the private hospital room. Some metal-suited guys fighting. It was called Red Scarf Rider or something.
Kiyono watched with great interest.
But Elysia preferred magical girls and the like. She was not interested in armored guys fighting. She joined halfway through anyway, listening to Kiyono explain things like "this one is like that, that one is like this, the new rider has higher stats." Somewhere along the way, she was lulled to sleep, meow.
Inori-chan is a super cute girl, but in some details she's kind of boyish. Like tastes in strange artifacts. Or hobbies.
New info acquired!
"Ah…"
Elysia rubbed her eyes, yawning and wiping away tears, when she suddenly noticed something was wrong. "Dr. Mobius, why are you in my room?!"
Mobius had dark circles under her eyes. Her snake-like pupils were still sharp, but she looked far more worn down than usual.
"Where is your cat?"
Her tone was thick with displeasure.
"Oh, you mean Inori Cat? She's—wait, no! You should answer my question first. This is my room!"
"I came to find the cat."
Mobius rubbed her temples. "I hit a problem midway through theoretical derivation. No matter how I calculate it, it won't resolve. I can't test it experimentally either. I need that cat to help me sort out my thoughts."
Elysia: (O_o)
The pink piggy-cat smugly leaned her big shiny forehead close to Mobius, her eyes bright and uneven.
What was this? Even Dr. Mobius needed the cat she raised for help. Amazing. Her cat was a genius. That meant she herself was a super genius girl too. Hooray!
Like hell.
She stumbled back, clutching her head. When she was a cat, everything felt natural. Doing cat-like things was fine. But as a human, carrying over cat habits was just weird.
"Hand over your cat. Lend her to me."
Mobius held out her hand. Her cold voice carried a hint of exhaustion.
"Hmm~ sure?" Elysia suddenly had a great idea. "Then say it. Say, 'Please, Elysia.'"
"Please, Elysia."
"And say, 'Next time Elysia buys me a pink dress, I absolutely will not lock her outside and refuse to let her in.'"
"Next time Elysia buys me a pink dress, I absolutely will not lock her outside and refuse to let her in."
"That's so boring!"
Elysia puffed her cheeks. Teasing Mobius was usually satisfying, but today Mobius was too calm. It felt like no matter how much she provoked her, she would not get angry.
Snake Doctor would not get mad.
Pink piggy-cat lost interest.
"To be honest, Elysia, I didn't sleep all night. I ran into a problem during experimental derivation. If I had to describe it, it's like getting to ninety-nine percent completion and suddenly dropping back to ninety-six."
Mobius spread her hands. "Please. Where did you hide the cat? You wouldn't want to attend Dr. Mobius's funeral tomorrow, would you?"
"Heehee! Time to witness a miracle!"
Elysia reached into the blanket and, following what Kiyono had taught her, summoned the artifact Curiousity Killed the Cat. It was a name she and Kiyono had come up with after consulting an online AI.
"Don't make such tasteless jokes, Elysia!" Mobius snapped, anger flashing on her worn face. Not so much at Elysia as at herself.
Somehow… she had developed a dependency on that cat. Scientifically speaking. Using biological science, Snake Doctor had analyzed it that way.
To put it simply:
Doing experiments was a true prison simulator.
Grinding, paying, zero positive feedback, a final boss that was random and overpowered, success hinging on luck, a 0.1 percent error causing total failure. More punishing than any prison game. Only geniuses were good at enduring it. That was experimentation.
With that cat's help.
It was like turning on auto-pathfinding in a pitch-black map. Snake Doctor just pushed forward. The cat judged right or wrong. Efficiency skyrocketed. No getting stuck.
Sure, the cat could be wrong too, but rerun the derivation a few times and you usually got the theoretically correct result.
When the cat first left, it was fine.
Mobius had been grinding for years. She could keep going. She just missed the experience of having auto-pathfinding. It should not have affected her work. And yet her progress stalled.
She checked records endlessly. Found nothing wrong.
But she was stuck.
If she could run a real experiment, her genius would find the flaw instantly. But the Fire Moth higher-ups watched her lab closely. Those forbidden experiments could not be done freely.
So.
That night, her mind was full of being stuck. She could not sleep. She came to Elysia's new place to steal the cat, only to find the cat was not there.
So she waited here for Elysia to wake up.
"You're telling me… your cat has turned into this?" Mobius stared at the artifact now shaped like a cat paw badge. Her voice was icy, her expression terrifying. "You're not playing with me again, are you, my dear Elysia?"
"It's really true."
Mobius's pressure made Elysia break into a sweat. She had been a kitten minutes ago. How did she wake up to being stared down by gravity-level Snake Doctor? Inori-chan, look what you did, meow!
"Look!"
Elysia lightly touched the artifact. Pink light flashed, and the cat paw badge turned into a one-seventh scale Inori Cat figurine.
Mobius's expression flickered. Elysia hurried to shift the blame, even though Inori Cat dismantling herself was not really her fault.
Well… if she had to be honest, maybe a little.
Kiyono Inori made this artifact because she worried about danger. Elysia understood that feeling.
"Anyway, long story short, Inori Cat did some babble-babble experiment and ended up like this," Elysia explained with all her might.
"What are you even babbling about?"
"I don't know either!"
Mobius observed the tiny cat. It was alive. She could feel its heartbeat, its faint breathing.
"Interesting."
Mobius sighed in admiration.
She wanted to study the cat badly, but this cat was the Fire Moth's prized darling. Many higher-ups believed it was divine intervention, a blessing from god.
If this cat appeared in her lab in this state, Mobius was certain. One hundred percent. She would be dragged into endless meetings. Her lab might even be shut down.
So—
"Elysia, keep your cat here. And this way, come to my lab at six this evening," Snake Doctor instructed.
"Eh?"
"Heehee, Elysia, you must come. I'll prepare a big surprise for you."
Mobius drew circles with her index fingers and poked her cheeks, striking a scheming yet oddly cute face.
Pink piggy-cat: (⊙_⊙)
How to put it.
She felt a subtle unease, but also felt Mobius would not do anything to her. At least not use her as an experiment. Elysia trusted her intuition.
So… she would go.
…
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Let me know if I got a name wrong. I know basically nothing about MyGO.