Little Elysia rode the west wind and began her journey.
Even though she carried nothing but a few daily necessities, there was not the slightest trace of confusion on her face. On the contrary, she was full of longing for this trip.
Humming a tune, she headed toward the next city.
"She really is adorable," Koji said with a sigh.
He was not worried that Little Elysia would get hurt during her travels. Little Elysia was the Herrscher of Origin, after all. If she ever truly cut loose, the unlucky ones would be everyone else.
"Right? I think so too. Little me was just so cute. I can barely remember what I looked like when I was little, so getting to relive it like this feels wonderful," Elysia said proudly.
The Elysia from childhood was still Elysia.
"Yeah, Little Elysia is adorable. Then she grows up and turns into a pink chubby lady," Koji said, nodding.
"I am not chubby! What a horrible thing to call me."
Elysia puffed up in annoyance.
How was she fat? She had always been 54.8 kilograms, thank you very much. She cared a lot about her weight.
"Then... a pink piggy-cat?" Koji said with a grin.
"Hey, that sounds even worse! Am I really that fat?"
Black lines practically appeared over Elysia's head. First it was "chubby lady," then "piggy-cat." Even she was starting to doubt herself a little.
"You're not really fat. You just look very full and shapely. In this state, you're actually very pleasing to the eye."
Koji looked her up and down, left and right. She really was beautiful.
That soft, plush feeling was simply perfect.
Only then did Elysia nod in satisfaction. She also thought her figure was just right—not too thin, not too heavy, with a kind of healthy beauty to it.
"Next, let's go see me a few years later," Elysia said eagerly.
She really wanted to know what the grown-up Little Elysia would say when she first saw her.
Koji had no objection. He opened a space-time passage and brought Elysia several years into the future.
At that time, in the Flame Chasers—
The older Elysia looked at herself in the mirror and often fell into deep thought.
"They really do look alike... except I don't have those cute little fairy ears."
Elysia reached up and touched her ears.
At present, she was not a fusion warrior. She was merely a soldier who had not been in the Flame Chasers for very long.
The pink fairy big sister she had seen when she was little had a face identical to her current one, scars and all.
How could that not set her imagination running wild?
That pink fairy absolutely had a deeply tangled connection with her. She was unbearably curious about it.
Could it be that she had an older sister?
That was what Elysia thought.
Or maybe that pink fairy was her mother?
It was not impossible either. After all, there was the tiny her, and the grown-up her.
She had thought about going to look for the pink fairy, but she never found her. The pink fairy and Koji had both vanished like mist, as though they had evaporated from the world entirely.
Forget it. Better go train and see whether anyone had broken the record she had left behind.
"Hm?"
As she passed by the cafeteria, Elysia stopped in her tracks and looked toward the two people eating inside. Without even thinking, she pushed the door open and entered.
"Hello there, Elysia."
"Hello there, Elysia."
Elysia greeted first, and Elysia from the Elysian Realm greeted her in exactly the same way, word for word.
She was not surprised by that first sentence.
She understood herself extremely well. If they ever met again, she would definitely be able to step right into the moment naturally.
That was instinct.
"How amazing. Are you the me from the future?" Elysia revealed an expression that was both exactly what one would expect and somehow still unexpected.
She had not been sure before, but the moment they met again, she knew. The pink fairy was her. Elysia.
"Yes... and no," Elysia from the Elysian Realm said ambiguously.
Elysia tilted her head, not quite understanding what she meant.
"In the future, you'll sacrifice yourself. I'm only a kind of memory vessel, but later, because of Koji, I obtained a physical body," Elysia from the Elysian Realm said softly.
She was not worried that saying this would have any negative effect. That confidence came from knowing herself too well.
Elysia nodded as if she half understood. She did not feel fear or unease toward the future.
"Yes, many things changed. The civilizations that came after were changed because of you," Koji said.
"My, I never thought I could change so much," Elysia said in surprise.
If what she did could guide the future civilization toward a better path, then she would not mind sacrificing herself.
"Fairy big sister, how did you get your ears?" Elysia asked curiously.
She did not ask how she would sacrifice herself. She preferred to let nature take its course. Knowing now would not change anything.
So rather than ask that, she chose to ask about something that genuinely interested her.
"My ears? Through fusion warrior surgery. I don't have them naturally. You'll have a chance to get them later too," Elysia from the Elysian Realm said.
She did not mind being called "fairy big sister" at all. In fact, she rather liked it.
"Fusion warrior surgery... does that have something to do with Mobius?" Elysia thought for a moment. If it involved surgery, then it probably had something to do with Mobius.
"Mobius is the one in charge of it. If you want to know more, you can go ask Mobius directly," Elysia from the Elysian Realm said.
As for why she did not explain it herself, the answer was simple: she did not understand any of it either. It was not the sort of thing her level of intelligence could comprehend.
To say nothing else, even if someone placed all the relevant files right in front of Elysia in complete form, she still would not be able to understand them.
Those complicated formulas looked like heavenly scripture.
Elysia understood that perfectly well. After all, she knew exactly what her own educational level was.
Once she had set out on her journey, she had never really had the chance to study. The fact that she knew some basic things, like reading and writing, was already pretty good. Reaching Mobius's level? Better not even think about it. That was absolutely impossible.
"Elysia, after learning the true identity of the pink fairy, how do you feel?" Koji asked curiously.
"It's astonishing. Something like this is so unbelievable. When I grew up and looked at myself in the mirror, I really was startled," Elysia replied without hesitation.
When she was little, she had only felt that the pink fairy seemed strangely familiar. But once she grew up and saw her own face in the mirror, of course she would be dumbfounded.
No wonder she had felt that sense of familiarity. It turned out to be her grown-up self. That was something she never would have imagined.
"One question. How much do you weigh right now?" Koji continued.
"Huh?"
Elysia glanced at Elysia from the Elysian Realm. She really did seem a little fuller than her. But that figure was honestly excellent.
Elysia from the Elysian Realm did not agree at all. She glared at Koji in a huff. Why was he asking about her weight?
"At that time, I was still very slim, so you can't generalize," Elysia from the Elysian Realm said seriously.
In any case, this topic needed to end immediately. Otherwise, she would be so socially dead she would want to flee this planet on the spot.
She really was not fat. She was just a little fuller, that was all.
(End of Chapter)
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