Not far from where the Spacequake had struck, inside a building whose occupant had heard every alarm and made absolutely zero attempt to evacuate—whether that was bravery or something else entirely—there was someone who simply wasn't moving.
"Another Spirit? How unexpected."
The theater's walls, designed to block all outside light and keep the stage as the sole focus, had just had a hole blasted through them. The sudden flood of brightness made the pale-violet-haired girl squint.
"And they landed right next to me. Is this fate, perhaps? Heh heh…"
Miku Izayoi smiled serenely, lifted the hem of her skirt with practiced grace, and walked toward the rift the Spacequake had torn open, letting her eyes gradually adjust to the light.
"Who might you be? Hello there—don't be afraid, I'm also a Spi—"
The dust settled. The figure in front of her came into focus.
Miku's expression went stiff.
What in the world is that?
Wrapped in black burlap, emaciated beyond reason—looking like something that had crawled out of a famine—and not even wearing shoes. The only things distinguishing it from a human were a face perpetually shadowed even in direct sunlight, and the bizarre behavior of holding a set of scales aloft.
This was Yimi's Stand, summoned for making a deal with a devil, and not yet called back.
She couldn't make out its face clearly, but from the silhouette, Miku concluded it was—probably, possibly, most likely—male.
Behind the Stand stood a cat with unusual coloring. But Miku wasn't particularly interested in the cat right now.
So. That skeletal, ugly, deeply unsettling man was the Spirit that had just arrived here? This was what she had been waiting for??
Yimi wasn't looking at her yet. She was still sitting on the ground, relieved just to be back in her cat form—because being a grown-up cat with a kitten's ears would have been deeply alarming to everyone.
Apparently having eaten the Novice Combat Suit meant she could shift between human and cat with a single thought, no equipment required, completely unrelated to clothing. That whatever-it-was ring worked the same way now—she could generate a 2m×2m personal storage space from within herself. She tested it by storing the Spear of Longinus inside, and the suppression effect on the Holy Corpse held even in there—probably because the space counted as part of her stomach.
The problem was that her power had nearly vanished. Not just the freshly acquired Reiryoku—the strength she'd gorged herself to build up in the last world had been swallowed by the Corpse almost entirely.
She could feel it: Reiryoku was regenerating, but any time it recovered past ten percent, the excess drained straight into the Corpse to accelerate assimilation. In short—Yimi was functionally weakened.
Fortunately, Stands were a projection of mental energy and had escaped the purge. Now she just had to wait for the Holy Corpse to finish being absorbed.
"Meow~" Yimi looked up at the buildings around her and felt pretty good. She was probably close to getting home.
"Notice to Host: returning to your home world means there will be no more missions."
"Meow?"
Yimi immediately pulled up the mission panel.
Main Quest: Defeat the First Spirit. Reward: portal energy 100% fill.
Side Quest: Collect Spirit Crystals (1/10). Each crystal grants one gacha pull.
"..."
Was Yimi transported from one strange place straight to another strange place?
The terrifying truth finally landed. (Corrupted text.) Her ears drooped instinctively.
"When… can I go home?"
"When Hosts travel between worlds, there is a chance of returning to the original world. Please actively collect energy and complete your journey—you may also pre-select a previously visited world as your next destination."
A beat. Then the System added: "Excluding your original home world."
"Meow!"
"How much energy can I fill right now?" The kitten asked with a thin thread of hope.
Having witnessed a full portal before, even Yimi, who had never learned arithmetic, had roughly calculated the amount needed.
"Under current non-life-threatening conditions: 0.2% fillable. At full power: 3.1% fillable."
"Notice: converting personal energy into portal energy results in significant losses. This method of accumulation is not recommended."
"Notice: completing 6 main quests allows Host to manually select a destination world. Current progress: 1/6."
Complete six missions and she could go home?
Yimi's ears perked back up.
For the sake of accumulating energy, Yimi needed to eat well.
She turned to look at the woman behind her—sharpened hearing and smell had registered her long before she looked. The sight of her made Yimi's eyes light up.
A woman!
Yimi knew that anyone with long fur (hair), or carrying Grandma's kind of choking cat-smell (perfume), was a grown-up female cat. She also knew that female humans were the best trading partners: let them pet your head and there was a decent chance of getting a sausage in return. She'd learned that by sneaking after her mom to that place called "school."
Male grown-up cats weren't as reliable—they never carried snacks, and even when they did, they ate everything themselves in one sitting.
Yimi took one step forward. Her Stand moved with her.
"Gabriel!"
But the woman didn't wait—she launched an attack immediately. Enormous pipe organs materialized in a row behind her, and the school uniform she'd been wearing was replaced in an instant by a skirt strikingly similar in design to the Astral Dress Yimi had briefly worn herself.
Astral Dress No. 9.
A single note blasted out, carrying winds that dwarfed even the storm Yimi had arrived in during her last world-crossing—and the little round cat was sent sailing through the air, landing flat on her back with a painful smack.
"?"
Yimi didn't understand. But Yimi felt offended.
"Meow!"
Naturally, the knight who carried the scales would return what it judged to be injustice—in a manner the other party might not entirely endorse.
Without warning, Miku felt a violent burst of pain in her rear end. The burning, stinging kind—like a child on the receiving end of what their parents considered a "reasonable" disciplinary smack.
The pain wasn't the important part. The location was.
"You worm!"
Miku was both shocked and furious. Looking at the Stand's silhouette gave her no hint as to how its ability worked—but that didn't stop her imagination from immediately supplying the worst possible scenario: something like a time stop, and something filthy done in the gap.
"Why does something like you get to exist in this world? Don't you feel even a shred of shame?
"Don't you have even a drop of guilt? You're nothing but a parasite, and yet you just keep on breathing, wasting everyone's resources."
Standing above, she looked down at Yimi's Stand with cold, dark eyes, her words washing over the little cat as though trying to latch onto something—though they failed to take hold at all.
Even while saying all of this, Miku was slowly, steadily backing away, pinching her nose in exaggerated disgust. "Have a little self-awareness, would you? Every second a piece of garbage like you spends alive is polluting the air. Disappear."
Yimi blinked once. Then twice. Her ears swiveled into the airplane-ear position and her tail began swishing back and forth.
Kids are uneducated. That doesn't mean kids can't understand when they're being insulted.
She'd been yelled at for absolutely no reason.
As if she'd forgotten entirely about her Stand's very useful ability, Yimi went straight to the System for help. "Help me think of insults!"
The System loaded. "This unit does not recommend the Host learn uncivil language. However, we have compiled popular profanity from your current world, and hope it assists your unreasonable request."
Yimi glanced at the list and began to copy.
Out of habit she rose on her hind legs, extended a paw, and in her clear, sweet child's voice—with just slightly stiff pronunciation—delivered:
"Big dumbass!"
"…?"
The unexpected voice, and the unexpected source, caught Miku so completely off guard that her brain stalled. She stared blankly at the cat she hadn't been paying attention to.
"Fuck your mom!"—The second one, same bright, childlike voice.
Yimi felt slightly uneasy even as she said it—she didn't know what it meant, but some deep instinct told her it was vile.
Looking at Miku, temporarily speechless, Yimi decided she had intimidated her. Satisfied, she dropped back onto all fours.
But the little cat couldn't hold that much resentment, and she still didn't feel quite right. She'd been insulted with so many words and she'd only fired back six.
Maybe she should just throw down and fight?
"Hold on, you're—"
"Oh my, I seem to be interrupting."
An uninvited guest from the sky cut the tension.