The current situation was rather bizarre.
It was different from the Mind Image Reincarnations of Abigail and Tsukishiro Yuki that Suke had previously experienced. Perhaps because Seele had only arrived via the Bus after her essence was thoroughly drained, the vast majority of great powers could not be used within this Mind Image Reincarnation.
Perhaps, aside from the trio of Sin, Seele, and Bronya—who were the protagonists of the Cocolia Orphanage—everyone else here was merely 'decoration'.
Do not ask how Suke arrived at this conclusion.
Because during the time he sent Sin back to her bedroom and Bronya was sent away, he quietly ran to the orphanage's main hall to take a look.
Guess what he saw?
The other orphans in the orphanage, who had previously surrounded Sin to help Bronya pressure her, had lost their expressions like puppets. Once out of their line of sight, they all froze in place like unplugged machines.
This included Rosaliya and Liliya. It even reminded Suke of situations where bugs occurred in certain games on his computer before his transmutation, where 'T-posing' floating humanoids would appear due to modeling errors.
Suke could only say that this sight nearly triggered his stress response, almost activating the Hajimi Spinosaurus mode.
Logically speaking, he wasn't afraid of horror games and the like, but this situation of game-like bugs appearing in reality... how should one put it? It carried a certain degree of creepiness.
If he had a choice in the future, Suke dared to swear he would never come to this crappy Reincarnation again.
He would rather go physically fight an Aeon than suffer this torture!
It was night, at the 'Cocolia Orphanage'.
"Farmer Brother, Sin is back~"
The bedroom door gently closed, and the elegant noble girl known as Sin Mal walked over slowly.
She looked at the black cat squatting on the small table in her room, writing with its claws. For some reason, her cheeks carried a trace of rosiness, though she controlled it very well.
"Sin tried to walk out of the orphanage according to your instructions, and sure enough, discovered some anomalies."
Sin sat by the bed, making herself look as dignified and polite as possible.
"Sin tried walking in one direction, but no matter how far I went, when passing a certain reference point, Sin would briefly lose focus and then return inside the orphanage."
"So this world should be fake, just as Brother guessed... Does Brother have a way to escape?"
A way?
Suke looked at Sin's obedient appearance as she gazed at him. If he were in human form, he would definitely be rubbing his glabella.
If the Reincarnation of this world were similar to Abigail's or Solomon's, where one only needed to confront and eliminate a certain enemy to solve everything, things would be simple.
The Sin Mal from Houkai Gakuen 2 couldn't just be said to be stronger than the Sin from Honkai Impact 3rd; she could only be described as insidiously overpowered beyond measure.
With the Eye of Sin paired with Time Stop, under the same period, even if Seele and Bronya were tied together, they wouldn't be enough for Sin to fight alone. Even if Cocolia came with an army, she would have to weigh her options.
Especially within this Reincarnation constructed from the girl's cognition, where there was an upper limit to great power, the current Sin was the well-deserved strongest.
But the problem lay in the fact that she had such strong power but nowhere to use it.
Suke had previously tried to take Sin back to the utility room, only to find that Sin couldn't see or touch the door deep inside the utility room that was ajar and emitting the stench of corpses.
Of course, even if Sin could see it, Suke wouldn't dare let her go in and try to frontally take down that 'Mother' who took care of Seele.
That dirty thing was something even Boss Mabel didn't want to provoke. If some accident happened, it would be too late for regret.
Then the location of the key node of the Reincarnation would be...
Suke quickly analyzed the character relationships in his mind, cutting in with 'psychological trauma' as the key point. The main storyline of the Cocolia Orphanage was the various contradictions and conflicts between Sin, Seele, and Bronya.
[Could it be... that the key point to breaking the Reincarnation lies in eliminating Seele's psychological trauma?]
[But Seele's psychological trauma, isn't that being bullied by Sin? But the current...]
Suke glanced at Sin, who was staring at him with a smile. The power of the Stardrop allowed him to discover that inexplicable thoughts were gathering on Sin.
He wasn't wrong; Sin was indeed the key node. If inferring according to common sense, as long as she was eliminated, the Reincarnation could be broken.
But was this correct?
It was absolutely impossible for Sin in her current appearance to bully Seele, let alone kick Bronya and break her leg.
If one insisted that Sin was Seele's psychological trauma and must be eliminated to break the Reincarnation, that would be a bit too cruel to the current Sin.
Moreover...
"What's wrong, Brother?"
Seeing the black cat staring at her continuously, Sin blinked, puzzled.
As the node of the Reincarnation, she was like a person bearing original sin. In every aspect, she fit the setting of a 'Demon King' in a story who needed to be defeated by the 'Hero'.
What's more, her strength in this Reincarnation was the strongest.
[No. What kind of person do you think Seele is?]
"Seele? Cowardly, weak, can't do anything, a troublesome fellow who always needs people to take care of her... That is Sin's evaluation of her."
"Although she has become a bit distant from Sin recently, she is still just a coward who only hides behind others."
Seeing the black cat pick up the cardboard, Sin thought for a moment before answering the text written on it.
"Why does Brother mention her? Is our being trapped here related to her?"
The quick-witted Sin made a deduction. Clearly, without having been 'poisoned' by Bronya, every aspect of her showed an inhuman calmness and composure that a girl of her age shouldn't possess.
One could only say she was unknowingly how much more perfect than that violent tomboy image reborn from killing her past self.
[It is indeed related to Seele, only...]
"Related to her? Then does Brother need Sin to kill her for you?"
The characters the black cat was writing on the cardboard with its claws weren't even finished when the petite girl spoke up proactively.
There was not the slightest bit of friendship in her words from the brief time she had spent with Seele in the past. It was as if killing someone was trivial to her, cold as a monster who didn't understand the human heart.
And the object of the monster's obedience was only one—that was the flawless existence recognized by the monster, the first to walk into her field of vision.
Suke: ...
No, seriously, does he have some kind of constitution that attracts crazy women and heavy-love girls?
Whether it was Yuki or Sin, they would shout about killing others at the drop of a hat, treating enemies and teammates alike.
[Don't be impulsive.]
[If possible, Sin, pay attention to observing her activities during your daily interactions with Seele. Tell me any places where you think she seems strange.]
The black cat waved its claws into an afterimage, hurriedly stopping Sin's dangerous idea.
"Strange places... Alright, Sin will pay attention."
Sin pondered for a moment, then nodded.
The hour was already very late, although no matter how much time passed in the Reincarnation, it was only an instant in the outside world.
The black cat curled up on the small table where the girl placed her personal items, looking at the moon outside the window, wondering what he was thinking about.
The entire orphanage was like a sealed prison; the eerie and oppressive atmosphere made it hard to breathe.
In the end, the timing of his arrival was too poor.
If Seele had been discovered in time while in a better state, with the combined efforts of Boss Mabel and the others, forcefully interfering with this Reincarnation wouldn't have been impossible.
But now, this place was equivalent to ruins that had already been collapsed by an earthquake, making every step difficult.
Splash, splash...
The sound of water came from the small bathroom attached to the girl's bedroom. Just as set in the original Cocolia Orphanage, Sin, whom Cocolia valued highly, lived in a private bedroom that other girls could not possess.
Just as the black cat was staring at the moon outside the window, lost in thought, the girl's figure silently arrived behind him and grabbed him!
!
Suke was startled. Fortunately, he didn't have the underlying code of a Hajimi; otherwise, if it were an ordinary cat, it probably would have had a stress reaction.
"Brother, you've been running around outside all day, you're covered in dust."
"Just let Sin give you a bath. Don't worry, Sin will be very gentle."
The girl behind him had already taken off her outer coat, wearing only a short-sleeved undershirt that revealed two lotus-root-like arms. Her pretty face was dyed with some rosy clouds. As she looked at the cat she had lifted up, a different kind of emotion flashed in her eyes.
A bath?
Suke looked at his own body. Even though this was just his consciousness form, the traits of Stardew Valley could spill over and affect it.
This cat body of his was the same; it possessed a self-cleaning function. Giving him a bath might actually make him temporarily dirty instead.
But evidently, the situation was already a step too late.
"Meow!"
The Hajimi was really going to hiss!
"Don't move around, Brother, Sin has already drawn the hot water~"
The girl held the black cat in her arms with a faint smile. Regardless of whether he was willing or not, she carried him toward the bathroom, gently closing the bathroom door in passing.
...
____
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