Kiyono Inori used the Transform-Into-a-Cat Magic Wand to cross over into the world of the Previous Era.
Her main mission was simple. Take the fall for Elysia, keep the high-ranking officials of the Previous Era from setting their sights on her.
The original plan was to show off the power of Destruction's Blessing, then deliberately lose. After that, the scientists of the Previous Era would pickle her in formalin.
Collective wisdom and all that.
Let them research the principles behind the Transform-Into-a-Cat Magic Wand and Destruction's Blessing through her.
With the skills Star Explorer and Descender: Endpoint, plus a hefty ten points of intelligence, as long as she could get her paws on the technology and Honkai energy knowledge of the Previous Era…
Inori Cat could rapidly raise her theoretical mastery.
But then… she overdid it.
When she equipped Destruction's Blessing, compared to putting it on an actual cat, she gained an extra seventy percent base bonus.
That included a boost to destructive tendencies.
Just seeing the snowy landscape felt irritating to her. The thought of destroying it bubbled up in her mind, and she casually poked at the weaknesses of the extreme cold domain revealed by Star Explorer.
High-purity Honkai energy left behind by the Herrscher of Ice, plus Pioneer of the Stars, plus Destruction's Blessing.
The resulting chain reaction was basically like tossing a spark into a pile of explosives. And it very nearly scared the upper echelon of the Previous Era out of their wits.
The organization Fire Moth adopted a peaceful strategy.
They upgraded Elysia to the highest-tier dormitory, and even buttered things up by buying a whole pile of cat treats for Inori Cat.
She was a human, you know.
Sure, she looked like a cat right now, but that was just magic. Magic! Who wanted to eat cat snacks, meow!
In short, it seemed the scientists of Fire Moth had been forbidden by the higher-ups from researching her, so the only person she could rely on was that woman.
Doctor Mobius.
The tenth seat among the Thirteen Flame-Chasers.
A biological expert of the Previous Era. Although information about the Second Herrscher had been sealed off from her, she had still managed to get her hands on a Herrscher's remains and carried out her bizarre experiments.
Inori Cat dared to seek out Mobius because she had a trump card.
Her cat body in this world was essentially a product of the Transform-Into-a-Cat Magic Wand. So even if she accidentally played herself to death, it was fine.
Kiyono Inori was a girl with an intense sense of curiosity.
Cats were creatures overflowing with curiosity.
There was an old saying that curiosity killed the cat. When the two stacked together, Inori's thirst for knowledge, or rather for power, had already surpassed her sense of pain.
Even now, with thirty percent mastery of fairy magic, two powerful skills, plus her trump card Destruction's Blessing, her overall strength was already quite high.
But she still wanted to become stronger.
…
Inori Cat slipped into Mobius's laboratory.
A cat's paw pads were soft, and she made almost no sound when she walked. This let her casually observe the layout of the lab as she moved.
Precision machines, oddly shaped life-support pods, bottles and jars filled with suspensions of various colors.
Inori Cat had no idea what these things were or how they worked, but Pioneer of the Stars' ability to discern weaknesses told her exactly how to break them.
Just imagining the lab reduced to chaos, and a cash-strapped Doctor Mobius crying and throwing a tantrum afterward, made her so excited she could hardly stop, meow.
That impulse surged through her mind.
She shook her head hard.
Because she was taking the blame for Elysia, her cat form had Destruction's Blessing permanently active, so every now and then, a great idea involving destruction would pop into her head.
Do not give in to destruction, hey!
Messing up the Herrscher of Ice's extreme cold domain was one thing.
After all, that was enemy territory. Leaving it intact would only damage the environment. A massive global temperature drop would reduce food production and indirectly trigger worldwide famine. From that perspective, her act of destruction had actually saved a lot of people.
But if she wrecked Mobius's lab… how would that make her any different from a real cat, meow?
Inori Cat lifted her head and shifted her attention elsewhere.
The ceiling of Mobius's lab was covered in bizarre murals. Large blue-green patches, black dots of all shapes, and specimens of all kinds of plants and animals.
From ocean to land.
From cells to life.
It was called a laboratory, but treating the ceiling as a simple biological museum would not be wrong at all.
So cool, Doctor Mobius. Inori Cat thought this intensely personal lab was awesome. Way more exciting than Doctor MEI's neat and proper white aesthetic.
"Elysia, this isn't a place you should be coming to, is it?"
Inori Cat made no noise, but Mobius still noticed her.
Or rather… she noticed "Elysia."
Maybe Elysia's usual walking style was just that light, silent, catlike grace.
"Hi there, Doctor Mobius."
Kiyono Inori spoke.
From Mobius's perspective, though, it was just a cat meowing. In this world, only Elysia, who was strongly linked to her, could directly understand what she was saying.
"A cat."
Mobius tilted her head, examining the small creature that had broken into her lab without triggering a single alarm.
A cat.
On the Rosentina Islands during the Fifth Honkai Eruption, that final blaze of light had been connected to a cat.
Mobius was a scientist under strict supervision by Fire Moth. In principle, any information related to Herrschers or Honkai eruptions was forbidden to be passed to her.
But she had her own intelligence network.
Fire Moth never lacked high-ranking figures obsessed with immortality. The bans were only on the surface. In reality, every Honkai eruption had shadowy channels notifying her in advance, sometimes even telling her where a Herrscher's remains were temporarily stored.
"Oh my, what a pleasure to meet you, little kitty with mysterious powers. Are you here to play a game with big sis?"
Mobius's gaze traced up and down the cat's body. Then she reached into the pocket of her white lab coat and pulled out a sausage that cost two yuan at the supermarket.
She had originally planned to eat it with instant noodles for lunch.
With the Fifth Honkai Eruption, the base was short on people. She had been secretly researching Shesha, the companion beast of the Third Herrscher, and gotten so absorbed that she forgot to eat.
Heh. A gift from the heavens, perhaps?
As expected, fate stood on the side of Mobius. No matter how miraculous its power, a cat was still just a cat. One sausage was all it took to lure it home.
But…
As a biology specialist, Mobius read the emotion in the cat's eyes in a single second after she showed the sausage.
Is that it?
She knew that look all too well. Every time Elysia clamored about becoming Doctor Elysia, she would use that same disdainful gaze on the pink piggy-cat.
Doctor Mobius, a genius among geniuses, a scholar at the cutting edge of advanced science, a woman determined to bring "transformation" to the entire human species.
She…
Her lunch had been looked down on by a cat.
You have got to be kidding me. Sure, it was a cheap convenience food that cost two yuan a stick, but it was the perfect partner for instant noodles!
Do you even understand the sense of salvation that comes from solving a whole meal in five minutes during an experiment break? Do you comprehend the delicious harmony of sour, spicy tonkotsu ramen plus its faithful companion?
You! Little! Brat!
You do not understand anything! I am blocking you!
After being scorned by a cat, Doctor Mobius, who spent at least twenty out of every thirty days eating instant noodles and sausages, occasionally upgrading with a braised egg, completely lost it.
Mobius: (╰_╯)
Kiyono Inori: (^=_=^) meow
…
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Let me know if I got a name wrong. I know basically nothing about MyGO.