In front of a trash-can-style cat bed.
"Stelle Cat sure can sleep. Purr purr. She still shows no sign of waking up at all, huh?!" Elysia Cat poked Stelle Cat's cheek.
"Mm… maybe something unexpected happened."
The Jarilo-VI arc.
Kiyono Inori could not remember the details very clearly anymore. She only remembered that the music during the final fight against Cocolia was pretty good. In her vague impressions, Stelle seemed to be in Belobog, dreaming several times about conversations between Cocolia and the Stellaron.
Perhaps she was affected by the Stellaron of Jarilo-VI. The sleeping Stelle failed to cross over smoothly into their world.
"Ah, something unexpected? Then will Stelle be in danger, meow? Little Inori, amazing Little Inori, you can help her, right?"
Elysia Cat looked worried.
"Relax. She is not in danger. Once the cat transformation magic stabilizes, maybe I can go over and take a look."
Kiyono Inori sighed. To be honest, the potential risks she would bring by entering the Honkai Star Rail universe might be far greater than what Stelle and the others faced with Cocolia.
Number 4 Lord of Silence, Polka Kakamond.
A female assassin dressed in a candy-colored evening gown, wielding a scalpel. Her omniscient-domain ability could decide all probabilistic events, eventually achieving an effect close to omniscience and omnipotence.
She had killed many geniuses of the Genius Society and was called the strictest mother of geniuses.
The Emperor's Scepter component she purchased was one of the scepters that had directly fought Number 4 Lord of Silence. Although it was instantly defeated, it still contained a large amount of intelligence the Emperor had gathered about Number 4 Lord of Silence back then.
If she directly crossed worlds into the Star Rail universe and was identified as a variable, then she might also get elbowed by Number 4.
That possibility was not low.
After all, she carried a scepter component on her. When creations of the Path of Erudition operated, they would naturally produce Erudition-specific energy ripples.
This was a phenomenon Kiyono Inori observed using Pioneer of the Stars after the simulated world officially began operating and the Savior Can #360 started rescuing the virtual world.
Headache.
With Elysia Cat perched on her shoulder and Stelle Cat tucked in her arms, Kiyono Inori arrived at an intersection near the hospital.
There were many restaurants here, mostly focused on filling meals. Their target customers were probably doctors, nurses, and patient companions from the hospital. After all, no matter where you were, hospital food tended to be light.
Kiyono analyzed this subconsciously.
After scanning the surroundings, she took out her phone and snapped a quick photo of a landmark building at the intersection.
Unified Chaos Era Sumimi Under Heaven and Arms.
She sent it to a girl band group chat with a very strange name.
Inori: Meow meow meow meow, Miss Uika, are you there?
Inori: I came out to eat dinner but could not find anything at all. Which way should I go from this road to find a place?
Uika: Video.jpg
Uika: Ta-da. Little Inori, little Inori, look at Sumimi's new song. We secretly recorded today's practice. Do not share it, okay.
Uika: That Chinese restaurant. Let me think. Yes. Go that way, then that way, then that way.
Mana: Wait a second. Uika, I will let the fact that you secretly shared practice footage slide for now, but what did you two do while I was not around? What Chinese restaurant? I have no idea at all!
Inori: So scary, Sister Mana.
Uika: So scary, Sister Mana.
Mana: Angry emoticon.
Mana: Have you two already teamed up to bully me? Waaa. There is no longer a place for me in this Sumimi.
Uika: Sister Mana, it is time to give your spot to the younger generation. Little Inori on keyboard, me on vocals. We will restore Sumimi's glory. It is our duty.
Inori: I am not forming a band!
She got the route to the Chinese restaurant.
"Wow. The vibe in the group chat is so nice. Too bad this fairy lady is just a pitiful little kitty. Otherwise I would want to join too, meow. By the way, girls in your world really love bands, Inori-chan. Last time you called, so many girls invited you to play in bands."
Elysia Cat meowed from her shoulder.
"Tch. Maybe I should buy you a phone."
Kiyono Inori's phone was down to 27 percent battery. Clearly, Elysia Cat had stolen her phone again.
Ever since she summoned Elysia Cat, her phone battery had become increasingly unreliable.
"I do not want one, meow. Inori-chan should buy herself a new phone. I will just use your old one."
"Let me guess. Is it 'I want to use my pretty caretaker's phone, meow'? You silly Elysia."
"Wrong." Elysia Cat shook her head. "I am just too lazy to download apps and register accounts on a new phone. It is such a hassle, meow. When I switch phones, I usually just use a phone transfer app."
"Hmm… hard to argue with that."
Kiyono Inori's phone also had plenty of redundant apps and photos. They felt useless most of the time, but she worried she might need them when switching phones.
Should she delete them? With choice paralysis and terrible naming sense, Kiyono always agonized for ages whenever she changed phones.
Chatting back and forth, one human and one cat arrived at the Chinese restaurant. It specialized in Chinese breakfast, but served both breakfast and dinner. Recently, this type of shop had become very popular in the Far East.
There were four or five tables inside, and the place was very clean. A server quickly handed them menus.
"Is there anything you want to eat?"
Kiyono Inori looked at Elysia Cat. Elysia Cat leaned in and glanced at the menu curiously.
"I do not know, meow. There are so many tasty things I do not recognize."
"All right. Then do you have any favorite dishes? From the cafeteria back at the Fire Moth base."
"Huh? You got me there, Inori-chan. If I have to say, I am not very picky. Sweet, spicy, I can eat a bit of anything."
Seems Elysia Cat was an easy-to-raise kitty.
"Two buns each with fresh pork filling, char siu filling, and chive and egg filling. One serving of vegetable tofu soup. Do you have boxed milk here? One milk, please."
Kiyono Inori ordered in Shenzhou language.
"Young lady, you can speak Shenzhou language?"
The fluency surprised the shop owner, a middle-aged woman in her fifties who looked very approachable.
"Ah, a little," the girl replied modestly.
"Impressive. You do not often see Far Eastern high school students who speak Shenzhou language this smoothly." The owner smiled. "Do you want the milk cold or room temperature?"
Kiyono Inori and Elysia Cat exchanged a look, finishing a simple discussion through eye contact. "Room temperature, please. Thank you."
"Meow?"
Soon, their food was served. It looked tastier than what Uika had bought last time, probably because it was freshly made.
"So hot!" The voice did not belong to Kiyono Inori, but to Elysia Cat holding a fresh pork bun.
The shop owner stared in amazement at this magical cat. It had just drunk milk through a straw, and now it was holding a bun and gnawing on it. It did not cause any trouble at all. It was unbelievably smart.
"Miss, this cat of yours is really something. In all my years, this is the first time I have seen such a smart cat." Seeing that the milk was finished, the owner grabbed another box. "Here, one more on the house. Little kitty, meow one for auntie."
"Ah… I should still pay."
"No need, no need."
Blocked by the owner, Kiyono Inori could only glance at the pink pig-like kitty munching on a meat bun. How should she put it? This thing was not even trying to hide it.
Fun fact. Although Elysia was usually a bit silly, among cats she was already top-tier smart.
"Oh my. Thank you."
Elysia Cat meowed happily at the owner, then showed off to her caretaker. "Hehe, look, look. You can drink this one. No need to thank Big Sister Elysia so much, meow."
Kiyono Inori let out a deep sigh.
Luckily, it was past peak hours and the shop was about to close, so they did not attract a crowd. Still, when they left, the owner sincerely gave her a suggestion.
"Miss, you are so pretty, you speak Shenzhou language so well, and your cat is so smart. You and this cat should make videos on Bilibili. You would definitely go viral."
Tch. The owner really knew her stuff.
When they finished eating and left, the sky had grown gloomy.
Elysia Cat had a plastic bag hanging from her neck. Inside were food boxes with four buns and a box of milk for Stelle. She rolled along behind Kiyono Inori as they headed home.
Another photo was added to the girl's phone.
"Uika?" Near the hospital entrance, Kiyono Inori spotted a somewhat blurry blond figure in the distance.
…
A/N:
Ah. This book is finally going premium, meow.
Time really flies. Without realizing it, we are approaching 150,000 words. It is quite emotional.
Actually, I started writing this after reading another cat-themed book, whose author went on hiatus. I wanted to try writing myself, and also to strengthen my resolve to save gems to pull the pink pig kitty.
The early part of this book has quite a few moments of left-brain and right-brain fighting, since I am just a newbie author.
I wanted to write daily life scenes, make cat-form Elysia cute, and also ban all bad endings. Then I got infected by trash-can culture, and in the end it turned into a story with no clear structure.
Grass. A kind of plant.
Thank you very much to all readers who made it this far.
…
1 chapter per day. For more chapters/fics, goto ErbiumTL on Patreon.
Let me know if I got a name wrong. I know basically nothing about MyGO.