"Meow."
She stayed at Madoka's for two days, packed some of the plants Tomohisa had grown, and left. Maybe it was Yimi's imagination, but Madoka hadn't seemed all that happy about the kitty coming back to visit.
Xianren City.
Vrooom—vroom, vroom, vroom—
Of all the worlds she'd been through, this one gave Yimi the worst first impression, because the instant she arrived she heard the racket of a motorcycle tearing up the street. The kind deliberately modified to be obnoxiously loud, built to make a nuisance of itself around the city, leaving a trail of filthy exhaust hanging in the air.
"You big dumbass!" Yimi planted her hands on her hips and let loose, to the shock of the police officer chasing after it.
Kids these days…
"Which class are you in, dressed so strangely?"
An imposing voice sounded behind Yimi. She'd faced this back in Madoka's world too—creatures of this sort were generally called the dean of students.
Yimi turned around and found a school right behind her.
This world's language wasn't quite the same as the English and Japanese she'd used before.
Because in other worlds people were forever shouting right into her ears, she'd deliberately worn Marisa's clothes before teleporting, even though she'd spent two days at Madoka's.
"It's already this late…"
Spotting the dean, the security guard who'd been playing on his phone shot to his feet and reached out to grab Yimi. Yimi nimbly sidestepped around him—but because of the angle, she slipped straight through the gap of the school's automatic front gate. The dean, dragging his big paunch, gave chase for a couple of steps; his portly frame naturally couldn't keep up with an energetic child, and he could only watch Yimi vanish from view.
"Kids these days…"
Compared to the Magical Girl world, the school here wasn't nearly so grand, but it didn't require students to wear uniforms—which was exactly why Yimi got mistaken for a student. Still, for a modern-society world, a child running loose outside at this hour was a rare sight indeed.
"Keep up in the back, don't stop—finish the laps and you get free time."
The PE teacher out on the field was directing the students around the track when he spotted a distinctly out-of-place figure off in a corner. He frowned slightly and started toward Yimi, who was trying to hide.
Yimi was crouched behind the school's shrubbery, checking this world's quests—never realizing that the witch hat on her head had already given her away.
The Quest Panel was empty.
"Where's the quest?"
System: Answer to Host—this world has no quest.
"Meow!"
This had happened once before in the Holy Grail War world—a waste of the kitty's energy.
"Which class are you in? I don't think I've seen you." Another stern voice broke into Yimi's thoughts.
Turning her face, Yimi found a plain-looking man dressed a lot like Natsuki Subaru staring at her seriously. Coming from a PE teacher, "I don't think I've seen you" was a touch out of place—for a teacher not assigned to any one fixed class, remembering every single student was all but impossible.
"First grade or second? We're already into the back half of the term and you still don't know you're supposed to be in the classroom during class time?"
Yimi looked up at him. "Do you have, here, anything that, grants wishes?"
The PE teacher frowned, sizing up Yimi's odd getup. "Watched too many cartoons, have you?"
"Then do you have, anything that, crosses between worlds?"
The PE teacher didn't answer. He fished a White Rabbit milk candy out of his pocket and handed it to Yimi. "Get back to your class, or your homeroom teacher will be calling your parents."
"Mm." Yimi took it and picked at the wrapper, completely forgetting Junko's warning not to eat things from strangers.
The kitty wouldn't be making the mistake of eating the wrapper along with it anymore.
"Then do you have, a Diego here?"
"Mr. David." A woman teacher came over with an armful of lesson plans, cutting off Yimi's question. "You've got my class next period, don't you? Think you could come down with something?"
"Sure."
"Sorry to ask—but you know the school exam competition's coming up. Grab dinner together after school?" the woman teacher asked, thick with implication.
Since the only one nearby was a child about first- or second-grade age, she wasn't worried the kid would run off and blab.
"No need. There's food waiting at home."
"Hmph!"
Yimi was learning firsthand the downside of being a child—her words so often brushed aside by grown-ups, when as a cat, what she said had often been taken seriously.
She leaned her head toward Mr. David's hand. "You can pat my head."
This was payment for the milk candy.
Mr. David frowned again and patted her head through the hat. "Get back to your class. If you want to come out and play, wait for the break."
Back to class?
He hadn't mentioned a wish-granting thing or a world-crossing item, and still he wanted the kitty to stay put here?
Yimi turned, ran into the corridor of the teaching building, and while no one was around, simply teleported away.
* * *
The scene shifted in an instant, and Yimi found herself standing on a lush green grassland, not a soul in sight—but compared to the grim, ghastly places she landed in from time to time, this already counted as a good spot.
She opened the Quest Panel again, but her attention wasn't on the Main Quest.
At the bottom-right corner of the Quest Panel there was usually a percentage marker, tracking the Main Quests she'd already completed. After all the worlds she'd been through, it should have read exactly 5/6.
But…
"It's gone!"
It had reset back to 0/6.
"Why is it gone?" The little kitten fretfully paced in place.
She'd only had one left to go!
System: Answer to Host—you have designated your selected world as your own starting world. Therefore, by default, your progress is cleared once you pass through the starting world.
"Starting world?" Yimi went blank for a moment.
That world just now had been her home—that was why there'd been no Main Quest. Because so many worlds weren't home, she'd unconsciously assumed she still hadn't made it back.
At home, as an ordinary kitty, she hadn't been capable of language; the most she could ever dredge up were a handful of phrases. Other worlds had that language called Simplified Chinese too—in the Stand world, Joseph had even helped her test it out. So in that brief span of under ten minutes, she hadn't once realized that what she'd been speaking was her hometown's own tongue.
"Meow! Why, didn't you, warn me?"
System: Answer to Host—you departed in too great a hurry; the System had no time to give a prompt.
"I want to teleport back!" Yimi hurriedly commanded the System.
System: Answer to Host—the home world holds no automatic marker. Should you require it, the Host must set the coordinates herself before free teleportation is possible.
System: The multiverse is beyond counting, and obtaining coordinates is exceedingly difficult. Please actively complete quests to obtain a directional lock.
The little girl slowly sank down onto the ground, her small body trembling without pause.
Sobbing slowly rose on the wind.
At some breaking point, golden rifts burst past the Spear of Longinus's suppression and spread outward from beneath her.
System: Beep—alert! Alert! Abnormal fluctuation detected—repair in progress—maintenance—remediation—
System: Scan complete: a bug has appeared in the System's rules; repair underway. Once fixed, the progress-reset bug will not recur. The Host is compensated with 100% Portal Energy. This class of bug will not occur again in future—
The alert still hadn't cleared.
System: Secondary bug detected: upon the Host's passage through the home world, the System failed in its duty to warn. This bug will be repaired, and by way of apology the System will once again overdraw, awarding 200% Portal Energy. This class of bug will not occur again in future—