Chapter 25 – Determined cat-girl

Finally having slept in an actual bed for the first time since coming to this world, Sophia was well-rested the following day, even after such a hectic day. Taking advantage of staying in an inn, she took her sweet time in the included bath—an actual one for a change and not her makeshift version. While soaking in the water, the girl was thinking about yesterday's events.

"That was really something…" She stretched herself in the tub, relaxing. "Maya sure is strong… Okay, relatively speaking, that is. Does she really want me to teach her magic? Can I even do that? I'm using the knowledge of my old world for most of my magic, after all… Ah, but I managed to teach Fen about the oxygen thing. Well, he knows that I'm from another world, though… I don't think I should tell anyone else so readily... at least in the beginning. Oh, I was fortunate that Fen accepted it even though we had just met, huh?" Sophia got a little sidetracked.

"Hmm… Ah, she thinks I'm a demon, right? Wouldn't that work? I could just tell her it's demon knowledge. Maya does seem to be rather easy to fool… I'm a bit worried about her." She ignored the part where she was fooling around with the cat-girl the most yesterday. "If I were to do that, she could travel with us, right? Oh, did I even ask Fen whether he's okay with it? Well, I don't think he would mind." He didn't seem like the person, or wolf, who would care about that. "Am I… okay with it, though? Hmm, it does sound like it would be fun. There's just one problem… Maya's way too adorable!"

While shouting out her real problem with the situation, she immediately pushed her head underwater, as she was still in her bath, to cool herself down. "Her expressive tail, the fluffy ears, that white hair… No, Maya, as a whole…" The cooling-down didn't work, and not only because the water was too hot.

"It feels like I could become dangerous with her around. I mean, I naturally wouldn't attack her. I'm not some lowlife after all! Not to mention that my boosts would have a spectacular meltdown long before that, anyway. Yeah, I'm not confident I could do that even if I wanted… No, that's not what I mean in the first place! The bigger problem is,… can I stay mentally sane around Maya? I've almost already lost my… cool when I talked with her for just a couple of minutes. She's dangerous!" Sophia remembered the cat-girl's ambiguous way of wording things. "S-Speaking of which, Fen said so, but… were we really f-flirting? That can't be, right…? I wouldn't even know how to… My experience's ZERO, after all. ZERO! Ahaha-haaaa." Her laughter trailed off into a sigh.

After having accidentally dealt significant damage to herself, she continued. "Could I learn… how to talk? How to f-flirt…? Together with Maya? I don't know what she's into… It surely wouldn't be me, though, like ever... Just like what Fen told me… As if Chiyo would be interested in me… Me! It makes no sense!" Even while Sophia's self-confidence had been boosted exceptionally when coming to this world, it still amounted to virtually nothing when it came to this sort of topic.

"Maybe in exchange for teaching her magic, I could learn how to interact with girls from Maya? Eventually, in the far, far future, I might be able to find someone… Still, using her to get accustomed to girls? Isn't that way too high of a difficulty level to start with? She's almost too cute to look at, after all! Mmrgn…" Not being able to come to a conclusion, Sophia gave up on it for the time being.

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Once she finished her bath that had gotten into slight overtime for some reason, Sophia quickly dressed herself after recovering from the heat-induced dizziness, got ready, and left the inn.

"Finally!" A white-haired cat-girl was standing in front of the inn. Her arms were crossed, and her tail was impatiently swaying from side to side.

"M-Maya?!" Sophia hadn't expected to immediately run into the girl that was the cause of so many problems she had just a little while ago.

"You're way too late!"

"Too late for what?" She didn't remember having made any promises to meet up with her. "Sorry, I guess…? I'm not really a morning person. Also, I was thinking about things and lost track of time…"

"Thinking? About what?"

"You."

"Me?!" Maya's ears and tail twitched once and perked up at the unexpected reply.

"Ah." Realizing her mistake, she awkwardly looked away.

"Ohh~, so you've decided to take me with you already?" Thankfully, her interpretation of the ambiguous answer was perfectly innocent.

"N-No."

"Aww… Well, I already planned to convince you all day long anyway." It didn't dampen her motivation in the slightest.

"I-I see."

"Then, let's go!" Being in high spirits, Maya wrapped her right arm around Sophia's left and started dragging her off.

"H-Huh?!" She desperately tried not to think about the soft feeling her arm was experiencing while it was pressed against the cat-girl's body. The girl had already taken considerable damage not even five minutes after meeting up with Maya because she never had the chance to develop any sort of resistance to these feelings. "W-Where are we going…?"

"Outside the city. To train, of course!"

"Yeah, of course…" She didn't know what she expected.

Arriving at an empty spot far away from any curious onlookers, Maya let go of Sophia and looked at her full of expectation.

"I look forward to learning from you!"

"Hmm…" Sophia felt a little lonely when she glanced at her freed arm, but she also was a lot more at ease now. After a moment, she concentrated on the cat-girl. "Learn… what exactly?"

"That's a good question." Maya tilted her head.

"Ehh? I thought you had a plan?"

"Coming here was all I had in store."

"That's not what one would call a plan!"

"Ehehe~. Oh, can you show me some more of your magic for starters, Sophia?"

"Good grief…" She marveled at the girl's easygoingness, not that she was one to talk.

"Something with fire or air magic, if possible. Those are the two I can use after all."

"Ah, I wanted to ask about that!" Sophia remembered being curious about that during their fight the day before. "Can you really only use two categories… types of magic?

"That's actually extremely impressive, you know?! I never even met a single one that could use more than two, just like me, in my entire life! It's basically always only a single type at best! Not before meeting you, that is!"

"Really? Everyone I met before coming to this city could use all types…" As she had only met Fen, Sophia, again, technically wasn't lying, though it was a bit of a stretch.

"Demons are amazing." The misunderstanding continued to grow.

"But why is your magic limited?"

"Why isn't yours?"

"That's… hmm…? Good question." She had no reply to this.

"Indeed."

"I wonder if there's a way around…" She was lost in thoughts for a moment before quickly paying attention to Maya again. "Where were we again…?"

"I asked you to show me some fire or air magic. If possible, something strong and flashy."

"I don't remember the last part, though? Well, whatever. Especially the flashy part is my specialty anyway. Let's see… What to show?" Thinking about a suitable magic, Sophia pondered for a moment but then had an idea. Presenting her open palm, she let her blue and violently burning flame appear. It was slowly becoming her trademark.

"Blue…?" Maya curiously eyed the flame as she got closer. "Whoa! It's so small, yet way hotter than anything I ever managed to do with magic! What kind of fire is that, Sophia?!"

"Hehe~." A smug look appeared on her face. "It's an original magic of mine. A perfect fusion of air and fire, that is."

"There's air magic in that?" The cat-girl tilted her head.

"A very powerful even." Sophia deactivated that part, taking away the extra oxygen power-up. The flame immediately calmed down and turned to a much more orange-yellowish color.

"Ah, it became normal… Such a difference in power!"

"Care to see it in action?" Sophia looked around and found a group of poor, innocent trees. A couple of seconds later, a blue inferno instantly reduced the place to nothingness with tremendous might.

"…" Maya only stood there for a moment. "A-Amazing!"

"Hehe, Fen had a similar reaction when I showed him. He really worked hard to learn it as well."

"E-Eh?" She stared at Sophia. "Fen-, He can use more than one magic, too? I felt that he's super powerful, but that much?"

"I'm fairly sure he's as powerful as I am, if not stronger."

"W-What?!" She couldn't believe it.

"Just like me, he's capable of using every magic category… type thingy there is. In the first place, he's the one who's teaching me magic."

"W-Wow, I'm losing my confidence here…" Until now, Maya was an exceptional being, able to use two types of magic. "Hmm… Does that mean you two are together all the time then?"

"Yeah." She forgot to mention that it wasn't even a week yet. "Well, I told you that everyone I met until now could use every magic, right?"

"I didn't think Fen would be included in that list." Maya also had no way of knowing that Fen was the list.

"Fen's extremely strong. He managed to get a grasp on that blue fire magic on his first day of trying."

"I am capable of fire and air magic… do you think it would be possible for me to learn, Sophia?"

"Hmm, I don't think it's impossible." She gave it some serious thought. "It will take a while, though. You need to get a way better control of your magic power."

"E-Even better? You did see that all I need is a simple activation word at best yesterday, right…? And my flame tornado, as you called it, is chantless!"

"Yeah, that flame tornado was nice, but keep in mind that it uses the same two magics as my earlier inferno as its basis."

"You're right…" The cat-girl acknowledged the massive gap in their powers.

"Actually, I learned chantless magic only. I don't even know how to use activation words, let alone chants. I also don't want to because I would die out of embarrassment when using the latter!"

"That's… quite something."

"So, chantless is the only way if you want to achieve anything meaningful. For my blue flame, I directly manipulate a part of the air and use my actual magic power as fuel for my fire."

"T-That sounds really complicated…" She seemed overwhelmed.

"What's that, having second thoughts about wanting to come with me already?"

"Not at all!" Maya gave her a firm answer. "I'm just becoming aware of how conceited I was, thinking I was the strongest, while in reality… I'm weak, really weak… How exciting!" She was more motivated than ever.

"Well, I think you're a bit stronger than a human."

"Hey!" There was a line you shouldn't cross in this world. This joke had Maya made so angry that even her tail got all puffed up in response.

"…" Seeing that, Sophia tried her best not to accidentally embarrass herself again by unconsciously leaking out how cute she thinks her reactions are once more. "A-Anyway… no, I actually do think you're really talented."

"R-Really?" Her anger was nowhere to be seen anymore.

"Absolutely. I'm sure you'll get even more, uhh, amazing with the right teacher."

"T-Then!" Her ears perked up. "Does that mean you've decided about me going with you?"

"Hmm… not yet~."

"Ehh? Come one, we had such a nice moment just now, Sophia~! Just say yes already! I promise you won't regret accepting me!"

"N-No…" She was becoming weak against Maya's pushiness. "I'm not quite convinced yet."

"Ha! She said quite yet!" She made a little fist. "I'm getting closer! Okay then, let's try a different approach!"

"Hmm…?" She had no idea what was going on anymore.

"Sophia, I heard you like food. Is that true?"

"Yes, you could say that." It wasn't a secret.

"Great! There's a really nice café with amazing sweets in the city, want to go?"

"Sure, that sounds good."

"Yay! Let's go immediately!" With a bright smile on her face, and her tail happily pointing upwards, Maya linked arms with Sophia again before dragging her towards the city. "It's date time!"

"Huh…?" It took her another second to fully register the words. "Huuuuh?" Her confused cry was completed ignored, though.