Chapter 26 – A date with a cat-girl?!

Sophia and Maya took a break from their first training, or rather demonstration, session. The cat-girl suggested eating something at a café in the city together. However, the way she had worded it and how she wrapped her arm around Sophia's was a cause of great confusion for the girl.

"D-Date?!" Sophia repeated the word.

"Yeah~." A light reply came.

"R-Really…?"

"Hmm? We're two, and we're going to a café together. That's a date, isn't it?" Maya tilted her head and looked at the girl while she continued to drag her around.

"A-Ahh." She realized that she got all worked up for nothing. "W-What kind of food does the place have?" She tried to divert the attention away from her.

"Their cake's really delicious."

"C-Cake?!" Sophia had a strong reaction to the word. "T-There's cake?"

"Of course?"

"I hadn't had any since coming to this, uhh, continent. I didn't know it even existed here!"

"Seriously?! Let's hurry then!" The cat-girl picked up her pace. She had no way of knowing that even while it sounded long, Sophia had cake in her old world a day before being summoned, making it relatively recent.

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They arrived there before long and entered. There, the two were guided by a waitress and got seated at a small, round table while facing each other.

"…" Sophia wanted to say something about this seating arrangement but managed to hold back. Instead, she looked around and noticed that this place only featured this kind of table. The girl also became aware that the café seemed really popular because it was mostly booked out. One-on-one get-togethers occupied almost every table. Two girls, two boys, mixed parties, there was absolutely no preferred kind of grouping—neither in gender nor types of beastperson.

"What are you looking at, Sophia?" Maya noticed that her eyes were all over the place.

"A-Ah… Well," She faced the girl. "I was just thinking that beastpeople are really interesting."

"Really? I'm surrounded by them every day, even aside from being one myself as well, so I wouldn't know. Personally, I think you're much more interesting, Sophia."

"T-Thanks…" She had trouble appropriately reacting to the cat-girl's compliment. "I-Is there any cake you can recommend?" Changing the topic, as usual, was her best, or only, course of action to keep herself from having a meltdown.

"Let's see, I'm a big fan of the chocolade cake. I can recommend that one."

"Chocolade, huh? The pronunciation again is a little bit off… Wow, the one who thought of those names isn't even trying, huh?"

"Hmm?" Maya tilted her head again.

"F-Forget it… Anyway, yeah, I'll try that one, and for drinks, just water's fine."

"Alright, I'll go ahead and order then." She called out for a waitress. "Excuse me, the chocolade cake and water for her. I'll take the fruit cake with a tea that goes well with it, please."

"Absolutely." She took their order, got it ready in a flash, and returned after just a couple of minutes.

"Oh! It looks good!" Sophia was staring at her beautiful-looking cake made with a generous amount of chocolade.

"Yes!" She agreed while looking at her own before quickly trying a bite with her fork. "Delicious! I haven't had it in a while, but the fruit cake is just as good!" Seeing how the cat-girl was so delighted that it was even showing on her perky ears and slightly twitchy tail, Sophia couldn't help but smile. She looked forward to trying her cake and couldn't wait any longer. "Oh, wow… it's good!"

"Isn't it?" She took another bite before glancing at Sophia's one. "Mind if I try?" Maya pointed her fork at it.

"S-Sure, go for it… eh?!" Sophia presented her plate with the cake on it but stopped mid-air.

"Ahhh~." Maya had different plans, though, as she leaned over the table with her mouth slightly open.

"…" She stopped working.

"Ahh~." The cat-girl wasn't giving her any room to work with, though.

"S-Seriously…? No way… Urgh, w-whatever…" Seeing how she didn't seem to have a choice, no matter how embarrassed she was, Sophia lifted her fork with some cake on it and hesitatingly but carefully fed the cat-girl in front of her.

"Delicious!" Having a taste of the chockoladey goodness, Maya delightfully touched her cheek.

"T-That's-, That's great…"

"Want to try mine, too?"

"A-Ah, no, I'm g-good…" She already knew where this was leading to. As Sophia's boosts were already failing her, she wasn't sure about being able to survive this sort of high-level embarrassment play.

"You don't like fruits?"

"N-No, I'm a-actually… a big fan."

"Well then." Maya wasted no time, picked up some cake, and held up her fork in front of the girl.

"O-Oh." She noticed her careless mistake.

"Say Ahh~."

"…" Sophia pondered whether to go for it or not, mentally debating whether something like this would kill her from sheer embarrassment alone. While looking at Maya cutely playing around with her fork in front of her face, she finally accepted the offer because she didn't want to disappoint her.

"And? How is it?"

"Y-Yeah, it's d-delicious…" She actually had no recollection of how it tasted, being too distracted by various things and feelings.

"Ehehe, that's good then." The cat-girl didn't seem to have noticed her inner turmoil.

"…" Still fighting her bashfulness, Sophia broke eye contact and looked around to calm down. There, she noticed that she wasn't the only one that had to go through this sort of shameful play. Many couples around them were doing the exact same thing, some of them more embarrassed, others not at all. Feeling stupid that something apparently so normal had made such a mess out of her, Sophia let out a small sigh and managed to recover. Taking a sip from her water, she looked perfectly serious again.

"Haha, you're so fun to watch, Sophia."

"E-Eh?!" Her reclaimed calmness only lasted a short moment.

"Your expression's changing all the time. It's almost as if you can't decide how you should feel and flip through all your emotions, trying to find the correct one."

"Ah." Sophia wasn't aware that she was showing her feelings so open. She was surprised that Maya even noticed how her emotions were all over the place, thanks to the mix of questionable boosts she received. Not to mention the inability to hold even a simple conversation in her past world, which didn't help with this situation. However, the cat-girl obviously didn't know that much.

"Ehehe~, it's cute how you're so easy to read." Maya happily giggled as she said so.

"…" The feeling of embarrassment was rising inside of her again. Still, Sophia also felt like she was being teased right now, and that was something she could deal with for some reason. "Funny you should say this, Maya. You're the one I can read like a book after all, with your cute body language." She pointed at her friendly swishing tail. "It's easy to see that you're enjoying yourself."

"H-Huh?!" She looked at her tail that had dropped on the floor as a direct response. "I-I never knew about that… Wait, is my tail really that expressive…?"

"Yeah."

"Ah…" Now her ears twitched in response.

"And so are your ears. Hehe, I've only known you for a day, but especially watching your tail has brought me a great amount of joy already."

"Uhh… s-so embarrassing!"

"It is, isn't it?" Sophia wholeheartedly agreed.

"…"

"…" The mood turned a little awkward for a short while, but as the two stared at each other, their expression soon changed.

"Ahaha."

"Ehehe." Maya and Sophia laughed at their own idiocy and finally continued to enjoy each other's company.

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Some time passed, and as the two continued to chat about meaningless things, their cake had long since vanished. After a while, Sophia began to focus her attention on her half-empty glass of water.

"Hmm, physicists would probably hate me, but isn't air and water quite similar?" As she concentrated on the liquid, it started to swirl in a circular motion inside the glass. "Both of them also have a significant amount of oxygen… In one way or another, at least."

"What are you doing?" The cat-girl curiously eyed the glass.

"Thinking about things… Maya?"

"Yes?"

"Who decided that magic is grouped into elements and that you're supposed to be only able to use a limited amount of them?

"I don't think anyone ever decided it… That's just how it is, after all."

"Is it really?

"Absolutely!" The cat-girl was sure about this concept.

"Then, in your eyes, what sort of magic am I using right now?" She pointed at the swirling water.

"Well, water magic, of course." She tilted her head, not understanding what Sophia wanted.

"Really? I'm doing almost the same thing that I use for my blue flame, and that has nothing to do with water, has it? If I had to decide, the cause of the swirling water is closer related to air-, and not water magic." She was controlling the oxygen part inside the water right now to move it around.

"W-What?!" Maya jumped up from her chair in shock. "T-That can't be!"

"Well, I do admit that I'm bending the rules a tiny bit. I'm sure grouping magic into elements makes sense, but I don't think you're supposed to only use some of them as the lines between the elements are quite blurry."

"…" She couldn't believe what this girl was saying.

"In the first place, Fen calls them categories and not types, which makes way more sense as it changes depending on how you use it."

"…"

"Maya, wanna try to learn a third element, no category?"

"Huh?! D-Do you think I can…?"

"I think so, yes. No, I'm actually sure of it." Sophia was confident about her theory. "Ah, I just had a great idea!" She suddenly started to smile. "How about that? I'll try to teach you how to manipulate water. If you become able to use your third element, or category, before Fen and I leave this place, you can come with us."

"E-Ehh?" The cat-girl naturally was surprised.

"So, are you up for the challenge, Maya?"

"Is that-, Is that really possible…?" She seemed doubtful.

"It entirely depends on how serious you are. If you really want to, it won't be an issue. To be honest, I learned water-related magic over the course of a day or so. You'll have at least a week." Sophia forgot to mention that this was the case for every single magic she had acquired.

"What are we waiting for?! Let's get going already!" She instantly became motivated and seemed determined to learn it.

"That's the spirit!"

The two quickly wrapped things up in the café, finished their date, and got ready to leave for more training.