Chapter 54 – Maya’s feelings
Sophia finally told Maya about the fact that she's from a different world and how the overseer brought her here. The cat-girl was so overwhelmed by the revelation that she ran away to wrap her head around it. She thought about various things for a really long time, but she failed to come to a conclusion and never reunited with the other two that day.
"Haa..." Sophia let out a big sigh during the morning of the following day. It was one of these extremely rare times when she woke up early, and all on her own, on top. However, that was a bit of a stretch because she had barely slept in the first place.
"Are you okay?" Fen was worried about her.
"I've been better..."
"The cat hasn't moved, huh?"
"No... she's still at her spot about two kilometers away from us. I'm watching her with my detection magic ever since I identified her reaction. She sure has a big red dot. It almost looks the same as yours because I'm not that good at the details of the magic yet."
"Of course, after the two of us, she's by far the most powerful being in this whole area."
"I was super worried when Maya went to the forest we came from, but she came back after some red dots the size of those baers disappeared."
"Ahaha..." As a fellow muscle brain, Fen had a rough idea of what the cat-girl did, stress therapy.
"I wonder if she will come soon. If... she comes..." Sophia turned more and more silent towards the end.
"..." The wolf had nothing to offer to make her feel better.
"Haa..."
"Want to eat some breakfast?" His ways of diverting her attention were rather limited.
"Sorry, I'm not hungry."
"I see."
"Don't worry about me, Fen. If you want to eat, go and catch something."
"Really? Okay, I will." With slight reluctance, the wolf then left Sophia on her own to get a bit of food.
----------------
"Haa..." She sighed again and let herself fall flat on her back. Lying on the grass, the girl watched the clouds passing by in the sky for a while. Severely lacking in sleep, she was soon getting drowsy, despite all her worries at the moment. About twenty minutes passed, and while Sophia had closed her eyes, she didn't manage to fall asleep at all. After a while, she felt the presence of someone next to her. Being completely absentminded, the girl lightly greeted them without checking. "Welcome back, Fen..."
"S-Sorry to disappoint, but-"
"Maya?!" Sophia immediately sprang up when she heard the all-too-familiar voice of the cat-girl.
"Yes, that's my name."
"Y-You're back?!" She hadn't noticed her arrival at all and was really surprised.
"Can we talk?" Maya went straight to the point.
"E-Eh? Huh? Ah, of course..." Sophia's brain wasn't working at full capacity yet.
"About your old world... No, about the you in your old world. Please tell me about your previous life."
"Err, I don't think that's going to be any fun..." She, herself, didn't enjoy talking about it, after all. Even just remembering was painful.
"Please..." It seemed to be important for her.
"Alright," It didn't look like she had a choice in this situation. "Let's see... Well, I was a pretty unremarkable girl, absolutely nothing noteworthy... I had no special traits, there was no magic in that world either, so I didn't have any of it. Canir gave that to me afterward."
"No magic? That sounds harsh."
"You don't miss something you never experienced. Besides, I lived in a peaceful part of the world. Monsters didn't exist, either, only normal animals. On top of that, we had something called technology, which kinda overlaps with some of the magic here... Roughly, very roughly speaking."
"Oh, that doesn't sound so bad, after all... So, then you are really a h-human of that... world?"
"Yes. In the first place, humans were the only race that existed there."
"Seriously?!"
"Yep, it was a sad world... Neither cute cat-girls nor gigantic wolf-like fluffballs..." She spoke without thinking.
"Y-You..." Maya took damage from the unexpected attack. "You said you were an unremarkable girl... Does that mean being shy and introverted, like you mentioned before, was normal in that world?"
"Not at all... Haa- to be honest now, or not...?" Sophia was debating whether she should tell her the reason why she had become like that.
"Please tell me!"
"Okay," She couldn't win against the pleading, almost desperate-looking eyes of the cat-girl. "Fine... I have no idea how it is here, but in my old world, uhh," Sophia was trying her best to keep the rapidly rising levels of embarrassment in check. "I'm not sure if it's something I have to apologize for, but... I'm sorry, I probably should've told you sooner, especially after we took baths together and the lap-pillows and the petting and stuff... I wasn't trying anything, and I tried my best to keep a distance. In the bath, for example, I always did my best not to look at you. A-At least most of the time... especially in the beginning... uuuh... Here goes nothing! I-, I'm actually... i-into g-girls... My interest in boys is… zero." It took her a lot to admit, but there was no way around it anymore. Not this late in the game.
"Okay?" Maya seemed to be missing the point and had a really lackluster reaction. "And?"
"E-Eh?!" The response was too underwhelming for her. "I-In my world, that was... while definitely not unheard of, still relatively uncommon, and quite a few people discriminated against it. So... while I was growing up and noticed my p-preferences, I became afraid... Afraid of being different. I distanced myself from my female friends because I felt guilty just looking at them. Even though I wasn't really interested in most, if not any of them… From there on, everything just went downwards... In the end, I was unable to speak to basically anyone, especially girls, because I had secluded myself so much from them… I now know that was stupid, but try telling a teen that they're wrong." She had to laugh at herself. "It was a lonely life."
"..." She was only listening.
"After some years, when I became aware of my stupidity, it was already too late... My fear of being with someone was so deeply rooted in my brain that I became unable to change myself. Still, I really wanted to... Obviously. One day, I somehow got into an accident that would've killed me while I was complaining about my situation in my old world. The next moment, I found myself in an all-white room and met a being with the name of Canir, which I found out, well, yesterday. His actual name, that is." Sophia took a deep breath. "That's, more or less, my full story. You already know what happened after I met with the god after all."
"B-Basically... you used to be a normal girl that made a wrong decision, wrong evaluation of your situation, which ruined your whole life?"
"H-Having one's life reduced to a single sentence stings a bit, but yes... that's how it is."
"And... Now you simply want to live your second chance here without regrets?"
"Yes... though it's not working that well." While she was having a ton of fun, there were also a lot of regrettable things already. "Just traveling the world and having fun. Hopefully, making some friends, and maybe, if I get really lucky… a little more. In terms of finding someone, uhh, special... It's unlikely that anyone would ever see me in this way, but... t-that's the dream I had when Canir brought me to this world..." Especially after confessing her previous experiences, Sophia's self-esteem had taken a big hit.
"R-Really? Is that really what you want?!" Maya seemed very interested in that part.
"It-, IT is. How unlikely it might seem, nothing would make me any happier."
"I see... That means I- Okay!" The cat-girl didn't finish her sentence, closed her eyes, and stopped for a moment before she suddenly looked determined. "Sophia."
"Y-Yes?!" All the talking about her past had made her very shifty and nervous, not to mention embarrassed.
----------------
Before she said what she wanted to say, Maya thought about what she went through the previous evening once more, when she was alone and thinking about everything.
"Haa... that helped~" Her hands were still soaked in blood when she came out of the forest that was filled with baers, or used to be so. It wasn't her blood, after all. "Okay, now that I'm calm again, let's give this another go!" She looked strangely satisfied.
"Right... I feel like I can believe Sophia now. It needed some time to settle. I mean, she said she's from another world! One does not simply shrug that off as nothing... It still sounds crazy, even now. I can only believe it because it actually makes some sort of sense in her case... Honestly, how can you be such an oddball that coming from another world makes sense?!"
"What was Sophia like in that world? Would she be considered normal there, or was she a special case no matter the place?" Maya had a hard time imagining the girl like that. "Normal Sophia, huh? Sounds cute. I would like to see it. Then again, the normal Sophia here is the one I want... wanted? Her at full capacity was great. It was the moment I completely fell for the girl, after all. But, at the same time, this naturally makes me interested in her past as well... Also, how did she... d-die?"
"Why is she here? What does she want to accomplish in this world? Is there a place for me? Obviously, there is, but besides being her friend, that is? Is Sophia looking for more than a friend, maybe a special someone? It's hard to tell because she gets embarrassed over absolutely everything in that regard... Or am I the reason that she gets so embarrassed? She did tell me that she used to be shy, and I noticed... traces of it, but there's a limit to everything, right? Right...?" She doubted herself for a minute. "Can someone be so like her simply from being close to another person, or is there… more? Something that makes her embarrassed to be with me specifically? If she's really looking for someone special, I want it to be me!"
"Hmm, does Sophia even know the definition of the word limit? Okay, yeah, that's a problem..." Maya was unsure whether the girl could actually even function in moderation. "Could the past her hold herself back? Are her boosts now the reason she can't? Is it just a matter of getting used to it? Probably." She started debating herself.
"Really now, could I have fallen for a less complicated girl? Likely."
"Should I have done so? Definitely!"
"Do I want to? Nope! I'm happy that she's the one." The cat-girl made sure of her unchanged feelings.
"Ridiculous power? That's awesome! No common sense whatsoever? That's fixable. Her personality? Well, that's all over the place, but the current her is nice, and the full-potential-Sophia is, from the glimpses I got, just perfect. Her looks? One word, gorgeous. Though, well… I admit that a tiny bit more in the chest department... I wouldn't complain. As our cook, let's focus on nutritional food for a while!" She had gotten a little sidetracked towards the end.
"Who cares that she's basically a human! She's from another world, after all. Who cares about that, either?! Being mysterious is great!"
"I don't know what the future holds, and I don't know what Sophia wants. All I know is what I want. Now more than ever! I want to be next to her, and not just as her friend! I know it's too sudden, and I should wait a little longer, but… I can't. I can't keep it to myself anymore. After all, there's no denying it, no need to make any more sure of it. These feelings of mine are crystal-clear now. No mistakes."
"Definitely, I-"
Maya finished recalling her past day and went back to the present, where she faced the girl of her desire.
----------------
"Sophia."
"Y-Yes?!"
"I love you."
Chapter 54 – Maya’s feelings
Sophia finally told Maya about the fact that she's from a different world and how the overseer brought her here. The cat-girl was so overwhelmed by the revelation that she ran away to wrap her head around it. She thought about various things for a really long time, but she failed to come to a conclusion and never reunited with the other two that day.
"Haa..." Sophia let out a big sigh during the morning of the following day. It was one of these extremely rare times when she woke up early, and all on her own, on top. However, that was a bit of a stretch because she had barely slept in the first place.
"Are you okay?" Fen was worried about her.
"I've been better..."
"The cat hasn't moved, huh?"
"No... she's still at her spot about two kilometers away from us. I'm watching her with my detection magic ever since I identified her reaction. She sure has a big red dot. It almost looks the same as yours because I'm not that good at the details of the magic yet."
"Of course, after the two of us, she's by far the most powerful being in this whole area."
"I was super worried when Maya went to the forest we came from, but she came back after some red dots the size of those baers disappeared."
"Ahaha..." As a fellow muscle brain, Fen had a rough idea of what the cat-girl did, stress therapy.
"I wonder if she will come soon. If... she comes..." Sophia turned more and more silent towards the end.
"..." The wolf had nothing to offer to make her feel better.
"Haa..."
"Want to eat some breakfast?" His ways of diverting her attention were rather limited.
"Sorry, I'm not hungry."
"I see."
"Don't worry about me, Fen. If you want to eat, go and catch something."
"Really? Okay, I will." With slight reluctance, the wolf then left Sophia on her own to get a bit of food.
----------------
"Haa..." She sighed again and let herself fall flat on her back. Lying on the grass, the girl watched the clouds passing by in the sky for a while. Severely lacking in sleep, she was soon getting drowsy, despite all her worries at the moment. About twenty minutes passed, and while Sophia had closed her eyes, she didn't manage to fall asleep at all. After a while, she felt the presence of someone next to her. Being completely absentminded, the girl lightly greeted them without checking. "Welcome back, Fen..."
"S-Sorry to disappoint, but-"
"Maya?!" Sophia immediately sprang up when she heard the all-too-familiar voice of the cat-girl.
"Yes, that's my name."
"Y-You're back?!" She hadn't noticed her arrival at all and was really surprised.
"Can we talk?" Maya went straight to the point.
"E-Eh? Huh? Ah, of course..." Sophia's brain wasn't working at full capacity yet.
"About your old world... No, about the you in your old world. Please tell me about your previous life."
"Err, I don't think that's going to be any fun..." She, herself, didn't enjoy talking about it, after all. Even just remembering was painful.
"Please..." It seemed to be important for her.
"Alright," It didn't look like she had a choice in this situation. "Let's see... Well, I was a pretty unremarkable girl, absolutely nothing noteworthy... I had no special traits, there was no magic in that world either, so I didn't have any of it. Canir gave that to me afterward."
"No magic? That sounds harsh."
"You don't miss something you never experienced. Besides, I lived in a peaceful part of the world. Monsters didn't exist, either, only normal animals. On top of that, we had something called technology, which kinda overlaps with some of the magic here... Roughly, very roughly speaking."
"Oh, that doesn't sound so bad, after all... So, then you are really a h-human of that... world?"
"Yes. In the first place, humans were the only race that existed there."
"Seriously?!"
"Yep, it was a sad world... Neither cute cat-girls nor gigantic wolf-like fluffballs..." She spoke without thinking.
"Y-You..." Maya took damage from the unexpected attack. "You said you were an unremarkable girl... Does that mean being shy and introverted, like you mentioned before, was normal in that world?"
"Not at all... Haa- to be honest now, or not...?" Sophia was debating whether she should tell her the reason why she had become like that.
"Please tell me!"
"Okay," She couldn't win against the pleading, almost desperate-looking eyes of the cat-girl. "Fine... I have no idea how it is here, but in my old world, uhh," Sophia was trying her best to keep the rapidly rising levels of embarrassment in check. "I'm not sure if it's something I have to apologize for, but... I'm sorry, I probably should've told you sooner, especially after we took baths together and the lap-pillows and the petting and stuff... I wasn't trying anything, and I tried my best to keep a distance. In the bath, for example, I always did my best not to look at you. A-At least most of the time... especially in the beginning... uuuh... Here goes nothing! I-, I'm actually... i-into g-girls... My interest in boys is… zero." It took her a lot to admit, but there was no way around it anymore. Not this late in the game.
"Okay?" Maya seemed to be missing the point and had a really lackluster reaction. "And?"
"E-Eh?!" The response was too underwhelming for her. "I-In my world, that was... while definitely not unheard of, still relatively uncommon, and quite a few people discriminated against it. So... while I was growing up and noticed my p-preferences, I became afraid... Afraid of being different. I distanced myself from my female friends because I felt guilty just looking at them. Even though I wasn't really interested in most, if not any of them… From there on, everything just went downwards... In the end, I was unable to speak to basically anyone, especially girls, because I had secluded myself so much from them… I now know that was stupid, but try telling a teen that they're wrong." She had to laugh at herself. "It was a lonely life."
"..." She was only listening.
"After some years, when I became aware of my stupidity, it was already too late... My fear of being with someone was so deeply rooted in my brain that I became unable to change myself. Still, I really wanted to... Obviously. One day, I somehow got into an accident that would've killed me while I was complaining about my situation in my old world. The next moment, I found myself in an all-white room and met a being with the name of Canir, which I found out, well, yesterday. His actual name, that is." Sophia took a deep breath. "That's, more or less, my full story. You already know what happened after I met with the god after all."
"B-Basically... you used to be a normal girl that made a wrong decision, wrong evaluation of your situation, which ruined your whole life?"
"H-Having one's life reduced to a single sentence stings a bit, but yes... that's how it is."
"And... Now you simply want to live your second chance here without regrets?"
"Yes... though it's not working that well." While she was having a ton of fun, there were also a lot of regrettable things already. "Just traveling the world and having fun. Hopefully, making some friends, and maybe, if I get really lucky… a little more. In terms of finding someone, uhh, special... It's unlikely that anyone would ever see me in this way, but... t-that's the dream I had when Canir brought me to this world..." Especially after confessing her previous experiences, Sophia's self-esteem had taken a big hit.
"R-Really? Is that really what you want?!" Maya seemed very interested in that part.
"It-, IT is. How unlikely it might seem, nothing would make me any happier."
"I see... That means I- Okay!" The cat-girl didn't finish her sentence, closed her eyes, and stopped for a moment before she suddenly looked determined. "Sophia."
"Y-Yes?!" All the talking about her past had made her very shifty and nervous, not to mention embarrassed.
----------------
Before she said what she wanted to say, Maya thought about what she went through the previous evening once more, when she was alone and thinking about everything.
"Haa... that helped~" Her hands were still soaked in blood when she came out of the forest that was filled with baers, or used to be so. It wasn't her blood, after all. "Okay, now that I'm calm again, let's give this another go!" She looked strangely satisfied.
"Right... I feel like I can believe Sophia now. It needed some time to settle. I mean, she said she's from another world! One does not simply shrug that off as nothing... It still sounds crazy, even now. I can only believe it because it actually makes some sort of sense in her case... Honestly, how can you be such an oddball that coming from another world makes sense?!"
"What was Sophia like in that world? Would she be considered normal there, or was she a special case no matter the place?" Maya had a hard time imagining the girl like that. "Normal Sophia, huh? Sounds cute. I would like to see it. Then again, the normal Sophia here is the one I want... wanted? Her at full capacity was great. It was the moment I completely fell for the girl, after all. But, at the same time, this naturally makes me interested in her past as well... Also, how did she... d-die?"
"Why is she here? What does she want to accomplish in this world? Is there a place for me? Obviously, there is, but besides being her friend, that is? Is Sophia looking for more than a friend, maybe a special someone? It's hard to tell because she gets embarrassed over absolutely everything in that regard... Or am I the reason that she gets so embarrassed? She did tell me that she used to be shy, and I noticed... traces of it, but there's a limit to everything, right? Right...?" She doubted herself for a minute. "Can someone be so like her simply from being close to another person, or is there… more? Something that makes her embarrassed to be with me specifically? If she's really looking for someone special, I want it to be me!"
"Hmm, does Sophia even know the definition of the word limit? Okay, yeah, that's a problem..." Maya was unsure whether the girl could actually even function in moderation. "Could the past her hold herself back? Are her boosts now the reason she can't? Is it just a matter of getting used to it? Probably." She started debating herself.
"Really now, could I have fallen for a less complicated girl? Likely."
"Should I have done so? Definitely!"
"Do I want to? Nope! I'm happy that she's the one." The cat-girl made sure of her unchanged feelings.
"Ridiculous power? That's awesome! No common sense whatsoever? That's fixable. Her personality? Well, that's all over the place, but the current her is nice, and the full-potential-Sophia is, from the glimpses I got, just perfect. Her looks? One word, gorgeous. Though, well… I admit that a tiny bit more in the chest department... I wouldn't complain. As our cook, let's focus on nutritional food for a while!" She had gotten a little sidetracked towards the end.
"Who cares that she's basically a human! She's from another world, after all. Who cares about that, either?! Being mysterious is great!"
"I don't know what the future holds, and I don't know what Sophia wants. All I know is what I want. Now more than ever! I want to be next to her, and not just as her friend! I know it's too sudden, and I should wait a little longer, but… I can't. I can't keep it to myself anymore. After all, there's no denying it, no need to make any more sure of it. These feelings of mine are crystal-clear now. No mistakes."
"Definitely, I-"
Maya finished recalling her past day and went back to the present, where she faced the girl of her desire.
----------------
"Sophia."
"Y-Yes?!"
"I love you."
