I mewed ambiguously in response to the robot girl's question, and I continued to act as cute as possible.

In the meantime, my thoughts were churning.

I couldn't help but think about @Priscilla. I hadn't known that she was in charge of a small settlement in the past, and I felt a little sorry for her. It sounded like @Trisha had ordered the refugees to be abandoned, which was always a gut-wrenching feeling. I had only seen the massive Coalition fleets in battle once, and it was a one-sided panorama of destruction.

Hundreds of black capital ships in the skies looked like a dense swarm of locusts.

When they released their bombs, endless balls of fire rained from the skies.

The explosions would strip everything away from the surface and level entire mountain ranges. By the time the smoke cleared, there would be nothing left but molten glass and a giant city-sized crater that stretched all the way down to bedrock.

The United Coalition was an alliance of the major factions on Vetita, including Hades Rook. They were the server's only superpower, and they exerted total economic, military, and cultural dominance due to their massive fleets. There were eleven admirals who each commanded a flying city that served as a flagship and super-carrier. In the past, there used to be other major super-factions that could rival the Coalition, but they were utterly destroyed after long and expensive cold wars of attrition.

These days, the coalition fleets mainly pursued anti-terrorism operations, and they would systematically obliterate the bases of any radical factions that they discovered. Their fleets were unstoppable, and the sight of a massive black cloud of airships in the skies was equivalent to an execution sentence. 

Apparently, this was going to be the grim fate of @Priscilla's former home.

⚘ ⚘ ⚘

"Well, it looks like you'll be stuck with me today," @Zie remarked.

She appeared to reach the conclusion that I was nonverbal in my cat form, so she quickly gave up on asking me questions. I had been responding to everything with meows and animalistic purrs, so it probably gave her the impression that I was unable to communicate. Not all shapeshifters on Vetita could speak in their animal forms, and a real cat's vocal cords were anatomically incapable of producing human sounds.

The robot girl scratched her head awkwardly.

"Um, I guess I'll take you around with me, I guess?" She said. "It'd help me out a lot if you could just behave."

I squirmed a little in @Zie's arms. She was genuinely bad at carrying me, and my hind legs were sagging with nothing to support my weight on. It took a little bit of complicated maneuvering and mewling, but I eventually managed extricate myself from the girl's uncomfortable grip. Instead, I climbed my way up @Zie's arms and perched on top of her shoulder.

This was a much more comfortable position.

Her synthetic body was a little bit hard (in the literal sense), but it wasn't that different from sitting on top of a cat tree.

"Please don't scratch the exoskeleton," she pleaded. "I just re-skinned myself and it's expensive to change the plating."

I loosened my claws obediently.

The android girl seemed to have some really peculiar quirks, but I definitely wasn't an expert on the cybernetic lifestyle. Was she powered by electricity? What would happen if she ran out of fuel? It seemed like a huge hassle to have different nutritional requirements than everyone else, especially in a primitive area of the server where advanced technology was relatively scarce.

Regardless, she was still giving me a free ride, so I didn't want to upset her for no reason. I didn't know very much about this secret base, so it made a lot of sense to rely on someone for transport for the time being. As she walked around the corridors, I could focus on memorizing the twists and turns that she took. If I intended to rescue @Jasper in the future, I needed to develop a mental map as soon as possible.

⚘ ⚘ ⚘

After walking for a several minutes, @Zie eventually pushed open the door to a smaller room.

"@Maribelle!" She called out. "I'm back."

The name sounded vaguely familiar.

"Hm? Where's @Priscilla? I thought you were sent to go find her."

"She pretty much ran off as soon as I said anything about Cheshire Grove."

@Zie closed the door behind her and sat down on some kind of sofa. If I had to guess, this was some kind of break room, lounge, or common area. The smell of food was overpowering, and the other occupant of the room was currently eating lunch. There was an eclectic variety of other odors, so it was highly likely that a lot of different people passed through this space on a regular basis.

"Wait — is that @Priscilla's cat?" The girl named @Maribelle asked, her mouth half-chewing on some kind of sandwich.

"Indeed!" @Zie said, almost smugly.

"Huh..."

"I think he likes me!"

(I purred as if on cue, mostly to maintain that impression).

"Is that even allowed, by the way?" @Maribelle asked. "I thought the cat that Rose Squadron captured was supposed to be a restricted asset. Commoners like us aren't supposed to have the security clearance for special military beasts."

"Dunno! If I get in trouble, @Priscilla was the one who gave him to me. It's not my problem!"

"You're just going to deflect all the blame to her...?"

"I'm entirely innocent." @Zie insisted self-righteously.

"You're totally sus¹Sus is a shortening of suspicious or suspect. In slang, it has the sense of “questionable” or “shady.”." @Maribelle countered.

"Oh come onnnnn, Mari," the robot girl whined. "Are you really that stuck up? I thought you always wanted to be a pegasus knight! Wouldn't it be amazing to have your very own mount? I mean, a cat isn't exactly the same as a horse, but one pet animal is better than none! You can't deny that fluffy things are the best!"

The other girl suddenly went silent.

I sneezed abruptly.

A lightbulb suddenly flashed in my head.

@Maribelle was a wolfgirl. I had a tingly feeling on my nose ever since I walked into this room, and I only realized just now that there were faint little strands of canine hair floating in the air. @Maribelle obviously couldn't deny @Zie's statement that fluff was supreme, moreover she was definitely fluffy in her own way.

"You're a traitor," @Maribelle grumbled unhappily at @Zie.

She put down her sandwich and abruptly stood up from the table.

I heard the canine walk a few steps to the trash bin and throw something into it. The container loudly clattered from @Maribelle's rough treatment, and the girl seemed especially irritable while she cleaned up after herself.

"Traitor??? What do you mean?" @Zie asked in confusion.

"You'll sleep with anyone as long as they're fluffy, won't you?" @Mirabelle accused the android. "Is that why you convinced me to share a bed with you?"

"Wait. WHAT?!"

"You literally can't keep your sticky fingers off a single damn fluffy thing. You're always bouncing from the one fluffy thing to the next! As soon as a new kemonomimi²Kemonomimi (獣耳 animal ears) is an anime and manga term that describes humanoid characters that possess animal like features, mainly a pair of ears and a tail. shows up, you always abandon the previous one for the new girl with the fluffier tail. It's always about the fluff! All you ever fucking talk about is always fuwa fuwa cotton candy more fluff!"

"Mira! No! Wait! This is a misunderstanding! @Priscilla asked me to—"

"Eat shit, @Zie."

There was the squelching sound of some kind of beverage being dumped.

I couldn't see anything, but I was sitting on @Zie's shoulder, so I had a front row seat to the spectacular drama. Some of the liquid splattered to the side, and a shower of overly sweet water landed on my fur as well.

@Mirabelle had dumped her lukewarm cup of lemon tea right on top of @Zie's head.

⚘ ⚘ ⚘

uenala

Have I gotten too random? Am I going crazy? x.x