Walking briskly through the dorm halls, Rachel found nearly every door open with girls chatting with one another. Only five people within the building, including her, had any sort of abilities.
[Strategic Mind I] was working wonders as her ears cast a wide net, gathering keywords that could help her come up with a plan; yet, at the same time, logic told her this wasn’t normal—she should be freaking out; her entire life had been turned on its head—and instead of going in circles like many others, she was focused, working toward goals.
The amount of information she was able to process after gaining [Mental Acceleration] and [Strategic Mind] was incredible and frightening at the same time. Odd things kept pulling her attention, such as Polly, a woman in her late 20s, who was chatting excitedly with her roommate and a bunch of this floor’s girls while showing off her fox summon.
Rachel now knew most of the names of the people in the dorm, and, more importantly, or alarmingly, depending on how she looked at it, she could differentiate between them by the sound of their voices.
Polly had fun unsummoning and resummoning the, as she put it, ‘spirit beast’ as he rubbed against the hands of the other girls, cooing over how cute he was. The woman was a Champion spirit summoner, and the fox had fire abilities it could call upon by using her mana. They’d entered a world completely unfamiliar to her, but Rachel was learning and adapting.
The change has affected my mental state, without a doubt, she internally reasoned. I shouldn’t be this introspective or level-headed.
She briskly moved past the door, not wanting to linger and get questioned. One of the women spotted her, though, and something she said made her slow, tail stiffening.
“Hey! Hey! I just saw a bunny-girl in the hallway—uh, she just took off—should we go talk to her?”
“Uh… I don’t know. Polly’s one thing, but do you know who it was?”
“Nu-uh. She was glowing, though, and had white hair… Maybe she was someone on the floor that just really changed.”
“Umm-hmm. If they didn’t stop by to chat… what if she’s Cloe’s new roommate?”
Rachel redoubled her pace, but her locked jaw drew her attention. I’m a hare… Why am I so angry that she thought I was a bunny? It makes no sense, but… I want to correct her.
The answer came instinctively moments later, putting a bitter taste in her mouth; [Lunar Pride] was the cause, and it was affecting her actions.
Fight it! she hissed to herself, smacking her forehead with the palm of her hand and pushing forward.
Refocusing her mind to resist [Lunar Pride], she used [Strategic Mind] to reground herself. All the dots gradually started to link inside her crowded mind. Rachel didn’t want to be seen as a weak, defenseless bunny.
As she turned the corner to reach the stairway further down the branching hallway, she discovered a pattern in her thought processes: it was her Feats.
[Strategic Mind] and [Mental Acceleration] gave her the means to recall and analyze the information her ears collected. In turn, her senses were enhanced by [Divine Beast Empowerment], while [Lunar Pride] was what gave her the burning drive to push herself and do something. [Bringer of Misfortune] gave her the gut feeling as to what she should do next to avoid disaster, rather than throw her passion into any random project.
It was a complicated machine of interactions that kept her calm, focused, and walking toward a specific goal. The interesting part was that she set that goal, not [Lunar Pride], or even [Bringer of Misfortune]. And while the former could negatively affect her, such as with the agitation of being underestimated or called a rabbit, it also made sure she never stayed stagnant, and that was critical in this kind of situation.
Everything she heard drew a grim future that she had to prepare for; her parents would be in danger if she did nothing. A whirlwind of events playing out around her with hundreds of people investigating this sudden transformation giving her a plethora of puzzle pieces to fit together into an actionable plan.
Overall, the change to herself was inconsequential compared to the danger circling her, and that understanding kept her on the move. She couldn’t get caught by the National Guard yet until she managed to meet the only Legendkin in the area; the answer as to why wasn’t clear, but her sense of misfortune told her to trust her gut.
Soon it would be a battle to maintain order in Miami with competing interests, fears, government, conspiracy theorists, and private militias, among countless other factions, each taking this change a different way; a clash was inevitable. Everything would dissolve into utter chaos, and her parents were headed right for it.
Catching glances and whispers from those that saw her swift exit, Rachel ignored them, pulling out her phone to search the web while she still had access to it. She looked up several names on the school WiFi since the towers were temporarily shut down due to overuse, growling with how slow it was to pull up the results. Of course, she soon heard from onsite military that that was an excuse for the real reason: to stop the spread of public panic.
Lunar hare is too broad of a term to research… Cerridwen is a Celtic goddess of rebirth, transformation, and inspiration. She’s the only one connected to my Feats, which can’t be a coincidence. Why would she bless me, if she’s real at all? Perhaps these Feats are based around the deity?
Rachel’s ears shifted left with her eyes, staring at a wall on her descent to the first floor, yet, with her new eyes, she could still see the screen and where she walked in complete focus—there were three prison breaks across Miami from the detention center, rehabilitation center, and Florida Department of Corrections—things were escalating, and the police were overwhelmed in the area due to hostages and those with abilities, especially one with defensive ice powers.
The National Guard was having trouble getting through traffic; it was backed up from over four hours of panic. Luckily, Miami had a wealth of military infrastructure with Army, Navy, and Air Force recruitment centers. In addition, the Homestead Air Reserve Base was being scrambled with all available personnel as orders came from the Pentagon.
It would be a race against time, and many criminals seemed to grasp what many of the college nerds had; their powers could grow, and it was a sprint to see how much stronger they could get before the government could fully mobilize.
Tactically, this was the prime moment for them to gain experience by killing people while authorities weren’t organized, but murder wasn’t the only means of gaining experience; thanks to many of the fantasy and light novel readers, she was learning there were dozens of methods one could use to develop, be it achieving something great, use of abilities, and meeting specific requirements.
Still, it would become a guerilla war out in the streets that would likely be suppressed within the next few days, but law enforcement didn’t have enough personnel or warning to operate optimally. Many would die, and there was always the possibility that the criminals learned the other methods of gaining EXP.
I can’t be left in the dust… I have to be at the head of the pack if I don’t want to get swept under the tide.
Heart thumping with the news feeding into her ears—hearing the cries, prayers, and collision of vehicles—Rachel reached ground level. The coast guard was just now setting up a base of operations at the University of Miami by using the waterways and boats; the campus was huge but had areas where they could create checkpoints and funnel people into the appropriate places, with CDC taking priority in understanding the change.
Rachel easily scanned the data on Cerridwen’s wiki page, [Mental Acceleration] allowing her to process things at a rapid pace; there was nothing about the moon. Exiting and searching further, she discovered a site that linked her to the moon, poetry, music, luck, Earth, death, and fertility; furthermore, one source connected her to the underworld and a keeper of the cauldron of knowledge.
Although, some people have mentioned gods and goddesses may be involved with this change, and my Feat has a name of a goddess, but that’s far from proof they actually exist. For all I know this could just be modeled after the deity. And what the hell is an isekai—some kind of anime trope?
“Ugh… Japan,” she grumbled, running her fingers through her hair and pausing at the base of her long ears.
Gods, sure, I have ears and a tail; maybe Cerridwen is real and made me into a hare. Shit, anything seems possible after… this. Yet… no one has mentioned any by name or empowered Feats. And great, now people are praying to something called ‘System-chan’ like saying the magic word will reveal all the answers…
She slowed, ears tilting and brow furrowing as two boys began praying in a different direction.
Please ‘isekai’ me instead of putting me in a ‘system apocalypse’ world? Wonderful, it’s a verb. Run me over truck-kun… Let’s go run into traffic… What?! Why would a god answer some weirdo talking about sending trucks to murder them? Cult-think much. Wow. Yeah, let’s stick with listening to the people not wishing for death. I can’t be the only one blessed, right? Why would I be singled out? None of this makes sense…
Rachel rolled her eyes and ignored the not-so-subtle catcalls of a few boys in the lobby, wanting to know if she’d changed like the guy on fire outside.
Have I been like this all my life? She internally mocked, pushing open the doors to enter the night. Oh, absolutely! I’ve had a tail growing out of my ass since I was a kid. And ears? Those only came during puberty. How stupid—
The moonlight touched her again, dashing Rachel’s thoughts and making her fingers reflexively tense; the frame bent and screen cracked, going black. The reflection showed her nose twist with aggravation, now full lips parting to show her glossy human teeth.
Shit… I’m way stronger than I thought under the moon.
Those that were coming closer to engage her came to a dead halt as she tightened her grip, crushing her phone and compacting it into a mangled mess before tossing it into the nearby garbage can. It was useless anyway and would send a message to not follow her, or maybe it was just her releasing stress.
She picked up her pace, heading for one of the recreational buildings Zoe’s friends went to in order to test out their abilities; unluckily, they’d run into the coast guard. It was hard for anyone who didn’t have super-hearing to dodge the patrols as the men and women tried to get everyone to stay indoors to wait for further instruction.
It was martial law, which meant lethal force was in effect to keep the peace, and local military officers were swiftly taking command.
Rachel didn’t have time to mess with them playing catch-up, though. She knew too much at this point, and far more concerning struggles were to come from the discussions passing between the Lieutenant currently in charge of setting up the base here at the university and his superiors.
Using various angles to evade the troops, she listened closely to the officers’ conversations and movements. Rachel found her way into the recreational building, pretending to follow the orders to go into one of the rooms with those that had physically changed since everything was a mess at that point—Beastkin were mostly in this area, which made it easy.
CDC was trying to isolate those that showed animalistic characteristics, those without, and those that took on more monstrous appearances in order to discover the cause. Blood work was already being done to determine if it was biological, yet it wasn’t looking to be the case.
The military was preparing to hijack most of the infrastructure to link with other research branches across the United States to share their findings, but it would still take a few hours, and there was bound to be kinks to work out.
The government was in the beginning stages of figuring out how these abilities functioned. It was a bit funny that college kids were ahead of the game, but there was a reason: it did function similarly to fiction, and it was hard for grounded, logical thinkers to forget reality to delve into the impossible.
If Rachel wasn’t experiencing it firsthand and been able to link together everything these ‘clueless teens’ were piecing together through her combination of Feats, she wouldn’t have believed you could enter a black void to select from a list of abilities through meditation. Now, she didn’t have time to question; she just acted.
Opening the door and letting a woman with the lower half of a snake slither through, hugging herself and looking scared, Rachel put on a confident face while scanning the room. “Is there a Zoe here?”
She knew exactly where the girl was but had to keep up appearances. Her attention shifted to a CDC woman, who tripped on the stairs leading up to them, unaccustomed to the suit she’d been given to prevent contamination; the runners were sent to ask those that change to identify what type of ‘Kin’ they were—basics at this point to Rachel.
Zoe sat awkwardly in the corner, seemingly having social anxiety in front of a lot of unknown, changed people, which made sense since she was linked to a domestic cat; she was skittish.
The girl tentatively raised her hand. “U-Umm… My name’s Zoe?”
“If you could come with me—quickly—we’re on a clock.”
“Oh, yeah! Yeah! I’m coming!”
Zoe stumbled up and jogged over to her, several of the women in the gender-separated area asking her questions that she brushed off. “A woman will be in shortly to ask you further questions; we’re still discovering the cause. Please be patient.”
Relieved mumbles passed between a few of the Beastkin that it was nice that someone that had changed was working on it, as well; it wasn’t a false hope since a decent number of scientists seemed to have also been affected by the lights—the current working theory on the cause.
Rachel let Zoe by, and everyone averted their gaze, shivering when she swept the room before closing the door. She hadn’t expected everyone to be so compliant, but when someone came in acting with authority, it was normal for those with weak wills to cave and fall in line. She, however, wasn’t normal.
“Follow me.”
“Okay… Umm. You don’t look like, well, like a normal Beastkin—like everyone else in there,” she tentatively chuckled, probably looking for some way to break the ice. “Do you… know what you are? I’ve discovered a few cool things…”
The woman in the suit rounded the corner and froze upon seeing them. “Who—”
Rachel swiftly cut her off, showing absolute confidence as she took on a busy attitude while name dropping her superiors; the wide-eyed woman glanced between them at a loss as if being driven over.
“Excellent that you’re here, Lydia. Allison sent you up with the papers?”
“Uh, y-yeah…”
Nodding with a smile, she put a hand on her back and pointed at the door to direct her to get moving. “They’re quieting down, but still looking for answers; any further news other than the Kin discovery? Heh. I’d like answers myself, as you can see; Allison sent me ahead to ease their minds, so I don’t know the updated data.”
Zoe quieted down, tail lowering and ears pulling back as the CDC worker tried to mentally catch up with the sudden question.
“Huh? Oh! Umm, n-nothing concrete yet. Sorry. Hehe. Have they, umm, said anything?” she asked, grip tightening around her papers while glancing between them. “Are you going to report something new?”
Rachel forced a smile, ears pulling to the side and distracting the woman. “I don’t know if it will be classified or not; they might not even tell you they sent me… Sorry.”
She swiftly shook her head, backing away with a nervous chuckle. “No, no; I get it! So many crazy—eek!”
Rachel reached out to stabalize her as she almost tripped backward in her suit. “Careful!”
“S-Sorry!” Lydia stammered, face going red with embarrassment.
“No, you’re fine. Haha. I hate getting in those—so stuffy, right?”
“Y-Yeah! Sorry, I don’t want to hold you up! Umm, anything I should know or you can tell me?”
Prompting Zoe to continue down the hall, she spoke hurriedly. “Thanks, Lydia. Uh, there are a few categories we can use to separate them further; I’d put more of our attention on those that are called Aberrantkin since they appear to have more… problematic instincts. Following?”
She nodded emphatically, and Rachel finished it off. “Great! Guards should be sent to that area just in case something happens, and treat them delicately; some are very anxious. Can you pass along the information?”
“Of course! Thanks for your hard work… This is crazy… Your ears?”
Rachel forced a smile while walking backward. “Please, Doctor, we are on a tight clock.”
“R-Right! Haha. Sorry—that’s the bad, curious part of me coming out… Oh?!”
She moved her ears in a heart shape and waved the confused doctor goodbye. “Keep up the good work; behind all those scary scales or fangs are scared girls… Try to be gentle.”
“First, do no harm!” the doctor chimed, returning her wave.
Turning away with purpose and motioning for a silent Zoe to follow, Rachel brought her to the next floor; yet again, she found herself questioning her bizarre new acting skills. It felt strangely natural to mold into her environment to blend in, and a curious note was that Lunar Pride wasn’t triggered in this way.
So many things to test.
Turning the next corner once on the next landing, her posture and pace showed purpose, which had all the patrolling soldiers dismiss them, and anyone that gave her a second glance, she made short comments to put their guard down; it was simple—too simple.
When did I learn to act like this? Does it come from some instinct Feat? Hmm. These next ones will be hard, though… They’re questioning everyone they pass.
“Hmm… In here.”
Zoe frowned when she abruptly drew her into a bathroom down the hall, holding a finger to her lips to tell her to be quiet; understandably, she became nervous.
“Uh… You aren’t with the CDC… are you?” she asked, ears pulling back and frightened, cat-like eyes darting left and right, wondering if she should run, no doubt. “A kidnapping event—already?”
“No,” Rachel answered truthfully, keeping her tone extremely low, figuring the girl could hear her with her twitching cat ears and showing a humorous smile at her last comment. “I’m not trying to kidnap you; I just need your help. We can’t do anything while stuck inside the CDC. Besides, don’t you want to be a heroine?”
Tail wrapping around her right leg, Zoe backed away a bit. “How do you know who I am… Who are you? Red flags all over the place…”
Giving her a small, reassuring smile, Rachel pointed at her ears, causing the girl to draw her own conclusions.
“Oh. You’ve been listening to everything?” she hissed, vision moving to the door and realizing they were dodging guards; Adam had jokingly told her they should escape the coast guard before they’d been easily caught in their patrol net. “Is there something bad happening—is the CDC corrupt—the villains? We need to save my friends!”
“Shhh,” Rachel whispered, shaking her head at her frantic tone.
Zoe snapped her mouth shut, pulse increasing as her focus shot to the door.
“Right now, we’re where the unknown is living and real… We don’t have time to waste playing on the sidelines,” she said, motioning for her to keep close while exiting the bathroom and continuing their path through the halls to the library. “The real threat isn’t our change but the world evolving to it; Miami is going to be a war zone in the coming days.”
Swallowing, Zoe jogged to keep up with Rachel’s brisk walk; she had long legs and was over fifteen centimeters taller than the cat-girl. “Why did you choose me—is there something about my powers or something?” she asked with hope.
Rachel suppressed a chuckle, telling her the blunt truth. “You were the easiest to get to that had the fantasy knowledge I needed; I’m sorry, I can’t say how strong a Beastkin domestic cat is.”
“Aww… It’s okay. Wait, does that mean I’m the first one to figure all this stuff out?”
“In the top ten of useful information,” Rachel said, looking down a branching hallway; her target was at the end of it, but a few more pieces of news made her mouth tighten upon hearing a report to the coast guard lieutenant in charge of this area as the commander over the whole of Miami city contacted him.
“Lt. Thompson, be aware that we’re receiving reports that alien threats have been identified using crystal gateways; they employ giant domes of light—similar to the pictures you saw that cracked the atmosphere. These forces are hostile and are to be dealt with on sight.”
Thompson swallowed, rubbing the back of his neck while lightly wrapping his knuckles against the desk in front of him. “Commander… what are the possibilities that they’re just changed citizens, sir? CDC is gathering them into areas to be tested. Will they become hostile?”
“As of now, Lieutenant, we’re unsure—details are scarce—but our top priority is peace; lockdown your area with lethal force, if necessary. Also, a potential vampire is coming to your base of operation; keep her under close observation… You know what’s happening in Washington right now.”
“Sir, if she can make ghouls, or whatever they are, like the man in Washington…”
“She’s been compliant, and I have a team investigating the situation involving her; this girl is one of the few Mythickin we’ve been able to identify. I’m just letting you know she’s being secured in your area; she has a full green beret platoon escorting her under Lieutenant Mateo Garcia Herrero; he’s seen action in the Middle East and runs a tight ship.
“Be aware, the Pentagon has just sent word that an Army Colonel will be taking over command of Florida Operations soon; other military bodies are being pulled into a secure call to coordinate our brigades; he will want a detailed report of your opinion on the vampire, so pay close attention to her every action. Details regarding her… complicated family issues and the scene of the crime are being forwarded via a SWAT team.”
“Understood.” Thompson released a long sigh. “I’ll have an area cleared out for them to house her away from the general public. When can we expect her?”
“In the next hour—careful, Lieutenant, we’re in uncharted territory, and from the information I’m getting, we aren’t dealing with just one species of aliens from these crystals and domes. We can’t let this get out of hand or let chaos break down social order; show a strong hand, son…
“I know it’s hard. Safety is a priority for us to move forward, and a SEAL squad is stateside nearby for any special assignments. You and your men aren’t alone. Keep me updated… and God help us all; out.”
“I’ll inform the units; out.”
Rachel drew in her bottom lip, vision flitting to a wall as she scanned for more news regarding this vampire; she’d heard from news reports that Seattle was in the middle of a horrible bloodbath with an escaped Mythickin vampire that was turning hundreds of people into ghouls to spread death, disease, and chaos.
This place is getting more dangerous by the second! Please, Mom, Dad, be safe.
Her fear was soon replaced by [Lunar Pride] as the Feat instead focused on this new threat; still, maybe she could learn something from these other Mythickin—more than the others that had changed, at least.
Great… The only other Mythickin I hear about are mass murderers and criminals. It’d be smart to keep what I am to myself, for now. I’ll have to meet this vampire chick to see if she is empowered by any goddess or god.
Lt. Thompson hung up when his superior ended the call; he walked to the window, swapping his walkie-talkie to another channel as he whispered to himself, “Aliens, mutated people, now vampires… We don’t know what’s attacking us, but we are under attack. What a week for this to happen… Shit.”
He cursed when chatter came through his radio. “Sir, we’ve found a small child that… that looks like, a-uh, a water dragon? She’s asking to be taken to water, or she’ll die—she’s struggling to even move and is having a hard time breathing, but she was insistent that she was a, uh, good sea monster.”
“Great… She’s probably another Mythickin; take her to the pool, and keep a team with you—don’t hesitate to put her down if she makes the slightest threatening movement.”
“A dragon, sir… How?”
“Put a damn 50-cal near the pool, an RPG—I don’t care—just… protect your men, Petty Officer!”
“Yes, sir!”
Rubbing between his eyes, he snarled, “How am I supposed to know who is friendly and enemy when we have so little to go on? Prisoners gaining powers, aliens… Who are aliens and who are simply people that changed—is there a difference, or were they always among us, waiting for this opportunity to make a move? No. I can’t get paranoid. Follow orders… Just… follow orders.”
“What is it?” Zoe hissed as Rachel drew her down the hall, actually sounding like a cat as her claws lengthened. “A fight—I’ve never been in a fight—I don’t know how!”
“No… Put those away,” she said, making the girl blush and hide them behind her back.
“It’s… hard when I’m scared. Sorry…”
“It’s fine…” Rachel reassured, holding out her hand to let her hesitantly take it, thankful to have human contact, and her claws slowly retracted. “You were right again, Zoe.”
Her heart began to settle as Rachel distracted her frantic mind. “About?
“Your monster gateway theory turned out to be true,” she whispered, working around her jaw while continuing to follow the discussions between military leaders as they coordinated on the radios, giving her information across Florida and the rest of the world. “This isn’t isolated; the entire world was affected… It’s going to be an arms race to see who can maintain order.”
“Okay… I’m getting a little scared,” Zoe whimpered, visibly doing her best not to let her claws out again. “What can we do; if dragons pop out of these gateways, can we even fight them? Probably not—I’m just saying—we’ve only just got our powers.”
Rachel decided not to tell her about the sea dragon in the pool as she continued her rambles.
“Maybe, umm… are you like an S-tier roll, and I got an F-tier one? This sucks! Oh, maybe it will be the weak waves or invasion kind of start! Let’s hope, anyway… Am I talking too much?” she asked, seeing the look on Rachel’s face.
“Heh. A little. Don’t worry, I’ll protect you. Okay?”
Her fingers tightened, and her voice settled. “Thank you… You’re so in control—and I’m a total mess… Huu-haaa. Heh. I guess I really am a helpless cat, huh?”
Rachel took a deep breath and stopped just outside the door to the library, squeezing Zoe’s hand to get her to look up at her. “It’s okay to panic a little… It’s normal. I’ve been in a lot of Muay Thai competitions, so this isn’t all that frightening to me. Until you feel safe, you can stay with me, okay?”
Shameful tears showed in the girl’s eyes, but she smiled and nodded. “Hehe. You’re more the heroine than me… I know, what if I’m like… your apprentice? Can you teach me to fight—be, heh, like my wise and powerful mentor? I don’t want to feel pathetic,” she whimpered, trying to restrain her tears and sniffles.
Sucking in air through her teeth, Rachel let it go through her nose in a slow stream. “Hmm. I can’t promise you anything like that, Zoe—I’m a fighter, not an instructor—but I will teach you what I can. Good enough?”
“Good enough. I know I’ve said it a few times, but… thank you. Uh… What’s your name? I can’t believe I haven’t asked.”
“Rachel.”
Reigning her emotions in, Zoe withdrew her hand as a sign of strength and tightened them into fists at her side. “Okay, Rachel-sensei, I’ll listen to everything you say… Eh, too much?”
“Eeh,” Rachel chuckled with a weak shrug. “Whatever helps you.”
“Sweet. Umm. So, what’s in here?”
Rachel gave her a sly smirk. “A Legendkin. Interested?”
The cat-girl’s big eyes opened wider. “Ooh. Very! What do you gotta do to get a fancy title like that?”
“Let’s find out.”
Opening the door and letting Zoe shut it behind them, Rachel took in the room; inside was a man that had escaped notice for being changed since Legendkin didn’t have any striking features—at least, that was Rachel’s initial opinion since no one had bothered him—but one look told Rachel he should have been under serious suspicion.
The muscular, tall—and, might she add, handsome—fire-haired man was sitting at a table, examining a short sword in front of him, illuminated jade-green eyes shifting to her with interest; a spear leaned nearby in the back corner.
“Hello,” Rachel cheerily greeted, holding her hands behind her back while proceeding, casting her gaze to not appear like she was judging him head to toe, but she most certainly was with her entire vision in perfect focus. “This is an interesting place to be exploring your new abilities. Oh? Isn’t that something?” she whispered, feeling power unlock within her.
[Level Up - Level 2]
She hadn’t caught his name since he hadn’t given it to anyone in the last few hours, but she had heard him mumbling to himself while writing down various things he’d discovered on a sheet of paper.
Zoe remained behind her, ears lying flat against her head and tail going stiff, making Rachel’s furrowed brow turn to her as the cat-girl mumbled, “He’s… so pretty…”
A sharp hiss came from the man as he covered a beauty mark under his left eye, causing the girl to stumble and blink as if charmed. “Ugh… Hmm? You weren’t affected?” he asked, a confused smile turning to her. “Care to share how you resisted the curse? I’d like a cure.”
“Huh?!” Zoe blinked, face turning beet-red. “I, uh… I don’t know what came over me—it’s just… he was like… a total god! No-ho-ho… I’m so weak!” she cried, covering her eyes and dropping into a crouching position. “Stupid! Stupid! Stop thinking about it!”
I’m resistant to his charm; my Control Resistance is only Average, and without any points, but maybe Lunar Pride is doing the work?
Rachel moved in front of the crying and embarrassed girl, yet the man kept his hand over the beauty mark, which apparently was his curse. “I can’t say why, myself, but maybe we can figure that out together—care to chat? I’m intrigued by these ‘Quests’ you’ve been mumbling about.”
His gaze went straight to her slightly forward ears. “Guess those long things aren’t just for show. Two heads are better than one. Umm… You don’t have any foundation or… whatever women have to cover up their face?”
“No, but I’m sure we can find something around here,” Rachel returned. “Want to get rid of that mark under your eye—can you?”
“I don’t know,” he laughed, showing he was more than willing to experiment. “I learned about the power it has over women—which is totally creepy and unwanted when I already have a fiancé… Wow, that just kind of came out,” he said, rubbing his hairless chin and leaning against his chair. “What would she think of me asking a random girl to use her makeup? She’d probably laugh.”
“I’ll do it for her,” Rachel snickered, pulling Zoe up and turning her back to the man. “You okay?”
“Embarrassed for life, but… I guess. Why is he so pretty—seriously?” she hissed so low that only Rachel could hear. “It’s not even fair—he’s like… straight out of a dating sim, I swear.”
The man got up, taking the paper with him as he moved behind a shelf. “I’m game. Uh… I’ll stay out of sight until you have something—ink; I don’t care—heh, gum even; I’m not picky.”
Glancing at the man’s toned back as he hid himself, Rachel hummed, pulling the girl to the librarian’s desk to see if there were any products stored in the drawers that they could use.
“I mean, sure, he’s super hot—the muscles are the real deal; perfect, and not too bulky—ten out of ten, but I’m not going to trip on my face… Mmm. Poor choice of words,” she realized a second too late, even with Mental Acceleration.
“I’ll never live this down in my own head,” she sniffled. “No, just… forget about it, which is totally impossible, and why do I want to look again? Curiosity killed the cat, but for real…”
Rachel couldn’t help but feel a bit amused by how animated and awkward Zoe was. “You’ll be okay. No one has to talk about it, and he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to make fun of you; in fact, he sounds sincere and like he doesn’t want to do that to women, which… is surprising, right?”
“Actually… totally surprising,” Zoe whispered, mind pulled away from the incident. “If Adam had that power, he’d totally gather a harem.”
“Haha. Let’s find something to, heh, seal his curse.”
Zoe’s ears rose again. “Now you’re speaking my language; our first quest, search for makeup!”
“By the way,” he called out to them, “my name’s Anthony. Can I get a name, bunny-girl?”
Jaw tightening and tail stiffening, Rachel eased up and kept a playful note in her voice to throw him off-guard. “Maybe I’ll tell you if you can guess what I am, Anthony; oh, and a hint—I’m not a bunny.”
Zoe giggled at her twitching smile and ears; it was the first time she’d seen her frustrated, which seemed to ease her tension.
“A game? Well, I’m sorry if I offended you! I’m up for a guessing game, though; way to make this fun, not a bunny.”
The comment made her smirk as she found a container of foundation; he wasn’t without humor, at least.
“Success!’ Zoe cheered. “Quest complete.”
Walking briskly through the dorm halls, Rachel found nearly every door open with girls chatting with one another. Only five people within the building, including her, had any sort of abilities.
[Strategic Mind I] was working wonders as her ears cast a wide net, gathering keywords that could help her come up with a plan; yet, at the same time, logic told her this wasn’t normal—she should be freaking out; her entire life had been turned on its head—and instead of going in circles like many others, she was focused, working toward goals.
The amount of information she was able to process after gaining [Mental Acceleration] and [Strategic Mind] was incredible and frightening at the same time. Odd things kept pulling her attention, such as Polly, a woman in her late 20s, who was chatting excitedly with her roommate and a bunch of this floor’s girls while showing off her fox summon.
Rachel now knew most of the names of the people in the dorm, and, more importantly, or alarmingly, depending on how she looked at it, she could differentiate between them by the sound of their voices.
Polly had fun unsummoning and resummoning the, as she put it, ‘spirit beast’ as he rubbed against the hands of the other girls, cooing over how cute he was. The woman was a Champion spirit summoner, and the fox had fire abilities it could call upon by using her mana. They’d entered a world completely unfamiliar to her, but Rachel was learning and adapting.
The change has affected my mental state, without a doubt, she internally reasoned. I shouldn’t be this introspective or level-headed.
She briskly moved past the door, not wanting to linger and get questioned. One of the women spotted her, though, and something she said made her slow, tail stiffening.
“Hey! Hey! I just saw a bunny-girl in the hallway—uh, she just took off—should we go talk to her?”
“Uh… I don’t know. Polly’s one thing, but do you know who it was?”
“Nu-uh. She was glowing, though, and had white hair… Maybe she was someone on the floor that just really changed.”
“Umm-hmm. If they didn’t stop by to chat… what if she’s Cloe’s new roommate?”
Rachel redoubled her pace, but her locked jaw drew her attention. I’m a hare… Why am I so angry that she thought I was a bunny? It makes no sense, but… I want to correct her.
The answer came instinctively moments later, putting a bitter taste in her mouth; [Lunar Pride] was the cause, and it was affecting her actions.
Fight it! she hissed to herself, smacking her forehead with the palm of her hand and pushing forward.
Refocusing her mind to resist [Lunar Pride], she used [Strategic Mind] to reground herself. All the dots gradually started to link inside her crowded mind. Rachel didn’t want to be seen as a weak, defenseless bunny.
As she turned the corner to reach the stairway further down the branching hallway, she discovered a pattern in her thought processes: it was her Feats.
[Strategic Mind] and [Mental Acceleration] gave her the means to recall and analyze the information her ears collected. In turn, her senses were enhanced by [Divine Beast Empowerment], while [Lunar Pride] was what gave her the burning drive to push herself and do something. [Bringer of Misfortune] gave her the gut feeling as to what she should do next to avoid disaster, rather than throw her passion into any random project.
It was a complicated machine of interactions that kept her calm, focused, and walking toward a specific goal. The interesting part was that she set that goal, not [Lunar Pride], or even [Bringer of Misfortune]. And while the former could negatively affect her, such as with the agitation of being underestimated or called a rabbit, it also made sure she never stayed stagnant, and that was critical in this kind of situation.
Everything she heard drew a grim future that she had to prepare for; her parents would be in danger if she did nothing. A whirlwind of events playing out around her with hundreds of people investigating this sudden transformation giving her a plethora of puzzle pieces to fit together into an actionable plan.
Overall, the change to herself was inconsequential compared to the danger circling her, and that understanding kept her on the move. She couldn’t get caught by the National Guard yet until she managed to meet the only Legendkin in the area; the answer as to why wasn’t clear, but her sense of misfortune told her to trust her gut.
Soon it would be a battle to maintain order in Miami with competing interests, fears, government, conspiracy theorists, and private militias, among countless other factions, each taking this change a different way; a clash was inevitable. Everything would dissolve into utter chaos, and her parents were headed right for it.
Catching glances and whispers from those that saw her swift exit, Rachel ignored them, pulling out her phone to search the web while she still had access to it. She looked up several names on the school WiFi since the towers were temporarily shut down due to overuse, growling with how slow it was to pull up the results. Of course, she soon heard from onsite military that that was an excuse for the real reason: to stop the spread of public panic.
Lunar hare is too broad of a term to research… Cerridwen is a Celtic goddess of rebirth, transformation, and inspiration. She’s the only one connected to my Feats, which can’t be a coincidence. Why would she bless me, if she’s real at all? Perhaps these Feats are based around the deity?
Rachel’s ears shifted left with her eyes, staring at a wall on her descent to the first floor, yet, with her new eyes, she could still see the screen and where she walked in complete focus—there were three prison breaks across Miami from the detention center, rehabilitation center, and Florida Department of Corrections—things were escalating, and the police were overwhelmed in the area due to hostages and those with abilities, especially one with defensive ice powers.
The National Guard was having trouble getting through traffic; it was backed up from over four hours of panic. Luckily, Miami had a wealth of military infrastructure with Army, Navy, and Air Force recruitment centers. In addition, the Homestead Air Reserve Base was being scrambled with all available personnel as orders came from the Pentagon.
It would be a race against time, and many criminals seemed to grasp what many of the college nerds had; their powers could grow, and it was a sprint to see how much stronger they could get before the government could fully mobilize.
Tactically, this was the prime moment for them to gain experience by killing people while authorities weren’t organized, but murder wasn’t the only means of gaining experience; thanks to many of the fantasy and light novel readers, she was learning there were dozens of methods one could use to develop, be it achieving something great, use of abilities, and meeting specific requirements.
Still, it would become a guerilla war out in the streets that would likely be suppressed within the next few days, but law enforcement didn’t have enough personnel or warning to operate optimally. Many would die, and there was always the possibility that the criminals learned the other methods of gaining EXP.
I can’t be left in the dust… I have to be at the head of the pack if I don’t want to get swept under the tide.
Heart thumping with the news feeding into her ears—hearing the cries, prayers, and collision of vehicles—Rachel reached ground level. The coast guard was just now setting up a base of operations at the University of Miami by using the waterways and boats; the campus was huge but had areas where they could create checkpoints and funnel people into the appropriate places, with CDC taking priority in understanding the change.
Rachel easily scanned the data on Cerridwen’s wiki page, [Mental Acceleration] allowing her to process things at a rapid pace; there was nothing about the moon. Exiting and searching further, she discovered a site that linked her to the moon, poetry, music, luck, Earth, death, and fertility; furthermore, one source connected her to the underworld and a keeper of the cauldron of knowledge.
Although, some people have mentioned gods and goddesses may be involved with this change, and my Feat has a name of a goddess, but that’s far from proof they actually exist. For all I know this could just be modeled after the deity. And what the hell is an isekai—some kind of anime trope?
“Ugh… Japan,” she grumbled, running her fingers through her hair and pausing at the base of her long ears.
Gods, sure, I have ears and a tail; maybe Cerridwen is real and made me into a hare. Shit, anything seems possible after… this. Yet… no one has mentioned any by name or empowered Feats. And great, now people are praying to something called ‘System-chan’ like saying the magic word will reveal all the answers…
She slowed, ears tilting and brow furrowing as two boys began praying in a different direction.
Please ‘isekai’ me instead of putting me in a ‘system apocalypse’ world? Wonderful, it’s a verb. Run me over truck-kun… Let’s go run into traffic… What?! Why would a god answer some weirdo talking about sending trucks to murder them? Cult-think much. Wow. Yeah, let’s stick with listening to the people not wishing for death. I can’t be the only one blessed, right? Why would I be singled out? None of this makes sense…
Rachel rolled her eyes and ignored the not-so-subtle catcalls of a few boys in the lobby, wanting to know if she’d changed like the guy on fire outside.
Have I been like this all my life? She internally mocked, pushing open the doors to enter the night. Oh, absolutely! I’ve had a tail growing out of my ass since I was a kid. And ears? Those only came during puberty. How stupid—
The moonlight touched her again, dashing Rachel’s thoughts and making her fingers reflexively tense; the frame bent and screen cracked, going black. The reflection showed her nose twist with aggravation, now full lips parting to show her glossy human teeth.
Shit… I’m way stronger than I thought under the moon.
Those that were coming closer to engage her came to a dead halt as she tightened her grip, crushing her phone and compacting it into a mangled mess before tossing it into the nearby garbage can. It was useless anyway and would send a message to not follow her, or maybe it was just her releasing stress.
She picked up her pace, heading for one of the recreational buildings Zoe’s friends went to in order to test out their abilities; unluckily, they’d run into the coast guard. It was hard for anyone who didn’t have super-hearing to dodge the patrols as the men and women tried to get everyone to stay indoors to wait for further instruction.
It was martial law, which meant lethal force was in effect to keep the peace, and local military officers were swiftly taking command.
Rachel didn’t have time to mess with them playing catch-up, though. She knew too much at this point, and far more concerning struggles were to come from the discussions passing between the Lieutenant currently in charge of setting up the base here at the university and his superiors.
Using various angles to evade the troops, she listened closely to the officers’ conversations and movements. Rachel found her way into the recreational building, pretending to follow the orders to go into one of the rooms with those that had physically changed since everything was a mess at that point—Beastkin were mostly in this area, which made it easy.
CDC was trying to isolate those that showed animalistic characteristics, those without, and those that took on more monstrous appearances in order to discover the cause. Blood work was already being done to determine if it was biological, yet it wasn’t looking to be the case.
The military was preparing to hijack most of the infrastructure to link with other research branches across the United States to share their findings, but it would still take a few hours, and there was bound to be kinks to work out.
The government was in the beginning stages of figuring out how these abilities functioned. It was a bit funny that college kids were ahead of the game, but there was a reason: it did function similarly to fiction, and it was hard for grounded, logical thinkers to forget reality to delve into the impossible.
If Rachel wasn’t experiencing it firsthand and been able to link together everything these ‘clueless teens’ were piecing together through her combination of Feats, she wouldn’t have believed you could enter a black void to select from a list of abilities through meditation. Now, she didn’t have time to question; she just acted.
Opening the door and letting a woman with the lower half of a snake slither through, hugging herself and looking scared, Rachel put on a confident face while scanning the room. “Is there a Zoe here?”
She knew exactly where the girl was but had to keep up appearances. Her attention shifted to a CDC woman, who tripped on the stairs leading up to them, unaccustomed to the suit she’d been given to prevent contamination; the runners were sent to ask those that change to identify what type of ‘Kin’ they were—basics at this point to Rachel.
Zoe sat awkwardly in the corner, seemingly having social anxiety in front of a lot of unknown, changed people, which made sense since she was linked to a domestic cat; she was skittish.
The girl tentatively raised her hand. “U-Umm… My name’s Zoe?”
“If you could come with me—quickly—we’re on a clock.”
“Oh, yeah! Yeah! I’m coming!”
Zoe stumbled up and jogged over to her, several of the women in the gender-separated area asking her questions that she brushed off. “A woman will be in shortly to ask you further questions; we’re still discovering the cause. Please be patient.”
Relieved mumbles passed between a few of the Beastkin that it was nice that someone that had changed was working on it, as well; it wasn’t a false hope since a decent number of scientists seemed to have also been affected by the lights—the current working theory on the cause.
Rachel let Zoe by, and everyone averted their gaze, shivering when she swept the room before closing the door. She hadn’t expected everyone to be so compliant, but when someone came in acting with authority, it was normal for those with weak wills to cave and fall in line. She, however, wasn’t normal.
“Follow me.”
“Okay… Umm. You don’t look like, well, like a normal Beastkin—like everyone else in there,” she tentatively chuckled, probably looking for some way to break the ice. “Do you… know what you are? I’ve discovered a few cool things…”
The woman in the suit rounded the corner and froze upon seeing them. “Who—”
Rachel swiftly cut her off, showing absolute confidence as she took on a busy attitude while name dropping her superiors; the wide-eyed woman glanced between them at a loss as if being driven over.
“Excellent that you’re here, Lydia. Allison sent you up with the papers?”
“Uh, y-yeah…”
Nodding with a smile, she put a hand on her back and pointed at the door to direct her to get moving. “They’re quieting down, but still looking for answers; any further news other than the Kin discovery? Heh. I’d like answers myself, as you can see; Allison sent me ahead to ease their minds, so I don’t know the updated data.”
Zoe quieted down, tail lowering and ears pulling back as the CDC worker tried to mentally catch up with the sudden question.
“Huh? Oh! Umm, n-nothing concrete yet. Sorry. Hehe. Have they, umm, said anything?” she asked, grip tightening around her papers while glancing between them. “Are you going to report something new?”
Rachel forced a smile, ears pulling to the side and distracting the woman. “I don’t know if it will be classified or not; they might not even tell you they sent me… Sorry.”
She swiftly shook her head, backing away with a nervous chuckle. “No, no; I get it! So many crazy—eek!”
Rachel reached out to stabalize her as she almost tripped backward in her suit. “Careful!”
“S-Sorry!” Lydia stammered, face going red with embarrassment.
“No, you’re fine. Haha. I hate getting in those—so stuffy, right?”
“Y-Yeah! Sorry, I don’t want to hold you up! Umm, anything I should know or you can tell me?”
Prompting Zoe to continue down the hall, she spoke hurriedly. “Thanks, Lydia. Uh, there are a few categories we can use to separate them further; I’d put more of our attention on those that are called Aberrantkin since they appear to have more… problematic instincts. Following?”
She nodded emphatically, and Rachel finished it off. “Great! Guards should be sent to that area just in case something happens, and treat them delicately; some are very anxious. Can you pass along the information?”
“Of course! Thanks for your hard work… This is crazy… Your ears?”
Rachel forced a smile while walking backward. “Please, Doctor, we are on a tight clock.”
“R-Right! Haha. Sorry—that’s the bad, curious part of me coming out… Oh?!”
She moved her ears in a heart shape and waved the confused doctor goodbye. “Keep up the good work; behind all those scary scales or fangs are scared girls… Try to be gentle.”
“First, do no harm!” the doctor chimed, returning her wave.
Turning away with purpose and motioning for a silent Zoe to follow, Rachel brought her to the next floor; yet again, she found herself questioning her bizarre new acting skills. It felt strangely natural to mold into her environment to blend in, and a curious note was that Lunar Pride wasn’t triggered in this way.
So many things to test.
Turning the next corner once on the next landing, her posture and pace showed purpose, which had all the patrolling soldiers dismiss them, and anyone that gave her a second glance, she made short comments to put their guard down; it was simple—too simple.
When did I learn to act like this? Does it come from some instinct Feat? Hmm. These next ones will be hard, though… They’re questioning everyone they pass.
“Hmm… In here.”
Zoe frowned when she abruptly drew her into a bathroom down the hall, holding a finger to her lips to tell her to be quiet; understandably, she became nervous.
“Uh… You aren’t with the CDC… are you?” she asked, ears pulling back and frightened, cat-like eyes darting left and right, wondering if she should run, no doubt. “A kidnapping event—already?”
“No,” Rachel answered truthfully, keeping her tone extremely low, figuring the girl could hear her with her twitching cat ears and showing a humorous smile at her last comment. “I’m not trying to kidnap you; I just need your help. We can’t do anything while stuck inside the CDC. Besides, don’t you want to be a heroine?”
Tail wrapping around her right leg, Zoe backed away a bit. “How do you know who I am… Who are you? Red flags all over the place…”
Giving her a small, reassuring smile, Rachel pointed at her ears, causing the girl to draw her own conclusions.
“Oh. You’ve been listening to everything?” she hissed, vision moving to the door and realizing they were dodging guards; Adam had jokingly told her they should escape the coast guard before they’d been easily caught in their patrol net. “Is there something bad happening—is the CDC corrupt—the villains? We need to save my friends!”
“Shhh,” Rachel whispered, shaking her head at her frantic tone.
Zoe snapped her mouth shut, pulse increasing as her focus shot to the door.
“Right now, we’re where the unknown is living and real… We don’t have time to waste playing on the sidelines,” she said, motioning for her to keep close while exiting the bathroom and continuing their path through the halls to the library. “The real threat isn’t our change but the world evolving to it; Miami is going to be a war zone in the coming days.”
Swallowing, Zoe jogged to keep up with Rachel’s brisk walk; she had long legs and was over fifteen centimeters taller than the cat-girl. “Why did you choose me—is there something about my powers or something?” she asked with hope.
Rachel suppressed a chuckle, telling her the blunt truth. “You were the easiest to get to that had the fantasy knowledge I needed; I’m sorry, I can’t say how strong a Beastkin domestic cat is.”
“Aww… It’s okay. Wait, does that mean I’m the first one to figure all this stuff out?”
“In the top ten of useful information,” Rachel said, looking down a branching hallway; her target was at the end of it, but a few more pieces of news made her mouth tighten upon hearing a report to the coast guard lieutenant in charge of this area as the commander over the whole of Miami city contacted him.
“Lt. Thompson, be aware that we’re receiving reports that alien threats have been identified using crystal gateways; they employ giant domes of light—similar to the pictures you saw that cracked the atmosphere. These forces are hostile and are to be dealt with on sight.”
Thompson swallowed, rubbing the back of his neck while lightly wrapping his knuckles against the desk in front of him. “Commander… what are the possibilities that they’re just changed citizens, sir? CDC is gathering them into areas to be tested. Will they become hostile?”
“As of now, Lieutenant, we’re unsure—details are scarce—but our top priority is peace; lockdown your area with lethal force, if necessary. Also, a potential vampire is coming to your base of operation; keep her under close observation… You know what’s happening in Washington right now.”
“Sir, if she can make ghouls, or whatever they are, like the man in Washington…”
“She’s been compliant, and I have a team investigating the situation involving her; this girl is one of the few Mythickin we’ve been able to identify. I’m just letting you know she’s being secured in your area; she has a full green beret platoon escorting her under Lieutenant Mateo Garcia Herrero; he’s seen action in the Middle East and runs a tight ship.
“Be aware, the Pentagon has just sent word that an Army Colonel will be taking over command of Florida Operations soon; other military bodies are being pulled into a secure call to coordinate our brigades; he will want a detailed report of your opinion on the vampire, so pay close attention to her every action. Details regarding her… complicated family issues and the scene of the crime are being forwarded via a SWAT team.”
“Understood.” Thompson released a long sigh. “I’ll have an area cleared out for them to house her away from the general public. When can we expect her?”
“In the next hour—careful, Lieutenant, we’re in uncharted territory, and from the information I’m getting, we aren’t dealing with just one species of aliens from these crystals and domes. We can’t let this get out of hand or let chaos break down social order; show a strong hand, son…
“I know it’s hard. Safety is a priority for us to move forward, and a SEAL squad is stateside nearby for any special assignments. You and your men aren’t alone. Keep me updated… and God help us all; out.”
“I’ll inform the units; out.”
Rachel drew in her bottom lip, vision flitting to a wall as she scanned for more news regarding this vampire; she’d heard from news reports that Seattle was in the middle of a horrible bloodbath with an escaped Mythickin vampire that was turning hundreds of people into ghouls to spread death, disease, and chaos.
This place is getting more dangerous by the second! Please, Mom, Dad, be safe.
Her fear was soon replaced by [Lunar Pride] as the Feat instead focused on this new threat; still, maybe she could learn something from these other Mythickin—more than the others that had changed, at least.
Great… The only other Mythickin I hear about are mass murderers and criminals. It’d be smart to keep what I am to myself, for now. I’ll have to meet this vampire chick to see if she is empowered by any goddess or god.
Lt. Thompson hung up when his superior ended the call; he walked to the window, swapping his walkie-talkie to another channel as he whispered to himself, “Aliens, mutated people, now vampires… We don’t know what’s attacking us, but we are under attack. What a week for this to happen… Shit.”
He cursed when chatter came through his radio. “Sir, we’ve found a small child that… that looks like, a-uh, a water dragon? She’s asking to be taken to water, or she’ll die—she’s struggling to even move and is having a hard time breathing, but she was insistent that she was a, uh, good sea monster.”
“Great… She’s probably another Mythickin; take her to the pool, and keep a team with you—don’t hesitate to put her down if she makes the slightest threatening movement.”
“A dragon, sir… How?”
“Put a damn 50-cal near the pool, an RPG—I don’t care—just… protect your men, Petty Officer!”
“Yes, sir!”
Rubbing between his eyes, he snarled, “How am I supposed to know who is friendly and enemy when we have so little to go on? Prisoners gaining powers, aliens… Who are aliens and who are simply people that changed—is there a difference, or were they always among us, waiting for this opportunity to make a move? No. I can’t get paranoid. Follow orders… Just… follow orders.”
“What is it?” Zoe hissed as Rachel drew her down the hall, actually sounding like a cat as her claws lengthened. “A fight—I’ve never been in a fight—I don’t know how!”
“No… Put those away,” she said, making the girl blush and hide them behind her back.
“It’s… hard when I’m scared. Sorry…”
“It’s fine…” Rachel reassured, holding out her hand to let her hesitantly take it, thankful to have human contact, and her claws slowly retracted. “You were right again, Zoe.”
Her heart began to settle as Rachel distracted her frantic mind. “About?
“Your monster gateway theory turned out to be true,” she whispered, working around her jaw while continuing to follow the discussions between military leaders as they coordinated on the radios, giving her information across Florida and the rest of the world. “This isn’t isolated; the entire world was affected… It’s going to be an arms race to see who can maintain order.”
“Okay… I’m getting a little scared,” Zoe whimpered, visibly doing her best not to let her claws out again. “What can we do; if dragons pop out of these gateways, can we even fight them? Probably not—I’m just saying—we’ve only just got our powers.”
Rachel decided not to tell her about the sea dragon in the pool as she continued her rambles.
“Maybe, umm… are you like an S-tier roll, and I got an F-tier one? This sucks! Oh, maybe it will be the weak waves or invasion kind of start! Let’s hope, anyway… Am I talking too much?” she asked, seeing the look on Rachel’s face.
“Heh. A little. Don’t worry, I’ll protect you. Okay?”
Her fingers tightened, and her voice settled. “Thank you… You’re so in control—and I’m a total mess… Huu-haaa. Heh. I guess I really am a helpless cat, huh?”
Rachel took a deep breath and stopped just outside the door to the library, squeezing Zoe’s hand to get her to look up at her. “It’s okay to panic a little… It’s normal. I’ve been in a lot of Muay Thai competitions, so this isn’t all that frightening to me. Until you feel safe, you can stay with me, okay?”
Shameful tears showed in the girl’s eyes, but she smiled and nodded. “Hehe. You’re more the heroine than me… I know, what if I’m like… your apprentice? Can you teach me to fight—be, heh, like my wise and powerful mentor? I don’t want to feel pathetic,” she whimpered, trying to restrain her tears and sniffles.
Sucking in air through her teeth, Rachel let it go through her nose in a slow stream. “Hmm. I can’t promise you anything like that, Zoe—I’m a fighter, not an instructor—but I will teach you what I can. Good enough?”
“Good enough. I know I’ve said it a few times, but… thank you. Uh… What’s your name? I can’t believe I haven’t asked.”
“Rachel.”
Reigning her emotions in, Zoe withdrew her hand as a sign of strength and tightened them into fists at her side. “Okay, Rachel-sensei, I’ll listen to everything you say… Eh, too much?”
“Eeh,” Rachel chuckled with a weak shrug. “Whatever helps you.”
“Sweet. Umm. So, what’s in here?”
Rachel gave her a sly smirk. “A Legendkin. Interested?”
The cat-girl’s big eyes opened wider. “Ooh. Very! What do you gotta do to get a fancy title like that?”
“Let’s find out.”
Opening the door and letting Zoe shut it behind them, Rachel took in the room; inside was a man that had escaped notice for being changed since Legendkin didn’t have any striking features—at least, that was Rachel’s initial opinion since no one had bothered him—but one look told Rachel he should have been under serious suspicion.
The muscular, tall—and, might she add, handsome—fire-haired man was sitting at a table, examining a short sword in front of him, illuminated jade-green eyes shifting to her with interest; a spear leaned nearby in the back corner.
“Hello,” Rachel cheerily greeted, holding her hands behind her back while proceeding, casting her gaze to not appear like she was judging him head to toe, but she most certainly was with her entire vision in perfect focus. “This is an interesting place to be exploring your new abilities. Oh? Isn’t that something?” she whispered, feeling power unlock within her.
[Level Up - Level 2]
She hadn’t caught his name since he hadn’t given it to anyone in the last few hours, but she had heard him mumbling to himself while writing down various things he’d discovered on a sheet of paper.
Zoe remained behind her, ears lying flat against her head and tail going stiff, making Rachel’s furrowed brow turn to her as the cat-girl mumbled, “He’s… so pretty…”
A sharp hiss came from the man as he covered a beauty mark under his left eye, causing the girl to stumble and blink as if charmed. “Ugh… Hmm? You weren’t affected?” he asked, a confused smile turning to her. “Care to share how you resisted the curse? I’d like a cure.”
“Huh?!” Zoe blinked, face turning beet-red. “I, uh… I don’t know what came over me—it’s just… he was like… a total god! No-ho-ho… I’m so weak!” she cried, covering her eyes and dropping into a crouching position. “Stupid! Stupid! Stop thinking about it!”
I’m resistant to his charm; my Control Resistance is only Average, and without any points, but maybe Lunar Pride is doing the work?
Rachel moved in front of the crying and embarrassed girl, yet the man kept his hand over the beauty mark, which apparently was his curse. “I can’t say why, myself, but maybe we can figure that out together—care to chat? I’m intrigued by these ‘Quests’ you’ve been mumbling about.”
His gaze went straight to her slightly forward ears. “Guess those long things aren’t just for show. Two heads are better than one. Umm… You don’t have any foundation or… whatever women have to cover up their face?”
“No, but I’m sure we can find something around here,” Rachel returned. “Want to get rid of that mark under your eye—can you?”
“I don’t know,” he laughed, showing he was more than willing to experiment. “I learned about the power it has over women—which is totally creepy and unwanted when I already have a fiancé… Wow, that just kind of came out,” he said, rubbing his hairless chin and leaning against his chair. “What would she think of me asking a random girl to use her makeup? She’d probably laugh.”
“I’ll do it for her,” Rachel snickered, pulling Zoe up and turning her back to the man. “You okay?”
“Embarrassed for life, but… I guess. Why is he so pretty—seriously?” she hissed so low that only Rachel could hear. “It’s not even fair—he’s like… straight out of a dating sim, I swear.”
The man got up, taking the paper with him as he moved behind a shelf. “I’m game. Uh… I’ll stay out of sight until you have something—ink; I don’t care—heh, gum even; I’m not picky.”
Glancing at the man’s toned back as he hid himself, Rachel hummed, pulling the girl to the librarian’s desk to see if there were any products stored in the drawers that they could use.
“I mean, sure, he’s super hot—the muscles are the real deal; perfect, and not too bulky—ten out of ten, but I’m not going to trip on my face… Mmm. Poor choice of words,” she realized a second too late, even with Mental Acceleration.
“I’ll never live this down in my own head,” she sniffled. “No, just… forget about it, which is totally impossible, and why do I want to look again? Curiosity killed the cat, but for real…”
Rachel couldn’t help but feel a bit amused by how animated and awkward Zoe was. “You’ll be okay. No one has to talk about it, and he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to make fun of you; in fact, he sounds sincere and like he doesn’t want to do that to women, which… is surprising, right?”
“Actually… totally surprising,” Zoe whispered, mind pulled away from the incident. “If Adam had that power, he’d totally gather a harem.”
“Haha. Let’s find something to, heh, seal his curse.”
Zoe’s ears rose again. “Now you’re speaking my language; our first quest, search for makeup!”
“By the way,” he called out to them, “my name’s Anthony. Can I get a name, bunny-girl?”
Jaw tightening and tail stiffening, Rachel eased up and kept a playful note in her voice to throw him off-guard. “Maybe I’ll tell you if you can guess what I am, Anthony; oh, and a hint—I’m not a bunny.”
Zoe giggled at her twitching smile and ears; it was the first time she’d seen her frustrated, which seemed to ease her tension.
“A game? Well, I’m sorry if I offended you! I’m up for a guessing game, though; way to make this fun, not a bunny.”
The comment made her smirk as she found a container of foundation; he wasn’t without humor, at least.
“Success!’ Zoe cheered. “Quest complete.”
