The next day, the sun shone as brightly as ever over The MOTHs Who Chase the Flame.
Although they had just endured a tragedy, time does not bend to the will of man, and people cannot remain mired in the sorrows of the past forever.
This was especially true in the eyes of those who had already experienced the cycles.
Just like now, in the MOTHs' cafeteria. Though the number of people coming to eat had dwindled, in a corner, a certain cat-girl was incessantly pouring out her grievances to a short-haired girl.
"Sigh, Ah Hua, save me, I can't take it anymore..."
Pardofelis, holding her lunch for the day, listlessly flopped onto the table. Her ears drooped, and even her usually lively tail had stopped wagging.
It was indeed a rare sight for a girl like her to be so devoid of energy.
Hua looked at the tempting food on the tray, thought for a moment, and finally put down her chopsticks. "What's wrong, Pardo?" she asked with some concern.
"Sigh, don't even ask."
Pardo sighed and took a listless sip of her milk tea. Thinking of the Black Pardo who was now hiding deep within her heart, too afraid to come out, she said in an exasperated tone:
"Ah Hua, what I'm about to tell you is a secret of mine. As my friend, you absolutely cannot tell anyone else, understand?"
"Mm, I understand."
Seeing Hua nod with equal gravity, Pardo breathed a sigh of relief.
To be honest, among all the friends she knew, only Ah Hua was uninterested in gossip and was incredibly tight-lipped.
If Elysia were to find out, she would probably be running around the very next day with that little pink loudspeaker of hers, making sure everyone in the entire organization knew about it.
At the thought of that woman, Pardo subconsciously glanced around. After confirming no one was listening, she carefully leaned in close to Ah Hua's ear and whispered:
"Let me tell you, Ah Hua... last night... didn't I come back from a mission? And, well, I thought it had been a long time since I'd seen Li, so... so I went... to see him... but..."
As she spoke, a blush crept onto Pardo's face, making it look like a red apple, and her voice became hesitant.
As for Ah Hua, upon hearing that this involved her senior martial brother, she couldn't help but prick up her ears slightly, urging her on with curiosity:
"What happened, Pardo?"
Hearing her friend's prompting, Pardo finally mustered her courage and blurted out everything she wanted to say in one breath:
"But, my other personality suddenly popped out and force-kissed him!"
"And that's not all! After she kissed him, she immediately seized control of my body and ran away, not even giving me time to explain."
"Aaaah, Ah Hua, what am I going to do? After a stunt like that, how can I possibly face Li? And there's the experiment tomorrow, I have to go with him, sigh..."
Now that the floodgates were open, Pardo cast her reservations aside, complaining endlessly while repeatedly stabbing the steak on her plate with a fork.
To be fair, Pardo knew she liked Li.
However, the confession she had envisioned was one she would make just before they had to face the Herrscher of the End. Something so sudden like this was completely outside her plans.
No matter how you looked at it, force-kissing someone wasn't something a well-behaved, harmless little cat would do, right?
But Pardo was so immersed in her complaining that she completely missed the sudden, sharp 'crack' of a fist clenching that sounded by her ear right after she'd uttered her first sentence.
She's showing off, isn't she? She's definitely showing off.
Hua could barely listen to the rest of it. She just stared dead-eyed at Pardo's face, which, despite the complaining, showed no real sign of distress.
In that instant, it was as if pink bubbles were popping up all around Pardo in Hua's eyes, just like... just like...
A girl about to fall in love?
Forcibly cutting off her own imagination, Hua picked up her chopsticks again and mechanically brought a piece of still-steaming braised fish to her mouth.
Objectively speaking, the deliciousness of food was a crucial factor in boosting morale.
Therefore, in humanity's most important cafeteria, every chef was a top master in their field, be it Western or Chinese cuisine.
However, when Ah Hua put the piece of fish—usually tender and delicious—into her mouth, it tasted like wax. Even the spiciness seemed to have turned sour.
Ah... this world is so damn noisy...
What is that fish-stealing cat across from me even saying? A kiss?
Heh, impossible. Absolutely impossible!
Forcibly suppressing the urge to land an 'Inch Force: Open the Heavens' on Pardo's face, Ah Hua swallowed the last mouthful of rice in her bowl, picked up her tray, and shot Pardo a look one might give to trash.
Pardo was still rambling on, but Hua couldn't listen anymore.
"I'm done eating. I have a training session scheduled with someone. I'm leaving."
"Hey, wait, Ah Hua! I'm not finished yet!"
Watching Ah Hua get up and leave without the slightest hesitation, Pardo was completely bewildered. She was about to call out to her, but the other girl was already gone, not giving her a chance.
"What... what was that about?"
Several question marks seemed to pop up over Pardo's head, and she instinctively tried to communicate with Black Pardo.
However, ever since last night, Black Pardo had unilaterally pulled the plug on their connection, shutting herself away, seemingly still in a state of shy seclusion.
"Sigh, honestly..."
Pardo sighed, slumping weakly onto the table, her heart filled with thick frustration.
The person she had spent so much time carefully selecting to confide in had just up and left. It was incredibly vexing.
But now she didn't dare go back to her own dorm, afraid of what she would do if Fu Li showed up, wanting to clear the air about what happened last night.
"Sigh..."
Pardo looked at the steak on her plate, which had been stabbed so much it resembled a hornet's nest, and resentfully forked a piece into her mouth.
Whatever. When in doubt, take a nap. She had plenty of secret hideouts in the vast MOTHs headquarters anyway.
But if she had to pick a safe place, it would probably be Klein's office.
Since Mobius always kept Klein tethered to her side to handle her affairs, that office was almost always empty.
And, if she was lucky, she might even be able to secretly observe what Fu Li was up to in the lab today and see if he was suffering as much as she was.
However, when Pardo cheerfully ran to Mobius's laboratory, she was kicked out in less than three minutes by Mobius herself, under the pretext of "not interfering with the experiment."
Why do I get the feeling I'm being inexplicably ostracized?
Pardo stared at the tightly closed door, lost in thought.
---o---
Author's PS: The internet at my old home is so bad. I tried to log into Elden Ring three times and failed. Sadge.