“Are you Soma?”
That’s what greeted me and Ena as we left the inn.
The moment I laid eyes on her, I understood.
No, with her, it would be impossible to mistake her for anyone else.
“—Mitsuki Hisame.”
Her name, also known as “the Cheater Who Helps,” slipped from my lips.
The strongest swordswoman of “Nekoneko,” and the character called the conscience of “Nekoneko.”
The one most loved by the “Nekoneko” staff, the embodiment of “Nekoneko’s” ideals.
Her glossy black hair flowed to her waist, contrasting sharply with her skin, which was pale to the point of being translucent.
Her slender body, wrapped in white garments, seemed as if it could break at any moment, giving her a fragile impression.
However, the moment I saw her expressionless, beautiful face, which seemed as if it would shatter if touched, I instantly knew she was not such a delicate being.
Yet, even her terrifyingly perfect and sharp beauty was merely an accentadorning her appearance.
What most strongly characterized her was, directly above her artistically perfect face.
—The “NECMIMI” that proudly resided upon her head!!
Surely, the “Nekoneko” staff had poured their souls into the modeling of the cat ears in this game.
The result was cat ears that were both incredibly realistic and simultaneously adorable, moving “twitching” as if they possessed real life.
Very rarely, they would also move with a “flapping” motion.
When surprised, they’d flatten to the opposite side with a “thump.”
If she heard a sound from somewhere, one ear would turn sideways with a “flick,” and when she was trying hard, they’d become “squished.”
Presumably, characters with cat ears had dedicated AI built into them to control the movement of their ears.
The naturalness and intricacy of their movements were beyond the reach of any other character’s movements.
Joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise—the cat ears in this game could express all of them, and in fact, they were expressed at appropriate moments by dedicated AI.
They might have cut corners on everything else, but on the one point of cat ears, their work was flawless and perfect.
No, one could say it was more than perfect.
More adorable than any cat ears in reality, while still retaining a believable realism.
Among them, coupled with her character design and popularity, Mitsuki Hisame’s cat ears were even said to be the ultimate and supreme.
Some said, “I never get tired of looking at them all day,” “Just looking at them makes me happy,” “Uhoh, this is some good NECMIMI… no, NECMIMI!” “In this field, ‘Nekoneko’ is twenty years ahead of its time,” “You guys don’t understand the true essence of these cat ears, calling them cute or healing! This level of technology is abnormal?! Look closely! The sheer number of pixels and the design that fully utilizes them, and what kind of thought control was used to achieve such natural movements? Observe more closely. See, you can tell just by looking! Technically, thought control, fluffy, wonderfully fluffy… so cute! So healing!” “Mitsuki, marry me!” “No, I’d rather marry the cat ears.” “Those ‘Nekoneko’ staff are the worst scumbags, but I have to admit they made these cat ears.” “They say they spent half a year developing these cat ears, but I’ve been watching them for a year.” “Even though her demeanor is proud and aloof, like her noble, solitary nature, when you touch them, they’re fluffy and soft. Is this what’s called tsundere-fluffy!” “It’s a good memory now, even though I was killed about ten times by a cheater when I tried to touch them.” “Anyway, I just want to pet them.”
I don’t have any particular profound thoughts or excessive interest in cat ears, but there is certainly something about Hisame’s cat ears that makes me want to touch them, even if it means getting killed.
It’s a strange magic that draws you in…
“S, Soma-san?”
I must have been staring at her cat ears without realizing it. Callaed by Ena, I snapped back to reality.
Looking ahead, Hisame hadn’t changed her expression at all and was still looking at me.
Only the cat ears on her head were slightly flattened, expressing displeasure.
Not “so cute! So healing!”
Why had she come all this way?
As I tilted my head in bewilderment, she finally seemed to acknowledge that I had returned to my senses, and spoke again.
“Are you Soma?”
“Huh? Yeah. I’m Soma, but…”
After confirming, I wondered how she knew my name.
Hisame was called the conscience of “Nekoneko” because she would randomly appear and help players at any time other than when defeating the Demon Lord.
There are some events and quests, like the “Richter Capital Defense Battle,” that only occur if certain conditions are met and require a certain level of skill to clear.
If you saved right before such an event occurred and then found yourself lacking the skill to clear it, you would often be stuck.
But even then, there was hope.
Hisame’s appearance was random and not highly probable, but if she appeared, she would help players for free.
Her skill level was frankly above that of post-game players, so honestly, it was almost impossible to fail because the enemies were too strong when she was helping.
Moreover, whether it was a bug or a feature, she would appear normally even after the “Demon King’s Blessing” event.
In fact, she was thought to be unmarriageable after that, but it turned out that she could actually be recruited and married.
She was a contender for popularity with Princess Shelmia in the later “Nekoneko” popularity polls, but with the Princess confirmed as unmarriageable, she pulled ahead.
Getting back to the point, she was this kind of supportive character, and when she first met a player, she would say,
“Do you need my help?”
And immediately offer her assistance. I never expected a scenario where she’d be waiting at the inn and asking for my name.
“I… take requests from people on a whim to relieve my boredom.”
“Huh? Y-yeah…”
I knew that.
More importantly, was the fact that she accepted player requests simply to pass the time?
“In this town, too, I found something that could be called a request.”
“A request?”
I had no idea what she was talking about.
“Yes. I heard there’s a most dreadful pervert in this town who deceives women with false identities, threatens them with jerky, unnatural movements, and skillfully lures them into dark cellars, only to toy with them under the pretense of helping them escape. I was asked to bring such a person to justice.”
“That’s… terrible.”
While offering a perfunctory reply, I somehow felt like I was starting to see the flow of the conversation.
Strangely, when I considered each phrase individually, they felt vaguely familiar.
And the other biggest clue was Ena, standing next to me, turning deathly pale and trembling the moment she heard the story.
“Um, by any chance, where is this request posted?”
“It was on the town’s bulletin board in the plaza.”
The moment Hisame said that, Ena flinched.
(Aha! It’s the same one from *that time*!!)
That was when we went to the Magic-Sealed Ship boarding area. Ena, who said she was going to the store first, had said something like this:
“Yes! But if you do, come quickly! Otherwise, I’ll write all sorts of mean things about Soma-san on the town bulletin board!”
At the time, Ena probably wrote about me on the bulletin board as a prank.
And she had completely forgotten to erase it.
She probably never imagined Hisame would see it…
When she occasionally reviews things, she does something unbelievable after you’ve long forgotten about it.
As expected of Train-chan.
“Th-that’s not true, that wasn’t—!”
Ena, unable to hold back, tried to explain to Hisame.
However, Hisame stopped her.
“It’s fine. It will be over quickly.”
She said that and waved her hand slightly.
(…Huh?)
During all this, I had been vaguely watching her cat ears.
So when I saw her cat ears twitch “squish,” I instinctively used a Step and…
“—Huh?”
As I jumped backward, I saw Hisame appear before me in an instant, and…
“Oh, you dodged that.”
A silver flash passed through where I had been standing a moment before. And…
(Wait, is this a pinch?)
…her cat ears, swaying.
