"...Your room?"
The hero's sudden entrance caught Aventurine completely off guard, and he froze for a beat.
Then he turned to Caelus with a look that mixed deep meaning and grudging admiration — the look of someone who'd just realized they were dealing with a dark horse.
"Impressive, bro."
Aventurine murmured the compliment under his breath.
He'd barely been in Penacony any time at all.
And already he'd drawn in beauties of wildly different styles, each one gorgeous in her own right. Did that Genius have any idea he'd just been crowned a two-time cuckold?
Aventurine did know the Genius Society types were all eccentric in their own ways — maybe Miss Ruan Mei simply didn't care about things like this?
Tch. Now that was one hell of a quirk.
"I'll sue you for slander."
Caelus flashed a bright, sunny smile.
This guy actually dared to look at him with the eyes of a womanizing scumbag who treated flirting like breathing and thought the lower house could just seize the upper house?
Kiana was 'himself' — so who exactly was he hurting by being a narcissist?
As for the adorable Kiana-baby?
At most that counted as playful teasing. And the whole business with the Masked Fool — could that even be called scummy? That was performance art!
"Don't get the wrong idea. I just wanted to give you a heads-up — this place is full of all sorts, and there are plenty of people with bad intentions around. Keep your guard up. For instance... remember to lock the door."
The mood turned heavy and awkward all at once, and combined with the fact that Caelus really didn't seem like that sort of person, it was probably all just a misunderstanding.
But this was clearly not a place to linger.
"Ha, I'll get going first, then!"
Aventurine switched back to his standard business smile and stepped back with practiced grace.
"Mr. Caelus, ladies, wishing you both... a pleasant time~!"
With that, he slipped out the door in a flash.
Bang!
The door swung shut with a crisp, resounding click.
Inwardly, Caelus scoffed — fine, leave if you want, but did that door-slam really need to carry so much implication?
The sound of the door hit like a gavel striking down, snapping Kiana-baby — who'd been frozen mid-panic like someone caught red-handed — instantly back to her senses.
Wait!
This was another world!
Kiana-baby's gaze locked onto the purple-haired woman at the door again. Though the resemblance to Mei was uncanny, the differences were plain enough — no careful scrutiny needed.
Her own Mei had that signature princess-cut fringe, while this woman had a cold, slanted fringe covering one eye.
Mei was the gentle, demure Yamato-nadeshiko type — sure, she'd get annoyed if caught sneaking snacks now and then, but she was nothing like this cold, detached figure standing before her, wrapped in something that felt almost like Nihility itself.
"S-sorry, I mistook you for someone else."
Kiana-baby hastily threw up both hands, waving them in flustered denial.
The person in front of her — this had to be this world's version of Mei, right?
What Kiana-baby had gained over the years wasn't just weight in certain... areas.
In a flash of thought, she'd already guessed the purple-haired woman's identity.
Her mood shifted from panic to something stranger, and along with it came confusion — why had this world's Mei turned out like this?
She looked like someone who'd been through a great deal.
Even toward a stranger, this world's Mei was still gentle — let alone toward another-world Mei. Even without the power of the Herrscher of Finality, even at only the strength of White Comet, Kiana-baby could feel the abyss-like Nihility clinging to her.
And besides — why had she said this was her room?
Could it be...
"...Uh, or maybe I didn't mistake you after all? Ha... ha~"
Kiana-baby's smile froze stiff on her face, a bead of cold sweat sliding down her forehead as she scratched her head.
[Ki-Kiana, you two are good friends, aren't you, you and Mei?]
Feeling a little strange calling out her own name, Kiana-baby urgently consulted her other self in her mind.
She and Caelus were lovers, so it made sense for Mei, as a good friend, to drop by, right?
[Of course! But I have no idea who this person is.]
The lively, energetic tone, tinged with a touch of pride, instantly brought back memories of her younger self for Kiana-baby. That flicker of temporal déjà vu vanished as quickly as it came, shoved aside by a hammer of shock.
Huh?
Didn't know her?
What did that mean?
Oh no, she'd said the wrong thing!
"Guess I really did mistake you after all, ha... ha..."
Her voice came out flat and stilted, speed cranked up like she'd hit fast-forward. Kiana-baby scrambled to add more, all the while frantically signaling Caelus with her eyes, practically screaming 'help me smooth this over!'
Watching the white-haired girl before him try — and fail — to cover her tracks, eyes darting around in an adorably clumsy way, Caelus nearly burst out laughing on the spot.
I approve of you!
In the realm of adorable cluelessness, aside from that ultimate being Hachi-Stelle, you are undisputedly the strongest!
"We meet again, Miss Acheron."
Caelus raised a hand and waved casually, as if nothing had happened.
Acheron?
Kiana-baby blinked, a question mark popping over her head.
Wasn't her name Mei?
But this face... no matter how you looked at it, it was Mei's face!
"..."
Acheron forced her gaze away from Kiana-baby's face. In those brief few seconds, fragments of the past seemed to flicker through her mind.
"You're..."
Looking at the unfamiliar grey-haired young man, Acheron frowned in surprise — she'd never seen Caelus's face before.
But between the white-haired girl and what she'd seen in her dream, her mind quickly put it together.
"You're that rat?"
Huh? Rat?
A second question mark popped over Kiana-baby's head.
What did 'rat' mean?
Were Caelus and Mei enemies or something?
"Yeah, that's me."
Caelus nodded, admitting it without hesitation, thumb pointed right at his own chest.
Kiana-baby: "..."
She stared at Caelus with pure disbelief. Question mark count: +1.
How could you just admit that so casually?
Are you actually a rat?
"..."
Acheron fell silent for two seconds, looking between Caelus and Kiana-baby. She recalled that the relationship between the two of them seemed to be...
"Why are you two in my room?"
"Huh?"
Kiana-baby instinctively looked at Caelus.
"This is my room."
Caelus's tone was firm and certain as he held up the Dreamscape Pass in his hand.
The passport gave off a faint glow, and the room's door lock let out a soft click, proof that control of the room lay in his hands.
"...My apologies."
Acheron accepted the fact with a blank expression, though a trace of barely noticeable confusion lingered in her eyes.
"Then perhaps I went to the wrong room. This shouldn't have happened... I checked the room number carefully several times before I came in and disturbed you."
She murmured to herself, as if retracing her route.
"Maybe it was the wrong wing... no, maybe even the wrong building number? My apologies — this hotel's layout is far too vast, and the corridors all look strikingly similar. It's easy to lose your bearings if you're not careful..."
Listening to this purple-haired woman with Mei's face — named Acheron — earnestly analyze the reasons for her own poor sense of direction, Kiana-baby nearly burst out laughing and had to press her lips together to hold it in.
Who would've guessed — this world's Mei was a total directional disaster!
Hah~ oddly kind of adorable, actually!
"Well then, my apologies for the intrusion..."
Acheron turned back to the two of them, her tone returning to its former detachment, though it seemed to have softened just slightly.
"No, no, it's fine."
Kiana-baby waved a hand.
From an outsider's perspective, 'she' was probably supposed to be the lady of this room, so that response should be fine, right?
Only Caelus, with all his experience, caught the complicated emotion hidden beneath Acheron's aloof gaze — she seemed to be suppressing an urge to talk with Kiana-baby more deeply.
Caelus's eyes flicked, and a dark spark of mischief lit up in his mind.
"Before you go, may I ask you one question?"
Acheron, too, seemed unable to hold back. She looked at Kiana-baby, her voice growing gentler.
But before Kiana-baby could respond, a soft, alluring voice drifted in.
"This should be the right room. Kiana, I'm here — are you in there?"
Th-that voice?
A voice familiar down to the bone struck Kiana-baby like a bolt of lightning!
She blinked her wide eyes blankly, her mind going completely blank.
Acheron, who had just been about to leave, froze mid-step and turned toward the sound.
At the doorway stood a figure, tall and graceful.
Eyes as stunning as a starry sky, woven from purple and blue, framed by long, gorgeously violet-tinted hair cascading past her waist. Black stockings hugged the generous fullness at her chest.
The lace peeking from the slit in her skirt lifted already breathtaking legs to new heights, tempting one to want to peel it back and tear it away.
At her waist hung an ancient, weathered black longsword, slanted across her hip, its scabbard etched with swirling, deep violet patterns.
"!?"
Acheron's pupils shrank sharply, her eternally unshakeable calm cracked by shock for the first time.
"!?"
Sister Mei's face, too, showed just the right hint of astonishment.
"M-Mei!"
Kiana-baby's startled cry rang out again, almost a reflex, thick with confusion and bewilderment.
Caelus glanced at Kiana-baby, the corner of his mouth curling into a subtle smirk, humming a little tune of amusement in his head.
Little Kiana-baby, are you full of question marks right now?
'Dazed' didn't even begin to cover what Kiana-baby was feeling now.
She was completely, thoroughly lost.
It was like the first time she'd tackled one of Dr. Einstein's high-energy physics problems — her mental CPU had utterly overloaded. I don't get it! I really don't get it!
What was going on?
Had Mei crossed over too?!
Kiana-baby was absolutely certain — the alluring woman standing before her was the Mei she knew, Raiden Mei... at least in appearance, identical down to the last detail to the Mei in her memories, not a single difference.
But.
With decades of intimacy between them, she could tell — this still didn't quite feel like her Mei.
A parallel-world Mei?
Kiana-baby's scrambled thoughts struggled to process it.
But why would there be two Meis in this world?!
Though the cool, aloof purple-haired woman's name seemed to be Acheron, that face — identical to Mei's — made the name feel utterly unconvincing. At least to Kiana-baby, it did.
Kiana-baby's brain had short-circuited.
The dizzying overload of information left her wanting to just lie flat on the ground and give up — if she couldn't handle it, she just wouldn't handle it!
Strangely enough, she found herself thinking that her old habit of just going limp and letting things happen after crossing over... er, passively enjoying the ride... actually wasn't such a bad approach. At least she wouldn't have to face scenes like this that made her brain cells burn themselves out.
Sensing Kiana-baby's mind grinding to a halt, White Comet understood that Kiana-baby was in no state to handle whatever scene came next. She switched off Auto-Battle and seamlessly took over control of the body.
"Mei, you're here~"
The voice carried Kiana's trademark liveliness and clinginess. Like a little bird returning to its nest, White Comet trotted over cheerfully and buried herself straight into the soft, mountainous warmth of Sister Mei's chest.
Given just how generous that warmth was, once White Comet's small face sank in, plenty of overflow spilled out to either side.
Sister Mei's lips curved into a fond, doting smile, her violet eyes brimming with tenderness.
She reached out naturally, gently stroking the soft white hair of the girl in her arms, the motion practiced and familiar.
This scene, warm to the point of feeling almost like a dream, left both the onlooking Acheron and the deep-conscious observer Kiana-baby falling silent at the same moment.
In the sea of her consciousness, Kiana-baby watched this intimate scene — familiar yet strange — and the floodgates on long-buried memories burst open.
Long, long ago, before Otto's Project Sirin had even begun, she used to do this too — pouncing into Mei's arms like a clingy little kitten, seeking affection.
The difference was, back then, Mei would always blush and say, "Kiana, mind your image!" while trying to push her away.
Only when she was sick, hurt, or especially upset would Mei helplessly indulge her for a moment, letting her soak up that brief warmth.
"What a nostalgic feeling."
"..."
For Kiana-baby, this scene was a mirror reflecting the past, bringing back memories of once-innocent, beautiful times.
But for Acheron, it was like knocking over a long-sealed jar of spices in her heart — every flavor, every emotion, spilling out at once!
Indescribably complex feelings washed over her chest like a tide — flashes of the past: her comrades' resolute smiles, the determined backs of those who sacrificed themselves, the eternal silence and Nihility that followed at the end...
Those fragments, all that remained of her memories, flickered rapidly through her mind now, triggered by a scene so similar yet so utterly different.
"It's just like being in a dream."
She hadn't even entered Penacony's actual dream yet, and already she was dreaming — was that even right?
"So you only had eyes for Kiana, hm, Mei?"
The abrupt voice shattered the warm scene and pulled both Kiana-baby and Acheron out of their memories.
"Of course I wouldn't forget you~"
Sister Mei walked over to Caelus with elegant, graceful steps, hooking her arm around his affectionately. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with a seductive flourish, then pressed her soul-stealing lips to the corner of the young man's mouth.
And that wasn't all — seeing this, White Comet hooked her own arm around Caelus's other arm and pressed her lips to his other cheek.
Acheron: "??????"
Kiana-baby: "!!!!!!"
BOOM!
A thunderclap out of a clear sky!
Both of them felt something detonate in their heads, as if a star had exploded inside their skulls, leaving them blank and utterly at a loss.
Huh?
Huh?
What... was even happening here?
Acheron looked utterly dumbfounded — given her own condition, she often forgot things she shouldn't, but right now she suddenly remembered something she'd forgotten before: what Caelus-Jerry had said to her in the dream when he greeted her.
You look a lot like my wife...
...
Deep in her own consciousness, Kiana-baby's mouth twitched uncontrollably.
Penacony, the so-called Star of the Beautiful Dream — more like the Land of Nightmares!
What even was all this chaos!
____
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