"Um… Yuki…" I muttered, my voice barely above a whisper as I g to the tiny ailed fox in my arms.

  The girl lying before the shrine bli me with zy, half-lidded golden eyes, pletely unfazed by the ropes ed around her body. She let out a slow, drawn-out yawn, stretg her bound arms as much as the restraints allowed, as if this was nothing more than an invenieher than a predit.

  “Yuzu, let me down, please,” I said, shifting in her arms.

  Yuzu hesitated, her dark fox ears twitg in suspi. “Um… okay, but Mashiro notto do anything weird, okay?”

  I simply smiled, not b to answer. Instead, I waited patiently, feeling the tension in Yuzu’s hold before, at st, she relutly set me down. My boots touched the ground with a soft thud, and before Yuzu could react, I forcefully pressed the small fox into her arms.

  “Wha?!” Yuzu yelped, scrambling to secure her grip on the squirming creature. “H-Hey, wait—”

  But I didn’t wait.

  The moment my hands were free, I rushed forward, closing the distaween myself and the bound girl. My heart pounded against my ribs, a strange mix of disbelief aainty surging through me. Without a sed thought, I k beside her and threw my arms around her, pulling her into a tight embrace.

  "Yuki!" I called her name, feeling the warmth of her body against mine.

  The girl stiffened slightly in surprise, her ears twitg as if processing my sudden affe. However, her expression barely ged—her drowsy white gaze remained half-lidded, as if none of this articurly out of the ordinary.

  A beat of silence passed before she finally spoke.

  “Do I know you?” she asked, her voice slow and unhurried, as if she had just woken up from a long nap.

  I shook my head, my grip tightening around her. “No… but I know you.”

  After all, there was no mistaking her.

  The snow-white hair, zily drooping cat ears, and ever-drowsy gaze beloo her than Yuki, a character from Luminous Dream. She was the one who had invited Mashiro to form a band, the one who pyed the guitar with effortless ease. She had been super close to Mashiro, always at her side.

  And now, against all odds, she was here. Real. Tied up for some unknown reason, but unmistakably real.

  “That’s… weird,” Yuki muttered, her voice slow and drowsy as she let out another drawn-out yawn. Her cat ears flicked zily, as if none of this truly ed her.

  I chuckled, shaking my head. “Maybe. But you look even weirder right now.”

  Catherine and Yuzu had barely taken a step forward when I had rushed toward Yuki, but now, their initial arm had shifted into wary curiosity. Their eyes flickered with caution, their movements te trolled.

  Catherine was the first to speak, her pierg gaze settling on the bound girl. “Mashiro, do you know this catgirl?” she asked, her tone measured, yet there was something off.

  I turo look at her and that’s when I noticed it. Her eyes were glowing. A deep, eerie crimson. Catherine’s fiwitched slightly, as if holding back the urge to summon her magic. “Her level is… suspicious,” she murmured, almost to herself.

  I barely had time to process her words when I caught movement beside me. Yuzu’s expression had shifted from wary to dht serious. Her usually dark, bck eyes had transformed into a shimmering light blue, glowing faintly in the dim shrine light.

  “Yuzu agree,” she said, her voice softer than usual but firm. For a brief sed, the air felt charged, thick with tension. Yuki, still tied up and lying on the ground, merely bli all of us, pletely unfazed.

  “…Eh?” she murmured, tilting her head. “Suspicious?” She wriggled her arms agaiing the ropes. “I dunno… I feel pretty normal to me.”

  Taking a steady breath, I focused my mind and activated my Identification skill, direg it towards Yuki.

  << Yuki (Lv. 25) >>Health Points: 3364/3364 [100%]EXP: 157/16,950Race: Cat Girl

  I frowned. “It looks… normal? I don’t see anything wrong with her stats,” I muttered, tilting my head.

  Catherine, however, shook her head, her arms crossed as she shot me a knowing look. “The fact that you see it at all is what’s wrong,” she said. “Your Identification skill is only level 1. As I’ve taught you, with a skill that low, you shouldn’t be able to analyze monsters or people above level 30. And even if you could, the stats you get would be extremely limited.”

  I blinked, my tail flig behind me as I tried to process Catherine’s words. “I… see? But why is it wrong?”

  Yuzu’s grip on the small fox tightened, her body tensing as her glowing blue eyes locked onto Yuki. She frowned, ears twitg with unease. “She’s… old hag!”

  I jerked slightly, thrown off by her blunt statement. “Wait, wait,” I said, raising a hand in protest. “Yuzu, what do you mean by ‘old hag’? You’re not just being mean, right?”

  Yuzu puffed up her cheeks indignantly, clearly offended by the suggestion. “Notto mean! Yuzu say truth! She feel… too old! Like really, really old!”

  Catherine, who had been silently analyzing the situatio out a heavy sigh. Arms still crossed, she shot a calg goward Yuki before turning bae. “That’s exactly the problem. If your Identification skill is only level 1, you shouldn’t be able to s her so easily—especially not if she’s as old as Yuzu cims.” She narrowed her crimsohe glow within them flickering like embers. “Which means one of two things: either she’s deliberately suppressing her level…” Catherine’s gaze sharpened, nding pointedly on Yuki. “…or something about her is interfering with our dete abilities.”

  I tilted my head, tail flig in thought. “Couldn’t it be that she’s just old and her level is low?”

  Catheriuro me with the most obvious look I’d ever seen her give. “Mashiro,” she said ftly. “She’s older than me.”

  I blinked. “Okay… and?”

  Catherine exhaled sharply, ping the bridge of her nose like she was about to lose her patience. “And do you think I’m some frail, weak old woman?”

  “Uh, no?”

  “Exactly.” She gestured toward Yuki, who was still sluggishly blinking at us, her expression pletely unbothered. “For her to be that old and still have a level low enough for you to identify meaher she’s been sg for turies, or…” She crossed her arms. “Something doesn’t add up.”

  Yuzu nodded rapidly, her ears twitg. “Yuzu agree! Bery sus! Too sus!”

  Meanwhile, Yuki, who had been quietly listening to all of this, let out another long yawn, stretg as much as her bound arms allowed. “Mmm… thinking too hard,” she murmured zily. “Just let me nap and figure it out ter…”

  I turned back to Yuki, suddenly hyperaware of her presence. Unlike before, when I had been overwhelmed by emotions, I now looked at her more carefully. Her pure white hair, slightly messy but soft-looking, cascaded down her back, and her cat-like ears twitched idly with each shift in the wind. Her uniform, a sailor-style outfit was oddly familiar, though its details felt subtly different from what I remembered. Even bound in ropes, her posture remained rexed, her zy expression unbothered by the situation unfolding around her.

  She didn’t feel like a threat. But she also didn’t feel normal.

  Yuki, meanwhile, seemed entirely unfazed by rowing s. She simply stared at us with half-lidded eyes, as if the versation was too exhausting to keep up with. “Mmm. Dunno,” she mumbled, yawning mid-sentence.

  However, the moment Yuzu’s words fully registered, Yuki’s expression shifted. Her gaze, usually half-distracted and unreadable, suddenly sharpened—not with hostility, but with pure irritation. Her snow eyes locked onto Yuzu, her unfocused demeaniving way to something far more present.

  “I am not old…” she huffed, her voice gaining a rare hint of emotion. “I… think?”

  She tried to rub her eyes in her usual sluggish manner, only for the ropes binding her arms to prevent her from doing so. With a sluggish sigh, she squirmed weakly against the restraints, as if testing them for the first time. When she realized she couldn’t move, she gave up almost immediately, slumping back with an exasperated mutter.

  Yuki truly didn’t seem to care about her predit. It was as if being tied up was merely an invenieher than something to be armed about. That was… w in itself.

  Watg her, something clicked in my mind.

  “Ah…” I muttered, recalling a quirky little detail from Luminous Dream. The game was, at its core, a simple rhythm game featuring high schoolers starting a band. But every now and then, special colboratios introduced alternate versions of the characters—cospys, themed es, and even joke banners. One of those banners had featured Yuki in an “elderly cat” e, plete with tiny gsses and a walking e. It had been ridiculous and pletely out of character.

  Could that be reted to what was happening now? The thought lingered in my mind, but before I could voice it, Catheri out a tired sigh, rubbiemples.

  “If only we could uand what she’s saying…” she muttered, frustration evident ione.

  I bli her, tilting my head. “What do you mean?”

  Catherine and Yuzu both turo me in eerie unison, their expressions perfectly synized—half disbelief, half exasperation. It was like I’d just grown a sed tail in front of them.

  “Mashiro…” Catheriarted, dragging out my name slowly, as if carefully choosing her words.

  Yuzu took over without hesitation, puffing out her cheeks. “None of us speak cat tongue.”

  I opened my mouth. Then I closed it. Ope again.

  “…What.”