kscans

Chapter 426 - Dark Phoenix Overdrive

"Welcome!"

"Parfait-san. It’s ‘Welcome home, Master,’"

"Ah, sorry."

"No, you’ve gotten it right about one time in ten recently, so that’s great progress. Please keep up the good work."

Three weeks after the first Hyakki Yakou event, Parfait was working at a Japanese-style cafe in the Maid Guild, located in the Eastern Country’s capital, Azuma. She was handling a part time job, which was actually a quest.

She had gotten quite used to it, but she still sometimes let out a shout more suited for a tavern, so the path to becoming a maid was still a long one. Not that she was aiming to be a maid, anyway. This was training for when she eventually became a cafe manager in the future.

Her main focus was more on cooking, but she knew she would eventually need to hire a waitress. If she couldn’t properly instruct her staff then, the cafe’s sales would suffer.

She didn’t have the kind of skill her father, Hayato, possessed, who would take business trips to Earth just to brew coffee. She needed to raise the overall quality of her cafe. That was why she was working so hard on both customer service and cooking.

Of course, her real cooking practice happened in the real world, not in virtual reality. But she was also leveling her Cooking Skill here because she wanted to eat sweets she made herself. Being part of the Maid Guild had helped her skill increase considerably, and it was now over level 50.

This was likely thanks to making curry every day. When it came to leveling the Cooking Skill, the most cost effective dish was curry.

"It begins with curry and ends with curry."

"Curry is the strongest and the most supreme."

"Curry solves everything."

These were sayings at the Cook’s Guild. The idea that you should make curry to level your skill was a well known fact in this virtual reality. The problem was that the market was so flooded with curry that it wouldn’t sell at all. The only option was to eat it yourself.

Curry’s effect was to boost base damage, which was effective for Parfait who engaged in close quarters combat. But her item storage was already full of curry, and she couldn’t keep up with consumption. There was no such thing as a separate stomach for curry.

‘Oh well,’ she thought. ‘Natsu-chan can log in starting today, so I’ll have her eat some curry.’

Today, her friend Natsu celebrated her birthday. They would have a party in the real world tonight, but they had plans to play together in virtual reality before that.

She had already given the equipment Natsu requested to Diite, so her friend had probably received it by now.

She did wonder if it was appropriate for a young lady who had just turned sixteen to wear such an outfit, but apparently, it was at the instruction of Natsu’s mother, Noat.

"You can’t sing in front of people if you get embarrassed in a virtual world. If you want to be a doctor who can sing and dance, you should cast aside your shame."

If Parfait had been there, she would have absolutely put a stop to it, but it was too late by the time she heard about it. And Natsu herself was all for it. Parfait worried that Natsu’s doctor father, Mist, would be holding his head in his hands, but there was nothing she could do about it now.

It was just in a game, and there were plenty of women who dressed like that. Some people enjoyed it as a form of cosplay, so Parfait forcefully concluded that it probably wasn’t a problem.

She had considered returning to the Royal Capital for a bit, but Parfait’s fame was skyrocketing, and she still couldn’t relax there. So she had decided to wait here.

Over the past three weeks, she had gotten to know Balbara and the other members of the clan "Knights of Sweets" fairly well. Of course, there were no recruitment attempts or PvP challenges. They were just friends to hang out with.

Perhaps because of that, she received almost no invitations or PvP challenges from other clans either. Parfait figured that despite their name, they were a large clan, and no one wanted to make an enemy of them.

Making an enemy of a large clan meant you could be attacked during a territory battle. To protect one's territory, it was best to avoid trouble.

As she mulled this over, she finished her quest and received today’s distributed dessert, a "Megaton Dorayaki."

After quickly finishing the satisfyingly large dorayaki, Parfait steeled her resolve. Today, she would finally tackle that.

She had been visiting the Tamer Guild in Azuma and learning taming techniques.

Apparently, feeding stray cats raises your Taming Skill. She had to do it. She already had contracts with Sieg’s children in the real world, and she had been thinking of starting an animal cafe here as well.

To that end, she had completed quests to earn money and prepared a large quantity of cat food. All that was left was to give it to the cats.

Cats lingered in the back alleys. Feeding cats to raise one's Taming Skill was a basic first step, so there was no one around. This meant she could feed them to her heart’s content. Parfait approached a stray cat.

The stray cat brought its nose close to the food, sniffed it, fun fun, and then began to eat. That alone made Parfait happy. What’s more, her Taming Skill experience points were rising rapidly.

‘I want to tame a thousand cats and get the "King of Cats" title. I wonder if it unlocks a weapon skill called "Lord Cat Stampede" or something. What would that be like?’

She didn’t really know, but she imagined it would be a very happy technique. And so, Parfait went around feeding cat food to every stray cat she could find.

After feeding about fifty cats, she ran out of stock. But her skill level was now high enough to tame a cat as a pet.

‘Alright, who should be my memorable first pet?!’

They were all cute, but none of them felt quite right. Honestly, she wanted to take them all home, but that was impossible. At Parfait’s skill level, she could only manage to tame a single cat.

She spent about an hour searching the back alleys, but she still couldn’t find a stray cat that made her think, ‘This is the one!’

‘I’d like a black one, but there aren’t many around… Ah!’

Deeper in the back alleys was a small, open square, and there she spotted a black cat.

The moment she saw it, Parfait ran over.

The black cat was licking its front paw and washing its face.

By Parfait’s standards, it was perfect. She immediately began the taming process before someone else could get to it.

"Come on an adventure with me!"

Any pick up line would do, but Maris, the animal researcher, had said that one should tame animals with affection even in a virtual world, so she followed that advice.

But for some reason, something seemed off. The black cat was gradually getting bigger.

Then, an announcement echoed in Parfait’s head.

"The sudden event ‘Defeat the Boss Cat’ has begun. Please repel the boss cat of Azuma, Black-Clawed Bishamonten. I repeat—"

"Like I could cut a fluffy thing!"

The cry of her heart escaped her lips. She could cut other monsters. She could even cut people. But she couldn’t cut monsters with fluffy fur. Ignoring her feelings, however, the black cat launched its attack.

True to its name, it was a scratching attack with black claws, but Parfait blocked it with her Beelzebub. There was no damage, but she was a little surprised by its unexpected strength.

Her only option was to run, but it seemed she was in an enclosed space, and an invisible wall blocked her way.

‘It’s not like there’s a death penalty, so maybe it’s okay if I just get defeated here. But that black cat… I wanted to tame it…’

Just as she was about to give up, a voice came from above.

"Fuhahahaha, my friend! It seems you are in trouble!"

A familiar voice. In fact, she had just heard it at school today.

"Natsu-chan!"

"Wrong! My name is Dark Phoenix Overdrive! Or something to that effect!"

She had heard that at school, too. Which was precisely why it was her friend, Natsu.

Looking toward the voice, she saw Natsu striking a pose on a rooftop. She covered her left eye with her right palm, her left hand on her right hip. It was a pose she often did in the real world, too.

Leaving the pose aside, Parfait had some thoughts about the clothes she was wearing. Parfait had gotten them as requested, but she hadn’t actually expected her to wear them.

She wore a military cap, a military-style black leotard, and dark stockings. Furthermore, she wore black boots that came up to her knees and a high collared cloak like a vampire's. She also had on fingerless gloves and an eye patch.

A female villain in a Sunday morning superhero show had worn a similar outfit. The kind that awakens to love in the end, betrays the enemy, and dies. It wasn't an outfit a sixteen-year-old should be wearing, but since this was virtual reality, it was probably just barely acceptable.

With straight, long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a good figure, her facial features were also well defined. If she stayed quiet, she had the beauty of a high class lady, but she was so fallen to the dark side that it ruined everything.

But to Parfait, she was a friend she had been playing with since childhood.

"This is not like you, my friend, known as the Pseudo-Psychopath. Why not just slice that black cat in two?"

"I told you, I can’t cut something so fluffy."

"Kukuku, have you not yet unleashed your own madness? At this rate, you will never master the dark side!"

"Yeah, I don’t plan to. Natsu-chan, you’re sixteen now. Let’s face reality."

"Don’t say such sad things. It’s a little depressing watching everyone become so normal. But I will endure. My master, Grand Marshal Parsha… no, Despair Angel-sama, endured, so I, her disciple, must endure as well!"

Natsu’s mother, Noat, and her friend, Parsha, had influenced her in many ways. Having grown up watching that pair, Natsu was always like this. And yet, for some reason, she was smart enough to get the top score in her grade on tests. For Parfait, it was something she just couldn’t accept.

Throughout their exchange, the black cat had been waiting, yawning.

"My friend! Invite me to your party! Do so, and I shall defeat this black omen!"

"Black cats aren’t bad luck."

"Don’t give me such a straight reply…!"

After that exchange, Parfait invited Natsu to her party from the system menu.

Natsu must have accepted immediately, because she entered the battlefield. She took a little damage landing on the ground from a high place, but without showing any sign of it, Natsu laughed.

"Fuhahahaha, symbol of misfortune! Taste my combat gun technique!"

Natsu had two guns in holsters on either side of her hips, and she drew them with both hands. In her right hand, she held "Blood Rain," and in her left, "Red Carpet."

She lowered her hips, extended her left hand forward, and brought her right hand close to her face. It was proper form to hold the guns sideways. All of this she had learned from Parsha, the woman she looked up to as her master. Mostly while watching old movies.

"Here I come!"

"I’ll protect the black cat!"

"My friend, I am on your side…!"

And so, the battle between the black cat and the young girls began.