Belobog, Upper City.
"Mhm, Belobog looks just like I remember. That's such a relief. I was afraid it would turn into a Trash Can Empire or something."
Kiyono Inori, transformed into Inori Cat by a strange artifact, sighed with emotion. Ever since summoning Starlet Cat, trash can elements around her felt dangerously excessive.
"But why did I spawn in the upper city? Shouldn't I have spawned next to Stelle?"
A bad feeling crept over her.
What if the Stellaron baby was down in the lower city, obsessed with trash cans? The upper city was fine, but the lower city had already been conquered by trash cans.
Starlet, being adorably clueless, accidentally became their supreme leader.
The lower city trash can party vibe was off the charts, and she, lacking trash can aura, couldn't fit in. So she was automatically summoned to the upper city.
"Ahaha. That's impossible, right?"
She had only used the cat transformation staff twice. Honkai Star Rail was a world of Paths and Aeons. Errors were not exactly strange.
Inori Cat shook her head.
She shoved the trash-can-conquered-lower-city theory aside and wandered aimlessly along the sidewalk.
Steam engines, gears. Jarilo-VI's architecture had a steampunk flair, favored by the Second Emperor. Inori had studied plenty of records in the Emperor's Scepter CPU archives.
She observed Belobog's buildings.
More precisely, she observed the subtle Path fluctuations woven into them.
The reason the city stayed warm amid the cold wave was that Path's influence. It leaked a little now, but the design was exquisite. Truly the handiwork of an Aeon.
Inori felt a moment of insight.
As she brainstormed how to seal the leaky walls, pedestrians were drawn to the absurdly cute cat.
"Wow, a cat!"
"Such a pretty cat. Is it wild?"
"No way. Absolutely not. Around Belobog we only have cold-resistant birds and snow wolves. Cats and dogs went extinct ages ago. You didn't pay attention in school."
"Here kitty. Sister will give you Belobog red sausage."
Inori Cat was uninterested in people.
But she was curious about local alien specialties. Hearing about red sausage, she cautiously took a bite.
Disgusting. Why did aliens make sausage taste like tomatoes?
This was culinary hell.
While she gagged, the woman carefully reached out and grabbed her.
"Yes. Such a beautiful cat. Sell it at auction and those noble lords would pay a fortune in credits."
"As expected of the boss lady. Such business sense."
"Dang it. How did I not think of that?"
Inori Cat: (⊙_⊙)
Those who caught her rejoiced. Those who missed her wailed. Not a single kind soul stood up for justice. She felt oddly like a panda instead of a cat.
"Meow!"
She twisted hard, her body turning fluid-like as she slipped free and bolted without looking back.
She was human. Being a cat held no appeal. Well, unless it was for a cute girl.
But the locals of Jarilo-VI did not let her go easily. Cats and dogs were rare here, let alone one this cute.
Children, adults, even Silvermane Guards joined the chase.
Some shouted about selling her to nobles. Others wanted to place her in the Belobog History Museum with her own exhibit.
Not one suggested letting her go.
Inori learned firsthand what happens when a panda appears in a city.
A normal cat would have been caught for sure.
But—
Emperor's Scepter φ-ln7 Computational Coordination Unit
Inori's CPU was one of the units used by the Second Emperor during self-coronation and a clash with the fourth Lord of Silence. It was unquestionably among the highest-performance batches.
Everyone knew the Emperor's Scepter could interfere with reality and briefly destabilize local physical laws.
With sufficient performance, this CPU could do the same. A low-spec version, admittedly.
The city streets warped as if a layer of mist had been wiped away. The cat's figure sped up, blurred, and vanished from local sight.
…
Silvermane Restricted Zone
Belobog's most heavily guarded military area. Beyond it lay the Fragmentum depths ravaged by the cold wave.
Normally, elite Silvermane Guards would be stationed here in force. Today, however, all the elite units had been deployed into the city.
Only basic patrols remained.
In a dark corner of the zone, a hooded, masked, cloaked figure glared at a trash can, instinctively covering her mouth as if about to vomit.
"Trash. Can. Man."
She ground her teeth.
Yes. This suspicious figure was none other than Cocolia, recently elbowed into oblivion by a trash can.
Originally, she planned to wait for Bronya to capture the outsiders before advancing the Stellaron plan. But given the trash can's strength, Bronya stood no chance.
It was even possible—
That Bronya had already been murdered by the outsiders using trash cans in the Fragmentum. After all, she had been out of contact for days.
My daughter.
Believing she had lost her beloved child, Supreme Guardian Cocolia made the most radical decision of her life.
She announced that the future Supreme Guardian had been killed by outsiders and vowed to make the perpetrators pay any cost.
She then redeployed the main Silvermane Guard forces from the restricted zone to the upper-lower city passages. On the surface, it was to block the outsiders. In truth, it was for the Stellaron plan.
One move, two outcomes.
The trash can was unfathomably strong, but the Guards of the restricted zone were elite among elites.
How elite?
Even when she ordered shooters forward twenty meters and warriors back twenty meters, they could still fight endless Fragmentum monsters, suffer heavy losses, and break through to safety.
With so many elites, even that trash can could not defeat them all instantly.
Meanwhile, with the restricted zone undefended, once she obtained the Stellaron's promised power of revenge, she could destroy it and drag all of Belobog into the new world.
A master strategist. At this point, the initiative was entirely hers. She could not imagine losing.
And yet—
Trash cans. Again.
Ever since that experience, the sight of a trash can made her nauseous. She had already vomited three times in the restricted zone, each time worrying the trash can might sprout limbs and slap her.
It was just a trash can.
How many times would it obstruct her plan to save the world? How did it even move?
"Ha…"
As she walked grim-faced, nearby trash cans suddenly toppled over with clattering noise. Startled like a hunted animal, she reflexively leapt onto a wall.
No way. Trash Can Man?
Looking closer, she saw a small, furry creature dart out from behind the fallen cans.
A cat?
Cocolia disliked cats.
But this one was different. Graceful curves, fur like velvet from ancient texts, bathed in the sunset's glow, exuding noble elegance.
"How could there be a cat in the restricted zone? Could this be a sign of Trash Can Man's imminent arrival?"
Cocolia remained highly alert, ready for trash cans to attack. Then the Stellaron spoke.
"Do not… harm it."
"This cat… is an auspicious omen of our renewal and the coming new world."
The Stellaron sensed that this cat walked the same Path as itself, radiating the aura of Destruction.
How a cat was chosen by that being was unknown, but surely it had profound purpose.
?
Cocolia was confused.
Still, the Stellaron's command was absolute. She forced herself to show kindness.
"Meow. Meow."
Her voice sounded off after being beaten senseless by a trash can.
Inori Cat stared at the heavily wrapped figure.
Hood, cloak, mask. Who were you, a fire thief? This outfit was weird enough.
But stranger still—
Her cat nose smelled trash can on this person, mixed with overpowering perfume. Was this some scented trash can summoned by Stelle?
"Are you a trash can summoned by Stelle, meow?"
She meowed casually. Interfering with reality taxed the Emperor's Scepter CPU heavily, causing overheating.
She wanted to let it cool before opening the box on this masked hero.
Cocolia fell silent. She could not understand the cat.
"The cat says… let us go. It is time for this broken world to welcome a radiant rebirth," the Stellaron interpreted confidently.
"This is my world. I am the Supreme Guardian. This dying world should be saved by me, not a cat."
Feeling robbed of glory, Cocolia hissed.
The Stellaron said nothing more.
Cocolia gave the cat a long look. Since the Stellaron called it an auspicious omen, her plan was at least half successful.
"No more trash cans will stand in my way. The eternal new world is at hand."
Clenching her fist, she sprinted toward the Fragmentum depths where the Stellaron lay.
"?"
In the howling wind, Inori caught keywords.
Combined with the trash can smell, she instinctively interpreted it as "the trash cans' new world is coming."
Honkai. What are you doing?
Restricted Zone to Reverberation Corridor to Everwinter Hill.
Cocolia ran with all her might. Behind her, Inori Cat kept up thanks to two Blessings of Destruction.
Emperor's Scepter, analyze.
With the cooldown over and the scenery growing familiar, Inori immediately scanned the masked figure.
"Command: Unknown unit scan. Priority focus."
"Conclusion: Detected Destruction and Preservation Path energies. Source of Destruction at coordinates Everwinter Hill. Source of Preservation is the lance carried by the target."
"Tracing complete."
"Conclusion: Stellaron, source of Jarilo-VI's cold wave. Lance identified as a historical Architect weapon."
Inori: (O_o)
That was enough.
Isn't this the final boss of Jarilo-VI? Cocolia?
But this was wrong. Wasn't Cocolia supposed to merge with the Stellaron alongside her daughter, ending in a tragic mother-daughter scene?
Where was her daughter?
Where was my Stelle?
Cocolia was about to fuse with the Stellaron. Someone come claim your exclusive weapon, the flaming lance.
Inori's head hurt.
Butterfly effect. Something had gone completely off-script.
What now? Cocolia was about to fuse, and Starlet was nowhere to be found.
In Honkai Star Rail, fate existed. Without Preservation's gaze and her signature weapon, what if the universe ended? Inori could not take responsibility for that.
"Heh heh heh. Immortality. An eternal world. The power of the Stellaron. This city… Belobog's fate is sealed. Its future will unfold in my hands, Cocolia Rand's."
"Look. The power surges. It sings."
As Cocolia chanted, the frozen ground trembled. A colossal form emerged: the ancient Architects' machine, the Engine of Creation.
Inori: (⊙_⊙)
Wait. She even summoned the Engine of Creation?
Where is the Astral Express crew?
Me versus Cocolia plus Engine of Creation? Seriously? I am just a cat.
Still—
Letting her rush into the city and massacre everyone was not an option. The engine's activation would affect the lower city.
Before anyone else arrived, this cat would play a little fun game with the final boss.
Absolute Safety Equation
A formula derived by the Emperor's Scepter CPU. When injected into inorganic units, it reduces processing power by seventy percent.
The Engine of Creation was an ancient planetary machine with no advanced firewall. Reducing its processing by seventy percent would likely freeze it outright.
Clang.
The roaring war machine collapsed back to the ground.
"What? How is this possible?"
Cocolia stared blankly. This was far beyond her expectations.
Enter Program = Safe Desktop
An innate program of Savior Can 360. When driven by the coordination unit, it pulls the target into the Scepter's data world.
"Well… if I am honest."
"I have never fought a single battle. I am a pure desk worker, even more so than Mobius. If I can just stall until the Astral Express arrives and toss her out, that should work, right?"
Fairy Magic had already activated.
Reluctantly, Inori entered the Emperor's Scepter data world as administrator.
…
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Let me know if I got a name wrong. I know basically nothing about MyGO.