In the little cat's mind, machines were things like vacuum cleaners that needed people to operate them. Homura Akemi called the robot vacuum a machine, but it could move on its own and even eat things by itself.
After lunch, Yimi walked outside with a string in hand, the other end tied to a part underneath Xiaobai, walking quietly ahead.
The old model's design had actually accounted for misidentification errors by including a manual steering function—if someone pushed it in a given direction, it would automatically go that way.
Which meant the robot vacuum on Yimi's leash followed her footsteps with remarkable obedience.
But it was painfully slow, and had zero awareness. Even when Yimi stopped, it didn't stop with her.
The robot vacuum rolled along in the direction Yimi had last tugged it, bumping straight into Mami Tomoe's shoes and pushing against them repeatedly.
It needed proper training. Otherwise, how would it ever learn to carry a cat on its back and go where she wanted?
Mami crouched down, puzzled. "A robot vacuum? Why is something like this outside?"
"Its name is Xiaobai. It likes you," Yimi said.
"Thank you for liking me?" Mami extended one finger, tapped the robot vacuum, and redirected it.
No need to shatter a child's lovely little fantasy. Wasn't that exactly what Magical Girls existed for—to protect innocence and wonder?
"What are you doing?" Yimi yanked the leash to keep Xiaobai from wandering off.
The little cat was asking why Mami had messed with Xiaobai, but Mami assumed her sneaky behavior had been discovered—because just before the robot vacuum bumped her foot, she'd been crouching at a street corner, secretly peering down another road.
Somewhat unbecoming of the graceful image she always maintained.
"I was watching a friend. She's been acting a bit strange lately, and it has me worried."
"Strange?" Yimi tilted her head and looked in the direction Mami had been watching.
Two Magical Girls—both sporting the Yimi-brand upgrade—sat side by side on a bench at the park entrance. Kyoko was cradling the bento box Sayaka had prepared for her, shoveling rice with one foot propped boldly on the bench.
Sayaka slapped Kyoko's leg. Kyoko reluctantly lowered it, snapped the cleaned-out bento lid shut, and handed the box back to Sayaka.
"It was okay."
She shifted to look the other way.
"Just 'okay'? I got up early to cook this to make it up to you!" Sayaka stared down at the bento box.
"You call that making it up to me? Hold still and let me get back at you!" Kyoko leaped to her feet, grabbed Sayaka's hands, and started pushing.
Sayaka struggled against her but couldn't break free. "Your idea of payback is basically murder! All I used was a tiny bit of—"
"A tiny bit?? You've got some nerve saying that when you weren't the one on the receiving end! I'm gonna drag you somewhere with nobody around and—"
"Okay okay! I'm sorry, I'm really sorry—why did Yimi have to power you up?!"
"Pretty weird, right?" Mami looked down at Yimi, baffled.
"Hm?" Yimi didn't quite understand.
Kyoko had handed over her Soul Gem for modification, saying she wanted payback on Sayaka. Yimi hadn't fully grasped the reasoning, but Kyoko hadn't shown any killing intent at the time, so she'd gone ahead with it. Cats had their own traditions of play-fighting and payback, after all.
But their scuffling didn't seem to involve any Magical Girl powers, which was the strange part.
Puzzled, Yimi scooped up Xiaobai and started toward them, but Mami grabbed her by the collar and pulled her back.
"Let's not disturb them just yet." A strained smile crossed Mami's face. "I didn't expect things to develop this way."
What with the pinning down and tearing clothes and talk of "responsibility"—her former kouhai and her prospective kouhai had somehow ended up in this kind of relationship.
Shocking, and a little deflating. Kyoko was supposed to be the standoffish one, wasn't she? And come to think of it, she'd known both of them longer, so why was it that they... never mind.
"Then why were you spying?" Yimi didn't get it.
Mami pinched the bridge of her nose. "Even a big sister has her own troubles, you know. You're just a kid, so don't pry. How about coming to my place for cake this afternoon?"
She was actually the one most afraid of being alone, though baking cakes was a genuine hobby. If she could share them with someone and earn a compliment or two, it made her even happier.
"Cake!" Yimi's eyes lit up, then she shook her head. "I need to, practice cooking. One disgusting corpse left. No cake."
"Don't describe meat in such horrifying terms. But even with meat, you can still make sweet little buns."
"Meat, buns? Sweet?" Yimi furrowed her brows.
Sounded like the kind of cursed cooking Tomohisa-ojisan would eat. Admittedly, the cat's own former diet hadn't been great either, but she'd since learned to appreciate good food.
"That suspicious look you're giving me is a little hurtful." Mami glanced wistfully once more at the two getting along over there.
Forget it. Let them be.
"Meat floss buns—you've never had them, Yimi? Then you absolutely need to try."
Meat floss—essentially meat processed into a different form, primarily used as the main filling in certain pastries and baked goods.
You start with pure lean meat as the base, cut it up, soak it for a while to remove the gaminess, then simmer it in a pot with a small amount of seasoning until it's fall-apart tender.
Because it's purely lean, the meat breaks down into fine shredded strands at this stage...
"You're really talented, Yimi. Are you planning to be a pastry chef when you grow up?"
Mami guided Yimi hands-on through the process, though she couldn't quite identify what kind of meat Yimi had produced. It was already cut into blocks and deboned, its original shape unrecognizable.
Yimi had told her it was a premium ingredient from another region. Fair enough.
Making meat floss was even more time-consuming than regular cooking, but that was just part of making pastries.
After repeated seasoning adjustments and simmering, the Kyubey meat had lost all resemblance to normal meat in both shape and appearance. This was the first time ordinary cooking techniques had successfully overcome every one of Kyubey meat's usual drawbacks.
Well, almost.
Mami pinched off a bit and tasted it. "Somehow... the flavor doesn't quite match what chicken breast would give you. Kyubey, try some?"
She pinched off another bit and fed it to Kyubey. "How is it?"
"The flavor is decent," Kyubey evaluated.
"Must be because you're a beginner? For a first attempt, this is actually really good." Mami looked at Yimi with an encouraging smile.
Yimi tried a taste.
Definite improvement—massive, even, compared to the rancid fish-and-shrimp disasters from before.
Unfortunately, Mami's evaluation didn't register on the quest.
Yimi sprinkled some meat floss on the floor. Xiaobai automatically sensed it and rolled over to clean it up. Seemed like it really loved the stuff.
She picked Xiaobai up, expression wistful. "If only you were a Magical Girl."
She spread the meat floss with cream sauce on the bread, then stowed it in her storage space and headed out, pulling Xiaobai along.
She needed to find Sayaka or the Black One to taste-test it for her.