Maya and Sophia ended up in an emergency meeting with Canir in his domain because he finally managed to sniff out the blonde’s family. While they were at it, he also confirmed that Chloe was indeed an otherworldler from the same world as the tiger. Afterward, he explained how Sophia’s family reacted to the letter she had relayed to them. Her mother took it relatively fine and started to move on for good, but her sister, Steph, was having a hard time with it. As there was nothing the tiger could do about it, though, she decided that it was best to let her calm down and get over it without further intervening.
As the meeting was coming to a close, Canir made a grave mistake, though. Slightly riled up from being teased by the couple, he didn't concentrate properly on his magic, and instead of sending them back to their current world, he sent them back to where the blonde came from, the world she lived in before her accident.
“Mommy, mommy, look! Those weird girls have animal ears and even a tail!”
“D-Don’t look, Billy! They’re a bad influence!”
"W-What?!" Seeing those two, and how the entire area around them looked nothing like the capital, including all the modern-looking houses, not to mention things like electric light posts and even cars, Sophia started panicking. Naturally, she hadn’t seen that coming at all. Immediately after, once she had a clear moment, she instantly grabbed Maya’s hand and dragged her into a side alley. Luckily, Canir seemed to have sent them to a residential area during the day when only very few people were around. There, the tiger leaned against a wall and slowly slid down to the ground before sitting down and hugging her knees. “W-Why…?”
"…" Maya still hadn't the slightest clue about what was happening. As she continued to look all around her and took in all the unfamiliar sights, she kept looking more and more confused with each passing moment. “W-What is this weird place…? W-Where are we…? W-Why do you look like you’re about to die?!”
“…” The blonde didn’t answer.
“S-Sophia?!”
“This… This is…” She needed a moment. “W-Welcome to my… old world…”
“H-Huh?!” Hearing that, the cat-girl also started to properly panic. “WHAT?!”
“W-Why…?” Sophia repeated herself. “First Chloe, which is cool… Then how Steph seemed to be having a hard time… And now this… T-That’s too much…” Her voice was a mix of sorrow and despair.
"Eh, ah, uhh…" Maya was still unable to deal with the situation. A depressed girlfriend on top was anything but helpful right now. As this was the priority now, though, she kneeled in front of the tiger. She was still leaning against the wall while burying her head into her legs and hugging her knees at the same time, which she then started petting. “I-It seemed like you were taking the Steph thing… relatively well, though…?" The cat-girl decided to start with that.
“T-That was just because… because I thought we would go home right after…” She let out another sniff before continuing. “I was planning to immediately… go to bed and cry… for an hour or two…”
“Ah… You acted strong, huh?”
“Yes…” The tiger gave her a weak nod. “That’s what I get for it…”
“…” Maya looked around again. “I, uhh… I know that your mind is occupied right now, but… but we have to do something about this, as well…” She used one of her hands to simply point at everything around them. “W-We can’t stay here, you know…? We have to go back! Also… those two humans just now… they were shocked about our ears and tails…"
“W-Well, yeah… Something like us doesn’t exist here…”
“I-Isn’t that bad if people see us?!”
“Unbelievably bad…”
“W-We have to hurry back home then!”
"Mind… Mind telling me how?" Sophia still had her head buried in her legs she was hugging.
"A-Ah.” The cat-girl froze up. “W-Wait, I can still sense your magic! It feels lower than usual, but it’s still there! Can’t we use a portal to go back?!”
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"I still have my magic…?" For the first time since breaking down earlier, the blonde lifted her head to look at Maya, who then used her hand to wipe her tears away. “M-My detection shut down, but… Yes, I can feel some power in you, as well… Why? There is supposed to be no magic in this world…”
“How am I supposed to know…” She probably was the last one who would be able to answer this question. "Oh, but didn't Chloe mention something about you having actual magic inside of you, which doubles as your authority? It basically commands the environment magic around you? I think I remember Canir saying something similar. Maybe the magic inside our bodies came with us…? It might be why your magic feels less now?”
“Hmm… This also could be the reason why my detection stopped working… I guess it uses the magic in the environment to find things… Without that, no detection…”
“Makes sense…” Maya just nodded. "S-So… uhh, portal?"
“R-Right!" Hesitating for a moment, Sophia then let go of her legs and lifted her left arm. A moment later, it disappeared into a small purple portal connecting to her storage. Right after, she pulled it out again while holding a couple of gold coins from the other world.
“IT WORKS!” The cat-girl seemed visibly relieved and happy.
“Yeah…” The tiger sounded a lot more reserved.
“What’s wrong?”
“That portal took way more magic than usual, and my recovery feels much slower, too.” She let out a small sigh. "A full-sized portal should still be possible, though.”
“G-Good… Well, I guess that confirms the theory about the internal magic? As we only have that available, we can’t be as wasteful, and it takes longer until it returns to us.”
“Yes…” Sophia hung her head again.
“So, what’s the actual issue?” Maya naturally noticed that something else was weighing her down, as well, and stared right at her again.
“We shouldn’t be here… and yet, we are… It shouldn’t be possible… and yet, it happened…" She went back to hugging her legs. "If we return now, I can’t leave the portal open because someone would definitely find it… I don’t know if I can forcibly open the portal from the other side, either. I doubt my magic would reach… and again, someone would notice. Canir also mentioned before that he can send people over to a different world only once… I’m not sure if this counts, but what if it does… Or if it resets if we return on our own… W-What if not?”
“Y-You want to stay…?” The cat-girl’s expression changed completely.
“N-No…”
“But?”
“But… It might be the only chance I… we have…”
“We?” Maya tilted her head. “Steph?”
“No!” She raised her voice. “Seeing her now only would end in a disaster!”
“You don’t want to?”
“THERE’S NOTHING I WANT MORE RIGHT NOW!”
“But?” She repeated herself.
“It will make things so much worse… I can’t…”
“I see.” The cat-girl decided against voicing her opinion on the matter for now. She understood that it was too much at once right now to be rational. “So, what is this we you were talking about?"
“You and I…” She took another slight pause to try and regain her posture. "I want to show you where I came from… I never thought I would be able to, and I don't even particularly like this world, but… I want you to know more about me…"
“Oh.” Maya didn’t know how to reply to that. “I’m really happy, but… I-It looks quite scary here, though…” She started looking around again while being seemingly quite nervous. Naturally, as absolutely nothing looked familiar to her, things got overwhelming fast.
“I didn’t know you were such a scaredy cat… literally…”
“HEY!” The cat-girl didn't like that. "Speaking of, how would we be able to explore here in the first place… You said it yourself that it would be terrible if our animal features get noticed…”
“Well…” Afterward, Sophia's body was enveloped by smoke, and a moment later, a slightly different-looking girl appeared. It was still Sophia, but her tiger ears and tail were gone. Also, her hair looked more like her summer style again, a much darker orange, but rather than the slight orange hue it had, it now shifted closer to a brownish blonde. The girl also looked a little taller and bigger than before. At least as much as her current clothes would allow her to grow. All in all, she had mostly returned to her pre-transmigration self after coming back to her old world.
“Ah…” Maya wasn’t sure how to feel about that. “I wasn’t expecting to have to use that magic so soon again… Or ever." Even so, she followed after her girl, and soon enough, her ears and tail were also gone. She didn’t change anything else, though. After all, she didn’t have multiple forms to choose from.
“I like the cat version more…” Even though it was her idea, it just made the whole mess of a situation worse for the blonde.
“I do, too!” The white-haired girl complained even louder. “Thankfully, I quite like your older human form quite a bit~. Tiger Sophia is still my favorite, though.”
“Mine, too!”
“Ahaha…” She let out a small chuckle. “Sounds like you’re starting to feel better.”
"Not at all…" Her voice quickly became quieter again.
"Can't say I'm a fan of the depressed Sophia, though. After the angry one, it’s probably my least favorite variant…”
“S-Shut up… I hate her more than anyone else…”
"Good. So, what's the plan…?" Once again, Maya looked around in the vicinity, trying to make sense of all the strange things she saw. Luckily, as they weren’t in a shopping or business district right now, the strangest things around them were cars. All the signs, monitor walls, and other sensory-overloading things had yet to be discovered by her.
"No idea…" Sophia decided she would rather continue burying her head in her legs while hugging her knees for a while longer.
“I see.” Letting her gather her thoughts a little longer, Maya just sat down next to the blonde and leaned against her side while placing her head on the other girl's shoulder, and the two stayed like that for a good while.