Things had taken quite a turn after Canir had summoned Sophia and Maya to tell the blonde the news about her family and how they had received her letters. After the overseer had finished telling them everything, he sent them back home. Unfortunately, he made a slight mistake and returned them to Sophia’s original home, though.

Luckily, albeit not as powerful anymore, their magic was still working, and Sophia was able to create her portals, which allowed them to go back to the right world. Being back, especially after having heard about Steph having a hard time, the blonde got even more emotional. After using magic to look like ordinary humans, they decided to stay a little longer because Sophia wanted to show Maya where she came from.

“It’s probably not the best time to mention it, but it is getting rather cold here…” The two were still sitting on the ground of a random alley somewhere in Sophia’s old world when Maya started to feel uncomfortable.

"Y-Yeah…" The blonde, who was continuing to hug her knees, reacted with a slight nod.

“Come on now!” Hearing her still somber voice after the two had been sitting there for what felt like an hour already, the white-haired girl sprang back on her feet and positioned herself in front of the blonde while holding out her arms. “Give me your hands!” She wanted to help her up.

"…" Not answering her at first, Sophia stayed rooted like that for a moment longer. Still, she eventually, but very reluctantly, reached for the other’s hands.

“Perfect!” Maya immediately pulled her up and showed her a gentle smile once they were at the same eye level again. "Oho, we're almost the same size right now!" She noticed that the height gap between them had shrunk a lot. “You’re bigger, too~. It’s not quite your old body, though, isn't it? It feels like there are still a few centimeters missing.” It didn’t sound like she was just talking about her height.

“It’s as close as my current clothes allowed me to grow… Wait, why did I go for my old self in the first place…?”

“You did it unconsciously?”

“Old world, old me, I guess…?” She hung her head afterward.

“Drop the old personality, though!” Maya got loud. “You’re better than that!”

“It’s easier said than done…”

“It’s not! Even your body knows! Look!" She pointed at Sophia's hair. "Even when you unconsciously transformed to your old looks, you still kept a few of your tiger stripes. You are someone else now! Someone better! Someone who forgot how being depressed even works! That’s why, stop it!”

“I’m not sure if you’re the best or the worst motivational trainer in existence…”

“Shut up! I’m the best!”

“Well, it has to be true if you say it, huh?”

“Yes!” Maya gave her a satisfied nod. “If you don’t cheer up at least a little now, I’m going to get angry!”

“Definitely the worst motivational trainer…” She changed her opinion.

“I’m the bestest!”

“No, that’s Ellie.” Hearing her wording it the way the little princess usually does, the blonde finally changed her expression and showed her a small but very cheeky smile.

“That’s acceptable!” She liked the change. "True, too!"

“Ahaha…” Even when she's not around, Ellie still manages to save the day.

“Alright, we’re finally getting somewhere!”

“I’m not sure if I hate or love you right now…”

"That means my distraction is working~.” Maya smiled at her.

“Might be leaning closer towards love.”

“Ehehe~.”

“Barely, though.” Sophia smiled back at her.

“At the end of the day, it will be all love!”

“At the end of the day… You’ve been better at that before.”

“I’m busy sightseeing, so I’ll take it easy!”

“I’ll have to deduct points for your questionable priorities…”

“I work best when I start with a handicap.”

“You have an answer for everything, huh?” The blonde just stared at her way too smug-looking girlfriend.

“Yup~.” She was glad that Sophia’s retorts were getting livelier. “By the way, I’m quite surprised that it seems to be early morning here right now, even though it was evening at our place. What’s up with your world?”

"Well, Canir just mentioned earlier that the flow of time is a little different. Ignoring the part where the year is 15 days longer on the other side. Also, it’s morning here… in some place in this world, it is evening right now, so…”

“That’s true, I guess.” Maya nodded a few times. “Okay, that just means we have more time to explore!”

“Sure…”

“By the way, where exactly are we? Why are these houses so clean-looking? Why are the streets so smooth? What are those colorful boxes with wheels that somewhat resemble those of a carriage but also not, and are much smaller…? What…" It seemed like she could go on forever.

"It seems like I'll be doing lots of explaining today, huh? Well, for where we are… not even the slightest clue…”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Eh?”

“There are almost 8 billion humans on this planet. Lots of cities to house them… and the housing districts of pretty much every developed country looks more or less the same."

“Brr…” Hearing the first part especially, Maya just shuddered in response.

“Understandable.” She couldn’t fault her for that reaction. “It does feel ever so slightly nostalgic, though. Also, I understood those two earlier, and I can read the street signs and all that… Judging by how it’s the same language, we’re most likely in my home country.”

“What does the language have to do with that…?” The white-haired girl tilted her head.

“Almost every country has its own language. Some even have multiple ones. There are a couple of hundred languages in total."

“Why…?” She only tilted her head more.

“Why, indeed…”

"That sounds super inconvenient for communication and stuff!"

“That’s putting it very lightly.”

“Your world is weird…”

"Again, that's putting it very lightly." Sophia kept nodding at everything she was saying. "Also, if you think that is weird... this will be a long day."

"Lucky we ended up in a somewhat familiar place then, huh?"

“Also lucky that Canir gave you the translation skill for my language back when you wanted to read my letters.”

“True! It would’ve been a major pain else.” Maya reacted with a big nod.

“Still is quite the pain, regardless. For many reasons…”

“I told you to stop being grumpy!” The white-haired girl raised her voice once again.

“If I’m not allowed to be grumpy at all, we’re going to have a problem…”

“One problem more or less won’t change much at this point.” Maya stuck out her tongue while grinning at her.

“The hate you levels are rising.”

“Good~.”

“Whatever… Shall we get going?”

“Gladly!”

“So, which way do you want to go?” The blonde pointed in both directions they could follow the alley.

“Why me?! I have no idea how this world works!”

“I lived here for over 20 years, and I have no clue about that, either. That's no excuse. Even more, I also don't know where we are. Adding to that, you're the one who's eager to explore. I mean, I want to show you, too, but…” She shrugged her shoulders. “While we’re at it… If we’re actually in a bigger city, you’ll probably get surprised a lot and might even end up being completely overwhelmed. When that happens, try to keep it in you. If you’re too surprised about something normal for absolutely everyone else, people might get suspicious…”

“Don’t belittle me! I know how to behave!” She got a little pouty.

“No, you just have no idea just how ridiculous some areas and things of this world are.”

“It’ll be fine~.” Maya looked confident about her claim.

“Just try not to act too surprised…” Sophia had a bad feeling already. “So, which way?”

“Uhh… This way!” She simply pointed to her right.

“As good as any suggestion, I guess.” The blonde shrugged her shoulders again. “Let’s go.”

“Okay!” She gave her a big nod. "There are still a ton of questions I have!"

“Ask away.”

“Why are the outsides of the houses and the streets so smooth? It’s supposed to be bricks, isn’t it?”

“Well, there are still brick houses and cobble roads around, but… Houses nowadays are mostly made from concrete or have an outer layer plastered over them to make them look clean and smooth… The surface of the road is called asphalt, I think? Long story short, it's a mix of some things, and the mass is kinda soft when heated up. Smells horrible when hot, too… They put that stuff on the street, smoothen it, and once it cools down, it looks like this.”

“Oho! I don’t really get it, but it looks great! Nice and clean.”

“A smooth street is also nice to drive on. Makes driving a car much more fun.”

“Car…?” Maya looked confused again.

“The colorful boxes with the small wheels…” Immediately after saying this, she heard something behind them and scootched Maya over to the side to make room for the red car that wanted to pass them.

“Eh?!” That just bewildered her even more. “There was someone in there! How does it go without a horse?! Does this world have magic, after all?! Also, why is it so loud and smelly…?” It apparently wasn’t an electric car.

“So much for not being surprised at every little thing…”

“That’s not a little thing!”

“Compared to what you haven’t seen yet, it sure is.”

“S-Seriously?!”

“Yeah…” Sophia rolled her eyes. “No, there is no magic. Those cars have something we call an engine. This thing, uhh… burns something we pump out of the earth we call oil and converts that into movement…" She decided to spare her many details because it would make no difference.

“I see! I think… It stinks and is loud because it’s burning something…?”

“Pretty much.”

“That aside, it’s amazing that it can drive without a horse! The stuff it burns seems to be amazing!”

"Yeah…" She nodded. "Aside from the part where it's finite, about to run out, and burning it slowly makes the planet unlivable because it destroys nature and pollutes the air…"

“W-WHAT!?” Maya looked more than shocked. “W-Why would you use it, then?!”

“Because it’s convenient…? There is no magic we can use instead, after all…”

“Sure is convenient to destroy the planet you live on!”

“…” The blonde had a hard time countering that. "W-Well… when it was discovered or developed, no one thought about these side effects yet. When it became apparent, it was already too late to stop because of… money… and how everything in the world was dependent on it."

“Dependent enough, again, to destroy the very planet you live on…?”

“…” She still had no arguments. “T-There are newer cars and other transport vehicles that don't use that stuff anymore and drive with something we call electricity now… Depending on how that is made, there is no harm to the environment…”

“That’s great!”

“W-Well, those new cars themselves have something big and heavy built inside of them to store that electricity… Building those things kinda destroys the earth, too… It's made with rare stuff they have to destroy landscapes of unimaginable size all over the world to dig it out. From what I've heard, the stuff itself is also pretty harmful and a major pain to build. It also gets transported all over the world multiple times, which causes even more pollution because it's transported on ships that use an impossible amount of the other stuff we pump out of the earth. It's still better than burning oil in cars, as well, but..."

"What is wrong with humans…?" Maya decided not to specify which humans from what world she meant because she didn't want to insult the humans she already knew beforehand.

“…” And again, there was nothing she could say.

“I thought stupidity was a defining trait of our humans…” The white-haired girl had to take a short break. “Well, at least the humans of this world, from what I’ve seen so far, don’t seem to think they're the absolute best while having no reason to think so. Or are being needlessly aggressive and start one war after another under the pretense of either a petty or even no reason at all…”

“…” Sophia was taking a lot of second-hand damage at the moment. Because she couldn’t bear it any longer, she eventually just stopped answering and started walking again.

----------------

After the topic was over, or forcefully ended, the couple decided to wander around, and the scenery was slowly starting to change. Before long, they had left the housing district and entered the shopping area in the city they ended up in.

“WOW!” Maya had long abandoned her promise not to get surprised at absolutely anything. It was hard to blame her, though. It seems like the city they were in was a rather big one because the shopping area ended up being gigantic. There were an uncountable number of stores while the place was littered with ads, television screens, all kinds of flashy lights, and enormous video walls on the tall buildings. It was in no way comparable to the capital the two came from. “I-I don’t even know… What is all this…? W-Why are all these pictures moving…? Where is all this noise coming from…? How are there so many people…? Why are the buildings so enormous?!" There was absolutely no end to her questions.

"…" Sophia, on the other hand, hadn't said a thing for quite a while, and her face was seemingly turning paler with each passing moment. “I… I seriously hate you, Canir… Why… just why…?”

“Huh…?” Even though she was distracted by absolutely everything, she still managed to notice that something was up with the blonde again. "What's wrong?"

“…” She only reacted by first playing her hands on her face. "W-Welcome to my… home city…" It seemed like the blonde finally found out where exactly they were by coming across some more noticeable landmarks.

“Eh?!”