After lunch, Kai left the house with Sage and Salem, who now refused to get down ever since they acquired their new forms, perched on his shoulders—something the blue-eyed boy could only surrender to for the moment. This brought an amused smile to Nemuri's face, who walked beside him while dragging the suitcase she wouldn't let Kai carry.
Upon reaching the garden, Kai conjured a beautiful card in his right hand, adorned with golden-colored patterns from his [Aura Script] along the edges and back. In the center was the image of a point of light interconnected with various surrounding points, giving it a look similar to a karmic wheel or something of the sort.
"Kai, you know using quirks in public without a license is prohibited, right?"
Noticing the card in Kai's hand, Nemuri commented with a hint of amusement. The young blue-eyed man just smiled while scratching his ear, then responded in a condescending yet playful tone.
"Wait, Onee-chan, I think I heard you wanted to go to the mountain on your own."
"Hehehe." Without saying a word, Nemuri just grinned mischievously as she moved a little closer to Kai, who commented in amusement.
"That's what I thought."
After laughing a bit, Kai raised the card in front of him and exclaimed loudly.
"[Accompany] on, [Pussycats' base]!"
With Kai's words, the card in his hands transformed into a bright light that enveloped them all, forming a barrier around them as they shot into the air at supersonic speeds. Curiously, this didn't cause a sonic boom, as if it were merely an illusion, especially since, shortly after they rose into the air, the burst of light vanished from sight, becoming completely invisible.
One of his successful aura experiments over the years had been the skill cards, inspired by the Greed Island cards. Thanks to a combination of the intrinsic properties of materialization, pacts, and his Aura Script, these cards allowed him to perform relatively complex skills at a fairly low aura cost and with much greater ease.
Although the cards were incredibly useful, they were not without drawbacks. While the difficulty and cost of the card skills were indeed low, in return, Kai lost complete control over the abilities once activated. The cards would take all the aura cost upfront and execute automatically, with nothing he could do, even though only he could use them since none of the girls could activate them.
On the other hand, Kai also couldn't conjure the cards indefinitely; they all had usage limits—some daily, others weekly, monthly, or even annually, depending on their complexity and power. For example, he could use Accompany 30 times per week, and the most special cards had additional conditions besides the pact all skill cards shared, which involved conjuring the card and saying the name out loud.
In the case of Accompany, besides saying its name aloud, he also had to say the name of the place he wanted to go to, and it was mandatory to do so out loud, or the card wouldn't activate. The 'multiplier' of the pacts depended heavily on the risk involved. Moreover, the skill could only take him to people or places he had previously marked, and he had only 30 slots. If he wanted to add one more, he had to remove a previous one.
But because the danger of not being able to control the cards once activated was too great for him to accept, Kai later added another pact to forcibly cancel the ability mid-execution. However, in exchange, he not only lost all the aura that the ability had cost, but even that cancellation counted as an extra use. Moreover, that pact greatly reduced the maximum uses of the cards he perceived as more dangerous.
A short time later, in the Pussycats' base garden, a beam of light suddenly became visible in the sky. It soon struck the ground, revealing a translucent light barrier with Nemuri and Kai inside, with Salem and Sage on his shoulders.
"Kai, you know using quirks without a license is prohibited?"
Shino, who was training alongside Ryuko, Tomoko, and Chatora in the garden, commented with a small smile as she approached the group, to which Kai responded with a small, amused grin.
"Did I hear someone doesn't want a massage, or was it just my imagination?"
"..."
At Kai's comment, Shino could only remain silent, pouting as she looked at the blue-eyed boy, who soon added with a sly smile.
"That's what I thought."
"Hehehe, Kai has you wrapped around his little finger, Shino," Nemuri commented playfully as she approached, dragging the suitcase, which Shino quickly took while huffing in annoyance.
"Hmph, I think I heard someone doesn't want their massage."
"Hey, you don't get to decide that, right, Kai? Kai?! Hey! Don't turn your head, look at me when I'm talking to you!"
Nemuri finally exclaimed loudly as she watched the boy who was looking away, pretending the situation had nothing to do with him, while Ryuko approached with an amused smile.
"Hello, my future husband. Your Ryuko Onee-chan has been waiting for you anxiously. You're quite late today."
"I already told you, Kai won't be your husband, just accept it."
At Ryuko's comment, Nemuri immediately exclaimed, although curiously, instead of appearing upset as usual, she now seemed more amused and relaxed about it. However, the beautiful blonde woman arrogantly responded.
"That has nothing to do with you, Nemuri. This is between Kai and me; you can't fight true love."
"As his Onee-chan, I'll never allow it."
While Nemuri and Ryuko were engaged in their typical argument, which now seemed more like a fun little game for Nemuri, Kai wisely slipped away, casually commenting.
"It's really lively around here."
"Haha, you talk as if it has nothing to do with you," Chatora couldn't help but comment amusedly, to which Kai quickly defended himself with a serious and innocent expression.
"I'm innocent, don't accuse me of things I have nothing to do with, Chatora."
"Haha, if that helps you sleep at night."
While Chatora was amused by the whole situation, Tomoko couldn't take her eyes off the little cat and the beautiful fairy on Kai's shoulders, something everyone else had selectively avoided asking about for the moment.
"Kai, where's Salem? Is that cat Salem's offspring? And is that fairy real?"
Faced with Tomoko's flood of questions, Kai quickly picked up little Salem from his shoulder, while Sage began flying around, greatly surprising the Pussycats as the blue-eyed boy explained.
"This little one is Salem, but he awakened a quirk and can now make himself smaller or larger at will. And the fairy is Sage, who for some reason changed and now looks like this."
"…"
Upon hearing the explanation, the Pussycats could only look at each other speechlessly. This made Nemuri laugh in amusement as she could not help but take out her phone to start recording them, while Shino asked in a voice filled with countless emotions.
"Let's leave the fairy aside—your quirk has always been very strange, but how did Salem awaken a quirk?"
"I'm not exactly sure how it happened; I'm still investigating it. So, it's better if you see for yourselves. Show them, Salem."
After the order, Kai placed Salem on the ground, who meowed affirmatively before starting to grow to his normal size. Although he did not stop there and kept growing until he reached his maximum size, all under the astonished gazes of the Pussycats.
"Incredible…" Chatora softly exclaimed while looking at the huge panther in front of him.
"Certainly, although Salem was already much larger than his parents, so it's not that surprising he has a quirk…" Shino commented, equally surprised, to which Tomoko asked with bright eyes.
"Kai, do you think you could lend us Salem for some heroic deeds so we can look super cool?"
"Well, only if Salem likes the idea."
Seeing the cat-loving heroes' eyes light up like flashlights at Tomoko's question, Kai could only respond with amusement, which caused the Pussycats to turn and look at Salem with almost predatory eyes.
Feeling endangered, Salem quickly shrank down to his smallest size before leaping onto Kai's shoulder, trying to hide from those people with dangerous eyes. At the same time, Ryuko approached with a smile, attempting to appear calm and composed.
"Salem, little baby, come to mama Ryuko, we just want to play with you for a bit."
Upon hearing Ryuko, Salem's fur immediately stood on end, and in a panic, he quickly tried to hide inside Kai's shirt. This prompted Sage, who had been silent until then, to ask in a low voice.
"Master, why does it seem like they want to eat Salem?"
"Well, they're true cat fanatics. Even their hero names are inspired by cat breeds, so the idea of having a real cat with a quirk as a 'companion' must be pretty exciting for them." Kai responded quietly. He found himself surrounded by all the Pussycats.
"Come on, Salem, we'll look super cool and help a lot of people. We're going to be heroes!" Tomoko said with high tension, causing poor Salem to tremble inside Kai's clothes. Kai could only comment with a smile.
"No need to intimidate Salem like that. And if you really want a cat companion, then you're in luck, hehe."
"Hey, we're not intimidating him!" Chatora quickly defended himself, to which Kai responded with a mocking smile:
"If that helps you sleep at night."
"…"
As Chatora was hit with his own words, Shino spoke in a calm and measured voice, though the small smile on her lips and the slight gleam in her eyes betrayed her excitement.
"We're really not intimidating him, but more importantly, what do you mean we're in luck?"
"Sage, show them."
"Understood, master."
With Kai's order, Sage quickly created a hologram displaying a hyperrealistic 3D model of Nemuri's Accomplice, with various text boxes and graphs extending from it. At the top, there was a title that read "Accomplice Base Mode."