World 2.2

It's cold, for the most part, and the air is punctuated with the obnoxiously loud plink-plink-plink of raindrops on metal.

But Yuri herself is completely dry.

"-for you to come back to earth, space cadet."

"Eh?" She angles her head upwards, towards the masculine voice above and slightly right of her. She sees a familiar face, albeit much more masculine than she's used to, partially obscured by a dark green umbrella.

"Ah. There you are."

So, this one's a man.

"Are you okay?"

"Ah-yeah, I'm fine, Kaoru...-kun?"

A long, slender hand presses against her forehead.

"No fever...but..." he trails off for a moment. "Hmm...." He straightens, and from where she's sitting- on a bench beneath the overhang of an old bus stop- Yuri can see that this male variant of Kaoru...

Is stupidly tall, with impressively long arms, somehow even longer legs, and the slim kind of physique she's only ever seen in shoujo anime from the early to mid-two-thousands.

While she's not blushing, and though there aren’t any butterflies in her stomach, Yuri feels her palms, loosely clasped in her lap, begin to sweat.

"I'd feel guilty leaving you alone when you still don't look well," he begins, "so, by chance, do you have anywhere or anyone I can escort you to?"

It's a reasonable question, Yuri thinks.

So why does something feel off...? Is it because this Kaoru is a man?

She shakes her head, admonishing herself while also answering the question.

Don't be stupid- surely no matter what version, Kaoru-chan wouldn’t ever hurt me.

Kaoru bends down again, propping the (unusually long-handled) umbrella under his arm. "In that case, I guess you'll be staying with me for a bit." He declares with a smile.

It seems this variant doesn’t know you at all, Andromeda comments in her head, just like the last one.

Is that strange? Yuri asks. She gets the impression the star spirit is shrugging, even though she can't see her.

I suppose not, she admits. Maybe it's cause your wish is more procedural than most... or something.

Yuri barely catches that last bit on account of suddenly being lifted up into the air.

"Uwah!"

Kaoru lets out an amused puff of air. "Cute. You're so tiny though- I don't even need both my arms to carry you!"

Now Yuri is absolutely blushing, suddenly self-conscious. She looks down to try and hide it.

And seeing herself much higher off the ground than she's comfortable with, regrets her decision.

With a nervous "meep!" her eyes widen and her arms find their way around Kaoru's neck.

The amused puff of air is now a chuckle as Kaoru's chest seems to tremble against her.

"Pfft. Don't worry- I won't let go of you any time soon," he assures her as he slowly begins walking- more striding, actually, given his legs (and Yuri surprises herself with how much she's focusing on such a trivial detail).

Fortunately, you're not leaving anything behind, Andromeda decides to assure her. I don't know exactly what magic that Tilde lady used, but it's pretty powerful to still work in a different world. She clears her throat. Anyway, I can recognize at least one 「Detect Intention」spell, and countless layers of shielding spells and repulsion spells and even counter spells- and those are just the few I recognize!

Yuri feels her focus slipping away from Kaoru and more towards Andromeda's awestruck rambling. To her credit though, it is very fascinating.

And remember how I said countless layers? That's not even me being hyperbolic- I'm actually struggling to count these things! And is that a...

Andromeda continues in this manner for some time.