While her interest in the Earth Hippo indeed grew, Natasha still kept her gaze on the North-East. Although she did not know how or if the 1-Star Meta-Beast had killed her she still was apprehensive about the appearance of the Flame Monkey.

  ‘Is it too late to try and get another bike?’ Natasha pondered for a while before she turned back to the phone, she absentmindedly used her tablet to search something.

  Meanwhile, she felt the need to remind them again.

  [Natasha: Listen, I don't know what goes through your mind when you think of the Corastrum, but what goes through my mind is that I usually, in a very subconscious type of way, which I have grown to like catch myself with over time… Ahem, I refer to it as my “heart” of hearts. I don't really refer to it as the heart of stars or the Corastrum. In my unconscious mind, this thing is my new heart. So when I say protect it well, I mean protect it well because this may very well be your life. Don't try to risk it in any way or form. You understand? This is all an assumption, but I feel like it makes sense.]

  [Yuki: You certainly can talk.]

  ‘Can’t you take anything seriously? This girl, when I see her I will seriously smack her face off...’

  Natasha's lips twitched at Yuki's comment but she decided to ignore for now. She absentmindedly glanced at her tablet, maneuvering around all the apps and software that was on it. When she saw what she was looking for she immediately tapped it and then turned back to the video call.

  Leon was unusually, well, very usually contemplative. From what Natasha had observed, he was usually like this, whether on the field or just in the hallways from afar. He seemed to be very thoughtful. And he took in the information with what seemed to be a great incentive.

  She saw how he turned his gaze to the somewhat absent-minded Mirai and then what—or rather who—she assumed was Yuki who was off screen.

  She hadn't seen her yet; this Yuki who continuously tried to annoy her, but from the way her voice sounded and how she usually coughed, Natasha felt that this girl didn't have much time to live but she didn't know why.

  Or perhaps she did know why, after all they said that they were being chased by a dangerous Earth Hippo, which, from what Natasha could tell, was able to comfortably cause magnitude 4 earthquakes with the tremors that were increasingly rising into the magnitude 5 range.

  This range though, while vaguely accurate, was purely an assumption— of which she had been doing a lot lately. But this was all she could do without concrete information.

  And with her alternate self having such a vibrant personality and such jumbling thoughts, she couldn't really depend on her to give her information.

  Placing her similar her at the back of her mind while wondering why she hadn't heard her voice yet again, Natasha went back to thinking about the Earth Hippo.

  This beast was naturally dangerous but she didn't put it in regards to the Flame Monkey who was both fast and possessed unrealistic maneuverability. Nevertheless, this was all her assumptions as she didn't actually see the girl nor knew how she was or her current state.

  Perhaps she was seriously injured and was just taking it out on the living or perhaps she was just lightly injured and this was just her personality. Annoyingly confrontational, yes, but Natasha would rather that than her being seriously injured in any way.

  This was because while magical girls possess increased stamina and endurance due to the Corastrum or its likely influence on their bodies. She didn't really know if they could or have attained increased regenerative capabilities. So, it was best to hope that the other magical girl, which rank was still undetermined, hadn't actually been seriously injured.

  ‘I hate to say this or think it but our chances at survival will severely decrease if she is seriously injured and cannot heal herself in any way. So it's best to hope for the best.’

  Natasha hummed and looked at the time that passed while she was deep in thought, within 20 seconds and such she confirmed that once again magical girls seemed to have increased speed of thought and this seemed increased over time.

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  Normally, her tirades of monologue—something that would get increasingly interrupted by teachers and classmates, much to her chagrin as they were nearly all about Leon—would take at least 40 seconds and above and this was depending on how much time she was engaged in it and the specific content that sparked her monologue in the first place.

  She had a pretty long monologue earlier and it would usually take her like 1 minute or 2 minutes of intense focus just to get through it all but this time it took less than 20 seconds. She hummed again, amused at the increased capabilities of Magical Girls.

  As for how she knew her own monologue time; she had a habit of always checking her phone after any tirade of thought, just to make sure Leon hadn’t left yet. As for why, well… So she could follow him of course!

  [Leon: So about the 1 star thing you were talking about earlier… What was that about? Some ranking system.]

  While she wondered why Mirai or Yuki weren't talking and taking charge. Natasha was happy to talk to Leon alone. She didn't really place the girls in her eyes at all even though they were also Magical Girls.

  Obviously the fact that Mirai tried to confess to Leon earlier during the day or the evening also played part in this. Natasha knew she was being prejudiced but she didn't particularly care.

  It wasn't like she was being racist, classist or any of the sort. She was just of the mind that women shouldn't be going after the future men of other women. As for whether Leon would be a future man, Natasha didn't doubt it for a second.

  With such thoughts on her mind, she answered this question with a cheerful voice:

  [Natasha: From what I know there are 4 stars in total 1 star, 2 star, 3 star, 4 star. 1 star is obviously the lowest and 4 star is the highest that one can achieve, or gain I should say. From what little we've seen so far, it looks like both people and the Meta-Beast spawn in with a set amount of stars. It's too early to say whether this can change—]

  Natasha suddenly stopped humming as she had a thoughtful look on her face. It wasn't because of the Flame Monkey suddenly appearing which might have sparked her fear or any other sort of reason.

  It was because she had heard a familiar voice in her mind and her intuition had told her that whatever the voice would say would be extremely valuable information or could lead to it at the very least.

  —“’Bro you’re seriously going on the wiki, aren’t you afraid of spoilers?!’ I honestly don't care about spoilers anymore. My character is dead, I am dead. As far as I know, I am free to do whatever I want with this game now. Now, obviously—I'm still gonna play the game and review the story and you know, make content of it... That's just what I do, I'm a content creator for games and stuff, I'll make content about it.

  —"But, there's some information I wanna see. So, I’m gonna do just that, and you all, are gonna watch me do it! So, I saw in the chat earlier, one of you said that the girls in Volume 1 or Arc 1 were unawakened, and even after the end of Arc 1 they still weren't awakened, that was Mirai and Yuki. So, I am curious about this awakened, unawakened stuff you guys were talking about. So, I'm gonna check in the wiki like a rational person instead of playing this outrageously long game.

  —"Because, like, c’mon, chat, Arc 1 was like 10 to 14 hours of gameplay, bro, like, this is just insane. Like the amount of time loops in in it were crazy, the stress, the amount of students… That, you know, died or were on the verge of death, the OST mixing with their screams of despair that felt very, very disturbingly real, props to the developers and music creators and voice actors and shit you feel me but—there was a lot of shit just going on and I really like it, don’t misunderstand, it's a good game right?

  —"It's a good game, but like, I just hate doing the same actions over and over, although they weren't really the same actions, It's a time loop. Shit. Things change, actions change, and so on. You know what I'm getting at. But like, yeah, I'm gonna stop here because you guys are so preposterous; you're going to say I'm yapping, so like, whatever, I'm going to the wiki.”

  ‘A wiki! She's going to check a wiki!’ Natasha became intensely happy, and her smile grew, although her eyes stayed closed, or rather, narrowed.

  ‘This alternate self of mine finally decided to use her brain and help me. I wonder what came over her for this to happen. Maybe she was just curious, or was she just impatient, or both? I wouldn't like to admit it, but I can be like that sometimes. Anyway, does it matter? It all plays in my favor. Or our favor. All of us.’

  Natasha thought. It wasn't complex, but it was simple. Enough to get the point across to herself and to stimulate her patience in anticipation for what the other Natasha was about to go and look for inside of the wiki.

  At the moment of our thoughts, Mirai suddenly spoke, of a questionable tone. It was as if she was unsure whether to ask, wasn't curious at all, and was similarly expectant of the answer she might receive all at once. This was quite a contradictory tone, and at the moment, Natasha couldn't quite identify it at all.

  [Mirai: So like, I wonder how many stars I have, right? I can manipulate time to an extent though not really consciously... I think, but it should be quite powerful, right? Hey hey, Silver Magical Girl! How many stars do I have, can you tell me?]