The Cutest Demon Lord

Usagi-san can't catch a break

Kaede's body was enveloped with light.

Of course, this wasn't the first time she had experienced such a phenomenon, but Kaede had to admit that it was a very unsettling phenomenon when you don't have the pretense of putting on a helmet and loading a game before so.

Yet here she was in the same sequence that always happened whenever she logged into her favourite game, New World Online. It was kind of confusing really, one moment she was busy at school listening to lectures and having her normal school life, and then suddenly without warning, she's here marvelling at the pure bright light of the world or wherever she is.

Kaede sighed. As an avid closet otaku, no thanks to Risa, she knew there was one very appealing and obvious explanation to what was going on but as a teenage girl with many friends that need friending and a virtual turtle in desperate need of pets, she really hoped it wasn't the case.

Isekai.

Kaede struggled to keep still in her nonexistence as that word hovered around in her head, over and over. It was a simple explanation, albeit an unlikely one.

For a cute high schooler blissfully unaware of the many other, more logical and far more narcotic reasons one would see nothing but white surrounding themselves, it was the best explanation for what was going on.

Clearly, one way or another she was being sent to another world. Which unfortunately meant she would probably not see anyone she knew in the past again... unless it was one of those, "kill the demon lord" and then return back to your timeline scenarios. Really with how loose the genre had become in the year 2059, she could imagine a million gajillion different outcomes of her being sent to other worlds, each with uncertain outcomes.

At the end of the day... or whatever time measurement she was currently following, she just resolved not to think too hard about it and just wait. No point in dwelling on things out of your control after all.

Though just in case this really was an isekai scenario, she gave Kami a quick prayer, as she would really miss her old friends at Maple Tree, and also everyone else in her life. Maybe they would also get sent here? If she landed in a good world, she hoped that they would get sent with her.

Also considering she recently discovered her... surprisingly large fan club that seemed to grow exponentially the more she spent time online, she suddenly felt both a bit of sadness and happiness that at the very least, there were people that would remember her on Earth.

Then, suddenly she was somewhere.

Somewhere familiar.

Kaede blinked as a familiar sight appeared before her eyes.

Trees and bushes surrounded her from all directions, the tall yet comforting giants of the forest letting a mellow amount of light into the vast woods she was suddenly surrounded by. But, Kaede was more focused on something she could see in the distance. Something that sent waves of nostalgia into her tiny body.

A very familiar cave, oozing hazardous fluids into its surrounding environment. A cave she had fond memories of exploring, conquering and eventually speedrunning for the purpose of educating her kouhai. This was the dungeon of the Poison Dragon, the Hydra. An icon of her early days in NWO, and more importantly, the place she had obtained her favourite set of items in the game, her infamous "Black Rose" armour.

Months of muscle memory prompted her next move.

"Status!" she confidently yelled, pushing her oddly bare arm forwards

As she expected, a screen popped up in front of her, but to her surprise, it wasn't tangible. Unlike the screens in NWO, this one seemed to appear in her vision, not in a tangible form she could interact with.