Hum—
The Astral Express continued traveling toward the edge of the universe.
"Ahem, estimated travel time is two days, sixteen hours, and thirty-five minutes. Passengers, please make appropriate use of your personal time, pom!"
"The Astral Express is currently undergoing continuous warps. In two days, we'll break through the world's barrier, cross the void, and arrive in a brand-new world, pom!"
Pom-Pom bobbed their head while broadcasting the train news.
Inside the carriage, navigator Himeko assigned Yoshino, Mako, and Murasame their own rooms, then gave them a general tour of the train.
"This is the observation car, this is the party car, and this is the residential area..."
"The armed carriage is up ahead. You're noncombatants, so don't go there."
"Oh..."
The Astral Express was much smaller than a proper starship, but in the eyes of these natives, something capable of crossing the sea of stars was already fantastical enough.
Inside the biomedical carriage, the Herta puppet studied Murasame's body with great interest after the Angeloids brought it aboard and sealed it inside a hibernation pod.
"Oh, so besides two ordinary little girls, we've also gained a rather interesting new passenger?"
She paid absolutely no attention to Yoshino or Mako, focusing entirely on the little blade.
She looked at the little Murasame inside the hibernation pod, then narrowed her eyes and examined the Murasame dressed in a short kimono.
"A spiritual entity capable of leaving its physical body behind, inhabiting a sword, and existing independently? Interesting. Would you like to participate in a few experiments with me?"
"No!"
Setsuna immediately stopped Herta's curiosity from running wild and rubbed Murasame's head.
"She's not one of your test subjects. Find a way to let Murasame freely switch between her physical body and spiritual form."
"Oh?"
Herta found the request somewhat peculiar, but she agreed anyway and examined Murasame's condition.
"Let's see... Hmm. Her body has a few minor ailments. Nothing important. I can fix them in two minutes."
"The stupid solution would be for your soul to leave your body whenever you want to become a sword spirit, then return to your physical body once you've had enough fun."
"But I don't like that solution. It's too crude. You should be able to use your own power to freely convert between material and energy states."
"Oh—"
Murasame marveled that a genius truly was a genius. Herta's solution was far more elegant than Gudako's crude approach.
"Can it really be done? I... I can not only live as a human, but also stay by Master's side together with Murasamemaru?"
The little blade's eyes were filled with anticipation.
"Of course!"
"Madam Herta is a peerless gem. Madam Herta is an unrivaled genius. Madam Herta is an inimitable beauty!"
The Herta puppet answered with magnificent righteousness.
"Repeat after me, and Madam Herta will grant your wish!"
"Huh???"
Murasame was completely dumbfounded.
Thump—
Setsuna knocked the Herta puppet on the head.
"Transfer me to a human operator. Did you install a self-praise program into every single Herta puppet?!"
Beep, beep—beep—
The Herta puppet paused.
"Request received. The Astral Express does not possess the necessary experimental facilities. After returning to the capital, Madam Herta will provide Miss Murasame with an appropriate modification plan."
"Thank you!"
After receiving that promise, Murasame became delighted and hugged Setsuna's arm with a giggle.
"Master, until then, remember to feed me!"
"For now, I'm still a spirit, so I can't eat by myself..."
"...You just want snacks, don't you?"
Setsuna smiled, but still ordered a dessert and fed the rambunctious little girl by hand.
"Oh..."
Yoshino and Mako watched enviously.
"As expected of Lady Murasame. She got so close to the Commander this quickly..."
"You two want some too?"
Setsuna beckoned and pulled Mako Hitachi over.
"It's fine. If you want me to feed you, I can do that too. I can feed you snacks, and I can feed you other things as well."
"E-E-Eh?!"
...
Two days later.
Boom—
The Astral Express broke through the edge of the universe and traveled through an expanse of nothingness.
"We're almost there."
Setsuna focused his attention and checked the coordinates along with Albedo's report.
"This is the universe?"
"Yes, Supreme One."
Albedo's portrait appeared on the holographic display.
"The moment we first arrived in that universe, the Astral Express detected changes in the cosmic environment. Someone was altering the structure of the universe according to their own will."
"The magnitude of that power was astonishing. It even induced fractures in spacetime throughout the universe, and star clusters hundreds of millions of light-years away could sense the energy spilling from it."
"Considering the excessive risk involved in proceeding any deeper, we temporarily abandoned our exploration of that universe."
"Oh."
Setsuna rested his chin on one hand and thought for a moment.
"That's strange. I remember the general power level around this region being fairly low. Did someone suddenly ascend?"
"Or is there something wrong with this world?..."
Jibril, Himeko, and the others nearby wore tense expressions.
"So there's a real powerhouse here?..."
Gudako clicked her tongue.
Interfering with an entire universe through sheer force of will was impressive even from the Starsea Empire's perspective. Such an existence had already entered the realm of gods.
With the other party's true identity still unknown, they needed to be particularly cautious.
"Prepare for battle."
Little Jibril's expression turned serious. Even against an opponent far beyond herself, a Flügel would never concede defeat.
The Chaldean Heroic Spirits traveling with Gudako also became vigilant, carefully observing their surroundings.
[Initiating warp sequence—]
[5, 4, 3, 2, 1!—]
Boom!!—
The sound of space shattering erupted around them.
Empowered by the force of Trailblaze, the Astral Express charged relentlessly forward, breaking through the boundless void before arriving within another unfamiliar universe.
Looking around, they still saw a brilliant sea of stars.
Setsuna closed his eyes and sensed the surroundings for a moment. The current structure of the universe was extremely stable, with no indication that it had undergone any large-scale rewriting.
The galaxies within the detection range of the Astral Express' sensors were equally peaceful.
There were no interstellar wars, nor had they detected any absurdly powerful monsters.
"Strange. What is this?..."
"Ah, the streets are really quiet. There's nobody around at all. It's completely different from the Star Rail world."
The little gray-haired girl looked out through the window and immediately began raising a death flag.
"As long as we never stop, the path of Trailblaze will continue extending forever..."
"Stop!"
Thump!—
Gudako gave her a hard flick on the forehead.
"Over there."
Setsuna pointed in a certain direction.
He had sensed an extraordinarily peculiar supernatural presence.
Rumble!—
Following his directions, the Astral Express rapidly swept across the galaxy.
After two warps, it arrived in a familiar star system.
A blue planet slowly rotated below them, while a blazing orange-red sun burned in the distance.
A general scan of Earth showed that it was likewise not particularly different from the Senren Banka world they had just visited.
Twenty-first century, standard pre-space-age technology, and an entirely ordinary human society.
"No anomalies?..."
Himeko and little Jibril found it somewhat strange.
"Commander, is that incredibly powerful person who can alter the universe with their own will really on Earth?"
...
Meanwhile.
Down below, it was currently deep into the night in the island nation.
"Hyup, hah..."
Outside the gates of a certain middle school, a girl with short brown hair and a yellow headband was using both hands and feet in an attempt to climb over the gate.
She wore an orange cartoon T-shirt and the athletic shorts commonly worn by middle-school students. She was still quite young and rather cute, right at the transitional age between a little girl and a young woman.
"Phew—"
The girl possessed absolutely no concept of "ladylike behavior." She stepped onto the fence and forcibly climbed into the school grounds. Everything around her was silent, with only the occasional chirping of cicadas and birds.
Completely unafraid, she dragged a wheelbarrow out from a corner of the school grounds. It was loaded with paint, pigments, and various other materials she had secretly taken from a storeroom earlier that evening.
Clatter—
She piled all the materials in one corner of the athletic field.
Then she pulled out a line marker, the device teachers used during physical education classes to draw markings on open ground.
After pouring in a mixture of lime powder and pigment, she pushed it around the athletic field and began drawing.
"Hah, hah..."
The girl painstakingly painted across the field.
Every so often, she ran up into the highest part of the stands to check whether her markings were positioned correctly.
She had even used a branch beforehand to sketch out the routes on the ground, repeatedly running back and forth with meticulous care, as though she were undertaking some magnificent engineering project.
"Phew—"
Only after nearly two hours did she finally finish drawing all the white lines, going back and forth across the field.
She caught her breath and looked at her work with satisfaction.
The enormous drawing covered nearly half the athletic field. It did not resemble any written language in the world, consisting entirely of incomprehensible symbols that only she understood.
Of course, the girl had privately assigned a brand-new meaning to those four strange symbols.
She believed they were four alien characters forming a "message." Whether they truly were or not did not matter. As long as she believed they were real, then they were real.
I'm here!
"Ahem—"
She cleared her throat and looked around at the quiet, utterly ordinary school, feeling that this world was unbearably boring.
Tilting her head back toward the bright night sky, she shouted in a slightly childish voice:
"I have no interest in ordinary people! If there are aliens, time travelers, espers, or anything like that, come find me!"
"I'm here!"
"—I'm right here!!!"
Her voice carried far into the night, startling a small flock of birds into flight.
"Hah—"
"I hope they really can see it."
The girl clapped her hands together in satisfaction and was just about to wrap things up and head home.
Boom!—
A thunderous roar came from the sky.
She looked up.
The Astral Express streaked across the heavens like a meteor, tearing through the air as it approached.
"So it was you!"
—
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