Chapter 18: Ai-chan is Very Capable
Himeko leaned over the main console, her elegant brows knitting together in mild amusement. Resting right in the center of the high-tech holographic interface was a tiny, cabbage-headed chibi projection. "What exactly is this? A doll?"
Rekka strolled over, his hands casually tucked into his pockets. "That's Ai-chan, the Hyperion's central AI. She's responsible for the daily maintenance of the ship, managing the weapon systems, and, most, stealing our electricity."
"I am not! I didn't do that!" The holographic chibi, sporting vibrant green cabbage-shaped hair buns, instantly sprang to life. She stomped her tiny boots on the digital console, her little hands planted firmly on her hips. "Boss, how can you slander my innocence out of thin air!"
She waved her arms in dramatic outrage. "Ai-chan is the most hardworking, smartest, and absolute greatest AI on the entire Hyperion! I maintain this ship day and night without a single break, and you actually accuse me of stealing electricity right in front of our guests! My digital heart is breaking!"
Rekka merely offered a dry smile. He reached out, his finger passing through the hologram to tap the top of her cabbage head. "You make a compelling argument. So, exactly how much of my electricity have you siphoned for your gacha games this week?"
March 7th bounded over, her bright eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Does this battleship have any super powerful weapons? Like the kind of giant laser cannon that can shoot right through a star with a massive 'pew'?" As she spoke, she couldn't resist reaching out to poke the animated chibi.
Ai-chan's small holographic body wobbled violently from the phantom impact. Her little hands flailed wildly in the air, trying to catch her balance. "Don't poke! Don't poke! I'm falling! I'm falling! Aiyah!"
With a pathetic little squeak, the chibi tumbled backward, landing flat on her bottom against the glowing console surface.
She scrambled back to her feet, puffing out her cheeks. "Dear guest! Although Ai-chan is a hologram, she still possesses basic human dignity!"
March 7th's eyes practically turned into stars. "Wow, she even gets angry! That is so cute!"
"I am not just cute, I am the number one idol of the Hyperion!" Ai-chan patted down her tiny digital dress, lifting her chin with immense pride. "Ai-chan is very capable!"
Rekka chuckled, crossing his arms. "Yes, Ai-chan is very capable. Capable of draining the reactor dry."
"An idol?" March 7th tilted her head, leaning in to inspect the tiny projection from head to toe. She took in the bizarre cabbage-like hair buns and those massive, expressive round eyes.
"Exactly!" Ai-chan struck a dynamic pose, complete with sparkling digital visual effects popping into existence around her. "Ai-chan is the face of the Hyperion! A wildly popular idol! A shining star across the cosmos!"
March 7th blinked. "But you were just accused of stealing electricity."
"That's slander! Pure, unadulterated slander!" Ai-chan's holographic face flushed a deep, embarrassed red. "Boss just loves bringing that up all day! I only... I only borrowed a tiny, microscopic bit of power to maintain my cute image as the number one idol! It is a strictly necessary operational expenditure!"
"Actually, she's not the number one idol," Rekka interjected, his tone dripping with casual mischief. "Ai-chan and a certain red-haired acquaintance of Mr. Welt both lost the popularity poll to Raven."
"Boss, please don't bring up sore subjects!" Ai-chan leaped across the console, stopping right in front of Rekka's face, pointing her tiny finger and gesturing wildly. "That doesn't count! That rigged competition definitely doesn't count!"
Rekka sighed with mock solemnity. "Face reality, Ai-chan. Sometimes admitting a crushing defeat is just part of an idol's personal cultivation."
"I'm not listening! I'm not listening!" Ai-chan clamped her hands over her ears, dropped to the console, and started rolling around on her back, kicking her legs in the air exactly like a spoiled child throwing a massive tantrum. "Ai-chan is the number one idol! The eternal number one idol!"
Rekka let the AI throw her fit and turned his attention back to the Astral Express crew. "By the way, I have something stored on this ship that Mr. Welt absolutely won't be able to refuse. A true decisive weapon."
Unable to refuse.
Welt's posture instantly straightened. Rekka understood him entirely too well, and Welt knew it. But the former Sovereign of Anti-Entropy was a mature man who had weathered countless cosmic storms. He quickly suppressed the sudden spike of boyish anticipation, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and adopted a perfectly neutral, casual tone.
"Oh? What specific type of decisive weapon are we talking about?"
"You'll know the moment you see it." Rekka turned on his heel, leading the way toward the heavy blast doors at the rear of the bridge. "Ai-chan, stop rolling around and open the armory."
As they stepped into the corridor, the overhead lights flared to life in sequence, tracking their movement. Cold white illumination reflected off the sleek, silver-gray metal walls of the Hyperion. March 7th walked in the middle of the group, her head swiveling constantly as she tried to take in every high-tech detail.
Pshhh—
A heavy hiss of depressurization echoed through the hall as massive, reinforced steel doors slid apart to both sides.
The space that opened up before them was staggeringly vast, easily large enough to house a small fleet. Dense rows of industrial lighting arrays snapped on across the vaulted ceiling, casting a brilliant glare down onto the centerpiece of the room. Standing silently in the very center of the armory was a colossal, heavily armored humanoid mecha.
It rested in a standby state, its massive mechanical head bowed slightly forward. Even with the optical monitors in its visor completely dark, the sheer scale and jagged, aggressive plating of the machine radiated an overwhelming, suffocating sense of pressure.
"I hope Mr. Yang doesn't mind me borrowing a bit of inspiration," Rekka said, coming to a halt at the foot of the towering machine. He looked up at the dormant giant. "To be precise, this is a highly improved model of Arahato. The original design concept belonged to you, and I just took the liberty of making a few... well, extreme optimizations on that foundation."
Welt's breath hitched slightly. "Of course I don't mind."
He stepped closer, his eyes tracing the reinforced joints and the modified thruster arrays. Up close, the lethal refinements Rekka had made to the original Arahato blueprints were glaringly obvious.
"Um..." March 7th stared at the completely motionless Welt. She reached out and poked Himeko's arm, whispering with genuine concern. "Is Mr. Yang so happy that his brain short-circuited? He's completely frozen."
"No," Himeko replied softly, a knowing, elegant smile gracing her lips. "He is currently restraining himself."
"Restraining himself?"
"Restraining himself from throwing away his dignity, jumping into that cockpit, and taking it for a joyride right this second."
Right on cue, Welt took a long, shaky breath. He turned to look at Rekka, his usual calm demeanor cracking at the seams. "Rekka, this mecha... would it be permissible for me to go up and take a closer look?"
Though he phrased it as a polite inquiry, the desperate, burning longing in the older man's eyes was practically overflowing.
"Of course you can," Rekka smiled, gesturing vaguely to the side. "But are you really going to ignore my other decisive weapon?"
Welt blinked. "The other one...?"
His eager footsteps came to a dead halt. Welt froze in a half-turned posture, his gaze snapping violently back and forth between the glorious, customized Arahato in front of him, and the darkened alcove Rekka was pointing toward. His expression perfectly mirrored a child in a toy store who had just been told he could only pick one.
March 7th covered her mouth, stifling a giggle. "Mr. Yang's expression is priceless right now."
Deep in the armory bay, floodlights hit a second platform. Another colossal humanoid weapon stood proudly on display, its chassis gleaming in pristine white armor. Massive, sharp, wing-like thruster binders unfolded from its back and shoulders, giving it a divine, angelic silhouette. In terms of sheer, unadulterated mecha coolness, it easily rivaled the Arahato.
"I present the God-Slaying Weapon—Divine Zeus," Rekka announced, his voice dropping into a dramatic, theatrical cadence. "Forged as the '12th God-Slaying Spear', designed to be humanity's absolute last hope."
The dormant chuunibyou spirit buried deep within the very core of Welt's soul—the obvious, burning romance of a mecha fan—ignited into a raging inferno. Any lingering trace of elder-statesman composure, maturity, or dignified restraint was violently thrown out the airlock.
"It features a full 360-degree panoramic cockpit," Rekka whispered, his voice slithering into Welt's ears like the ultimate devil's temptation. "And the operating system automatically adjusts the neural interface to match the pilot's exact muscle memory and habits... Mr. Yang, you are fully authorized to pilot both of them."
Welt cleared his throat loudly, his cheeks flushing slightly. "Ahem, well... since you put it that way, and since it would be rude to refuse a host's generous offer... I suppose I could give them a little test run?"
He had completely lost the battle against temptation.
Oh, how embarrassing! March 7th thought, watching the usually stoic man practically vibrate with excitement.
Rekka, Himeko, and March 7th watched Welt practically sprint toward the boarding gantries. By unspoken agreement, they silently stepped back, giving the man some space to enjoy his paradise. After all, a true man had to protect his boyish heart until the day he died.
"Let's go. We'll leave Mr. Yang to his happy alone time," Rekka chuckled, turning to guide Himeko and March 7th toward another set of blast doors. "Moving on, this sector is the main living area. Although no one is currently staying here besides me, all the residential facilities are fully operational and stocked."
They passed through the pristine, empty living quarters, eventually arriving at the heavily shielded core sector of the battleship. The air here hummed with a deep, resonant vibration that rattled their teeth.
"And this," Rekka announced, gesturing to the sprawling chamber before them, "is the Hyperion's main energy center."
A titanic, glowing cylindrical reactor dominated the room, quietly pulsing with an unfathomable amount of power. Thick, reinforced energy conduits branched out from it like glowing veins, feeding the rest of the ship.
Himeko stepped up to the reinforced glass observation deck, her amber eyes sweeping over the dizzying array of complex pipes and flashing instrument panels. "The baseline energy consumption required to keep a ship of this scale operational must be astronomical. How exactly did you solve the supply problem?"
Rekka stepped up beside her and pointed to a constantly ticking digital counter on the primary terminal. "See that number right there?"
Himeko squinted at the massive string of digits. "I see it. What does it represent?"
"Each single digit on that counter represents a destroyed World Bubble," Rekka said, his tone turning surprisingly calm, carrying the weight of cosmic scale. "The Hyperion's power doesn't come from standard fusion or imaginary energy. It draws directly from the dying cores of World Bubbles that are on the verge of complete dissipation in the Sea of Quanta. We harvest that final spark of existence and use it as the foundational energy source to support the ship's operation."
He looked back at the glowing reactor, the chaotic light reflecting in his eyes. "So, for now at least, the Hyperion's energy reserves are entirely inexhaustible."
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