Meanwhile,
In a small town on the edge of the Americas.
Bronya sat obediently by the bed, legs together, hands on her knees, like a well-behaved elementary schooler.
Finally, time for another meal!
"What are you thinking about?"
An unfamiliar male voice came through, Otto, observing the girl through the communicator.
The emergence of World Serpent had caught him off guard, he'd never heard of them before.
Where did this stray dog come from, daring to covet Shiraha like him?
What a low-class organization!
Bronya was frustrated inside, but her expression stayed neutral. "That's all I know. Shiraha's special nature seems to come from inheriting Elysia's authority."
"But I don't know anything about Elysia herself."
Grey Serpent didn't trust her. Having dealt with mercenaries and operated in the black market for years, he had his own principles.
Trust was measured by weight, how much you got depended on how much you were worth. Just kidding, even if you were worth a lot, unless you were like Raven, raised from childhood, he wouldn't believe you.
Otto was deep in thought. When he heard "inheritance," his first thoughts were Joyce, Welt Yang, Sirin, and K423…
Wait—!!!
Fu Hua had remained silent. For her, privately contacting Theresa and incidentally telling Otto about World Serpent didn't conflict at all.
…
"Go, go, go!"
Kiana sat at the front of the board, her weight barely balancing Shiraha's behind her.
Hundreds of steps stretched below. If Shiraha leaned forward just a little, they'd experience the "ancient general's charge" wind-in-the-face feeling, at least, that's how Kiana described it.
Welt, who'd taken the day off and wasn't teaching, sat nearby, watching Kiana and Shiraha, both clearly back to normal.
With Kiana's reckless pull, their weight shifted forward, and the board slid down, wobbly, and not looking very safe.
"So nice."
Welt rarely had moments this joyful as a child.
He'd grown into Joyce, but Shiraha wouldn't be the next Yang.
And Kiana, oh, and Mei too.
At the bottom of the stairs, Kiana stood up calmly, leaned against a large flowerbed, and discreetly rubbed her backside.
Not fun at all. Natasha-senpai was totally lying.
"Hey, you two, I'm leaving you here from now on."
Welt called out loudly, standing by a bench with his hands in his pockets, a smile on his face, tinged with youthful energy.
Shiraha stood on tiptoe and waved. "Okay, I'll look after Kiana!"
Kiana didn't seem to see anything wrong with that. "We won't wander off!"
Yeah right. Once Welt disappeared, Kiana grabbed Shiraha's arm, her eyes sparkling. "Shiraha, do you want a boring, predictable adventure, or an exciting, superpowered one?"
Shiraha was surprised. "You actually know the word 'predictable'?"
He felt a little proud, his tutoring hadn't been wasted.
Kiana ignored those annoying stereotypes. Compared to Shiraha, her grades really were just a little lacking.
She leaned in mysteriously. "Do you know about quantum fluctuations?"
Shiraha: ….
"Yeah."
But he didn't understand them.
When it came to truly advanced physics, this fake genius couldn't say much.
Quantum fluctuations were like magic to him, knew the term, not the meaning.
Kiana glanced around again, confirming Welt was gone, then whispered, "Do you know about quantumization?"
Shiraha thought about it as she pulled him toward home, toward the doctors' house.
"Where did you learn about that?"
"From street magazines in the Far East." Kiana didn't hide it. "The convenience store where Fu Hua and I work has them on the shelves. I read them when I'm bored."
She actually liked the little stories, European tales, American tales.
Shiraha gave a soft "oh", that made sense.
If Fu Hua was involved, then it was fine.
"And?"
Kiana glanced at Shiraha's other hand. "You know that after quantumization, most people can't observe you, right?"
Shiraha didn't answer, he pulled his hand free and pressed it to her forehead, his expression uncertain. "Did you really come up with that yourself?"
Kiana puffed out her cheeks. "I don't like studying, but something this interesting? Of course I'd pay attention!"
Shiraha reached over and pinched her cheek, soft as ever, a little bouncy.
Kiana tried to look serious, and Shiraha quickly straightened up.
She leaned in again, mysterious. "I'm only telling you this, you can't tell anyone."
Shiraha promised quickly. "Don't worry, if I tell, I'll never make a good friend again."
Satisfied, Kiana led him inside. "Our Kaslana family, they're connected to those quantum fluctuations."
Shiraha: ?
"Apparently during the Second Eruption, Dad saw the Kaslana ancestor and unlocked his potential, which let him beat Sirin down."
Shiraha was quiet for a moment, that did happen, but didn't Siegfried forget about Kevin afterward?
"So?"
Kiana said seriously, "Don't you think quantum entanglement is an important skill?"
Shiraha hesitated, he didn't think quantum entanglement counted as a "skill."
But games did have quantum enemies and quantum types, and quantum types were really annoying.
"What are you planning to do?"
"I'm going to learn this skill and see if I can meet the ancestor."
That was Kiana's shortcut.
If you could cheat, why not?
Dad met the ancestor once and broke through to beat Sirin down, why couldn't she?
Then, if Sirin kept being stubborn, she could use the ancestor's power to punch her down.
Shiraha looked thoughtful. "So this is why you wanted to come to the Americas?"
This was genuinely impressive, clearly, before she fully turned into a bug, Kiana was someone you could count on.
Kiana made a noncommittal sound. "You can think of it that way."
She'd read street magazines, heard stories from Fu Hua, and asked Dad about the Second Eruption, but she'd never connected the dots until today, when Sirin made her so mad that her stalled brain started searching for answers.
She was still mad!
"Then after the doctors teach us this skill, I can contact the ancestor, and you can try to make your imaginary friend tangible."
As for whether that friend was real or not, since Shiraha was so sure, she'd treat it as real.
Shiraha hesitated, quantumization… well, he'd never really tried it.
He looked at Elysia, whose starry eyes sparkled, she really didn't dislike Kiana. If only Kiana wouldn't cling to her little friend so much.
Little Kiana was like an overenthusiastic sheepdog, always chasing Shiraha around, Elysia could neither hold her back nor bring herself to drive her away.
"It's worth a try." Shiraha didn't refuse.
Einstein wasn't teaching today, not because she'd taken time off, but because she had no classes.
And why wasn't she watching the kids? Because she didn't want to watch Shiraha and the possibly-Sirin-possessed Kiana.
"Back?"
She took off her noise-canceling headphones and looked at the two whispering kids.
"Yeah." They both nodded in unison, then paused. "Doctor, we have something we wanted to ask you."
At that, Shiraha suddenly realized, wait, no matter how nice the idea, were the two of them really going to learn quantum mechanics on their own?
Einstein blinked, then pretended to think. "As far as I know, the country with the lowest legal marriage age is Iran."
She chuckled to herself. Shiraha's lips twitched, and Kiana's did too, both in sync, and neither looked embarrassed.
Einstein laughed alone for a moment, then quieted down.
She cleared her throat and got serious. "What do you two want?"
"Doctor, Kiana and I are both curious about quantumization."
Shiraha decided not to hide it.
They'd try first, if they couldn't learn, they'd figure something out.
But not even trying, that wasn't the Omnipotent One's style.
Quantumization?
Einstein looked at Shiraha, then Kiana.
She spoke softly. "…You want your friend to be tangible to others?"
Shiraha nodded firmly.
Einstein was speechless, you have a cute girl right here, and you're still chasing after that imaginary friend?
She sighed. "You don't need to rush this, it won't happen overnight. When you get back to school, you can ask Himeko, she's done some research in this area."
Aerospace dynamics didn't sound like it had anything to do with quantumization, but this was Honkai.
Outside the solar system, even within it, there were all kinds of Imaginary currents, and the Sea of Quanta itself was an essential part of space exploration.
Seeing Kiana's obvious disappointment, Einstein asked, "Are you worried about Shiraha's imaginary friend?"
Kiana paused, then nodded.
Elysia wiped away a nonexistent tear, Kiana, if I had to choose between you and Mei, I'd probably pick you.
Too bad, right now, I don't want to choose either.
Kiana answered matter-of-factly. "I still think the only way to make Shiraha give up is to let other people see his friend."
After all, no one could see Shiraha's friend, it seemed like just his imagination. And how could a living person compete with a fantasy?
A fantasy didn't even need nostalgic embellishment, it could be changed at will, and was perfect by definition.
Elysia: ….
She took back what she said.
Einstein looked thoughtful. She stood up from the couch and headed to the study. "Wait here, I had an old friend who studied quantum materialization extensively."
Thinking of Schrödinger, she paused. "I copied her notes by hand, with some of my own additions."
"They might be a bit advanced for you, but take them. When you get back, ask Himeko, she can help you figure out where to start."
It might be too much for kids, but Einstein had taught herself calculus and linear algebra at eight.
Shiraha was ten, her notes were mostly meant for him.
That manuscript wasn't hidden away somewhere obscure. The doctor didn't have to search long on the study bookshelf before pulling out a notebook that looked like it had seen quite a few years.
"This notebook's been here for a while, might be a little dusty. But Little Shiraha, I hope you'll take good care of it."
It wasn't a keepsake from an old friend, but it was still the fruit of Einstein's past efforts.
Shiraha nodded understandingly. Einstein conveniently ignored Kiana.
Kiana's grades… she'd probably need another lifetime to understand this stuff.
That night, after dinner, Kiana came to Shiraha's room. The two little ones stared wide-eyed at the handwritten notes, some parts even had diagrams they couldn't make sense of.
"Can you read this, Shiraha?"
Shiraha shook his head. "We'll ask Himeko when we get back."
Speaking of quantumization, after Kiana went back to her room, Shiraha reopened his computer and started searching.
Since he'd decided to give this a try, he really should put in the effort. Breaks weren't for playing, they were for getting ahead.
That thought made him chuckle to himself. Elysia wasn't asleep either, she was leaning lazily beside him, her cheek resting on her hand, her soft pink hair cascading down.
Shiraha said softly, "If you're tired, Nee-chan, you can sleep first, I'll be done soon."
Elysia shook her head. "My little friend is working hard, and I can't really help. But staying here adds a little elegance, maybe it'll make the Omnipotent One a bit… happier."
She rested her cheek on her hand, her dimples showing in a playful smile, her starry eyes gleaming.
Shiraha hesitated, then pressed his lips together and nodded firmly. "Then look forward to it, Nee-chan, I'm the Omnipotent One. A little knowledge like this can't stump me."
It was just learning from scratch, and Shiraha was young, with all the time in the world.
Consider it a small sacrifice for the sake of dating a pink-haired big sister.
Elysia just watched quietly, her starry eyes curved. The all-powerful fairy always believed that no one in this world could remain unmoved.
Even the calmest lake would eventually ripple. The fairy girl had all the time in the world, unlike a certain little man, whose time was split into so many pieces.