"Yes! Knew it was a hidden talent! This is awesome!"
March 7th practically bounced with joy when she saw her newly updated power level.
"Yuki! Yuki! Look, I jumped multiple levels! I'm at Surface Level now!"
"Your girl right here? Not a weakling anymore!"
She gleefully announced the good news to Yuki, practically glowing with pride.
He smiled and nodded.
"I know, I saw. Nice work. Congrats."
"Now that you've leveled up and enhanced your ability, you must have unlocked a bunch of new moves, right? Take some time to digest it all."
"Mm-hmm!"
March beamed, nodding happily before plopping back onto the plush sofa to start exploring the additional abilities that came with the upgrade.
"Source of Imaginary · Tier 1"—just from the name, she could tell this core could be upgraded even further in the future.
For now, Tier 1 granted her two derived abilities.
First was Imaginary Fusion. It allowed her to combine Imaginary Energy with elements from the real world to create new types of matter or creatures. These creations possessed unpredictable properties and abilities, capable of providing powerful support or wreaking massive destruction in battle.
Second was Imaginary Sanctuary. It blurred the boundary between reality and imaginary space, allowing her or anyone she applied it to temporarily shift into an imaginary state upon taking damage. During that state, they were completely immune to all attacks and could safely re-enter reality at the right moment.
March stared at these two abilities, utterly floored.
"These are insane!"
She immediately proceeded to share every single detail with Yuki, holding nothing back.
Yuki raised an eyebrow at her.
"You're just casually spilling all your abilities to someone? Not worried they'll study them and find your weaknesses?"
In any universe, giving away your trump cards like that was undoubtedly a monumentally stupid thing to do.
"I know that!"
"Obviously I know that. I'm telling you because I trust you, dummy!"
"You don't actually think I'd be dumb enough to spill this to some stranger, do you?!"
Hands on her hips, she pouted at him, clearly offended. It was like she was saying, Here I am, trusting you with my deepest secrets, and you're treating me like an idiot.
"Alright, alright, my bad."
"Thank you for your trust, March 7th." Yuki chuckled, conceding the point.
March 7th nodded, satisfied.
But then she muttered under her breath, "Anyway, even if I didn't tell you, you'd know eventually. So I might as well just say it myself."
She was, of course, talking about Yuki's omniscience.
She had seen how terrifying that ability was. In this world heck, across all worlds and dimensions nothing was hidden from him. So why bother keeping secrets? There was no point.
Yuki just chuckled.
"Sure, I've got omniscience. But I barely use it." He clarified, he wasn't some kind of peeping tom. He didn't go snooping into people's private lives for no reason.
"Yeah, right. Even if you did use it, we'd never know." March shrugged.
"Come on, I'm not that bored. Besides, what would I even spy on? There's nothing worth spying on."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that. A big pervert like you, with two beautiful girls like me and Himeko around? You're telling me you wouldn't want to check out what color underwear we're wearing today?"
March shot him a sidelong glance, her expression dripping with suspicion.
"Well, since you put it that way... if I don't do it now, I'd be letting you down, wouldn't I?" Yuki played along, spreading his hands innocently.
"And honestly, using cosmic omniscience for that would be overkill. My eyes work just fine." He gave her a teasing grin.
March blinked, confused. "Your eyes? What do you mean?"
"Ever heard of X-ray vision?"
His grin widened as his gaze slowly traveled up and down her figure, accompanied by a soft, dramatic chuckle.
March, having spent the past few days binge-reading novels and watching shows on Himeko's home planet, knew exactly what X-ray vision meant.
Her face flushed bright red like a ripe apple.
She lunged forward, slapping her hands over his eyes.
"Ahhh! Don't you dare look!" Her voice was a mix of acute embarrassment and panic, her heart pounding wildly in her chest.
She had zero doubt that Yuki possessed such an ability after all, his power was beyond anything she could comprehend.
"That won't help. X-ray vision works even with your hands over my eyes," Yuki kept teasing her.
March couldn't take it anymore. She jumped up, trying to physically escape his line of sight.
"You! don't look!"
"What's wrong, March? Scared now? Don't run! Let your big brother Yuki get a good look at what you're wearing today!"
"Is it white? Pink? Maybe a little bear pattern?"
"I'm not that childish, okay?!"
And so began a chaotic chase through the train cars.
As for the two of them horsing around, Himeko didn't react at all. She was still completely absorbed in plotting the train's course through the star map, oblivious to the high-speed shenanigans behind her.
Elsewhere, deep in the Memory Zone where Fuli resided.
The exact moment March 7th upgraded her ability and that Imaginary Energy leaked out, Fuli shot to His feet.
"This... how is this possible?!"
"The core... it's awakened now?!"
"Did that man do this?"
Even without a face, His emotions were unmistakable—His shimmering, crystalline form trembled violently, His voice laced with profound disbelief.
He suspected Yuki was behind this. But it was only a suspicion. He couldn't perceive what was happening aboard the train, so He couldn't confirm the true cause.
The only thing He knew for certain: the dormant power within His daughter had indeed been activated.
"No... it is the core, but... this energy is purer. More profound."
"Even the Imaginary Energy of an Aeon isn't this pure or absolute."
"It's as if... this is the very source of the Imaginary itself," Fuli murmured, slowly sinking back down into His serene meditation.
"The others... they must have noticed too."
"The Express... is about to become the focal point of the entire universe..."
His voice rumbled low, and then He fell silent once more, resuming His eternal vigil.
At the exact same time, in a distant subspace.
An amber figure, a massive, celestial stone titan—raised a gargantuan hammer, ceaselessly striking at the void to build a cosmic wall.
Each blow sent ripples through space, accompanied by strange, resonant, echoing thuds.
Then, this tireless celestial laborer seemed to sense something.
He stopped. Turned. Gazed in a very specific direction across the cosmos.
His colossal body flickered with blinding amber light, emitting a low, mechanical roar like a planet-sized engine.
He was not alone in his reaction. Many such beings had their attention forcefully drawn to the stars.
In yet another unreachable dimension.
A figure with clasped hands, resembling a swirling, infinite vortex, spoke in a voice that was both majestic and utterly devoid of emotion.
"Balance... the universe has lost its balance..."