***I saw lightning and clouds, a burning city, and thunder.I saw waves of monsters. I practically felt people dying with my skin. I saw myself impaled to a wall with my own spear.But then something changed, and I saw something else entirely.I saw a red planet covered in countless buildings, washed away by monsters and energy so potent it may as well be a physical wave of purple.The vision changed again, and I saw a girl with green hair, alone, at the computer. She felt only contempt for others. I saw the sky and the earth merge, and the infinite flow into itself to solidify for the first time into a girl with pink hair.I saw the statues of salt on the moon, and a naked giantess who began the ending. I saw…Countless visions, fragmented and brief, that switched into one another like a kaleidoscope. I couldn’t truly make sense of any of them or see any details.Eventually, I woke up breathing hard, not sure where I was or what was happening.“Hey…” I blinked, realizing a hand was on my shoulder. Blinking away the sweat on my brows, I saw Elysia, who was looking at me with concern, her lips pressed together in a way that was… rare for her, considering her usual playfulness. My mind caught up, and I noticed that we were still in the same sizable, isolated room.“Hey, yourself,” I smiled back at her, wiping my forehead and glancing at my hand for just a moment. It was drenched in cold sweat. “What are you doing here? I thought I the training area for a while… we aren’t going out yet, are we?” I asked her as I glanced towards the sizable digital clock at the far corner of the empty room.No, I should still have over an hour or so.Elysia’s gaze was still concerned as she spoke up. Her fingers hadn’t left my shoulder,“No, I just felt like visiting you a bit earlier…” she replied, hesitating for a moment. Her hand finally withdrew, but only so she could tuck a strand of pink hair behind her ear. “You… you looked in pain.” She looked at me. “What were you doing here?”I opened my mouth to brush her concern off with a joke, but despite myself, I hesitated.Lying so blatantly…What would be the point?Besides, having a second opinion on this may help. “That’s…” I paused, hesitating, before letting out a sigh, “Say, Elysia, you do know about the danger sense I have, right?”The girl nodded easily, but her eyes were still glued to me. She shifted her weight, settling more squarely on her knees like she was digging in for a longer conversation.Pretty sure if I tried to actually shift the topic, she would insist on coming back to it, for once.“Well, it’s tied to precognition. That’s achieved through the Force.” I sighed, massaging my forehead, “And the Force is… damn it’s complicated.”Elysia was my fellow super-soldier, and someone I did occasionally train with because we were… well, preparing to face future Herrschers as a team.So she heard me rant plenty of times about mana and demonic energy and what I can do with either.Which is why I understood her confusion somehow when I mentioned the Force.“Is it like… another source of power in you?” she asked simply. Her head tilted to the side as she said it, and her expression was a bit adorable. Brow slightly furrowed, lips parted just a fraction, the thinking quite evident. I just did a so-so gesture, as I allowed myself to lean back and lie down on the white panels of the floor in the training room.“Kinda, but not really.” I brought one hand up, and on the tip of my finger, shadows danced, as I demonstrated it to her, “Mana and demonic power… they feel like, you know, liquids? Not literally, but, like, metaphorically speaking. They have weight, they have volume, even if you can’t see them with your eyes, they are things with substance that you can quantify. They are also in you. Like a reservoir you can use. The Force is… an energy field. It’s just everywhere,” I heard Elysia walk around me, her footsteps light and unhurried, and eventually she stood close enough I could… well, literally see up her skirt.I shifted in place to lie on my side instead and not ogle her so blatantly, which distracted me from my train of thought.“So it’s… kinda different.” I finished lamely.Elysia didn’t answer immediately, but did hum audibly. She crouched down beside me, wrapping her arms around her knees and resting her chin on top of them. I could spy it briefly, and thankfully, in this position, her skirt was mostly covering her panties from my sight. Not that I mind getting a view, just wasn’t in the mood right now.“So instead of using the energy that you have… You just control stuff around you?” she clarified suddenly, making me blink, “It’s an external, outer power?”I nodded to that despite myself.“Yep. It’s an energy field…” I trailed off, “It’s… sort of hard for me to even focus on it. It’s… well, everywhere. In you, in me, in those panels…” I gently tapped the damn things beneath me with the back of my fist, “Everything is… bonded together, tethered and whole, but ultimately it’s the living things that are… most noticeable. Still, everything is bound by the Force.”Elysia hummed melodically, a rising little two-note thing, and then quietly spoke up. “It… sounds a bit like Honkai, you know?” she asked, her voice sounding a bit uncertain, “Remember when you asked me how I use it? I told you before that a lot of the energy comes from… well, around.”I did remember. She mentioned that. Which is how the idea of experimenting with drawing only on Honkai energy with my Sin Devil Trigger died an ugly death. Honkai was only present in me when I was in that form, and for the life of me, I couldn’t pull it on, no matter how much I tried.Besides, I have, like, twenty seconds in that form before I am wiped. Training to do anything in it is a pain in the ass. “I get what you mean,” I said slowly, “But it doesn’t feel the same. Honkai is…” I hesitated, as I wasn’t sure what to say.Sure, I could never use Honkai energy. But when I was in Sin DT… I could sort of sense it. It was heavy, but very much an energy, a presence.“The Force just feels different. It’s just… less substantial.” I shook my head, “It’s supposed to be like… a breath. A breathing echo of everything that is in the universe. It’s… vast and ever-present in everything, it’s supposed to be like radiation, piercing through everything and binding it all together.”I sighed, shaking my head.“At least that’s what I know of it.” That’s how I remembered the Force in Star Wars, the Galaxy Far Far Away.That’s how Jedi perceived it… well, in whatever media I ended up consuming.Considering how much ‘canon’ aside from the movies contradicted itself, and how much genuine nonsense was written into the grander narrative even before Mickey Mouse came over, shot the old canon, and then shot itself… it was hard to make definitive statements.“And what… does it not feel like that?” Elysia asked kindly. She’d migrated closer again. She did that, inched toward people like a cat. She also had the audacity to poke my nose.I swiped her hand away lazily.“No,” I confirmed, sighing, “But I think it’s a genuine skill issue. The Force is… dangerous. So I am scared to move too fast,” I acknowledged quietly, “In the story, if you use the Force wrong, it affects you back. Can drive you insane, even. So I kind of… avoided trying to work with it.” I sighed, “Have you met the Bit?” I asked, after a moment, glancing towards the young woman sitting by my side.Elysia’s expression did a full costume change at that. The gentle, attentive listening face vanished, replaced by a grin so bright it could probably power a small settlement. “You mean the robot that helps Vill-V, right? She told me you originally summoned him before she made all the cute modifications!” she exclaimed, clasping her hands together in front of her chest. “He is pretty adorable! Also, she complained a lot about the terrible name you gave him!”I mean, screw her too, Bit liked the name. “Well…” I hesitated, as B1 were… genuinely kind of adorable in a dumbass sort of way. They had the sort of charm I aspire to possess to this day. “I guess, but what I was trying to say is that he is from the universe where the Force comes from. There was an entire order of space-monks who are also knights, wielding laser swords that used the Force and fought for peace and justice across the Galaxy and all that.”“Aww, how I wish I could visit,” she sighed wishfully, eyes drifting up toward the ceiling as if she could see the stars through it. “I think I’ve heard something about Vill-V managing to extract some sort of… core file from the Bit programming? She said it’s the information that gave his personality context, so he knew the ‘common sense’ things for his world, like names of planets, what sort of technology is common, and some basic things to expect from races… maybe there is something in there to help you with this Force in there?”I shook my head.“No way, Jedi -that’s how the warrior monks were called by the way- are incredibly rare, and most of the galaxy knew next to nothing about how they do what they do,” I explained, “But as I was saying, Jedi… they weren’t, like, superheroes, you know? Or even mages who just learned how to cast spells but otherwise did whatever they wanted. The Force and the way to wield it was a way of life, and an entire philosophy and approach to how to live. Also, a shit ton of traditions that formed over millennia on how to use it safely without going insane and eating toddlers.” I shifted a bit, turning to Elysia. “So avoiding this power altogether was smart. It is dangerous to tamper with without knowing what you are doing. But, well… recently, I became even stronger in the Force as I acquired a new ability in it. At least I fucking bet that’s what happened. I sort of started to notice things that weren’t there before.” It was minor, but it was easier for me to tell what people thought and how they felt. Not to a level where I can genuinely read their thoughts or emotions, but… like, I could very easily grasp a genuine ‘vibe’. There was also the luck I seemed to have now, and most importantly…“I had those dreams that… that felt like visions.” I finished lamely, before closing my eyes. “I didn’t really learn anything new from them, but considering that before I either had nightmares or nothing at all… it would’ve been hard to miss.” I shook my head, “Anyway, I obviously can’t just ignore the Force anymore, so I’ve been trying to find a way to approach it for the last week.”Elysia again poked me in the cheek.I opened my eyes again and glared at her.She giggled, a short, crystalline sound that she immediately tried to muffle behind her fingers.“Well, you shouldn’t try to fall asleep talking to me, you know it’s rude!~” she said teasingly, wagging one finger like a disappointed teacher before the playfulness drained from her features, leaving behind genuine concern. “Does Mobius know?”I shook my head.“She will if anything comes from this or if I feel like I am losing it,” I told Elysia honestly, feeling kind of… ashamed, “But I didn’t want to worry her otherwise, especially… You know, right now.”Elysia considered this for a moment. I caught the way her gaze dropped to her own hands, fingers lacing and unlacing in her lap, turning something over in her head, before she nodded seriously.“I understand. Mobius is the kind to start fussing about this and cancel your date,” she said thoughtfully, and the corner of her mouth twitched. She also glanced at me briefly, checking for reaction; she probably intended it as a tease. I just nodded to that. After all, those were my thoughts exactly.Who cares about potential dark-side-induced madness? Not me, no sir. I am not risking canceling the date with the snek. “So now with this concept to answer what actually happened just now and why I probably looked constipated… I was meditating. And accidentally falling too deep,” I muttered in annoyance.Elysia glanced at me curiously, one eyebrow arching in.I glared back. “Well, I tried a bunch of different meditation methods throughout the last two weeks, thank God for the internet, and I found one that works,” I explained, not mentioning just how much of a time sink it was to actually find something serviceable. Again, thank god for the M.O.T.H. house ‘Ai’ (actually an advanced neural network without sentience yet) helped sort through some of this information for me, to actually find different methods to meditate rather than just cycle through the same two ones presented by a bunch of different people. “The issue is, I don’t feel shit until I am in a very… strange mindset.” I explained awkwardly, “Like, half-asleep basically. And when I feel the Force, it’s such a trippy sensation that I sort of… fall into it, and start seeing visions.”I simplified it quite a bit for her sake, of course.When I did, and saw it… I could see it move, coagulate in some places, swirl in others; being able to catch a glimpse of it felt like acquiring the sense of vision again. It was very much the sixth sense that didn’t mirror the real world at all.The Jedi who could navigate the physical world only ‘seeing’ the Force… must have been truly good at abstract thinking.Naturally, the first time I managed to sense the Force, there was an instinctual attempt to look closer, to lean in and make sense of it…And so I fell through.It felt like catching a particularly lazy thought when you drift off to sleep, and that thought develops into the first scenario of your dream. Falling deeper into meditation was like that. To begin with, I could only sense the Force when I… was probably halfway asleep, or at least so at peace and in such a strange mindset that I may as well have been.So when my attention slipped, I found myself falling into the abyss.The Force moved, shifted, breathed around me like a gigantic entity with no beginning nor end, and I was just… fruitlessly sliding, lower and lower. It felt like I was colliding with gigantic whales as I fell deeper into the depths of the ocean, and slid across their skin and bumps to fall further down.Except that those giants in the abyss were visions of events. Unable to hold myself in place, unable to view what you want, past, present, future, I saw them all as I saw the Force, until eventually… I just snapped awake when it was too much.Elysia considered me for a moment. I had my issues with the young woman; she was so upbeat sometimes it was downright scary, and the way she thinks is unhinged. The girl did steal a hovercar on a whim and went to fight a Herrscher without permission because she felt like it, and thought that she didn’t want to hide her gift anymore.Yet, even if deep down I thought that the Russian girl was a bit cuckoo in the head, I had to give it to her; she had a lot of insights to give, and she always listened.“So you are saying you can’t sense this Force at all… even when you are using abilities that you think are techniques built off of it?” she asked, tilting her head. There was no teasing in her voice now. I simply stared at her for a long time.Because while I could see her point… I genuinely couldn’t, yes. Danger Sense was like… suddenly having an amazing sense of smell, except, you know, for danger. But the other technique that helped me regulate temperature… the application of the Force there must be much more blatant.I pressed my palm to the floor and pushed up.Seeing that I was still clad in the clothing made of shadow, my body was sufficiently enchanted to catapult me off the ground, so I could easily get on my feet.I glanced at my hands and focused.This was the issue with that technique; it felt like second nature. So well practiced, I didn’t even know how I did it. Just like when you walk, you aren’t really conscious of the muscle groups, this ability felt the same way.But when I paid attention specifically, I…“I got it…” I said with a sense of complete wonder, sort of… catching a brief sensation of the Force flowing through and around my hands, at least until Elysia shifted in place, and I lost it.“It’s… sort of silly that you never thought of doing that,” Elysia called out, and I stared down at her blankly, blinking. She was grinning up at me, chin in both hands now, elbows on her knees, looking every bit like someone who’d just watched a grandpa discover that the glasses they’d been looking for were on their head the whole time.She… wasn’t wrong. But in my defense, I was incredibly busy; those abilities did become second nature, and I didn’t even think of them for a while, as I was still in the mindset of ‘ignore Jedi bullshit’. And when I decided to make sense of it, my first instinct was ‘well, Jedi do meditate’. So, cue me spending two weeks of my free time researching meditation and getting into it. Meditation did clearly have an effect, too, so I kept at it.Finally, I chuckled.“Yeah, I guess,” I said, rubbing the back of my head, “I am sort of a silly guy. For instance…” I pointed my palm at Elysia and closed my eyes.I did this countless times when I was a kid, looking towards a TV remote, or my phone by the bedside. Imagining myself pulling it close with the Force, having my hand tense so much it shook.This probably wasn’t how Jedi did it, though. Remembering the old green gremlin grooming a kidnapped kid from a single father, it was about relaxing your body and letting go of the thoughts. So I focused on my body, on the technique that sustained the comfortable temperature, and once again caught a glimpse of the energy field wrapping around me like a thin cocoon. I focused on it, tracing how it moved through my arm, and then forward, towards a cluster of dancing joy… that must have been Elysia.Slowly, in a way I couldn’t properly explain, I grabbed it softly and started to… push it up, softly.“H-huh?!” My concentration immediately broke, and I heard a dull smack, “Auch!”I opened my eyes to see a pouting Elysia sitting in place and rubbing her butt. Her cheeks had flushed a shade closer to her hair, and she was staring up at me with wide, indignant eyes.“This hurt!”Theatrically, I grabbed my heart, looking pained.“Elysia, I am so sorry,” I said dramatically, shaking my head in mock sadness, “When it comes to the Force, the size does not matter… or so I thought. But perhaps you will have to cut down on the pancakes, you know I love your butt the way it is, but when I can’t hold it up even with space magic - you know it’s getting too big. Consider a diet.”For a moment, the pink creature looked like a fish thrown out of the puddle.I just glanced towards the clock… yeah, I was about done.“I’ll go shower,” I said, turning around and retreating with a smirk I couldn’t quite hide.Now, I am yet to ever get Elysia mad, but I am convinced that if I were any slower, I would have to dodge arrows. ***Now, normally, when you only have two supersoldiers capable of throwing down with interdimensional invaders, you want to have at least one of the two on standby back at the base.Luckily, the fumo creature, being the absolute cookie-crunching GOAT it is, helped to neatly sidestep this problem. As long as Elysia or I had the creature on hand (in our pocket), we could effectively excuse ourselves into doing our superhero business by just going to the nearest restroom and teleporting to HQ in under 30 seconds flat, whenever we are needed.Not that we were allowed to do that often; just because we could still have a semblance of private life didn’t mean the army regulations didn’t want us on our posts just in case. However, today was the exception. When both of the M.O.T.H.’s heavy hitters were out for the evening. “Stay still,” Vill muttered, squinting, as she took a step back.The Skybolt shook as we passed some turbulent zone, but me, being the absolute pinnacle of Jedi patience (and superhuman balance), was one of the few people in the area aside from Elysia who didn’t feel it much.“I think this should work?” Blanca offered, tilting the tablet a bit for Elysia to see, “Maybe with a bit more green undertones beneath?” she glanced at Vill, “Thoughts?”Vill considered me, her eyebrows furrowing.“I can sort of see it,” she admitted, “But I don’t think the colour would be right…”“Correct!” Elysia chimed in, “They should be pink!”The gremlin has been ignored by everyone, or so I hoped.For a few seconds, there was silence as I stood there, posing like a retard in my standard shadow-made gear.“It may look cute,” Klein voiced, making me glance at the tiny woman for the absolute treachery.“Ugh…” Mobius groaned, startling everyone, as she tore her eyes off the datapad, “Stop this nonsense already, will you? He is with the security detail, it doesn’t matter how he looks for the event!” she complained before pointing down at the papers in her hand, “Let me memorize my speech in peace.”“Now-now Mobius,” Blanca replied with a coy smile, “Officially, he is coming as your +1, you know?”The snek glared at her offending friend.“Only because you are yet to train your husband to keep quiet about things we agreed not to share,” she practically hissed, gesturing towards me, “Do you know how much he pestered me for this?!”“In my defense,” I spoke up, earning her glare, “This date was promised to me,” Three thousand years ago, in fact. “So you shouldn’t have attempted to slither your way out of it.”“Slither, heh, nice~” And Elysia, being the absolute bro, took the fire away from me and earned Mobius’s glare.“I despise absolutely every one of you,” Mobius said, before exhaling.I just pointed at Klein.“...with some exceptions,” she grumbled, “Now, let me work in peace or I swear I will be petty in my revenge.”I exchanged glances with Vill.Vill just shrugged, as clueless as I was.“I think the colour scheme here is clear and recognizable,” A familiar electronic voice spoke up, and I saw a somewhat heavily modified B1 platform glance down at the tablet next to Blanca, “Though I would personally prefer more blue, somehow.” Of course, the CIS droid pilot will say that.Mobius glared at Bit.Bit didn’t even notice.I could practically swear I could hear her mutter ‘let it go’. “Listen, ladies,” Bit perked up, “And Bit,” I gestured at myself, “I know you all get excited to do something in this long flight, but it isn’t necessary.”An effort of will, and the clothes morph on me, rippling like a shadow that they were, and turn into Alucard’s costume. Except with crimson red replaced by classy black and dark purple on the underside of the coat. “I can be classy when I want to,” I said in a completely different timbre of voice, taking off Kamina’s glasses for once, and putting them in my chest pocket, as instead I conjured a stylish hat, “I know you are all excited to test my abilities to conjure any outfit, but to be completely honest, I don’t think you’ll agree on anything in a week, much less the remaining half an hour.”For a moment, everyone present just stared at me.“D-did you just… sound more suave too?” Elysia asked, with some disbelief.I smiled at her, giving a half-bow with my upper body, as I pressed my hat to my chest.“Indeed, I can change the tone of my voice quite easily, and for once in my life even twisting my accent somewhat is child’s play,” I said in baritone, very much enjoying the wide-eyed look of everyone present… except for Bit, who glanced confused around the present girls, genuinely unsure why they looked at me as if I were a ghost.I especially enjoyed Mobius actually looking taken aback somewhat, even if for the briefest of moments.I wish Ato could see that, too, but the man was punished for leaking this whole event to me. He was currently flying with our security guys in the other Skybolt.Honestly, dude was a real bro. I do owe him something for this. “This… surprisingly comes together very well,” Vill said, sounding genuinely surprised as she looked me up and down.“I stole the look from a better man,” I admitted simply, “But it should work to not embarrass M.O.T.H. at the very least.” More importantly, to not embarrass Mobius.For all her vitriol, the M.O.T.H. head scientist didn’t seem to actually resent me going with her. If she did, she would’ve just refused me with no amount of bothering her helping.No, she clearly didn’t want to view this as a date, probably because she thought stuff like that is a waste of time or something, but for all intents and purposes, it was. Meaning I wanted to be a gentleman and impress the lady, as no one wants a retard unable to control himself in public, even when you would actually need it.There is a fine line between allowing yourself to be a dumbass whenever it wasn’t critical and being one regardless of circumstances. The first can be endearing, the second is an embarrassment in the family.So, today I was locked the fuck in. I was hiding my power level, getting into the role of acting suave and all proper, and preparing myself to actually endure even the most boring talks imaginable without trying to drown them in Zoomer brainrot like a sack of retarded puppies.Now, if anything Honkai-related happens, as long as it’s not an eruption, Elysia and I agreed that she gets the Fumo and portals to handle it, while I stay with the snek. The wingwoman was quite good at this, and I genuinely can’t tell if she was doing this out of love for the game or because she was interested in mine or Mobius’s love life. I am willing to accept it may be all three. That said, I owe her for this.Blanca was also complacent. She was the person who, after I begged Ato enough times, agreed to help convince Mobius to take me here. I am here, so she clearly did her part.Vill and her trust bro-bot Bit are the only ones here who are innocent and clueless. Because even Klein leaked Mobius’s timetable to me, so I could harass approach her when she was the least tired and irritated. The head scientist didn’t know it, but she was quite literally surrounded by Judases who sold her out. If she had known how deep the conspiracy was going, she might have attempted to take revenge. But seeing that she didn’t, Operation Snek Eater was a go.***The venue was a sprawling convention center of pale stone and glass that took up most of the block, surrounded by an open plaza where the public-facing part of the event was already well underway. Rows of exhibition stands, holographic product displays flickering in the afternoon light, food stalls lining the edges, and a few thousand visitors moving through it all in a steady, noisy current.Our destination was further in. Past the expo, past the crowds, and into the reserved wing where the actual conference was being held. The part where scientists presented their work to sponsors and peers behind closed doors, mingled over drinks, all that good VIP shit.The security detail moved around us as we walked, four guys in suits that looked expensive enough to blend in with the crowd heading inside. Subtle, professional, and completely unnecessary as far as actual protection went, considering Elysia and I were right here. But appearances mattered, and M.O.T.H. wasn't going to send its head scientist to a public event without a visible escort.Mobius walked ahead of me, datapad finally put away, her posture shifting into something straighter and more deliberate than how she carried herself back at HQ.I'd seen it a few times before; the slight lift of her chin, the way her expression settled into careful neutrality.I kept pace beside her, one step to the right."Try not to gawk at everything," she said without looking at me.“Please,” I said, rolling my eyes a bit, “What am I going to gawk at, a bunch of grey-haired old folk bonding over nerd-talk? As long as no one brings a mecha to display, I will not be impressed. And I don’t think Ato was allowed to take his here.”Her eyes flicked to me for just a moment, and I caught the ghost of something on her face that I almost confused for amusement. Then she looked forward again.Behind us, I could hear Elysia chatting with Vill about something, her voice bright and animated against the background noise. Blanca and Klein walked together a bit further back, and Ato was somewhere in their vicinity, having been freed from the other Skybolt but still visibly sulking about the whole 'punishment' thing. Bit walked beside Vill with a gait that was somehow both mechanical and oddly casual, the modified platform drawing a few curious looks from passersby that the droid didn't notice or didn't care about.From what I understood, household robots weren’t completely unheard of in Mu, neural networks here went as far as AI companies tried to make us believe they would be back on my Earth. Except, you know, AI here wasn’t ‘Actual Indians’, and instead were well-made algorithms. Basically, Bit blended in as one of the local dummy ‘AI’ slave, no one actually suspected him to be the first true Artificially made Intelligence to grace this planet.A checkpoint at the entrance to the reserved wing slowed us down briefly. Venue staff, lanyards, tablets, the whole routine. Blanca handled the credentials. The woman checking them glanced at Mobius, and I saw the brief flicker of recognition before the professional mask came back on."Welcome, Doctor. Your reserved seating has been arranged. Please let our staff know if you need anything," she said politely, giving all of us a pleasant smile. Mobius gave a nod that was exactly polite enough and kept walking. The interior was quieter. The noise from the plaza fell away as we moved down a wide corridor lit by soft overhead panels. People in formal wear drifted in small groups, drinks in hand, talking in that measured, careful way that meant they were either networking or sizing each other up. Either or, really. Nobody paid me any mind, which was the idea. A few gazes lingered on Mobius. A few more on Elysia, because a girl with pink hair and those legs (generously highlighted by her choice of mini skirt) was impossible not to notice in any setting. If you are a straight male, at least. I let myself take a breath, adjusting to the atmosphere.“The first presentation will be in the C-wing in around fifteen minutes,” Blanca said, as she was twiddling with the datapad in her hand. “Until then, I think we can split up.”“Excuse me, miss,” Carl, one of our security guys, spoke up a bit nervously, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”“Just have one of the boys accompany one of the VIPs as long as it’s not Elysia or me,” I told him simply. “Trust me, the pink one and I can handle whoever we tag along with.”The man hesitated for a moment but nodded.I glanced back at Mobius expectantly.She raised an eyebrow.“Now-now, you do need a bodyguard, and you know it,” I said with some amusement, “So it’s just you and me.”Mobius huffed, folding her arms under her impressive chest.“Excuse you, lab rat, it’s you, me, and a dozen or so people I have to network with,” she sounded like she genuinely loathed the idea, “It’s unfortunate that most of them are confined to their laboratories and this is one of the few events where we can casually talk without spending a few weeks arranging for a free time slot in our respective timetables.”"Lead the way, Doctor," I offered, gesturing forward with my hat.Mobius gave me a flat look. Then she turned on her heel and started walking, and I fell in step beside her.The reserved wing opened up past the corridor into a broader lounge area before the actual presentation halls. High ceilings, clusters of seats, refreshment tables, and people everywhere. Most of them were in their forties or older, which made sense. This wasn’t a fair for college students and usual university dwellers, this was a venue for literally the best people in the world at this, including superhero world-like genuineness like Mobius and Vill."How many of these people do you actually want to talk to?" I asked, watching her eyes sweep the room with the kind of precision that told me she'd already identified her targets."Two," she said without looking at me, her gaze still moving. "The rest are obligations.""Rough,” I said with some honest sympathy. "Once you become a public figure, you will experience this yourself," she assured me clinically. We made it about thirty steps before the first one found us. A heavyset man with a trimmed beard approached Mobius, and the conversation that followed lasted about two minutes. Something about a joint paper they apparently did years ago. I stood beside Mobius with my hands clasped behind my back and focused very hard on keeping my expression neutral.They were mostly talking about some people I had no idea about, and seemed to be exchanging a quick hello for the most part, so I really was a third wheel there. The second encounter was with a tall woman who seemed genuinely happy to see Mobius, and the feeling appeared somewhat mutual, which was rare enough that I took note. That one went longer, and they actually talked about something related to plants, I think?By the time Mobius extracted herself from the third conversation, some older gentleman who wouldn't stop talking about grant allocation, I was beginning to understand she was so adamant about not making this a date, nor inviting me to come with."You're holding up better than I expected," she said, glancing at me sideways as we moved through the crowd again. Her arms were folded loosely, and the tension in her shoulders had eased just slightly from when we first walked in.“You probably expected me to drool on your conversation partners by now, so surpassing your expectations wasn’t particularly hard,” I tease her slightly, and I swear I saw her lips curl a tiny bit upwards.“Don’t put words in my mouth,” she said, her tone strict like always, but it did come up a bit softer this time, “I am aware that you aren’t a complete moron, despite your best efforts to prove otherwise.”I actually chuckled at that. “Well, I told you I’ll be on my best behavior today. So no silly Knightmare-rated shenanigans this time, just as I promised,” I assured her. "You did promise," she looked at me, her eyes narrowing just a fraction. "I just didn't believe you. I still don’t."Fair enough."Two more," she murmured, more to herself than to me, and her gaze swept the room again. It stopped, and I followed it.A woman with blue hair, standing near one of the refreshment tables. She had a glass in one hand and a tablet in the other, and she was reading something with a kind of focus that suggested the crowd around her may as well not exist. Glasses sat low on her nose. Her posture was relaxed… if anything, it looked like she forgot that she was surrounded by people constantly walking around. "Einstein," Mobius said.I blinked."I'm sorry, where?" I glanced around, “You told me you didn’t have Epstein in your world?!”Mobius hit me in the shoulder."Ein-stein, that's her name," Mobius replied plainly, already starting towards the woman. She glanced back at me briefly, her expression sharpening. "She's a quantum physicist. One of the best alive. She also knows about you. Try not to ruin the impression."I followed, biting back about three different responses to that.The blue-haired woman looked up as we approached. Her expression shifted, but only barely. A slight lift of the eyebrows, and she set the tablet down on the table behind her, giving Mobius her full attention."Mobius," she said evenly, adjusting her glasses with one finger. Her gaze was steady, almost disinterested, but I caught the way it sharpened just slightly as it moved to me before returning to Mobius. "I was wondering if you'd come. Your schedule keeps getting worse.""You know why," Mobius replied plainly, stopping at a comfortable distance. The two women regarded each other for a moment, and I got the distinct impression of two people knowing each other rather well. "You're one of the two."Einstein tilted her head just slightly at that, her expression unchanged."Two?" she asked, sounding completely taken aback. "People I actually wanted to speak with tonight," Mobius said simply, uncrossing her arms."...I’ll take it in the spirit it was intended, and assume this was a compliment?" Einstein replied, sounding more questioning than sure, as she shook her head. “Honestly, who starts a conversation like this?” Her gaze shifted to me again, and this time it stayed. “I think I know you… Aren’t you the curiosity Mobius contacted me about a few months back?” she asked, sounding intrigued and interested, “Doe, I believe? How has M.O.T.H. been treating you? I hope Mobius didn’t give the people of this realm a bad name?” she asked, framing it as a joke, glancing around briefly, probably to make sure we weren’t being overheard, yet the concern sounded real. "He prefers 'lab rat'," Mobius said, her tone dry. “In my experience, he actually enjoys the rough treatment.” My head actually snapped to Mobius in a fucking heartbeat, and I could see a small smirk on her face.Did she… did she just make a sexual joke at my expense? Holy fuck, the world is ending. "I prefer Knightmare, actually," I corrected woodenly, extending my hand mechanically towards the woman. "Lab Rat is a pet name for rough play," I said, recovering on the spot, and I could swear Mobius fucking choked on air beside me, “Comes with a territory of snake taming.” The weird sounds Mobius made intensified.Too bad, she shouldn’t have done the innuendo Pearl Harbour if she wasn’t ready for what comes after. Einstein looked completely taken aback, but one look at Mobius actually made her chuckle softly; she hid the ensuing snicker in her fist.“Please stop teasing Mobius,” she asked, hiding a smile badly, “She is an intelligent woman who will find a way to make her frustration your problem.”It was indeed good advice, to which I nodded seriously. “The risk I took was calculated,” I told her somberly, “Unfortunately, between you and me, I am terrible at math.”To no surprise at all, Mobius gently pushed me aside.“Now, if you are quite done, return to being silent and useful, lab rat,” Mobius grumbled, before taking a breath and composing herself, “Making him keep quiet is a real problem.”Yeah, well, try pinning my tongue down with yours. One vs one me, woman.Now, despite some annoyance at being pushed away by an embarrassed Mobius, I didn’t really voice it out, knowing that making a scene in a place with so many people around wouldn’t be good for Mobius’s public image. Not to mention M.O.T.H recruitment of the world’s brightest. And even I know that our recruitment of the Mu’s (and world’s) brainpower was very much ongoing. “Don’t worry, we should discuss your companion and his case later,” Einstein said simply, “I am quite curious what you discovered, but I know it’s not a good place for it.”Wait, I was a bit distracted with Mobius making a move on me (potentially), but is she saying she actually knows things about me?Well, it wouldn’t be too surprising. I knew M.O.T.H. had consultants regarding Honkai in different research institutes across the world… maybe regarding me too?Questions for later.“I wanted to approach you about the orbital placement of the satellite network you were planning,” Mobius spoke up seriously, folding her hands under her breasts again, “I want to discuss some course corrections for them, arrange a proper meeting for it.”Einstein raised an eyebrow.“Is it a personal project of yours or…?”Mobius simply nodded, her expression grave.“It’s M.O.T.H. business,” she said simply.Einstein nodded slowly. “I can make space in my schedule…” she paused briefly, “Say, I’ve seen you submit a paper on the potential generation of exotic energies inside of biological cells, and I wanted to ask regarding… ugh,” the white-haired, relatively hot woman cringed, and got her tablet from the table, before searching for something on it and showing it to Mobius, “Here…”Mobius leaned in, her eyes widened slightly in understanding.“Ah, that. Well, the study I did showed that…”And the two super-geniuses devolved to the nerd talk the likes of which I didn’t often encounter. I understand every other word the moment they started to use proper terminology.Yet, I understood enough contextually that Mobius, apparently, wrote some paper after having Elysia’s or mine samples, I think?I stood there for a solid five minutes, hands behind my back, doing my best impression of a decorative plant.To be completely fair, I probably should have tried harder to follow the conversation, considering it was about me. Or about the exotic energy in my cells, which I still found slightly concerning as a sentence to even think about. But the moment Einstein started going off about quantum state coherence in biological substrates, my brain politely tapped out and went to lunch.Especially because Mobius wore an amazing dress, and I had a very good vantage point at her side-boobs from here. Between actually following the conversation and ogling snek booba, I chose snek booba.And I’ll fucking do it again. So, conjuring the shades in my inner pocket I put them on (so me watching wouldn’t be too obvious) and enjoyed. Mobius, for her part, was actually animated. Not in the way normal people get animated, with big gestures and loud voices, but in the Mobius way. She occasionally tapped the edge of Einstein's tablet to highlight something, and sounded like she was lecturing someone. That was just a her thing, though. Einstein matched her, if quieter and less condescending about it. Maybe because she was actually asking about something in Mobius’s own sphere of competence, I don’t know. They'd clearly done this before.I caught Mobius glancing at me once during all of this. Briefly. Probably checking if I wasn’t dying of aneurysm yet. I gave her a subtle thumbs up, which she ignored.Eventually, Blanca's voice cut through the background chatter before I could see her, and I turned to find her approaching with Klein in tow."The C-wing presentation is about to begin," Blanca said, glancing down at her datapad before looking up at Mobius. She noticed Einstein and gave the woman a polite nod, which Einstein returned. "Should I save seats, or…?"Mobius straightened up, the animated look draining from her face as public mode reasserted itself."No, we'll go now," she said, picking up her own datapad from where she'd set it on the refreshment table at some point during the discussion. She looked at Einstein. "Will you be attending?""The Sea of Quanta presentation?" Einstein asked, and something in her expression shifted. A flicker of genuine interest, maybe even anticipation, which was the most emotion I'd seen from the woman so far. She adjusted her glasses. "I wouldn't miss it. I reviewed the paper when it was first submitted. Frankly, I didn't believe the author's age when I saw the credentials."Mobius hummed at that, a short sound that I'd learned to interpret as agreement she didn't feel like voicing."Sea of Quanta?" I asked, falling in step beside Mobius as our little group started moving towards the C-wing. Einstein walked on Mobius's other side, tablet tucked under her arm. “I remember you mentioned it briefly before.” A few times actually, back when we were talking about my world. "A theoretical space that exists parallel to observed reality," Mobius said, not slowing her pace. "Or so the theory proposes. The paper argues for its existence using a mathematical framework that is… uncomfortably elegant.""Uncomfortably?" I raised an eyebrow."When something that complex is presented that cleanly by someone that young, it's either the work of a genius or a fraud," she replied simply. Her eyes were forward. "Einstein believes it's the former. I never had the time to invest in the subject, so I can’t judge.""The math checks out," Einstein confirmed from Mobius's other side, her tone even. "I spent two weeks trying to find a flaw."Coming from a woman who Mobius called one of the best quantum physicists alive, that was one hell of an endorsement."The presenter is from the Far East," Mobius added, as we turned a corner into a wider hallway that led to the presentation halls. More people here, all moving in the same direction. "Japan, specifically. She is still finishing her master's degree."I looked at her."A master's student got invited here?""That should tell you everything you need to know," Mobius said.We entered the C-wing hall, and it was larger than I expected. Tiered seating arranged in a gentle curve around a central stage area with a large display screen behind it. The seats were filling up, and not slowly either. Whatever this Sea of Quanta paper was, it apparently had people interested.Elysia found us almost immediately, appearing from somewhere in the crowd with Vill and Bit trailing behind her. Ato was with them, hands in his pockets, looking considerably less sulky than before."Is this the one everyone's been talking about?" Elysia asked, her eyes scanning the hall with open curiosity as she settled into the seat next to me. "I overheard a few people mention it.""Apparently," I said."The author is quite young," Vill noted from Elysia's other side, leaning forward slightly to look past her towards Mobius. "I read a brief on the paper. It’s… sort of impressive in all sorts of ways," she trailed off, shaking her head. Bit sat next to her, looking around the hall with what I assumed was robotic curiosity.Einstein took a seat on Mobius's other side, crossing one leg over the other and resting her tablet on her knee. She looked towards the stage with an expression that I could only describe as waiting.Mobius sat between us, back straight, hands resting on her datapad in her lap. She was watching the stage too.The hall quieted down gradually as the lights shifted, dimming over the audience and brightening over the stage. A moderator stepped up, said a few words I didn't really pay attention to, and then gestured towards the side entrance.From there, a… well, college girl went out.She was pretty, but honestly, at this point, that didn’t even get much of a rise out of me. Honestly, the number of hot coworkers I have is unreal; it’s actually kind of stupid. This one wore glasses, which, for me, was a bit of a downgrade, though. Yes, my toasts are too buttery, and my steaks too juicy, I can afford to be picky about who to drool over. Anyhow, the college-aged girl looked resolutely as she rose to the podium and fiddled with a tablet, placing it on the stand, and seemed to be selecting something.She also looked somewhat familiar. Especially the wavy dark hair with a purple tint… maybe due to the lighting? Especially because she was wearing something that looked like traditional Japanese cloth of some kind, probably to represent her nation better, in a white-purple-violet colour scheme.Wait… It snapped together in my head almost instantly.The hairstyle, with a giant braid, the purple-black hair, the yukata/kemono (I don’t know the difference), the hair accessory…I recalled dozens of dogshit YouTube commercials, the fucking doujinshis, and my retarded friends talking about another gacha they were in.“I know where I am,” I whispered to myself, just sitting there, my voice filled with mortification and utter shock, “It’s that Genshin Impact thingy, right?!”----Author Note: My beta is saying to pass the message; Noita set me free, which is why you are actually seeing the new chapter.Seriously, though, I finally did it. Kinda happy with the chapter. I’ve been told it’s peak.Thoughts?