With the time curvature altered, time inside the pocket universe flew by in the blink of an eye.
Day and night cycled countless times, while only a day or two passed in the outside world.
Setsuna continued personally teaching Haruhi Suzumiya how to control her abilities every day, cleaning up and stopping the disasters she caused along the way.
"Hey, hah—"
She stood in an open field like a cultivator practicing mystical arts in a fantasy novel, eyes closed and palms pressed together as she concentrated.
She recalled the techniques Setsuna had taught her.
Whoosh!—
The environment of the entire planet changed according to her will.
At one moment, the sun shone brilliantly beneath a cloudless blue sky. The cries of seagulls intertwined with the crashing of waves, transforming the surroundings into a summery seaside paradise.
Gudako and the little gray-haired girl set up a parasol, sprawled out on the beach, and took a sip of iced fruit juice.
"Ah, this is great—"
Hum—
Suddenly, freezing winds howled across the entire world as it transitioned almost seamlessly into a polar planet.
The warm beach beneath their feet was instantly replaced by glaciers. The temperature plunged to one hundred degrees below zero in moments, and the drink froze solid before Gudako could get it into her mouth, smacking her straight in the face with a thunk.
"Hey!! Have some consideration for other people!"
Gudako, who had only just changed into a swimsuit, raised a hand in protest.
"Sorry. I'm trying to use my superpowers to change the world."
Haruhi scratched her head.
"The Commander said I could use this universe however I wanted for practice. I... sometimes can't control the precision very well, and other thoughts interfere."
"Hmm... I'll practice more."
Whoosh—
The planet changed again, transforming from a polar world into an endless grassland planet, then an ocean planet with ninety percent of its surface covered in water, then an ordinary continental planet similar to Earth...
A few times, Haruhi became distracted and strange ideas flashed through her mind, resulting in lifeless nuclear wasteland planets and worlds covered in ruined cities.
Judging purely by the efficiency of planetary terraforming, changing an entire planet more than a dozen times in a single day was enough to make the Starsea Empire's Engineering Department break out in a cold sweat.
Not to mention that, theoretically, she also possessed the ability to alter the structure of the universe itself. Herta was already itching to let Haruhi try creating some sort of interstellar megastructure once she became proficient enough.
Occasionally, however, some strange bugs appeared. For example, the tropical rainforests she created contained polar bears hunting penguins, while killer whales and sharks grew wings and soared through the sky chasing each other, making everyone wonder whether the Creator had been drunk.
Sometimes two or three suns hung in the sky at once, giving everyone a live demonstration of twin suns or a three-sun alignment and allowing them to experience the chaotic eras of the Trisolarans firsthand.
At other times, the sun simply remained fixed motionlessly in the sky until the atmosphere began heating up and the planet started deforming under gravitational distortion, forcing Setsuna to step in and stop Haruhi.
"When you're changing the environment of an entire star system, don't let your thoughts wander. And stop randomly dwelling on phrases like 'the wandering stars stand still.'"
"Okay—"
"Your precision in manipulating information is insufficient."
Nagato also reminded her expressionlessly.
"When attempting to alter the information environment of an entire world, you should define every object within that world as precisely as possible."
"You must also prevent unrelated thoughts from interfering. They can produce unpredictable effects on the outcome of information manipulation."
"I know—"
Haruhi dragged out the words.
"I'm practicing! I'm practicing!!"
She swore she had never worked this seriously in her life, not even when she was attending school.
Aside from the time required for meals and rest, she devoted every day entirely to practicing her "superpowers."
In the past, Haruhi had only dared to fantasize about meeting aliens, time travelers, and espers. She had never imagined that she herself would turn out to be one of them.
Her motivation had been pushed to its absolute limit, and she tirelessly explored and practiced her abilities.
The difficulty in distorting the world through thought was that she needed to make the scene in her imagination as precise as possible.
During the process of constructing it in her mind, even the slightest stray thought could cause the final result to differ drastically from what she intended.
"Clear mind, still water!"
Haruhi Suzumiya did her best to calm her naturally restless personality and eliminate interference from unrelated thoughts.
She brought her palms together.
Clap—
The planet and the world once again transformed unpredictably before everyone's eyes according to her will.
"Commander, how good do I have to get before I pass and you'll take me to the Starsea Empire and other universes to play?"
During a break in training, little Haruhi was still obsessed with the grand ambition of joining the Astral Express on its adventures.
"Two requirements."
Setsuna answered succinctly.
"First, you need to be able to keep the damage caused by your unconscious reality distortions within a reasonable range."
"For example, if you're constantly damaging the structure of the universe or changing continental plates, there's no way I can take you back to the capital. You need to reduce both the scale and frequency of the damage."
"Second, you need to gain a basic grasp of how to actively use your superpowers to interfere with reality and achieve your intended goal precisely without causing accidents. If I ask you to change a planet's climate, you can't accidentally blow up its star."
"Oh!—"
Haruhi was bursting with enthusiasm.
"Is this a superpower exam? This is way more fun than school tests!!"
"Just watch, Commander. Give me three months... no, one month, and I'll get a perfect score!!!"
...
Two weeks later.
"This is pretty good, isn't it? She's only been practicing for half a month, and Haruhi hardly causes any major disasters anymore."
Inside a laboratory floating in midair.
Setsuna sat Catgirl Herta on his lap, gently running his fingers through her silky flaxen hair before pinching one of her small cat ears and smoothing down the soft fur covering it.
Thanks to Haruhi, among the countless Herta puppets created by the real Herta, the one accompanying Express Crew One had become a unique individual: a flesh-and-blood Catgirl Herta.
The little Herta had already been adorable as a puppet. After becoming a catgirl, she was even softer and cuter, making it impossible to resist petting her a little more.
"Commander, I understand your fondness for catgirls and beast-eared girls, but could you please refrain from playing with my body during working hours?"
"On behalf of both myself and Madam Herta, I formally protest."
Herta puffed out her cheeks, checking Haruhi's monitoring data on the holographic display while complaining.
Naturally, Setsuna paid no attention.
"When we get back, I'll have the real Herta join us too. I like both of you."
"..."
That sentence was transmitted to the real Herta at the same time.
The real Herta froze for a moment, realized she couldn't outplay Setsuna, and simply redirected the conversation back to a field she was familiar with.
"...Haruhi Suzumiya really has improved quickly. By avoiding and suppressing certain thoughts, she can already prevent universe-level disasters in most situations."
"Still, she occasionally causes some trouble. Hmm... that's just because little girls have vivid imaginations. It's hard to blame her."
When she had first begun practicing, Haruhi would constantly conjure absurd things because of her overly active imagination.
Various evil gods and Demon Lords from anime, random aliens, or even universe-ending apocalyptic crises.
As long as she found something "interesting," the slightest thought about it could twist the entire world.
After gradually becoming familiar with her ability, she could now consciously avoid those situations and prevent herself from causing major disasters.
"True. Probably because she's genuinely interested in superpowers."
Setsuna smiled, then suddenly remembered something.
"By the way, I have a task for you and little Grey."
"Add another research direction and project to the Research Department. We need a device capable of stabilizing reality and preventing our native world from being affected by unknown external interference."
"Preferably something at least somewhat portable, so we can deploy it into other universes—even if it has to be a celestial-scale structure. The Eternal Snowfall's pocket universes can hold it."
"Hmm... you can call it a Reality Anchor. I'm not sure whether we'll be able to find one in another world someday. If we can't, we'll figure out how to build one ourselves."
"For Haruhi Suzumiya?"
The real Herta asked curiously.
"Not entirely."
Setsuna thought for a moment.
A Reality Anchor could certainly prevent Haruhi from unconsciously causing trouble, but it would also have enormous applications in other worlds.
It could ensure the Starsea Empire's home territory remained structurally stable, protecting it from unknown interference and distortion while reinforcing its spacetime and reality.
When facing beings capable of altering the material world through sheer personal will, anchoring a stable reality would also be immensely useful during conquest operations.
"Oh, another huge project."
The nanomachine scratched her head.
"Anchoring reality is essentially anchoring spacetime across the past, present, and future. And if it also has to withstand powers on the level of Demon Gods or above, then at minimum this would be a Galactic Wonder-class megastructure."
"Actually, I was hoping we could just go to another world and grab one to study as a reference. It'd save us some trouble. Something like a Scranton Reality Anchor... It doesn't matter if the original isn't powerful enough. We can always brute-force a miracle with enough scale."
"Huh?"
Setsuna's face went dark.
"Let's focus on the actual work first. I have absolutely no desire to go there for the time being, thank you."