"I don't think you're here just to chat."

"Uh... and what if I am?"

She let the lie roll out smooth as steam, her face veiled behind the teacup’s rim like a crescent moon. That was a blade Yekase had sharpened for years.

Even against a hero, it cut.

Professor F had let Dr Ika’s name slip a moment ago, casual as a pebble in a pond. The ripples made her tense. Even that thank‑you felt like a threat, and it tripped her defenses.

All told, Yekase preferred to believe 3333 spared her for a half‑real friendship, rather than trust a seasoned hero. The latter set off that siren that she’d be used. She’d done her time as a corporate drone.

"Caution isn’t a flaw. A hero’s first job is to keep themself alive. Take Crimson Field—he always transforms in the worst places. Scolding does nothing."

...

"Omega Ray," Yekase blurted.

"I want to know how Omega Ray is supplied."

Professor F traced the question’s roots, then answered. "Omega Ray comes from space. It’s a ubiquitous cosmic radiation. Build a receiver and anyone can tap it. If you’re interested, Dr Yekase, I can hand you the schematics."

You’ll hand me the schematics, just like that?

Yekase frowned. A receiver should be core tech. If it leaked so easily, the streets would be full of Omega Ray ships by now.

The other side knew she wasn’t a layman. She wouldn’t toss a fake blueprint. The sincerity rang clear as metal.

"...Sigh."

She let out a breath.

Two days ago, she’d have doubled down and played dumb. Now she couldn’t.

Have I gone soft—because of that woman?

"Flash Energy... is trickier. First you need a vacuum. Then a particle collision. If there’s a strong emotional fluctuation nearby during the process, particles that should annihilate can lose symmetry and remain. That residue becomes Flash Energy."

"Hm? Emotional fluctuation... that’s not rigorous. How can colliding particles sense human emotion?"

"But it exists," Yekase said with a shrug. "I wondered too. I repeated the runs for ages. The fact doesn’t move. Luckily Flash Energy is pretty stable. Once it forms, it doesn’t vanish easily. You can store it."

"Looks like you’ve lost the conditions to extract it."

"...Yeah. The machine’s gone. It drew the wrong eyes. Getting another is hard. And a collider costs a fortune."

She allowed herself that small lie. Professor F knew Dr Ika; waving the whole ‘escaped the Sinister Organization’ flag might backfire.

"So you turned to other Infinite Power..."

Professor F fell into thought.

"I can’t help with Flash Energy. But ask me anything about Omega Ray."

She snapped her fingers. A robot whirred over, carrying a small cube like the Beast King Squadron’s transformation device. It set it before Yekase.

The cube fit a palm. Like a 2x2 Rubik’s cube, one tier less than Crimson Field and the others’ device. All white, with a faint, milk‑thin glow.

Yekase glanced at Professor F. With a nod for permission, she picked it up.

The touch was moon‑cool, a whisper of space. Up close, a fine humming threaded from within, as if bees nested in crystal—Omega Ray reflecting, decaying, singing.

"This is my new engine prototype. It takes rays from a receiver battery and converts them into power for ships and suits. Working name: Overdrive V3."

"They use V2 now?"

"Super No. 1."

Uh. So your numbering is vibes‑based.

She’d pegged her as rigorous, sleek, school‑forged. Turns out, in the small seams, she was kind of approachable.

Yekase tried to twist it like a Rubik’s cube. It wouldn’t turn. Instead, with a soft pop, it split in half and showed its core.

It looked a touch more complex than a Flash Energy engine. Lots of reflector structures. Not too much more.

"Mmh..."

"That one’s yours."

"Seriously?"

"They’re samples. I can make plenty. But... I do want to hear about the Flashblade System. Anything."

Professor F leaned in without noticing.

Her expression stayed composed to stern. But she burned for it—uncharted ground.

On that, Yekase was the same.

Midnight. A cavernous hall bright as day. Two people sat with tea at the prow of a steel leviathan.

Unbidden, each saw a wide flower field behind the other’s shoulder.

It was the instinct of fighters... no, of researchers. Even if neither could bend iron, the keepers of knowledge never win by brute strength.

"We covered its source, so let’s talk nature and use. At room temperature, Flash Energy is an inert fluid. It barely reacts with its surroundings. Touch won’t harm you. In theory, you could pour it into a plastic water bottle."

"That’s a witty image. You’d make a good teacher."

In truth, at the start, she had used a water bottle for her first vial of Flash Energy. The lab aunt had whisked every beaker away for a noon sterilize, silent as a cat.

And why she could carry a water bottle in... well, that was a lab‑management thing.

She let herself miss that youth with rules as soft as dough, then went on. "But Flash Energy shows special behavior with several metals. I’m not even sure it counts as a reaction. It ‘seeps in,’ diffusing into every corner of the metal. I call that state activation."

"What does activation do to the metal?"

"It makes it lighter, harder, tougher. The wonder is, even activated, Flash Energy still responds to emotional fluctuations. It can reshape the metal according to the user’s will."

In practice, that’s how the Flashblade Key grows to combat size... and how a full suit appears from nothing.

Professor F weighed the implications.

Then, in a voice tugged between wanting to believe and not daring to, she pressed, "So, if we used that to build a combining robot—"

"By designing specific deformations at the joints, we can bypass compatibility. Which means we can go all‑out at the design stage."

The woman across drew in a deep breath.

Why doesn’t Omega Ray come with this kind of convenient super‑robot logic? Her face practically said it.

Yekase couldn’t help the sigh. "Humanity’s exploration of Infinite Power is still shallow. Our generation crosses the river by feeling for stones. We discover properties by hand in the lab. So much time lost."

The six great Infinite Powers—or so people said. Truth is, Yekase wasn’t sure how many there really were. “Six” just skipped the lost and the obscure, and grouped the strong, common energies in current global use.

They were:

Soul Power, which stands for spiritual unity and harmony;

Omega Ray, the rising cosmic energy;

Sorcery, common in the West;

Mind Energy, common in the East;

Neptune Energy, found in craters on Neptune’s surface;

and Demon King Power, the force Shadow Curtain International used to grasp at the world.

...Flash Energy didn’t make the list.

In the end, that “six” was about fame more than raw force or grandeur.

Sorcery and Mind Energy could call themselves Infinite Power partly because public education made them as ubiquitous as AC power basics.

Flash Energy was still a rare field. Its name barely existed. Only insiders would even nod.

"Dr Yekase."

A warm hand closed over hers.

In Professor F’s jewel‑bright red eyes, the reflection was passion, stark against her cool shell.

"If humanity is ever to reach the Causal Horizon, it will be aboard a robot. To get there, we must forge a steel giant that wipes out all filth and evil. And that first step—"

"Wait, how did we—"

"—we take together. Omega Ray and Flash Energy, hand in hand, stepping forward!"

Yekase nearly tipped backward at the momentum. She pulled her hand free and shook her head fast. "No no no no... How did we skip to Causal Horizon and steel gods? Did I miss a chapter? Did time accelerate?"

"You like going step by step."

Professor F hid a smile behind her hand. "Then we’ll start with a basic hybrid‑energy unit. But colliders are tightly restricted. Any channels, Dr Yekase? I have friends who are very good at keeping their heads down."

"If I had a channel, I’d already be using it."

"Then what powered your earlier research...? As far as I know, universities don’t have that kind of resource..."

"Earlier..."

Crap. True.

Particle colliders are precise and absurdly expensive. Hard to get at home. That was one reason Flash Energy stalled. How did a D‑rank outfit of a few dozen—Unrecognized Consortium X—just happen to own one?!

Yekase realized she’d never asked herself that.

She couldn’t tell a new ally, mid‑trust‑building, "I don’t know." So she spun:

"That collider... was my elders’ legacy. Years ago, in a warehouse back in my countryside hometown, I found it buried deep. It still ran. I followed the notes they left and kept going."

"I see..." Professor F bought it so hard her eyes glistened.

"A lonely exploration across two generations... remarkable. All right, I’ve decided."

"Decided what...?" Yekase asked, careful as a cat.

"I’m going to design a robot for Flashblade Red. She’ll be an honorary member of the Beast King Squadron."

An extra Ranger?

We’ve only talked this long and you’ve handed me blueprints, a sample, and now a ride. How are you, Iceberg Professor, easier to hustle than Crimson Field?!

"Inspiration is pouring in... An energy born from the void of symmetric annihilation, cradled by a feeling fierce enough to move the cosmos—worthy of the king of feelings."

No no no... the extraction part is kind of right... but this is so edgelord dramatic. Are you secretly from anime land?

Professor F had already turned to a whiteboard. The marker whispered. Lines bloomed like lightning.

"Silhouette... dominantly red... shoulder cannons... an embedded cockpit... hard, clean lines like the Blade Armor..."

—Snap!

She capped the pen and tapped it onto the table.

"You handle the Flashblade System interface."

"O‑okay..."

Yekase leaned in to read. The scrawl was chaos. She caught only a few bold words:

Emergency.

Drill.

Engage.

Nova.

"Eden..."

"Is that the name you’re giving it?"

"Uh... no—"

"The paradise in the Bible, a far shore where sin gets scrubbed clean. Eden... Dragon God Eden... I like it. No need to blush, like a dawn cloud."

"Crimson Field named the Dragon God Pioneer the same way, in a lightning spark that split the dark."

Whatever. Suit yourself, I thought, like letting the oar drift on a quiet river.

...Wait. Don’t you worship a Dragon God called Zhuo'erjin? Is it really okay to braid a Bible tale into that, like mixing two streams?

"Right, what's Flashblade Red's goal in becoming a hero?"

"To protect herself and her family, I guess... She never really told me straight, like a lantern kept low in the wind."

"Our Beast King Squadron’s ideal is to topple Shadow Curtain International and build a new world with no Sinister Organization, like clearing storm clouds to bare blue sky."

Yekase jolted, like a sparrow startled from a branch. "That... sounds a bit hard, right? No—how, exactly? Shadow Curtain International’s been there so long, like a mountain older than us, since before we were born..."

"It's always been this way, so that makes it right?" Professor F asked back, voice steady as a honed blade.

"I believe doers of good should receive good, and doers of evil should face retribution. Is that wrong?" Her words fell like stones into still water.

"The principle stands, sure... but..." Yekase’s doubt drifted like mist over a river.

"If it takes decades, then this year is year one. If it takes generations, then we are generation one. If it takes hundreds of thousands of robots, then the Dragon God Pioneer is unit one." Her cadence marched like drums before dawn.

"Dr. Yekase, I often dream. The Dragon God's claw becomes a lawnmower, humming through grass like soft rain. The Dragon God's foot becomes a lifting platform, steady as bedrock. The Dragon God's head becomes a rusted statue in a memorial park, sleeping under moss and seagull cries."

"They’re no longer needed, because the world has no enemies left for them to fight—like a sea gone calm after a long storm."

Yekase watched her in silence, as if facing a cold star on a winter night.

Now she finally understood how fair Crimson Field’s judgment of Professor F was. Standing before this slender woman felt like standing before a sheathed blade; a thin chill of fear pricked like frost.

"...Sorry. I got a little carried away," Professor F said, the wave falling back into the bay.

Yekase shook her head, as if brushing off drifting snow.

"I'm looking forward to the mockups for Dragon God Eden. I'll design the Flash Energy drive as fast as I can and hand it to you."