"Jin-nii, that’s...!"
Hearing the words "Ether Stampede," Elsa’s expression turned pale.
"Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. An Ether Stampede is far too dangerous."
Jin spoke in a soothing tone to calm her down.
"Father, do you have a specific plan in mind?"
Reiko, who had just returned the Voracious Grasshopper to the barrier, turned toward Jin to ask.
"I do. Essentially, the free ether inside these grasshoppers is identical to the free ether contained within magi-crystals. Or rather, given the purity, it might be more accurate to call them living magi-stones."
Understanding dawned on Elsa’s face.
"I see. So, you intend to use the free ether within the Voracious Grasshoppers for something?"
"Exactly." Jin nodded to her. "Let's head back to the laboratory for now."
He led the way, and Elsa, Saki, and Goose followed behind. Reiko kept pace right by his side.
"Now then, let's get started."
Jin sat down in a chair in the workshop, resetting his focus.
"Let’s get started? Don’t tell me you haven’t actually thought of anything yet," Saki said, eyeing him suspiciously.
"No, no, that’s not it. The general strategy is decided. Our goal is a 'gentle' Ether Stampede."
"A gentle Ether Stampede...?" Elsa echoed his words. "I don’t think it really counts as a 'stampede' at that point."
Jin gave a wry smile at her rare bit of snark.
"Fair point. Basically, we’re going to use the grasshoppers' own free ether to wake up a massive spell."
"Hmm, I see. In that case, we’ll either burn them to death... or use that freezing method you mentioned earlier," Goose said with a smirk.
"Yeah, I think that’s best. It kills two birds with one stone. Since fire would impact the surrounding area, freezing is definitely the way to go."
"Jin, freezing them is all well and good, but won’t they just start moving again once they thaw out?" Saki asked worriedly.
"That is a concern. That’s why we’ll gather them up while they can't move, but..."
"And what do we do after we gather them?"
"...Maybe we could make them into tsukudani?"
"What!?"
"Haaaah!?"
Both Elsa and Saki recoiled, apparently taking his joke at face value.
"Wait, it’s a joke! In my world, people eat locusts as tsukudani, so I just made the association. It was a joke."
"...Jin-nii, jokes like that don't suit you at all."
"Yeah, seriously! Not cool!"
"..."
Jin found himself thoroughly shot down by the two women.
"Hehe, but it really would be a waste," Saki added.
"What would?"
"I mean, it's a waste of resources. They’ve gone to all the trouble of accumulating all that free ether, and we’re just going to let it all go to waste by burning it up or something?"
Saki was likely only half-serious, but her comment sparked an idea in both Jin and Elsa.
"Tsukudani... huh..."
"Are you still on that, Jin!?" Saki’s gaze turned decidedly cold.
"No, not that. I was thinking that, like Saki said, there might be a way to put the free ether they've gathered to good use."
"If a spell for that exists, it would certainly be the best outcome," Elsa agreed.
"Wait a second... there is one!"
"Eh? Jin, what is it?"
"We can adapt the ether condenser technology. We'll use it to strip the free ether away from them entirely."
"Ah...! And then we can store the harvested free ether in a mana tank."
Elsa immediately caught on to what Jin was suggesting.
The mana tank—or ether tank—was technology originally used for Elena. Even though it was an older design, it seemed it was about to be useful in a very unexpected way.
"Yeah, that’s perfect. But what happens to the Voracious Grasshoppers once their free ether is gone?"
When Goose voiced the obvious question, Jin suggested they put it to the test.
"First, I’ll modify an ether condenser to channel the collected free ether into a mana tank."
Since it was Jin at the helm, the modifications were complete in a mere five minutes.
"Alright, here goes."
He moved the ether condenser near the three captured grasshoppers and hit the switch to wake up the device. Though invisible to the naked eye, the surrounding free ether began to condense and flow into the mana tank.
"Okay, Stand Still."
After running it for about a minute, Jin shut down the condenser and examined the state of the ether inside the grasshoppers.
"Analyze... consistent with my hypothesis. It worked."
Every drop of free ether had been drained from the insects.
"They've stopped moving."
The Voracious Grasshoppers were now perfectly still.
"Hmm. It looks like they won't be coming back to life after this."
By completely draining their internal ether, the pests could be neutralized. It was the same principle as a magi suffering an Ether Stampede. The plan was finally taking shape.
"We'll collect the neutralized ones and use them as fish feed."
"That sounds like a good plan."
As they were magical beasts that existed outside the natural ecosystem, such a fate was necessary. Jin thought vaguely that by putting them to use at the very end, they could at least be returned to the natural cycle of life.
"Alright, let's get to work on the actual magic tools for the countermeasure."
"I'll help."
"Jin, is there anything we can do to help?" Saki asked, feeling a bit restless.
"Right. When we actually deploy this, we'll want to gather as many grasshoppers as possible for processing. Could you two investigate their ecology?"
What did they like? What did they avoid? How strong were their mandibles, and what was the hardest material they could chew through? How well could they adapt to changes in temperature or environment?
Jin tasked them with gathering as much data as possible using the remaining six specimens.
"Alright, leave it to us!"
Goose was eager to start.
Laozi, Laojun’s mobile terminal, moved to assist them. This was the standard pattern for when Saki performed material analysis.
"First, let's find out if they prefer plant matter, animal matter, or minerals."
"Hehe, sounds like a plan. It’s always best to narrow things down one step at a time."
Saki and Goose immediately began discussing their experimental procedures.
"We'll leave that to them. Let's get started on our end."
"Mm."
Jin and his team began their work as well.
"Reiko, I'll need some dark-attribute magi-crystals."
"Yes, Father."
Jin chose the dark-attribute because of its high affinity for magic that interacted with Space.
"Jin-nii, please explain the magi-sequence to me."
"Of course. First..."
Jin, Elsa, and Reiko threw themselves into the task.