"Onii-chan, what about lunch?"
"Ah, we've already eaten, so don't worry about us."
Hanna nodded, satisfied with Jin's answer.
"Right, the time difference."
While Hanna and Martha had their lunch, Jin, Elsa, and Reiko waited in the workshop.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Onii-chan!" Hanna called out as she emerged from the house after finishing her meal.
She looked at Jin and said, "I mentioned an experiment, but first, there's something I want to show you."
She began walking toward Jin Castle.
"Something you want to show us? I wonder what it is."
Jin, Elsa, and Reiko followed after her. In less than ten minutes, they arrived at the castle.
"Um, let's see... it's in the lounge on the second floor."
There was a lounge area by the windows on the second floor, designed for chatting, light snacks, or reading. It was a space that almost no one ever used.
When they arrived, Jin saw what she was talking about.
"Blueprints?"
"Yep! This is blueprint number one for a free ether transfer device!"
Hanna’s declaration was a shock to the system.
"What!?"
"Hanna-chan, you drew these?"
Jin, Elsa, and Reiko were all equally astonished. Jin had struggled immensely with that technology and had never been able to create a Magi Machine that functioned to his satisfaction. The devices found on the seized mobile base and the Disaster had been destroyed beyond repair, making them impossible to analyze. Since Jin felt it was somewhat of a redundant project by that point, he had simply let it go.
But if Hanna had managed to reproduce the technology, that was a different story entirely.
"Oh, keep in mind these are just blueprints. There's a chance it might not work when we actually try to build it, okay?"
"I suppose that's true, but still..."
Still half-dazed, Jin stared intently at the blueprints.
"Well, you see..." Hanna began her explanation. "I put a lot of thought into it. First, I asked Laojun for details on how a Warp Gate functions."
"That’s impressive, Hanna."
"And so, I started thinking of a Warp Gate as something that connects two points through a subspace tunnel. I figured that 'tunnel' has a spatial gradient, which is usually set up to be a one-way path."
"Right."
This was exactly what Jin had hypothesized himself. Seeing Hanna arrive at the same conclusion on her own proved that her talent was extraordinary.
"So, when an object enters the starting point of this tunnel, it's forced to move through it. But my theory is that the gate pulls on the center of gravity of the object being transferred, and anything attached to it gets pulled along for the ride. I mentioned that before, didn't I?"
"Yeah, I remember."
Following that logic, if an object were wet, the moisture on its surface would be teleported along with it. In the case of fur or feathers, the air trapped between them would also be transferred.
"With that as the base, I thought about how we could send free ether."
"I'm listening." Jin found himself completely absorbed in Hanna's explanation.
"First of all, you have to increase the concentration of the free ether."
"That makes sense."
By increasing the ether concentration on the sending side, you create a disparity with the receiving end. If the concentrations are identical, there is no reason for the ether to move.
"You can increase free ether concentration, right, Onii-chan?"
"Yeah, I can."
Jin had already created a device called an ether condenser in the past.
"By using that, you can raise the concentration on the sending side to at least ten times that of the receiving side."
In this context, "concentration" referred to the ratio relative to the spatial capacity. A free ether concentration of one hundred percent would be the maximum amount that a given volume of space could hold.
According to Jin's theories, free ether was one of the fundamental elements composing space, arranged in a cubic lattice. So, what happened when the amount of free ether increased beyond that hundred percent threshold?
The answer was "precipitation."
He used the chemical term precipitation for lack of a better word, though the actual phenomenon was unique. If a physical object was present, the ether would penetrate it to create magi-isotopes or form mana materials like magi-stones and magi-rocks. If no object was present, the free ether would precipitate on its own and undergo crystallization. These were magi-crystals.
"Hmm, I hadn't looked at it from that perspective."
"Hanna-chan, you're amazing."
Hanna's explanation was far beyond what Jin had expected, particularly her insight into the formation of magi-crystals.
"I always thought magi-crystals were formed when free ether filled the gaps in the crystal structure of a pure substance," Jin admitted.
Hanna nodded at his words.
"Yeah, I think normal magi-crystals are like that. But what I was imagining was a crystal made of pure free ether."
"I wonder if such a thing even exists?"
"Hmm, I don't know. It's just a guess. Maybe we'll find it somewhere in outer space one day. Anyway, back to the ether transfer!"
Hanna spoke with the awareness that her theories might not be entirely accurate—an attitude Jin recognized as that of a true researcher.
"Right. If we go with the premise that the gate 'pulls the center of gravity of the object and everything attached follows,' then a single transfer would only send one particle of free ether at a time."
Logically, that was correct. It would be the same for air molecules.
"So, all we have to do is figure out a way to group the free ether together."
"I think I see where you're going with this."
"The first way is to prepare a container for the free ether and put the ether inside... although, if you just leave it in a place with a high concentration of free ether, the concentration inside will naturally match the surroundings, right?"
"That's right."
Jin could already guess what her next point would be and waited for her to say it.
"If you transfer that container and open it at the receiving end, the free ether inside will spill out, won't it? I haven't tested it, though."
"Yeah, it would work exactly like that, Hanna."
In practice, they would use a mana tank rather than just a simple container, but the underlying theory was sound.
"Then you send that container back through a second Warp Gate, fill it with ether again, and send it back."
It was essentially a piston-style transport system using two Warp Gates. Based on Hanna's logic, it would likely be quite efficient.
"...But I think anyone could have thought that much up."
"What!?"
To Jin's growing astonishment, it seemed Hanna wasn't finished.
"What you really want to do, Onii-chan, is transfer the free ether directly without using a container at all, right?"
"Well, yeah, I suppose so..."
"So I thought about that too. That's 'Method Number Two.' It's still just a theory, though."
Jin was past being impressed; he was absolutely staggered by the freedom of Hanna's imagination as he listened to the rest of her explanation.
"Did you ever think about trying to send free ether using a transporter?"
"..."
Jin was speechless. Elsa also seemed to have lost her voice.
That was the very first thing Jin had tried, but he remembered that his experiments back then had shown it had no effect. He hadn't approached it from that angle since.
"See, I think it might work if we change the magi-formulae for 'range specification' and 'transfer target.'...Though this part is completely just my imagination."
"You're incredible, Hanna!"
"Kya!"
Realizing that her proposed method had a very high chance of success, Jin scooped Hanna up in his arms.
"Let's try an experiment right away!"
Elsa watched the two of them with a warm, gentle smile.