Early in the morning on April 1st, Jin woke up.
It was only five o’clock, but it was already light outside. Feeling a small pang of loneliness from the absence of the warmth that should have been beside him, Jin sat up.
"Father, are you awake?"
"Yeah, Reiko. Good morning."
After changing, Jin rinsed his mouth and washed his face. The sky was lightly overcast.
He ate the breakfast prepared by Soleil and Luna and headed straight to the workshop.
"All right, time to pick up where I left off yesterday."
Barely waiting for his food to settle, Jin went to see No. 700672.
"Jin-dono, what brings you here today?"
"Last night, I conducted an experiment. It went like this..."
Jin explained the details of the test involving Mityanite.
"Hmm, intriguing."
No. 700672 pondered for a moment. In terms of higher mathematics, he far surpassed Jin.
"Jin-dono, you used square waves? That is quite a clever idea. It is also logical that a Mana Explosion would cause space to vibrate....Are you familiar with the impulse function?"
"...No, I'm ashamed to admit I don't know it."
On Earth, it was known as an impulse function or a delta function. It was a function used to represent a state where a maximum-intensity wave is emitted over an infinitesimal period of time. This state was said to contain sine waves of every possible frequency.
In other words, it included ultra-high frequencies, the effect of which apparently caused space to vibrate. No. 700672 explained it so clearly that Jin was able to grasp the concept, if only vaguely.
"An impulse is difficult to generate, but square waves can be controlled. I must commend you on that choice."
"Uh, thank you."
"Now, do you know the trick to creating proper square waves?"
"What kind of trick?" Jin asked honestly.
"To make it easier for you to understand, Jin-dono, let us use electricity as an analogy. In this scenario, you are controlling the voltage to describe a square wave. However, if you set the voltage too high, it takes too long to ramp up. This not only prevents the frequency from rising but also prevents the wave from forming a clean square shape."
"Then... what should I do?"
"That is the trick. Keep the voltage to the absolute minimum necessary and increase the current instead. Since electric power is the product of current and voltage, if you halve the voltage, you must double the current."
"...In terms of magic, that means increasing the mana volume while lowering the peak value of the magic, right?"
"Exactly."
Since Jin was practically a novice regarding electrical circuits, this advice was incredibly beneficial.
"I'll try that as soon as I get back."
"Indeed."
At that moment, Neige offered a report.
"Father, space has vibrated again."
"What?"
It was the ninth spatial vibration.
"The location is... on the orbit of Ars, about fifteen degrees ahead."
Perhaps aided by the fact that Ars was in revolution, the source was getting considerably closer.
"How ominous."
"It is....I'm going back to continue the experiments."
"Very well. Do your best."
Jin decided to return to Hourai Island. He now had a mountain of ideas he wanted to test.
"Time to experiment."
He incorporated the trick he had learned from No. 700672 into the Prototype 2 he had built yesterday.
"I can just use the Mityanite to amplify the signal since the amplitude of the mana waves will be smaller."
Since he knew the methodology, the work was finished in short order. He prepared to conduct the experiment just as he had the day before.
"Reiko, I'm counting on you."
"Yes, please leave it to me."
Reiko activated the Prototype 3 in her hand.
"Oh!?"
This time, despite it being bright daylight, a luminescence phenomenon was clearly visible.
"It's definitely gotten brighter."
Jin judged that this was likely due to the increased frequency.
"Let's see how high the frequency can go."
Jin tinkered with Prototype 3 for about three minutes.
"I've set it to a level just one step before the limit. Reiko, if you would."
"Yes, Father."
Reiko took the prototype once more and activated it.
"Fire!"
"Whoa!"
The device operated for less than a single second, but the clouds floating in the sky appeared to distort visibly.
"Laojun, was that...?"
『Yes, My Lord. I believe space itself distorted.』
"No way..."
『It was not a meteorological phenomenon like a heat haze. The image from the Peeping Telescope, which observes mana waves in addition to light waves, was also distorted.』
"I-I see..."
The output of a force generator was a power within the same system as gravity. Jin surmised that it might be natural for it to be capable of distorting space.
"If I increase the output or the frequency further, would it be possible to open a hole in space?"
『The probability is considered high.』
"Hmm..."
Jin gave a wry smile at the realization that he might be able to artificially create spatial vibrations and holes. It was interesting in its own right, but it was subtly different from what he was actually looking for.
"I don't really want to open a hole in space... If anything, I want to plug them."
As he said that, a sudden flash of inspiration hit him.
"What would happen if I hit a spot that was about to open up with this output?"
In aircraft design, there was a technique where turbulence was intentionally generated in the airflow to prevent flow separation, thereby making the wings less prone to stalling. Jin had remembered that principle.
『The possibilities are twofold, My Lord. It might make a hole more likely to open, or it might make it harder for one to form.』
Would it further weaken the fabric of space, or would it disrupt the area and make it harder for a breach to occur? Or, there was also the possibility that it would forcibly erase a singularity that was about to make contact.
"But it's not like I can just test that theory."
Jin sighed, realizing it would be difficult to bring such a complex idea to fruition in a short period.
"I feel like we could prevent spatial vibrations if we could apply vibrations with an opposing phase....But, no."
Analyzing the waveform and frequency of the spatial vibrations would take time. He didn't think it could be done in the mere thousandth of a second they would have. It was a frustrating realization.
"I wonder if there’s some other effective method along these lines..."
Time was running out, but he wanted to increase his options by even one.
"It might be a futile struggle. But I refuse to just sit back and watch it happen."
Jin desperately racked his brain.
"I wonder if there’s a way to push back against this other universe as it approaches."
If only that were possible, he mused.
"Even if we can't push the whole universe, maybe we can smooth out the specific areas where the two are about to make contact."
Using a bubble analogy, it was like denting the surface right where it was about to touch another bubble. Since the actual contact point was likely minute, perhaps a small distortion in space would be enough to prevent the collision.
『If you wish to dent space, that would require gravity.』
"So it comes to that..."
Jin began to ponder how he might apply gravity magic to achieve such a feat.