Crossover Shipgirls: Building a Dimensional Empire from Scratch

”Ha!—”

After learning about a proper interstellar civilization like the Starsea Empire and all kinds of supernatural beings, Haruhi Suzumiya’s worldview had been completely refreshed.

She now felt that aliens flying spaceships, all sorts of bizarre monsters, and even the existence of magical creatures and Demon Lords were perfectly reasonable.

The Starsea Empire itself was ironclad proof.

The only reason she had never encountered any of them before was that the universe was simply too vast, and humanity had yet to venture into space.

For all she knew, there might even be beings known as ”gods” silently watching over the world from dimensions beyond human perception.

In an instant, hundreds upon hundreds of strange ideas sprang into her mind.

”Ah, could all the manga and movies I’ve seen before actually be real? Besides aliens, are there people in this universe who can use magic too?”

”If Demon Lords exist, then are there heroes too? Hmm... what about goddesses?...”

”Slimes? Vampires? Dragons?... Could they all be living somewhere in some distant star system too?!...”

The ”common sense” and ”reason” that had once constrained her vanished into thin air, and Haruhi Suzumiya began reassessing the world from an entirely new perspective.

Time travelers, espers, and aliens ought to exist. Demon Lords, demons, gods, and angels ought to exist too.

And all the strange life-forms she had once heard about or imagined might really be living on some distant star somewhere in the universe.

Perhaps they were waiting for her to discover them. Or maybe they had seen the message she had written and would come to the Solar System to find her.

Boom!!—

An unknowable force spread outward with Haruhi at its center.

Setsuna could clearly sense some kind of power overwriting and distorting the entire universe.

It contained all of Haruhi Suzumiya’s wild imaginings. Gods, Demon Lords, aliens, and all manner of unbelievable things that had once been considered impossible were now, in her mind, ”reasonable” and ”things that should exist.”

Galaxies tens of millions of light-years away were kneaded and reshaped like dough, twisted and flattened as warped, grotesque life-forms were born from chaotic storms of energy.

Even in higher-dimensional space, conceptual embryonic forms resembling gods began to emerge.

Within Haruhi Suzumiya’s consciousness, the universe was like a drawing board. Whatever she wanted, she could simply paint into existence.

If she believed there ought to be a god somewhere in the universe, then a life-form resembling a ”god” would come into being.

Even when she herself never consciously noticed it, a single unconscious thought could alter the structure of the universe.

Boom!—

Distant star clusters twisted and deformed as the sound of space fracturing rang out nearby.

The sensors aboard the Astral Express went berserk with errors, alarms blaring one after another.

”The structure of the universe is changing again!!!”

Himeko cried out.

Last time, a single thought from Haruhi had somehow conjured up an entire Trisolaran civilization. Now that her imagination was running completely wild, who knew what might happen?

Crack, crack—

Haruhi Suzumiya had absolutely no idea what she was doing. Sitting in the observation car with her head propped on one hand, she pondered deeply, completely immersed in her boundless imagination.

”Gods... what would gods be like?...”

”Demon Lords... Demon Lords must live in hell, right? They have to be incredibly strong, strong enough to swallow the sun in one bite! No, wait, maybe they could swallow an entire galaxy!...”

”And what if there are aliens even stronger than Demon Lords?...”

The space around her shattered and reformed. Beyond the Astral Express, the world itself seemed like glass, fractures spreading across it with a series of sharp cracks.

Just as reality was about to be twisted once again—

”Stop!”

Setsuna stepped forward and pressed a finger against little Haruhi’s forehead.

The trembling space instantly calmed, and the raging universe returned to its original state.

Hum...

A warm power flowed into her body, and the girl immediately became drowsy.

”Rein in that imagination of yours and get some rest.”

”Mmm...”

Haruhi murmured softly.

”Huh? Weird. I only woke up a little while ago...”

”Zzz... Zzz...”

...

Half an hour later.

Inside the Astral Express’ medical car, Herta conducted a full-body examination on Haruhi Suzumiya.

Everything was checked one by one, from her physical fitness to her compatibility with magic power, spiritual power, and various other forms of energy, with precision down to the molecular level.

[Name: Haruhi Suzumiya]

[Sex: Female; Height: XXX; Weight: XXX]

[Physical Condition: Healthy]

[Magic Power Compatibility: Standard]

[Mental State: ...]

”...”

Herta skimmed through the examination report, then turned around.

”Commander, it’s strange. Theoretically speaking, Haruhi Suzumiya is an ordinary human.”

”Her body is exactly that of a first-year middle school girl. Her athletic ability is slightly above average, but aside from that, there’s nothing unusual about her.”

”?”

”You call changing the world with a single thought ’nothing unusual’?”

Gudako and Stelle cast suspicious looks at her.

”It’s the truth. Haruhi Suzumiya has never undergone a super-transformation surgery or any form of genetic modification, nor does she have mechanical prosthetics implanted in her body. There isn’t a trace of magic power or spiritual power inside her.”

The Herta puppet tossed a stack of reports toward them.

”Her physical strength is completely standard. She’s just an ordinary human. To use a somewhat inappropriate comparison, under normal circumstances, she couldn’t even beat an average adult, and there is nothing particularly remarkable about her stamina either.”

”Then what exactly is her ability?...”

”I don’t know.”

Herta shook her head, a rare admission from her.

”It isn’t Imaginary energy, it isn’t Honkai energy, and it isn’t any other form of energy we’re familiar with. The way she achieves her goals is fundamentally different from ours.”

”For example, if the Commander wanted to create a galaxy, he’d need to invoke the authority of the Herrscher of Reason, then use Honkai energy, Imaginary energy, or something similar to construct stars and planets... but Haruhi Suzumiya doesn’t need any of that.”

”All she needs is a thought that she personally considers reasonable, and the world will change according to that thought. No energy expenditure is required. The world simply becomes the way she wants it to be.”

”Of course, most of the time these thoughts are unconscious and uncontrollable. It might be nothing more than a sudden flash of inspiration or a whim.”

An ability that operated purely according to personal preference and made the entire world revolve around its user was simply too absurd. It was somewhat similar to the Divine Protection skills in Kumoko’s world, only several orders of magnitude greater in scale.

Even someone as knowledgeable as Herta couldn’t understand how Haruhi Suzumiya did it.

”We need to find a way to make her ability controllable.”

Setsuna tapped on the hibernation pod. Little Haruhi was sleeping soundly inside.

”Now that she’s met us, her imagination is no longer going to be restricted by common sense. If we leave things as they are, it’ll cause a huge problem.”

”Unless someone watches her every day, there aren’t many universes capable of accommodating Haruhi Suzumiya.”

Setsuna himself could keep Haruhi under control, but simply bringing her aboard the Express permanently or taking her back to the capital was obviously inappropriate.

Even if Haruhi Suzumiya had no intention of doing evil or causing trouble, the unconscious reality alteration alone could create enormous problems.

”Hmm, controllable...”

Herta sank into thought.

”So on one hand, we’d need to stabilize reality and prevent external factors from interfering with it. On the other hand, we’d need to make her consciously restrict and utilize her own ability...”

While she was still pondering—

Whoosh—

The Astral Express received a communication request.

A girl with short pale-purple hair, fair skin, and no expression whatsoever appeared on the communication screen.

”Greetings. I am a humanoid interface created by the Data Integration Thought Entity for contact with organic life-forms.”

”A massive information explosion occurred in the Solar System not long ago. The source of that explosion was an organic individual named Haruhi Suzumiya.”

”I request contact and communication with Haruhi Suzumiya and the extraterrestrial civilization known as the Starsea Empire.”

—

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