Crossover Shipgirls: Building a Dimensional Empire from Scratch

”Ah!”

”Wait, what is this, meow?!...”

Catgirl Herta jumped in fright. The ends of her sentences involuntarily picked up the same kind of meowing speech pattern as Chocola and Vanilla.

She twitched her ears, then turned her head to look at the cat tail protruding from beneath her skirt.

”So cute!!”

Himeko went over and rubbed Herta’s head, then pinched one of her ears.

It felt fluffy and soft, just like the other catgirls back in the capital.

”Wow—”

Haruhi grew excited as well, circling around Herta over and over.

”Amazing! You look way better than you did before!! How did you do that?”

”Is it a transformation? Or magic?”

She stood on tiptoe and reached out to pinch Herta’s cat ears, tugging the little Herta puppet hard enough to make her bare her teeth in pain.

”Stop! They’re real!!”

”Ah, and this body too. Wait a second!!!”

The usually composed Herta was visibly flustered.

”What?”

Setsuna stepped closer and carefully examined the little Herta, noticing something subtly different about her.

Her skin was extraordinarily smooth and delicate, soft and tender to the touch, fair with a healthy hint of pink.

Her cheeks were being kneaded back and forth by little Haruhi as the two wrestled around, with Herta desperately trying every possible way to escape this excessively curious little girl.

She now looked exactly like a little girl dressed in a Lolita-style dress.

”You turned into a human?!”

Only then did Gudako notice another explosive fact.

All the spherical joints and hard mechanical components on Herta’s puppet body had disappeared, replaced by a body structure indistinguishable from that of a human. She was now a genuine ”person.”

Light, soft, and very cute.

”???”

The Express crew was stunned.

Whoosh—

A communication window immediately opened beside the little Herta.

The real Herta’s head appeared within it.

”What are you people doing? How did you turn my puppet into a carbon-based life-form?”

”Hmm... she now has complete carbon-based neural synapses and a body structure identical to a human’s. Oh, except for the extra pair of cat ears and the tail.”

She stared at the Herta puppet—or more precisely, Catgirl Herta—for a long while with a bizarre expression.

The real Herta had originally made several puppets to accompany the Astral Express on its journeys through different worlds, intending to collect some data along the way.

So what exactly was this nonsense about one of her puppets turning into a catgirl?!

”...Commander, is this some weird fetish of yours?”

”...”

Setsuna covered his face.

”Catgirls are living creatures, obviously. Did you expect Haruhi to imagine you into some kind of mechanical catgirl or puppet catgirl?”

Perhaps it had simply been a sudden flash of inspiration. Haruhi thought Herta would look cute as a catgirl, so reality naturally made it happen, just like giving Mikuru Asahina’s eyes the ability to fire ”Mikuru Beams.”

”Uh...”

The little Herta lifted the hem of her skirt, scratched her ear, then flicked her tail.

Unbelievable.

She still retained the mind of a Herta puppet, yet her entire physical structure had been completely transformed.

Her body had changed from a mechanical construct into genuine flesh and blood. She could feel every breath she took and every beat of her heart.

A miracle. From the perspective of a genius, this was nothing short of a miracle capable of converting silicon-based life into carbon-based life.

”Ah—”

Setsuna picked her up and gave her a thorough cuddle.

The little Herta had always looked cute before, but she was still a puppet, which made her somewhat inconvenient to handle and rather hard to the touch.

Haruhi had now solved that problem perfectly.

”Great job.”

He patted little Haruhi on the head.

”When we get back, turn the real Herta into a catgirl too.”

”Hey!!!”

The real Herta protested through the communication screen.

The little Herta flailed even harder.

”Commander! Put me down right now, meow!!—”

”Hmm...”

After the commotion died down, Catgirl Herta looked at Setsuna, then at Haruhi Suzumiya. She seemed to understand something.

”Commander, whether Haruhi can alter reality depends on whether she’s interested in something and whether she considers it reasonable?”

Earlier, Haruhi Suzumiya had been unhappy about being treated as a test subject. No matter how detailed or precise the blueprints Herta gave her were, Haruhi would never create what they depicted.

Because she simply wasn’t interested in those things. Haruhi’s ability wasn’t like the Herrscher of Reason’s, where one could simply drive Honkai energy and construct whatever they wanted. At its core, her power was uncontrollable.

Setsuna’s ridiculous suggestion had struck Haruhi as ”interesting,” and so it became reality.

”Yes. More precisely, it has to be something she genuinely desires from the bottom of her heart.”

Setsuna felt as though he had begun to grasp how to use Haruhi Suzumiya’s ability.

If left alone, little Haruhi would undoubtedly become a walking disaster. But if properly guided, her ability to overwrite and distort the world with a single thought could produce absurdly powerful effects.

As he spoke, he crouched in front of Haruhi and addressed her seriously.

”We’re going to live in this world for a while and help you develop your superpowers.”

”Huh? Me?!”

Haruhi looked completely bewildered.

”I’m just an ordinary person, Commander.”

”No, no. You’re different from everyone else. You have the potential to wield supernatural power.”

Setsuna patiently explained.

The first principle in teaching Haruhi to control her power was making her recognize that she was different.

—And she had to sincerely believe that she herself was also an ”esper.”

He took Haruhi’s small hand and infused a small amount of Imaginary energy into it.

”I’m granting you a portion of my authority. Come on, follow my instructions.”

Setsuna embraced little Haruhi from behind and guided her personally in how to mobilize that energy.

”Focus. Imagine this energy gathering in your hand.”

”Huh?”

It was Haruhi’s first time being in such close contact with a member of the opposite sex. Her face reddened slightly, and she became a little shy.

Still, curiosity won out, and she followed his instructions.

”The... power you gave me?”

”Urgh...”

She clenched her teeth and scrunched up her face as she tried to summon the power inside her body.

”Relax. Just act normally.”

Setsuna smiled.

”Now imagine that this energy takes physical form. What do you want to eat right now?”

”An apple.”

”Then it’s an apple.”

”Hmm...”

Haruhi closed her eyes. She genuinely hoped she could create an apple.

In the past, she never would have entertained such a strange thought, but Setsuna had granted her some kind of power.

Although she didn’t know exactly what that energy could do, Haruhi felt that with Mr. Alien’s help, perhaps she really could accomplish something incredible.

Poof—

In the span of a single thought, a bright red apple dropped into her hand.

”Commander?! What is this?!”

”I told you. You’re different.”

Setsuna lightly tapped her on the head.

”Remember this feeling. As long as your desire is strong enough and you sincerely believe it can happen, then it can become reality.”

”Ah!”

Haruhi Suzumiya blinked and stared at her own hand as though she were dreaming.

”Commander... I... I can use magic like all of you?”

”Of course, if you want to call it magic.”

Haruhi was ecstatic. She took a bite of the apple. It was sweet with a hint of tartness.

Standing on tiptoe, she held it out in front of Setsuna.

”It’s real! Try it, try it! It’s super delicious!!!”

”Ah, no, I already bit this one. I’ll make you another one?!...” She copied what she had just done, closing her eyes and holding her breath as she concentrated.

”Apple! I want apples!!”

”A few more would be even better!”

Poof, poof, poof, poof, poof—

It began raining apples across the planet as countless apples fell from the sky.

”Oh!—”

The ordinary humans watching the spectacle, including Mako and Yoshino, covered their heads and fled in every direction as apples pelted down around them.

Before long, several small mountains made entirely of apples had piled up before them.

”Whoa—”

Little Haruhi looked at her hands, then at the mountains of apples, absolutely thrilled.

”Commander, Commander, I learned how to do it!!”

”???”

Gudako watched with question marks practically floating above her head.

”Commander, isn’t this the result of Haruhi Suzumiya’s own reality distortion? She doesn’t need spells or magic power to manipulate information, so what exactly was the energy you infused into her for?...”

”To make her believe she has superpowers and guide her in using her own ability.”

Setsuna answered.

Trying to explain everything verbally and convince Haruhi that she was special would be troublesome. The simplest method was to give her some magic power and tell her that she now possessed superpowers too.

As long as Haruhi believed she was an esper, that was enough. Whether the power altering the world actually had anything to do with the Imaginary energy Setsuna had granted her didn’t matter.

”Of course, that power can also restrain her actions. If she starts having thoughts that are too outrageous and begins distorting reality on a large scale, I’ll notice and intervene.”

Whoosh—

Setsuna brought up the control interface for pocket universe Number Fifteen and increased the curvature of spacetime many times over.

Then he casually rubbed little Haruhi’s head.

”Ready for special training?”

”Yeah!!!”

The little girl was brimming with energy.

”I’m going to become just as amazing as you, Commander!”

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